And he will have a fascinating report on how the battlefield experience shaped the vision of one of hollywoods most iconic directors. From nbc news in washington meet the press with david gregory. Good morning. On a particularly busy sunday morning, Bowe Bergdahl was transferred immediatelyhgk afghanistan to a u. S. Medical center in germany. Earlier i was joined exclusively from afghanistan by defense secretary chuck hagel, but first our chief pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski has the remarkable story of Sergeant Bergdahls capture, detention, and release. Reporter in the white house rose garden with president obama late saturday, Bowe Bergdahls parents sounded totally overwhelmed by the news. We will continue to stay strong for bowe while he recovers. Thank you. Thank you so much. We just cant communicate the words this morning when we heard from the president. Reporter five years ago in june 2009, private Bowe Bergdahl walked away from his combat outpost in afghanistan and was taken captive by the taliban. Whats your name . My name is Bowe Bergdahl. Reporter three weeks later his captors released the first of five hostage videos. I am scared, scared i wont be able to go home. Reporter by christmas, the taliban was using bergdahl as a propaganda tool, apparently under duress, he spoke out against the u. S. Military mission in afghanistan. Im afraid to tell you that this war reporter it took two years for the first sign of a breakthrough. The taliban offered to free bergdahl in exchange for the release of five taliban leaders held at Guantanamo Bay, cuba. But u. S. Defense and intelligence officials at the time considered the five among the most dangerous at guantanamo, and in secret pentagon documents obtained by wikileaks, the five detainees were all described as mid to senior level taliban, high risk, likely threat to the u. S. , and recommended for continued detention. But with the u. S. War in afghanistan winding down, there was increasing pressure on the white house and pentagon to get bergdahl released before most American Military pulled out of the country. So five years after he was taken captive, Bowe Bergdahl was freed this weekend. Only six hours later, the five taliban detainees were on a u. S. Military transport plane to qatar in the persian gulf. Jim miklaszewski, nbc news, the pentagon. Earlier i spoke exclusively, as i say, with secretary of defense chuck hagel. He was at Bagram Air Base near kabul in afghanistan. I began by asking him about those reports that the timing of this operation was prompted by concerns about bergdahls health. Well, david, as you know, he has been held for five years, and thats five years of very difficult living, and we dont know yet all the specifics and details. He is in landstuhl, germany, at our medical facility there. Our Health Care Professionals are now with him, and they will be giving him complete checkups. We will be giving him exactly what he needs, and until we get those evaluations, we just dont know much more. Although he did walk to the extraction helicopter. He did perform the basic duties and responsibilities when that process took place, but beyond that i wouldnt want to speculate. Can you take us inside what happened . How you were actually able to get him . How these negotiations proceeded with the taliban . Well, first, i want to congratulate, again, all who had something to do with this, but also to thank the mayor of qatar, the qatari government, and all the people in qatar who helped make this occur. The transaction really was done by the qatar government and the emirs commitment to getting that accomplished. We facilitated that in different ways, but in the interest of our own intelligence and procedures, i dont want to go much further than that. But this is potentially a good sign if you think about the future of afghanistan. If bergdahl was held by the most hardened taliban fighters who operate out of pakistan, does this pave the way for perhaps a new round of negotiations with the taliban directly between the United States and the taliban about the talibans future in running afghanistan . Well, it could, it might, and we hope it will present an opening. As you know, we have strongly supported an afghanled effort to come to an agreement with the taliban. As you know, we had engaged with the taliban up until 2012. They broke off those negotiations. Weve had no formal relationship since then. So maybe this will be a new opening that can produce an agreement. There is some blowback to what is being treated as very good news, the release of the prisoner. Some in the United States, members of congress have said, look, congress is supposed to be consulted before theres any prisoner exchange, especially prisoners from Guantanamo Bay, hardened taliban fighters who have been linked to killing americans in a theater of war in afghanistan. The chairman of the intelligence committee, republican mike rogers, issued a statementc3zn saying this fundamental shift in u. S. Policy signals to terrorists around the world a greater incentive to take u. S. Hostages. Further, he said, i have little confidence in the security assurances regarding the movement and activities of the nowreleased taliban leaders and i have even less confidence in the administrations willingness to ensure that they are enforced. Are these prisoners being released from guantanamo a National Security threat to the United States or our allies . Well, david, lets slow down for a minute and back up and look at the facts here. Sergeant bergdahl is a member of the United States army. This was a prisoner exchange. After five years hes been a prisoner of war. As to notification of congress, yes, there is a 30day notification. I notified the appropriate committee leadership, Different Committee leadership yesterday. Thats part