Bergdahl claims that he tried to escape from captors
Reuters reports that Bowe Bergdahl claims that he tried to escape from the Taliban/Haqqani folks who were holding him, according to a statement that his lawyer released yesterday;
…Bergdahl tried to escape his Taliban captors a dozen times in five years as a prisoner of war, once remaining free for nine days, but each time he was found and brutally beaten…
[…]
The sergeant said his first escape attempt occurred within hours of his initial capture, when his minders briefly left him alone in a village where he was being interrogated and beaten for evading questions.
“After a while they put the blindfold back on and threw the blanket over my head. Some moments after that I believed I had a chance to run for it and did,” Bergdahl said.
He was tackled near the outskirts of the village by a large group of men who pummeled him with their fists and clubbed him with the butt of an AK-47 rifle, snapping off the stock.
He tried to escape again near the end of his first week as a prisoner, eluding his captors for about 15 minutes in a populated area, the statement said, but he was found and beaten with a thick rubber hose.
I have no doubt that he tried to escape, he escaped from his own US military unit, didn’t he? But the charges against him are for the reasons that he left his unit, not his conduct while in captivity. His escape attempts can’t mitigate the fact that he walked away from his unit, left his weapon and body armor behind. He shipped some of his possessions home and then went on a walkabout.
Category: Army News
Dunno about that, Jonn. This smacks more of a legal tactic than truth to me – a smokescreen or diversion, if you will.
There’s also this, which says that the “fine upstanding young captive” may not have been exactly a model US POW:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/06/06/exclusive-bergdahl-declared-jihad-secret-documents-show/
Hondo I agree. This is an “after market” spin story. One he probably put together when he realized he would not be coming home to the Rose Garden with his parents again but instead to a hospital and then jail. His attorney’s doing what they’re payed to do and nothing more. I don’t care of he tried to escape 100 times, the little shit stain deserted his comrades in the face of the enemy and from intel available thus far, did in fact lend aid and support to them.
Letsee – enemy presumes we’re at war. Wars are declared by congress and the last time they did that was uhm,against ahm, Bulgaria, Hungary and Rumania (on June 4, 1942). So you must mean enemy as “not our friend”. So in the face of not our friends and aiding and supporting not our friends. And if that doesn’t work they’ll use misbehaving. No there’s that enemy thing again. How about article 134, the general catchall article?
BULLSHYT! they would have cut his head off and sent it home in a basket…lying little bas-ard is sniveling like the punk ass traitor he is! HANG HIM!
Why? We aren’t at war. Wars are declared by congress. Getcha self a history book Desert or did you mean Dessert?
The execution of Pvt. Slovak was justified by his own words. Dumbass just about did the same thing, except writing a statement that he would keep running away. Bergdahl is a TRAITOR to THE UNITED STATES MILITARY and should get exactly what Slovak got. Soldiers died looking for his punk ass. His father grew a beard and learned some words in Shithead language to tell the enemies “can’t we all get along” I can supply the 11 bullets and one blank for his execution. If the Military allows this chickenshit to get away with deserting and playing patty cake with the enemy, what’s next?
Yep.
If he didn’t walk away from his post, if he would’ve done the job he was expected to do, that he signed up to do, he wouldn’t have had a need to try to escape. 🙄
TOTALLY AGREED. *Douchebag*
Oh and TheBeSeig, what’s the text string to make the rolling eyes emoticon??
I’ve been looking for that EVERYWHERE!!!
:rolleyes:
well i know :rolleyes: works on vBulletin forums but not here i guess
🙄
colon “roll” colon
🙄
(gotta try it!)
🙄
🙄 hooah!
🙄
Classic from 1989….Probably won’t auto post as it’s not from Youtube…
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/colon-blow/n9822
Hey, let me try that!
“roll”
OK. One more time.
🙄
🙄
🙄
🙄
Ooo-Ooo … it worked 🙂
🙄 😛 😛 😛
You can use text ◔̯◔ “:rolleyes:” (no quotes) and “:roll:”
🙄 :rolleyes:
Also you can use text emoticons.
I use a few here often:
http://japaneseemoticons.net/
凸(｀0´)凸 and ಠ_ಠ
Ah. Is there a thread here?
🙄
Well, let a jury of his peers decide.
12 infantry soldiers with multiple tours in Afghanistan.
I’m happy to live with what result they come up with.
Death.
If Combat Soldiers were allowed to sentence this person, he would find a noose waiting for him outside on the tree next to the courthouse.
Yup. Just about what I suspected.
Yep. About 5 minutes after the trial started – and ended.
Followed by burial in unmarked graves.
No, no, I want to know where this dog-turd is buried. So I can pee on it every time I’m in the AO.
With this tombstone:
Bowe Bergdahl
Deserter
There would likely be gallows right on the courthouse lawn freshly constructed by Engineers and Seabees!
MustangCryppie…Roger That!
Death by blanket party
And I don’t care. He ran off, got caught by the bad guys, and now he’s whining about it all. And again, I don’t care.
So what? Your fee coming out of future earnings, so ya wanna keep folks interested, Mr. Defense Attorney?
As Jonn noted, not germane to the court case. Anytime that gutter snipe or his client attempt to mention anything after the night he deserted, the prosecution should object. The charges deal only with that night. He isn’t being charged as a collaborator, so what he did after should not be allowed in evidence.
Actually, it may be germane. He’s also charged with “Misbehavior Before the Enemy”. This may be more an attempt to defend against or mitigate that charge as much as anything else. The form of desertion with which he’s charged (there are 3 different variants specified in the UCMJ) doesn’t require proof of intent to remain away permanently.
Hondo,
Germaine to the sentencing, I can see, but the Article 99 has two things in/not in it:
The word “or” at the end of 8, which in my pea sized brain says only 1 of the 9 conditions have to be true.
