i appreciate having the department of defense's general counsel, steve preston, here with me this morningreston was one of our negotiators throughout this process in qatar and signed on behalf of the united states the memorandum of understanding between the governments of qatar and the united states. also here representing chief joints of staff sitting behind me is pat white, director of the joint staffs pakistan/afghanistan coordination cell. general white helped coordinate the bergdahl recovery on behalf of the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, general dempsey. the vice chairman will join us later this morning in the classified closed portion of the hearing. and as you know, general dempsey and the admiral played critical roles in the meetings at the national security council leading up to sergeant bergdahl's release and supported the decision to move forward with this prisoner exchange. in my statement today, i will address the issues of chairman mechanic keon and mr. smith and explain why it was so urgent to pursue sergeant bergdahl's release. why we decided to move forward with

and i appreciate having the department of defense's general counsel steve preston here with me this morning. mr. preston was one of our negotiators throughout this process in qatar and signed on behalf of the united states the memorandum of understanding between the governments of qatar and the united states. also, here representing the joint chiefs of staff, sitting behind me, is brigadier general pat white, who was the director of the joint staffs pakistan, afghanistan coordination cell. general white helped coordinate theburg dal recovery on behalf of the chairman through the joint chiefs of staff general dempsey. the vice president of the joint chiefs admiral winnefeld who the chairman has noted will join us later this morning in the classified closed portion of the hearing. and as you know, general dempsey and admiral winnefeld played critical roles in the feetings at the national security council leading up to sergeant bergdahl's release, and supported the decision to move forward with this prisoner exchange. in my statement today, i will address the issues of chairman mckeon and mr.

and i appreciate having the department of defense's general counsel steve preston here with me this morning. mr. preston was one of our negotiators throughout this process in qatar and signed on behalf of the united states the memorandum of understanding between the governments of qatar and the united states. also, here representing the joint chiefs of staff, sitting behind me, is brigadier general pat white, who was the director of the joint staffs pakistan, afghanistan coordination cell. general white helped coordinate theburg dal recovery on behalf of the chairman through the joint chiefs of staff general dempsey. the vice president of the joint chiefs admiral winnefeld who the chairman has noted will join us later this morning in the classified closed portion of the hearing. and as you know, general dempsey and admiral winnefeld played critical roles in the feetings at the national security council leading up to sergeant bergdahl's release, and supported the decision to move forward with this prisoner exchange. in my statement today, i will address the issues of chairman mckeon and mr.

and i appreciate having the department of defense's general counsel steve preston here with me this morning. mr. preston was one of our negotiators throughout this process in qatar and signed on behalf of the united states the memorandum of understanding between the governments of qatar and the united states. also, here representing the joint chiefs of staff, sitting behind me, is brigadier general pat white, who was the director of the joint staffs pakistan, afghanistan coordination cell. general white helped coordinate theburg dal recovery on behalf of the chairman through the joint chiefs of staff general dempsey. the vice president of the joint chiefs admiral winnefeld who the chairman has noted will join us later this morning in the classified closed portion of the hearing. and as you know, general dempsey and admiral winnefeld played critical roles in the feetings at the national security council leading up to sergeant bergdahl's release, and supported the decision to move forward with this prisoner exchange. in my statement today, i will address the issues of chairman mckeon and mr.

steve preston as i noted earlier signed that memoranda of understanding on behalf of the united statesovernment and included in the negotiations. included in that m.o.u. were negotiation negotiations with the government of qatar like restrictions and monitoring and limitations on activity and other significant measures that we will detail in the closed portion of this hearing. they were described, as you know, mr. chairman n the classified documentation and notification letter that i spent to this committee last week. that memoranda of understanding has been sent to the congress, the leadership, and the committees and every member of congress has an opportunity to review that memoranda of understanding in a closed setting. u.s. officials received a war g warning, we received a warning of the qatari intermediaries that as we continued, time was not on our side, and we will go into the closed meeting for those warnings, but this one indicated that the safety of sergeant bergdahl was growing. and we went into negotiations of thou exchange of five detainees and to the mechanics of the exch

to note for our record that just last week, the general counsel of the department of defense, steve preston, testified there that we would continue to have legal right to hold taliban prisoners, not just with the conclusion of war in afghanistan but until the broader battle defined under the aumf was concluded. we are going to continue to have american trainers in afghanistan for many many years. the taliban soldiers will try to kill those trainers. the laws of war do not require us to augment the forces trying to wage war against our trainers or against the afghan government. we are at war with the taliban for as long as they and their -- are allied with terrorist organizations waging war against the united states, or as long as the taliban is waging war against the government in afghanistan. dr. jacobson, i've got a number of questions i'm hoping you will be able to answer very succinctly in some cases with a yes or no answer. we are told that some of these five released are, quote, wanted by the u.n. for war crimes. does the u.n. have a process by which anyone can be wanted by the u.n. f

steve preston, who i noted earlier, signed that memorandum of understanding on behalf of the united states included in those negotiations. included in this was risk mitigation measures and commitments from the government of qatar like travel restrictions, monitoring information sharing and limitations on activities as well as other significant measures, which we will detail in the closing portion of this hearing. they will describe, as you know mr. chairman, in the classified documentation and notification letter i sent to this committee last week. that memorandum is understanding and has been sent to the congress, to be leadership and to the committees and every member of congress has an opportunity to review that memorandum of understanding in a closed setting. u.s. officials received a warning. we received a warning from the qatar intermediaries that as we proceeded, time was not on our side and we will go into more detailed in a classified hearing on those warnings. this indicated the risk to sergeant bergdahl safety work rolling. we move forward with indirect negotiations on how to ca

