QUOTE

WASHINGTON—Just weeks after Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s release from captivity in Afghanistan, U.S. defense officials announced that the 28-year-old had been recaptured by Taliban forces Monday shortly after wandering off base in Texas. “It is with regret that we inform you that at approximately 1200 hours today, Sgt. Bergdahl left his post, was seized by insurgents outside San Antonio, and taken into Taliban custody,” said Pentagon spokesman John Herndon, explaining that, on his first day back on active duty, Bergdahl slipped out of Fort Sam Houston with only a backpack and a notebook, ventured for five miles on foot, and was shortly thereafter abducted by a group of militant jihadists, a sequence of events that was largely corroborated by Bergdahl himself in a Taliban propaganda video released this afternoon. “Based on emails he sent this morning, it appears that Sgt. Bergdahl may have grown disillusioned with his return to service and voluntarily ventured outside the base. We have reclassified him as ‘missing/captured,’ and the U.S. Army will do everything in its power to secure his release and repatriate him, once again, to the United States.” At press time, a spokesman for the Obama administration announced that the president was currently in negotiations to hand over five high-value Taliban prisoners in exchange for Bergdahl.

QUOTE

WASHINGTON –  Bowe Bergdahl, the Army sergeant who spent nearly five years as a Taliban captive in Afghanistan, was returned to regular Army duty Monday and will be made available to Army investigators for questioning about his disappearance in 2009.

In a brief statement, the Army said Bergdahl is now assigned to U.S. Army North at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston in Texas, the same base where he has been decompressing from the effects of his lengthy captivity.

His exact duties were not immediately disclosed. The Army said that in his assignment to U.S. Army North he "can contribute to the mission," which is focused on homeland defense. It said the Army investigation into the circumstances of his disappearance and capture by the Taliban in eastern Afghanistan in June 2009 will continue.

Bergdahl walked away from his unit after expressing misgivings about the U.S. military's role — as well as his own — in Afghanistan. He was captured by Taliban members and held by the Haqqani network for five years. He was released May 31 as part of a deal in which the U.S. released five top Taliban commanders who had been imprisoned at the military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Some former members of his unit have labeled him a deserter and said some were wounded or killed looking for him. The Army has not ruled out disciplinary action against Bergdahl.

Bergdahl, 28, whose family lives in Hailey, Idaho, arrived at the Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston on June 13 after nearly two weeks recuperating at a U.S. military hospital in Germany.

Army officials had said that in recent days Bergdahl was allowed to go, with supervision, to a grocery store, restaurants, shopping centers and a library as part of the process of getting him comfortable with being out in public.

Bergdahl has not commented publicly on the circumstances of his disappearance, and the Army has made no charges against him. The Army has said it is investigating Bergdahl's disappearance and capture, but that investigators will not interview him until those helping him recover say it is all right to do so.

As of last week, Bergdahl had not seen his parents since his return to the United States, according to a Pentagon official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a matter the Army has declined to discuss publicly.

QUOTE

< Publishers fear Bowe Bergdahl book by former platoon mates would hurt Obama >

The Washington Times - Wednesday, August 13, 2014


Six former platoon mates of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl have hit roadblocks in shopping proposals for their book because some publishers are reportedly afraid it will discredit President Obama.

After five years in the Taliban’s capture, Sgt. Bergdahl was released in May as part of a U.S. prison exchange for five Taliban terrorists being detained at Guantanamo Bay. Some of the soldier’s platoon mates have come forward saying that Sgt. Bergdahl intentionally deserted his post in Afghanistan on June 30, 2009, putting other soldiers in danger.

A draft of their book proposal depicts Sgt. Bergdahl as a “premeditated” deserter who possibly aided the Taliban, but agents for the soldiers say the controversy over the prisoner swap has complicated the book’s chances at publication, Yahoo News reported.

“I’m not sure we can publish this book without the Right using it to their ends,” Sarah Durand, a senior editor at Atria Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, wrote in an email to one of the soldiers’ agents, Yahoo News reported.

“[T]he Conservatives are all over Bergdahl and using it against Obama,” she wrote, also comparing the book to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a veterans group that raised questions about John F. Kerry’s Vietnam record during his run for president in 2004.

Sgt. Bergdahl was questioned in two closed-door sessions last week with Maj. Gen. Kenneth R. Dahl, who is leading the Army’s investigation into his 2009 disappearance.

Two of the proposed book’s would-be authors, retired Sgts. Evan Buetow and Cody Full, are potential key witnesses and were recently questioned as part of the investigation.

The platoon mates insisted that the book would set the record straight on Sgt. Bergdahl.

