Barack Obama traded five seasoned, battle-hardened jihadis back to the Taliban in exchange for Bergdahl.
Former infantry officer Nathan Bradley Bethea, who served with Bergdahl in Afghanistan, wrote in the Daily Beast that Bergdahl was “a deserter, and soldiers from his own unit died trying to track him down.” Refuting reports that Bergdahl got separated from his unit while on patrol, Bethea declared: “Make no mistake: Bergdahl did not ‘lag behind on a patrol,’ as was cited in news reports at the time. There was no patrol that night. Bergdahl was relieved from guard duty, and instead of going to sleep, he fled the outpost on foot. He deserted. I’ve talked to members of Bergdahl’s platoon—including the last Americans to see him before his capture. I’ve reviewed the relevant documents. That’s what happened.”
Bethea’s account is in full accord with the Taliban’s 2010 claim that Bergdahl had converted to Islam and was teaching bomb-making to its jihadists. There is no reason to take anything that Taliban spokesmen say at face value, but secret documents revealed in June 2014 corroborate the claim. According to one of these documents, dated August 23, 2012, “conditions for Bergdahl have greatly relaxed since the time of the escape. Bergdahl has converted to Islam and now describes himself as a mujahid. Bergdahl enjoys a modicum of freedom, and engages in target practice with the local mujahedeen, firing AK47s. Bergdahl is even allowed to carry a loaded gun on occasion. Bergdahl plays soccer with his guards and bounds around the pitch like a mad man. He appears to be well and happy, and has a noticeable habit of laughing frequently and saying ‘Salaam’ repeatedly.”
Fox News reported in June 2014 that Bergdahl — “both in his final stretch of active duty in Afghanistan and then, too, during his time when he lived among the Taliban — has been thoroughly investigated by the U.S. intelligence community and is the subject of ‘a major classified file.’ In conveying as much, the Defense Department source confirmed to Fox News that many within the intelligence community harbor serious outstanding concerns not only that Bergdahl may have been a deserter but that he may have been an active collaborator with the enemy.”
Former Army Sgt. Evan Buetow, who served with Bergdahl and was present the night he disappeared, recounted that days after Bergdahl vanished from the U.S. base, there were reports that he was in a nearby village looking for someone who spoke English, so that he could establish communications with the Taliban. Soon afterward, Buetow recalled, “IEDs started going off directly under the trucks. They were getting perfect hits every time. Their ambushes were very calculated, very methodical.”
Bergdahl knew where the trucks would be going and when; said Buetow: “We were incredibly worried” that the Taliban’s “prisoner of war” was passing this information on to his captors in order to help them place their bombs most effectively.
Fox News also reported that according to “sources who had debriefed two former members of Bergdahl’s unit,” the deserter “left behind a note the night he left base in which he expressed disillusionment with the Army and being an American and suggested that he wanted to renounce his American citizenship and go find the Taliban.” According to Colonel David Hunt, Bergdahl even “called his unit the day after he deserted to tell his unit he deserted.”
Barack Obama must have known all or some of this, or should have known it, when he announced the exchange of five Guantanamo detainees for Bergdahl.
The guilty plea to the desertion charge is a positive step, but there needs to be one more charge as well: treason.
“Bowe Bergdhal [sic] pleads GUILTY to desertion as first ever TV interview emerges with Taliban captive saying he’s ‘insulted’ people think he’s a traitor,” by Ashley Collman, Dailymail.com, October 16, 2017 (thanks to Blazing Cat Fur):
Bowe Bergdahl has pleaded guilty to desertion charges.
The Army sergeant appeared in military court Monday morning at Fort Bragg to face charges for fleeing his Afghanistan post in 2009.
The Taliban captured Bergdahl after he went AWOL and held him captive for five years, before President Obama secured his release in exchange for five Taliban prisoners at Guantanamo Bay in 2014.
Earlier in the morning, ABC News aired an interview with Bergdahl – his first televised interview since returning to the U.S.
In the interview, which was filmed last year by British filmmaker Sean Langan, Bergdahl said it was ‘insulting’ that he’s been portrayed as a traitor.
The 31-year-old Idaho native offered no explanation for why he abandoned his Afghanistan outpost in 2009. But he says the narrative that he deserted his company to join the Taliban is false.
‘You know, it’s just insulting frankly,’ Bergdahl said. ‘It’s very insulting, the idea that they would think I did that.’
While he didn’t speak about his reasons with Langan, he has tried to explain his actions before.
In taped conversations with filmmaker Mark Boal, which aired on the second season of the podcast Serial, Bergdahl claimed he left his post so that he could report his ‘unfit’ platoon commander to senior officers.
In the more recent interview, Bergdahl said he doubted he could get a fair trial due to the negative comments made by now-President Trump on the campaign trail last year.
‘We may as well go back to kangaroo courts and lynch mobs that got what they wanted,’ Bergdahl said. ‘The people who want to hang me, you’re never going to convince those people.’
