The US soldier who was released by the Taliban at the weekend had walked off his base before, according to a leaked military report.
The political uproar over the prisoner swap that won the his release from Taliban captivity intensified on Thursday as a leaked military report claimed that Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl had walked off a military base in the past.
Earlier in the day, his hometown Hailey, Idaho cancelled plans for a rally celebrating his return amid allegations that he deserted.
The Taliban released video of their handover of Bergdahl to US special operations forces in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border on Saturday, showing the US soldier seemingly dazed and anxious about the unfolding events.
The White House was ultimately persuaded to go ahead, in part, after Qatar agreed to take the Taliban detainees and said it would allow the United States to track the five men in the Gulf emirate.
Under that arrangement, the United States installed extensive surveillance equipment to monitor their movements and communications, the officials said.
The deal, however, caused an uproar among Republicans in Congress, who questioned both the secrecy of the prisoner swap and the wisdom of freeing five Taliban prisoners.
Some of Mr Bergdahl’s former comrades have also accused him of deserting his post before his capture by the Taliban in June 2009. The Pentagon has declined to comment on those allegations.
While they were prepared for some political blowback, Obama administration officials said they felt the outcry would have been fiercer if in six months’ time, as the United States wraps up its mission in Afghanistan, it emerged that Barack Obama had missed an opportunity to secure his freedom.
The officials said Mr Obama himself decided to make the swap and chose to broadcast the news on national television with Bergdahl’s parents at the White House.
He wanted to send a clear signal to Americans that this was his decision and that he would uphold the maxim that the United States will always bring home all its troops from the battlefield, the officials said.
“The United States has always had a pretty sacred rule, and that is we don’t leave our men or women in uniform behind,” Mr Obama told reporters in Warsaw on Tuesday.
President Obama was aware that Mr Bergdahl had been accused of desertion in Afghanistan. But the vitriolic nature of the criticism has surprised some in the Obama administration, the officials said.