QUOTE

< Bergdahl Charged With Desertion, WH Wants It Kept Quiet >

Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has been charged with desertion, but the White House is trying to keep the story under wraps

QUOTE

White House Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes is trying to keep the information from becoming public because it would embarrass President Barack Obama, said Lt. Col. Tony Schaffer.

QUOTE

< Bowe Bergdahl to face desertion charges: NBC >

(Reuters) - U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl will be charged with desertion for disappearing from his base in Afghanistan in 2009, NBC News reported on Tuesday.

Bergdahl, who was released from captivity last year in a controversial Taliban prisoner swap, could be charged within a week, the television network said, quoting senior defense officials who were not identified by name.

However, senior Army and defense officials contacted by Reuters could not confirm the report.

QUOTE

Bowe Bergdahl Likely to Be Charged With Desertion, Officials Say

Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was held captive by enemy forces in Afghanistan for five years, will likely be charged with desertion, senior defense officials tell NBC News.

The officials point out that Bergdahl will likely face a lesser charge of desertion described in the Uniform Code of Military Justice as leaving a post to avoid duty or shirk an important assignment, based on his actions when he left a remote outpost in June 2009.

< NBC NEWS >

QUOTE

 The system is wrong. I am ashamed to be an american. And the title of US soldier is just the lie of fools." The soldiers he actually admired were planning on leaving: "The US army is the biggest joke the world has to laugh at. It is the army of liars, backstabbers, fools, and bullies. The few good SGTs are getting out as soon as they can, and they are telling us privates to do the same."

In the second-to-last paragraph of the e-mail, Bowe wrote about his broader disgust with America's approach to the war – an effort, on the ground, that seemed to represent the exact opposite of the kind of concerted campaign to win the "hearts and minds" of average Afghans envisioned by counterinsurgency strategists. "I am sorry for everything here," Bowe told his parents. "These people need help, yet what they get is the most conceited country in the world telling them that they are nothing and that they are stupid, that they have no idea how to live." He then referred to what his parents believe may have been a formative, possibly traumatic event: seeing an Afghan child run over by an MRAP. "We don't even care when we hear each other talk about running their children down in the dirt streets with our armored trucks... We make fun of them in front of their faces, and laugh at them for not understanding we are insulting them."

Bowe concluded his e-mail with what, in another context, might read as a suicide note. "I am sorry for everything," he wrote. "The horror that is america is disgusting." Then he signed off with a final message to his mother and father. "There are a few more boxes coming to you guys," he said, referring to his uniform and books, which he had already packed up and shipped off. "Feel free to open them, and use them."

On June 27th, at 10:43 p.m., Bob Bergdahl responded to his son's final message not long after he received it. His subject line was titled: OBEY YOUR CONSCIENCE!

"Dear Bowe," he wrote. "In matters of life and death, and especially at war, it is never safe to ignore ones' conscience. Ethics demands obedience to our conscience. It is best to also have a systematic oral defense of what our conscience demands. Stand with like minded men when possible." He signed it simply "dad."

Ordinary soldiers, especially raw recruits facing combat for the first time, respond to the horror of war in all sorts of ways. Some take their own lives: After years of seemingly endless war and repeat deployments, active­duty soldiers in the U.S. Army are currently committing suicide at a record rate, 25 percent higher than the civilian population. Other soldiers lash out with unauthorized acts of violence: the staff sergeant charged with murdering 17 Afghan civilians in their homes last March; the notorious "Kill Team" of U.S. soldiers who went on a shooting spree in 2010, murdering civilians for sport and taking parts of their corpses for trophies. Many come home permanently traumatized, unable to block out the nightmares.

Bowe Bergdahl had a different response. He decided to walk away



Read more: < http://www.rollingstone.com/politic...5YF47nH >
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook

(Liberal @ Jan. 27 2015,7:29 pm)

QUOTE

Like I said, you have no credibility left and since you got caught posting BS you'll do what you always do and not post for awhile hoping we all forget you posted another bs story.  

(Liberal @ Jan. 27 2015,7:29 pm)

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Nice try, Schaffer via FOX said Bergdahl's lawyer had received a charge sheet and the Army Times says there is no charge sheet.  So once again you kooks fell for Anthony Schaffer's BS.

Also Schaffer's BS charge sheet story is what you quoted, NBC makes no mention of charges already being brought like your original story claimed.

Like I said, you have no credibility left and since you got caught posting BS you'll do what you always do and not post for awhile hoping we all forget you posted another bs story.  

QUOTE

Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was held captive by enemy forces in Afghanistan for five years, will likely be charged with desertion, senior defense officials tell NBC News.