in the national security council agreed once we had all the assurances in place and things that steve preston has talked about if that is your question. >> i guess we are going to talk past each other here because at some point somebody decided it would be specifically these five and i am trying to figure out who that was. you said in response or in a conversation with ms. davis earlier they wanted all the taliban detainees. who is they? >> the taliban. >> the taliban. >> at one point in these discussions before my time -- >> you can see why -- i hope you can see why there is a lot of confusion here because you have been very careful to say on more than one occasion that you were not negotiating with terrorists. you said you were not negotiating with the taliban because you were negotiating with the emir of qatar. we have had some pretty tortuous legal responses to questions we are trying to get at and trying to figure out the basics here. mr. preston is a lawyer. he has come back in response to the chairman and others, well, we didn't know because we didn't have a decision date. i think that

>> well, let me ask steve preston. he was there during the negotiation. >> i would say, sir, that in the discussions of the exchange, the focus was specifically on the logistics -- >> so no is the answer. you did not say, if you a harm him in any way -- >> the entire effort was to engine it as to minimize the chance of harm. >> obviously we didn't say that there would be some retaliation if he was harmed. now secretary, you before said that he was a p.o.w. you said that here today that he was a p.o.w. now we are hearing it is a different name. but regardless, so do we know, did his captors adhere to the geneva convention, like we do? >> when i referenced him a p.o.w., he was a prisoner of war. he was a prisoner, of war. >> i'm okay with that. >> the technicality of what general counsel is talking about, that's why i asked the general counsel to make sure the technical -- >> to my question, do they adhere to the geneva convention as we do? >> i think it remains to be seen how he was treated. but there's a serious questi

steve preston, who as i noted earlier signed that memorandum of understanding on behalf of the united states government, and was included in those negotiations. included in this mou were specific risk mitigation measures and commitments from the government of qatar like travel restrictions, monitoring, information sharing, and limitalimis tions on activities well as other significant measures which we will detail in the closed portion of this hearing. they were described as you know, mr. chairman, in the classified documentation and notification letter i sent to this committee last week. that memorandum of understanding has been sent to the congress, to the leadership, to the committees, and every member of congress has an opportunity to review that memorandum of understanding in a closed setting. u.s. officials received a warni warning. we received a warning from the qatari intermediaries that as we proceeded, time was not on our side. and we'll go into a more detail in our classified hearing on those warnings. this indicated that the risk to the sergeant bergdahl's safety were growi

in the national security council agreed once we had all the assurances in place and things that steve preston has talked about if that is your question. >> i guess we are going to talk past each other here because at some point somebody decided it would be specifically these five and i am trying to figure out who that was. you said in response or in a conversation with ms. davis earlier they wanted all the taliban detainees. who is they? >> the taliban. >> the taliban. >> at one point in these discussions before my time -- >> you can see why -- i hope you can see why there is a lot of confusion here because you have been very careful to say on more than one occasion that you were not negotiating with terrorists. you said you were not negotiating with the taliban because you were negotiating with the emir of qatar. we have had some pretty tortuous legal responses to questions we are trying to get at and trying to figure out the basics here. mr. preston is a lawyer. he has come back in response to the chairman and others, well, we didn't know because we didn't have a decision date. i think that

>> well, let me ask steve preston. he was there during the negotiation. >> i would say, sir, that in the discussions of the exchange, the focus was specifically on the logistics -- >> so no is the answer. you did not say, if you a harm him in any way -- >> it was to minimize the chance of harm. >> obviously we didn't say that there would be some retaliation if he was harmed. now secretary, you before said that he was a p.o.w. you said that here today that he was a p.o.w. now we are hearing it is a different name. so do we know, did his captorsed a headhere to the geneva convention like we do? >> when i referenced him a p.o.w., he was a prisoner of war. he was a prisoner, of war. >> i'm okay with that. >> the technicality of what general counsel is talking about, that's why i asked the general counsel to make sure the technical -- >> to my question, do they adhere to the geneva convention as we do? >> i think it remains to be seen how he was treated. but there's a serious question. >> i appreciate that. are you familiar

>> preston and steve, welcome to the program. which age group are the worse tippers?y's, 30's -- >> probably the 20's, i'm guessing. >> exactly right, 20 to 34, worse tippers. less than 15%. >> i think i know why. because of the unemployment rate, with that particular age group right now. a lot of people, a lot of the people in that age group living at home, don't have a lot of money. so, the chances are they may not be generous in the tipping category. >> my guess, i'm more on. >> i know my mom, she would feel bad, we just make train wreck of the table. >> whole mess. >> yes. >> well, you know, now i'm big proponent of tipping and tipping well. because people rely on that, that additional money, their salary, if you were positive pick a reason this younger age demon, or just it is suggested they're not as appreciative of people servers, because that would be wrong. but if they simply don't have the funds, then you can -- >> i think, preston, what do you think? >> i would agree, yes. same thing. if i get good certain advice, worth good tip. poor service, nothing wrong