Robert Gates Questions Wisdom Of Bowe Bergdahls Release - Ny Daily News

detention facility into the care of the Qatari government for one year in exchange for Bergdahl. Gates, who led the Department of Defense under W. Bush and Obama, said he had opposed suggestions of a prisoner swap in exchange for Bergdahl in 2011 when he worked for Obama. He had supported Obama's 2008 campaign promise to shut down the facility at Guantanamo Bay, calling it "a taint" on the reputation of the U.S. in 2009, but as time went on he found the closure unlikely. "The prospects for closing Guantanamo, as best I can tell, are very, very low," he told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in 2011, admitting "we don't know" what would happen to the detainees.