Trump has been outspoken in his belief that it was a bad idea to release five Taliban prisoners in exchange for Bergdahl in 2014, who he thinks should have been executed.
Far from living it up as a Taliban recruit, Bergdahl went into detail about his five years in captivity, many of which were spent in a cage….
While there have been rumors that Bergdahl went AWOL trying to join the Taliban, he has never been charged with a crime related to aiding the enemy….
Emilie Green says
You know, I think his conversion to Islam is the real thing. Look at him, he’s created all sorts of trouble for himself, for his onetime fellow soldiers, for the Army, and yet he’s claiming victim status.
gravenimage says
Yes–and it isn’t as though he converted to Islam as a captive, when it may have bee necessary to save his life. Instead, it looks as though his *intent* was to give information and training to Jihadists.
Chris says
Islam has a ingrained claim of victim status. Everytime there is a terrorist attack some Muslim will claim they fear an Islamophobic backlash.
Stan Lee says
He has pleaded “guilty” to desertion, what is one who deserts in the English language? “Deserter” whether he likes the term or not. It is kind of late for him to complain of semantics.
In observing him, he appears to be in good condition, which he did not in Taliban hands.
The U.S. Army mess halls agree with him, I think serving duty in a dangerous zone was what didn’t agree with him. Not only can there be danger from an enemy, but as a enlisted volunteer in the armed forces, we all need to resolve ourselves that the C.O. of the unit is who calls the orders. This means one has to be agreeable to executing a commander’s orders, and swallowing the “least line of resistance” for the sake of unit cohesion, which in many instances if life or death, not of just one disgruntled soldier, but of an entire unit. Infantrymen must depend upon each other in zones of combat..
gravenimage says
And while deserting is *always* a crime, it is not as though he just walked off a military base in, say, Germany, because he was tired of the army. In other words, you don’t just go AWOL in a place like Afghanistan.
William says
No cover-up needed. He is a deserter. Should be shot for Treason. Another erosion of Code of Conduct Remember, Honor, Duty, Aleigence to protect Americans from harm. He swore to all above..regardless, of “his new convictions.”
Voytek Gagalka says
“Insulting”? TRAITOR!
mortimer says
Turncoat.
gravenimage says
Confessed deserter Bowe Bergdahl finds it “insulting” that people think he is a traitor
……………………..
Even though he *admits* that he deserted in enemy territory.
He isn’t “insulted”–just angry that American Infidels know what he is.
Robert Shanks says
Thank Obama for all your lies and deaths that you caused both here in the States and because of your piss poor leadership that more of my Brothers and Sisters got killed. Semper Fi
Linde Barrera says
I want to read that this POS Bergdahl is making plans to return to Afghanistan, his spiritual home, after he serves prison time in the US. He really should be shot for being a lying treasonous traitor, but if he only gets prison time, then he should willingly buy a ticket to Afghanistan to live out his dirty filthy life in that hell hole. He does not fool me for a nano-
second. ?
WESTPAC Spy says
The ground pounders can talk me down all they want but I never surrendered to any Iranian,
WESTPAC Spy says
“…Infantrymen must depend upon each other in zones of combat…”
I will give you that, sir. But I think you are selling your naval brethren short. Do you have any idea what it takes to man your post below hoping the man above is up to the job.
Davegreybeard says
@WESTPAC Spy:
“Do you have any idea what it takes to man your post below hoping the man above is up to the job.”
I do not sir, I am an Infantryman.
Do you have any idea what it takes to put your life in the hands of the one on watch, in the deepest dark jungle, while you take your turn at the half sleep called the “ambush doze?”
You and I know that both situations create a bond much deeper that of mere “brothers,” but for lack of an adequate adjective, we call it such.
God be with you – “Brother”
WESTPAC Spy says
God is with me. I think you and me, Infantryman, are more alike than you might care to admit.
We call it OPDEC in the Navy, Operational Deception. Cold, wet, hungry. Been there, And I;m not going to march into an ambush. Yeah, that can happen at sea.
I hope you don’t think you believe that I have nothing but the utmost respect for the infantry, Because I went to college,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=415HQ1t2ZNI
I am only a naval officer because a Marine said I could be a Naval officer.
gravenimage says
Thank you, davegreybeard and WESTPAC Spy.
Scaramouche says
He was not an officer, he was enlisted.
Daniel Triplett says
Gen George Washington would’ve given him a 20 minute field trial, then put him in front of a firing squad while the rest of his unit watched.
LeftisruiningCanada says
Be a nice way to get 5 of your guys back while sneaking another one into the great satan.
Hope USA keeps watch on him. He could easily turn up in Canada though, they don’t mind Jihadis around here.
Carlos Danger says
If he feels insulted….good. That’s the entire point of the exercise. I hope he rots in Leavenworth.