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There is no evidence to support that version of events.
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Bowe Bergdahl freed by Taliban after five years of captivity
- Thread starter Marcus
- Start date
There is no evidence to support that version of events.
Man Called X
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Yeah because he ran away like a chickenshit with so many other places to go. He knew full well what he was doing when he left. Then it turned out not to be open arms love affair he thought it was going to be. Shoot the coward and be done with it.
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Nah -- it's only treason if you give them "aid and comfort", and proving that beyond a reasonable doubt here is probably impossible.
I can't stand the louse either, but treason isn't happening.
Man Called X
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I'm not arguing what he's going to get, nor do I care.
Only seeing my viewpoint on it.
The way I see it, he ran away figuring they'd welcome him with open arms. It didn't work out that way and the slightest bit of torture made him crack like the bitch that he is.
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I overheard something on TV yesterday about him running away, wanting to go to Uzbekistan, and wanting to become a hitman in Russia. Nothing new, but a small view into this guy's psyche.
What a fucking lunatic.
What a fucking lunatic.
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Well, his lawyers will certainly try to sleaze out under an insanity defense. But he wasn't legally insane. He had some grandiose, romanticized views, but so do lots and lots of people who do illegal things.
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Sounds like someone who watches too many movies and has some delusions of grandeur as opposed to someone who is clinically insane and has no idea that what they are doing is wrong.
Huber.
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Bowe Bergdahl to Face Court-Martial on Desertion Charges
A top Army commander on Monday ordered that Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl face a court-martial on charges of desertion and endangering troops stemming from his decision to leave his outpost in 2009, prompting a huge manhunt in the wilds of eastern Afghanistan and landing him in nearly five years of harsh Taliban captivity.
The decision by Gen. Robert B. Abrams, head of Army Forces Command at Fort Bragg, N.C., means that Sergeant Bergdahl, 29, faces a possible life sentence, a far more serious penalty than had been recommended by the Army’s own investigating officer, who had testified that a jail sentence would be “inappropriate.”
In a terse statement after the decision, Sergeant Bergdahl’s chief defense lawyer, Eugene R. Fidell, said that General Abrams “did not follow the advice of the preliminary hearing officer who heard the witnesses.” Mr. Fidell said that the hearing officer had also previously recommended against a prison sentence.
The decision followed a recommendation from the Army lawyer who presided over Sergeant Bergdahl’s preliminary hearing in Texas in September that the sergeant face neither jail time nor a punitive dischargeand that he go before an intermediate tribunal known as a “special court-martial” where the most severe penalty possible would be a year of confinement.
That recommendation, made by Lt. Col. Mark Visger, came after the Army’s investigating officer, Maj. Gen. Kenneth R. Dahl, testified for the defense that prison would be “inappropriate.”
General Dahl, whose report formed the basis for the Army’s prosecution, also said that no troops died specifically searching for Sergeant Bergdahl and that no evidence was found to support claims that he intended to walk to China or India or that he was a Taliban sympathizer.
Sergeant Bergdahl, 29, was freed in May 2014 after President Obama approved trading him for five Taliban detainees who were being held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The exchange drew condemnation from Republicans and widespread claims that the sergeant had been a defector and that a half-dozen or more American troops had died searching for him.
The Army originally charged Sergeant Bergdahl in March with one count of desertion that carried a maximum penalty of five years in prison and one count of endangering the troops sent to search for him, which carried a maximum of life imprisonment.
At the Texas hearing, an Army prosecutor, Maj. Margaret Kurz, described a frantic but fruitless search for Sergeant Bergdahl in the weeks after he disappeared.
“For 45 days, thousands of soldiers toiled in the heat, dirt, misery and sweat with almost no rest, little water and little food to find the accused,” Major Kurz said. “Fatigued and growing disheartened, they search for the accused knowing he left deliberately.”
The prosecution’s witnesses included Sergeant Bergdahl’s former platoon leader and company and battalion commanders, who all recounted the scramble to find the soldier after he was reported missing early on June 30, 2009.
His former platoon leader, Capt. John Billings, testified about his “utter disbelief that I couldn’t find one of my own men.”
Continue reading the main story
RECENT COMMENTS
Ivan G. Goldman
5 minutes ago
What he did was awful. He deserted his comrades. But his punishment was awful. Temper justice with mercy and let him go. It's also important...
John B Gately
5 minutes ago
No surprise- Gene Fidell did well to persuade the Article 32 Investigating Officer to recommend leniency; but, the evidence merits a trial....
