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Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel gave a skeptical congressional committee a spirited defense of what he acknowledged was an 鈥渋mperfect鈥� deal exchanging Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for five Guant谩namo detainees. The deal honored a solemn military commitment to 鈥渓eave no man behind鈥� while mitigating national security risks to the United States, he said Wednesday.

鈥淎merica does not leave its soldiers behind. We made the right decision鈥� Secretary Hagel said in his opening statement, 鈥渁nd we did it for the right reasons 鈥� to bring home one of our people.鈥�

But members of the House Armed Services Committee made it clear to Hagel that Congress remains deeply concerned about numerous aspects of the May 31 exchange of Sergeant Bergdahl for five senior-level Taliban officials.

Nearly three hours of committee questioning focused largely on two central issues: The Obama administration鈥檚 failure to notify Congress of the Guant谩namo prisoner exchange, as required by law, and whether the exchange set a new precedent for negotiating with 鈥渢errorists鈥� and would encourage more snatching of American personnel.

On the first issue, the Defense secretary鈥檚 said Congress was broadly aware of what an exchange might look like from earlier failed attempts. The urgency and 鈥渇leeting opportunity鈥� of a deal that came together on May 27 precluded congressional notification.

Hagel also said that it was 鈥渢he president of the United States who made the final decision with the full support of his national security staff.鈥� Some members of Congress who participated in a closed-door briefing Monday with administration officials said the officials had suggested that the decision to swap Sergeant Bergdahl was Hagel's.

Moreover, Hagel rejected that the administration had negotiated with terrorists in exchange for Bergdahl, pointing out that the Afghan Taliban are听鈥渆nemy combatants鈥� that the US had removed from power and are still fighting. The US has never listed the Afghan Taliban as a terrorist organization.

鈥淭here鈥檚 no question these [released detainees] are bad guys, of course they are,鈥� Hagel shot back at a questioner 听at one point. 鈥淭here are always going to be risks in a deal like this,鈥� he said. But commitments the US received from the government of Qatar, where the five are to reside for a year, provide certain assurances that the former detainees will not constitute a near-term threat to the US, he added.

Hagel stopped short of offering details of those assurances, however, saying he could do so in a subsequent classified committee briefing.

At times, the questioning got heated and Hagel became testy, especially when questions from Republicans suggested that the administration was putting US security at risk or trying to hide details of the exchange.

At one point, Rep. Jeff Miller (R) of Florida asked why Bergdahl was not yet in the US but remains in Germany, suggesting that he doubted that the serviceman鈥檚 medical condition was a legitimate reason.

A furious Hagel fired back that Bergdahl had not yet been transferred based on the recommendations of his doctors. 鈥淚 hope you鈥檙e not implying anything other than that," he added. "I don鈥檛 like the implication.鈥�

But repeated questions from both sides underscored the deep bipartisan nature of concerns about the deal.

The committee鈥檚 highest-ranking Democrat, Adam Smith of Washington, said it was 鈥渨rong鈥� of the administration to disregard a 30-day notification requirement for any Guant谩namo detainee transfer. The White House opinion that the requirement is not constitutional is not a legitimate reason for ignoring it, he added. 鈥淯ntil the courts rule on this, it is the law.鈥�

Hagel said that even as the deal was coming together, the word the US was getting was that any leak could scuttle the exchange. Secrecy was also necessary to keep the actual physical recovery of Bergdahl 鈥� the location of which was not known until the last minute 鈥� as safe for US forces as possible, he said.听

Committee Chairman Buck McKeon听(R) of California told Hagel he had made a 鈥渧ery strong case鈥� for the administration鈥檚 approach in securing Bergdahl鈥檚 release. But he questioned why the plan was not shared at least with congressional leadership, especially when his information suggested that as many as 90 administration officials were in the loop on the deal.

Chairman McKeon said he doubted Congress 鈥渨ould have pushed back at all鈥� if it had been informed. Instead, the administration鈥檚 failure to consult has damaged 鈥渢he trust we should have between the Congress and the president of the United States.鈥� 听