of the responsibility i have as the secretary of defense, and we did this under the time line we did for the very reason that i explained when you asked me the first question. This was this essentially in your opinion to save the life of Sergeant Bergdahl. As i said before, we had information that his health could be deteriorating rapidly. There was a question about his safety. We found an opportunity. We took that opportunity. Ill stand by that decision. I signed off on the decision. The president made the ultimate decision. We did spend time looking at this. As to guantanamo, the president has made very clear he wants to close guantanamo. We do have responsibilities that we dont let anyone out of guantanamo, and i will not sign off on any detainee coming out of guantanamo unless i am assured, unless our government is assured, our country can be assured that we can sufficiently mitigate any risk to americas security. Do you worry about a precedent here, mr. Secretary . The prospect that prisoners at guantanamo could be sought after by the taliban or other terrorist groups, that other troops could be vulnerable now, other americans could be vulnerable because the government could be accused here in effect of negotiating with terrorists . Well, first of all, we didnt negotiate with terrorists. As i said and explained before, Sergeant Bergdahl is a prisoner of war. Thats a normal process in getting your prisoners back. Thats first. Second, as to your bigger question, we are dealing with terrorism and hostage taking all the time everywhere. I think americas record is pretty clear on going after terrorists, especially those who take hostages, and i dont think what we did in getting our prisoner of war released in any way would somehow encourage terrorists to take our American Service men prisoner or hostage. In war things are always dangerous, and there are vulnerabilities as there are around the world, but our record, the United States of america in dealing with terrorists, in finding and hunting down those terrorists, is pretty good, david. I want to ask you one more about this. What about an investigation into what happened here . As we have reported, this was five years ago when Sergeant Bergdahl essentially left his command post. There are questions about why that happened. That was mysterious. His father was saying that he was having some difficulty speaking english upon his release. What questions will drive an investigation for you . Well, first of all, we are focused on, as we have done accomplished in the last few hours, the safe return of Sergeant Bergdahl. He is a member of the United States armed forces. Second, our priority now is to give him all the care he needs so that he can be integrated back into society, and, third, is at the same time the reunification with his family. Thats our focus now, and thats going to continue to be our focus. But is there anything that concerns you that has raised a red flag to you that you would like to get to the bottom of concerning his original disappearance and captivity, particularly the questions as to why he was struggling to speak english now . Well, david, hes been held by the taliban. We dont know where. We dont know under what circumstances for five years. As far as we know, he was not held with any other americans or any englishspeaking people. We dont know that yet. Im not surprised that there are still questions, and until we get the facts exactly what the condition of Sergeant Bergdahl is, we cant go much further in speculating. But, you know, this is a guy who probably went through hell the last five years, and lets focus on getting him well and getting him back with his family. Do you specifically believe that he was tortured . I dont know. Again, david, i dont know until we can work this through, but, again, the first issue is his health, and then well get into all the other parts as to what his conditions were like and the followon questions to his captivity. Mr. Secretary, i just want to touch on the other big story this week, of course, and that is secretary of the Veterans Affairs administration shinseki resigning amid this scandal within the va. There are questions about the care that veterans are getting today and the lack of service that they have gotten as the internal audit has found. You have got some 22,000 veterans from afghanistan, where you are, who will be returning home. How does this get fixed Going Forward . Well, it must be fixed. Thats first. Let me, first, address general shinseki. As president obama said in thanking him for his service to our country over an entire career, we owe shinseki that debt of gratitude for his service. Now, the bigger issue, which you have just asked me about, there are problems. We know from the vas Inspector Generals early and initial investigation that they are probably systemic. We need more facts. But the fact is, as president obama said, we are going to act now. We must act now to fix whatever is wrong. Im committed to do that as secretary of defense, to continue to help Veterans Administration leaders. We do that now. We work very closely with the Veterans Administration. Well continue to do that. Well continue to offer everything we can offer in order to assist them, but we have no higher responsibility in our country than to take care of these men and women whose Selfless Service we depended on and continue to depend on to this day, and well fix it. For more reaction to that interview, im joined by michael lighter, nbc security analyst for nbc news. Michael, i want to focus on these guantanamo prisoners who were released. Athe five detainees were on the obama administrations list to be held indefinitely without charges. How big of a risk to release these detainees to qatar. This is significant, david. Theres always a range of people in guantanamo, the