The officials point out that Bergdahl will likely face a lesser charge of desertion described in the Uniform Code of Military Justice as leaving a post to avoid duty or shirk an important assignment, based on his actions when he left a remote outpost in June 2009.

Those charges carry a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison upon conviction, but sources tell NBC News the Army is considering crediting Bergdahl for the 5 years he spent in captivity and be given the opportunity to avoid prosecution by leaving the Army with a "less than honorable discharge."

QUOTE

the “post turtle”


While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75 year old Texas
rancher, whose hand was caught in a gate while working
cattle, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old
man. Eventually the topic got around to Obama and his bid to
be president.
The old rancher said, "Well, ya know, Obama is a
"post turtle".
Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what
a "post turtle" was. The old rancher said,
"When you're driving down a country road and you
come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top,
that's a "post turtle".
The old rancher saw a puzzled look on the doctor's
face, so he continued to explain. You know he didn't get
up there by himself, he doesn't belong up there, he
doesn't know what to do while he is up there, and you
just wonder what kind of a dumb ass put him up there in the
first place.

(MADDOG @ Jan. 28 2015,9:27 am)

QUOTE

At least I'm not desperately hanging on to a piece of driftwood, hoping it will float for another two years.  When I see that familiar peacock on the news story, I tend to think it's NBC.

(Liberal @ Jan. 28 2015,12:00 pm)

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As far as Fox new/ Tony Schaffer bs you posted originally said he was charged already  and his lawyer had the charge sheet. NBC said anonymous sources said he will likely be charged at some point in the future. Do you understand the difference or should I try to explain it again using smaller words?

QUOTE

Bowe Bergdahl to be charged

Last Updated Mar 25, 2015 2:27 PM EDT

Bowe Bergdahl, the U.S. Army sergeant controversially traded for five Taliban prisoners last year, will be hit with two charges from military prosecutors, his attorney told CBS News.

Bergdahl is going to be charged on one count of desertion and one count of "misbehavior before the enemy."

His attorney, Gene Fidell says he hasn't seen the charges yet for himself, but Bergdahl had passed along the information earlier Wednesday. The Pentagon is expected to make an official announcement about the charges shortly.

(Liberal @ Mar. 25 2015,4:11 pm)

QUOTE

Head terrorists.

(Botto 82 @ Mar. 25 2015,3:35 pm)

QUOTE

I don't what's more hilarious - the antics of Obumbler, or the die-hard devotees with their noses so far up his rectum they can tell what he had for lunch last week. I'm guessing a lot of these kool-aid drinkers had a past life in the Schutzstaffel.

QUOTE

Interviews with soldiers familiar with the specific missions in which the six died suggest the charge is complicated -- but not without merit given how much the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment became focused on "PR" -- personnel recovery -- after Bergdahl vanished from his guard post on June 30, 2009.

"The fact of the matter is, when those soldiers were killed, they would not have been where they were at if Bergdahl had not have left," said former Sgt. Evan Buetow, Bergdahl's former team leader. "Bergdahl leaving changed the mission."

< Worn Out News >

QUOTE

Military prosecutors have reached into a section of military law seldom used since World War II in the politically fraught case against Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the soldier held prisoner for years by the Taliban after leaving his post in Afghanistan..

Observers wondered for months if Bergdahl would be charged with desertion after the deal brokered by the U.S. to bring him home. He was — but he was also < charged with misbehavior before the enemy >, a much rarer offense that carries a stiffer potential penalty in this case.

"I've never seen it charged," Walter Huffman, a retired major general who served as the Army's top lawyer, said of the misbehavior charge. "It's not something you find in common everyday practice in the military."

Bergdahl could face a life sentence if convicted of the charge, which accuses him of endangering fellow soldiers when he "left without authority; and wrongfully caused search and recovery operations."

(Expatriate @ Dec. 24 2015,5:31 am)

QUOTE

Prisoner exchange is nothing new or special to this situation.
We must try to repatriate our captured troops whenever possible, these soldiers must know they have our Military, President, and Country's support, no matter the situation.

This exchange was planned and worked out by the Military/CIA at levels far below the President, don't you think this five for one exchange was analyzed to maximize the benefit for US. To politicize this situation to attack Obama shows partisanship.

Our Military men and woman should be treated with the utmost respect, they should be our most beloved sons and daughters not an expendable commodity to be used as cannon fodder for profit or political advantage.

As for Sargent Bergdahl, he's entitled to a fair trial, his ranking peers will determine his guilt, innocence, fate..
If he survived five years in enemy hands without the benefit of the Geneva Convention rules he's been punished enough..