CONTINUE READING THE MAIN STORY280COMMENTS
The defense team, led by Eugene R. Fidell, argued that the worst thing Sergeant Bergdahl had done was go AWOL for one day — since he was captured within hours of leaving, and because General Dahl determined he had intended to hike to another base.
Mr. Fidell, who teaches military justice at Yale Law School, also argued that Sergeant Bergdahl did everything an American serviceman was supposed to do in captivity, trying to escape numerous times despite the harsh treatment the attempts brought him, and never revealing secrets.
He also suggested the Army was partly responsible, because it enlisted Sergeant Bergdahl even though he had washed-out of Coast Guard basic training because of an “adjustment disorder with depression.”
A top Army commander on Monday ordered that Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl face a court-martial on charges of desertion and endangering troops stemming from his decision to leave his outpost in 2009, prompting a huge manhunt in the wilds of eastern Afghanistan and landing him in nearly five years of harsh Taliban captivity.
The decision by Gen. Robert B. Abrams, head of Army Forces Command at Fort Bragg, N.C., means that Sergeant Bergdahl, 29, faces a possible life sentence, a far more serious penalty than had been recommended by the Army’s own investigating officer, who had testified that a jail sentence would be “inappropriate.”
In a terse statement after the decision, Sergeant Bergdahl’s chief defense lawyer, Eugene R. Fidell, said that General Abrams “did not follow the advice of the preliminary hearing officer who heard the witnesses.” Mr. Fidell said that the hearing officer had also previously recommended against a prison sentence.
The decision followed a recommendation from the Army lawyer who presided over Sergeant Bergdahl’s preliminary hearing in Texas in September that the sergeant face neither jail time nor a punitive dischargeand that he go before an intermediate tribunal known as a “special court-martial” where the most severe penalty possible would be a year of confinement.
That recommendation, made by Lt. Col. Mark Visger, came after the Army’s investigating officer, Maj. Gen. Kenneth R. Dahl, testified for the defense that prison would be “inappropriate.”
General Dahl, whose report formed the basis for the Army’s prosecution, also said that no troops died specifically searching for Sergeant Bergdahl and that no evidence was found to support claims that he intended to walk to China or India or that he was a Taliban sympathizer.
Sergeant Bergdahl, 29, was freed in May 2014 after President Obama approved trading him for five Taliban detainees who were being held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The exchange drew condemnation from Republicans and widespread claims that the sergeant had been a defector and that a half-dozen or more American troops had died searching for him.
The Army originally charged Sergeant Bergdahl in March with one count of desertion that carried a maximum penalty of five years in prison and one count of endangering the troops sent to search for him, which carried a maximum of life imprisonment.
At the Texas hearing, an Army prosecutor, Maj. Margaret Kurz, described a frantic but fruitless search for Sergeant Bergdahl in the weeks after he disappeared.
“For 45 days, thousands of soldiers toiled in the heat, dirt, misery and sweat with almost no rest, little water and little food to find the accused,” Major Kurz said. “Fatigued and growing disheartened, they search for the accused knowing he left deliberately.”
The prosecution’s witnesses included Sergeant Bergdahl’s former platoon leader and company and battalion commanders, who all recounted the scramble to find the soldier after he was reported missing early on June 30, 2009.
His former platoon leader, Capt. John Billings, testified about his “utter disbelief that I couldn’t find one of my own men.”
Continue reading the main story
RECENT COMMENTS
Ivan G. Goldman
5 minutes ago
What he did was awful. He deserted his comrades. But his punishment was awful. Temper justice with mercy and let him go. It's also important...
John B Gately
5 minutes ago
No surprise- Gene Fidell did well to persuade the Article 32 Investigating Officer to recommend leniency; but, the evidence merits a trial....
CONTINUE READING THE MAIN STORY280COMMENTS
The defense team, led by Eugene R. Fidell, argued that the worst thing Sergeant Bergdahl had done was go AWOL for one day — since he was captured within hours of leaving, and because General Dahl determined he had intended to hike to another base.
Mr. Fidell, who teaches military justice at Yale Law School, also argued that Sergeant Bergdahl did everything an American serviceman was supposed to do in captivity, trying to escape numerous times despite the harsh treatment the attempts brought him, and never revealing secrets.
He also suggested the Army was partly responsible, because it enlisted Sergeant Bergdahl even though he had washed-out of Coast Guard basic training because of an “adjustment disorder with depression.”