low level fighters up to the other al qaeda operatives. These guys are very close to the Khalid Sheikh mohammeds. They are serious leaders. The Deputy Defense leader of the taliban, a key governor. These are people who helped lead talibans relationship with al qaeda pre9 11, helped fight against u. S. Interests post2001, and they will be in the coming years once they finally are released from qatar, they will be key in the future of the taliban. And they could be back in afghanistan. Youre a terrorism expert. Part of your job in the government was to protect america or our forces in the field in war against terrorists. Whats changed that would make the administration think, okay, its okay to take this risk now. We wouldnt have done it a couple years ago. One key change, the war is coming to an end. The president s announcement, its coincidental that this release happened the same week as the 9,800 troops now, no troops by 2016, but the fact is we are winding things down. We are leaving afghanistan. During a period where we had 10,000, 20,000, 50,000 troops in afghanistan, you couldnt let people like this out. This is an exclamation point on the fact that we are withdrawing and this is now for the afghans. What about Guantanamo Bay and these other prisoners . I mean, are they in effect bargaining chips on the International Scene . This is a very difficult position, and i think actually getting more of them out will be harder now because of congressional reaction to the president s release in this case. There are still many people there who we cannot let go. Michael, thanks so much for your expertise. Im joined by Paul Rieckhoff and adam kinzinger, republican congressman from illinois. Hes an iraq and afghanistan veteran, still serves as a pilot in the air national guard. I have you both here to talk about the fallout from the va scandal, shinsekis resignation. Let me start with you on the release of the taliban prisoners. As a member of congress, a republican, do you oppose what you just heard from secretary hagel and his rationale for releasing them. Let me say this, welcome home, bowe. There are a lot of questions about why he got captured. So im going to celebrate him coming home. The release of five mid to high level taliban is shocking to me, especially without coming to congress. It says in the law you have to notify congress, and then putting five people potentially back on the battlefield. Even though our troops are out in 2016, which i think is shocking that the president once again went along with the timeline like he did in iraq, you now are going to have five people potentially on the ground targeting american troops, afghan troops, and the afghan people. There are a lot of questions that need to be asked. This whole exchange is shocking to me and im very disappointed. Paul, any veteran has to celebrate this moment when a comrade comes home. The question though about what happened here, walking off his post, the questions now about what happened to him in captivity, difficulty speaking english. What questions would you want to know more about . We just want to welcome him home. We have to underscore that point. This guy has been in captivity for five years. Most of america forgot his name or never knew it to begin with. The military community has been tracking on this. An Important Message has been sent, we will come for you. If you are captured, america will come for you. Thats an Important Message to send to our troops and forever. Let me get right to the va scandal. Here is what the president said, shinseki is out. We got to make sure the veterans who are not getting the care one by one get the care, but there are needs. What specific needs are there right now that the government has to address . Well, first of all, we have to clean house. The va has a systemic problem. So we need a total turnaround. We cannot middle around the edge. Its a defining moment for the president. Who we name now will be key. Its unfortunate we didnt have somebody ready given the scandal took four weeks. How is it that shinseki didnt know . How did this bad news not get to him . I dont know. Weve been trying to tell him, there have been congressional we have been trying to warn him, trying to warn the president. The ig report has been supported. They didnt listen. Now so the time to turn the corner. Listen to the veterans, listen to the needs, and lets turn this around. Congressman, i want to know the answer to that question, which is shinseki apparently didnt know and that enraged him as the president said the other day, but how didnt he know . Thats the key part of this that you have to be wondering about as well. Yeah. I think that is the key. I mean, a good leader knows what his subbord nants are doing and if he doesnt have control over his subordinates, he really gets in there and figures it out. Look, i dont want to impugn the reputation of general shinseki, he was a great guy, but i thought it was time for him to go to get new blood in there and the new person whoever longterm it ends up being, i want to see people fired. I want to see people prosecuted by the law for those that created this secret waiting list. Thats what we have to do next. Clean house, as paul said. We need to say, hey, those in the backlog, you can go to a private doctor, get some things taken care of. We have to get dead serious of this. This is the beginning of taking control. There has been so much information. I want to put a graphic on the screen. About the wait for care. This is what the Inspector General found. 1,700 veterans not even on a wait list. An average wait of 115 days for first appointment. Hospital leadership, quote, significantly understated time veterans waited for first appointment. Paul, your experience with veterans, is this a fair statement . Theyre happy with the care