It doesn’t have a continuing or pervasive requirement.
His lawyer can talk about how he was never breastfeed or what have you during sentencing, but IMHO 2 and 4 are slam dunks during the trial.
(2) shamefully abandons, surrenders, or delivers up any command, unit, place, or military property which it is his duty to defend;
(4) casts away his arms or ammunition;
You plead guilty for doing 125 in a 45, the judge doesn’t care during the guilt phase if you have driven 5 under the speed limit since then, only in the sentencing phase…
That’s true if they limit prosecution for Art 99 to actions relating only to his desertion. It IMO becomes pertinent if they also wish to include actions occurring post-capture while a “guest” of the Taliban/Haqqani network.
Here’s the third behavior prohibited by Article 99:
(3) through disobedience, neglect, or intentional misconduct endangers the safety of any such command, unit, place, or military property;
It might be a bit of a stretch, but it seems to me that placing members of his unit at additional risk by causing them to unnecessarily search for him in enemy-held territory would qualify under that part of Art 99, if his willful misconduct (desertion) was the reason they were so endangered.
Not a lawyer, so I could easily be wrong.
And it will definitely be germane at sentencing…the Defense has extremely broad rights to present things in mitigation, once the man is found guilty. Anything to defeat the image of “collaborator” vice “prisoner” is going to be of interest.
Yes, at sentencing I can see using it. We’re not quite there yet.
Can the fact that his freedom was bought by giving away 5 high value enemy prisoners be used against him effectively during by the prosecution? I’m asking because it pisses me off that we traded 5 Talib leaders for one goat-smelling-ass deserter, but I don’t know if it is germane to any phase of the proceedings.
Yes, but as you suggested yesterday, Alberich, I looked at the pertinent sections of the Manual for Courts Martial and it certainly appears to me that the prosecution also has the right to introduce aggravating evidence at sentencing to enable the the court to hand down a stiffer sentence.
Did I read it right?
You absolutely did. Under the rules the defense has a freer hand because the Prosecution is bound by that “directly related” language…whereas the Defense can put in just about anything that “tends” to reduce the punishment. (Rule 1001 is a very defense-friendly rule; and I say that’s something for us to be proud of, even when we loathe the accused.)
The wrinkle is this: if the Defense, under its broad mandate, introduces factual claims, the Government can come back and try to rebut those claims. Sometimes that lets them get in evidence that would never have gotten in otherwise.
I think any good prosecutor can destroy any mitigating effects of the, “But he tried to escape,” defense by simply pointing out that any person who chaffs at the constraints of every soldier’s daily existence from the rules and regulations required to maintain good order and discipline, to the point of deserting, is certainly not going to like an even more constrained existence as a valuable hostage. And therein lies his motive for escape, not any desire to return to his unit.
Such argument might not fly with a civilian jury but with a board whose entire careers are built on the maintenance of good order and discipline, it will resonate.
….a reason why Bergdahl is likely to opt for a judge-alone trial even if he doesn’t plead guilty. And that is his option. (Only in death penalty cases is a panel mandatory, but we won’t have that here.)
In fact, I have never seen a desertion (or really long AWOL) case tried by a panel…whether I was prosecuting, defending, or on the sidelines. The ones I see always go judge alone, and I think you have spotted the reason why. Even when the defense starts out demanding an enlisted panel, I always saw them switch to judge alone before the day of trial.
Question, Alberich: can a military defendant opt for a judge-only trial in a capital case?
No. And he can’t plead guilty, either. Hence the farce at the Nidal Hasan trial…where the prosecution closes its case, and he gets up and says, “All the evidence says I did it.”
I see exactly your point…even if they are unlikely to get the death penalty (and even if it creates massive procedural headaches), the Government could seek death just to force him into a panel trial. I doubt they will do so.
Thanks. Thought that might be the case, but wasn’t sure.
Sadly, you’re probably right. Though I do think there’s a decent chance the prosecution may make it a capital case in order to increase their leverage in any potential plea deal.
The extra procedural headaches and expenses in a death case are so extreme that the prosecution might end up begging to stop it…think “The Ransom of Red Chief,” but with lethal injections.
“not germane to the court case.”
G** d**n Germans got nothin’ to do with this!!
He damned well should be charged as a collaborator and giving “aid and comfortto the enemy”!! 🙄
Desertion + Behavior = DEATH
The claim of attempt to escape is a legal tatic to mitigate the possibility of a death sentence.
I might also suggest that he DID attempt to escape. He was abused and tortured beyond any of our knowledge no doubt. He must have at some point realized that his master plan had failed horribly and an escape may have been his only chance of stopping the cycle of abuse and torture that he caused.
I am not a fan of this traitor, just my observations.
True, MCPO. But there are also reports of him appearing to have willingly cooperated with his captors at times. See my first comment above.
I don’t know the sequence of events, and any such cooperation may well have occurred after he broke under duress. But the reports are there.
Lars knows, and if we are patient he will reveal all to us.
Lars knows all (at least in his head):)
Hey, Lars is a legend in his own mind, back off man….
:roll
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There. Fixed it for ya.
I have no doubt that he tried to escape, he escaped from his own US military unit, didn’t he?
Apparently the Taliban has better security than we do. No real surprise there; when is the last time you heard about a Taliban version of Edward Snowden or Chelsea Manning?
So.
While we all agree about the outcome and such.
What do we think about the political aspects that tried to use this as a great hero rescue?
Don’t get distracted now.
Now THAT is another stinky can of worms altogether.
Dear Leader! Building his legacy one fuckup at a time!
He served with “honor and distinction”.
GOOGLE it!
Oh, you don’t have to GOOGLE it … Mr. GOOGLE himself will be at the White House today.
IMO, quite reprehensible.
But from this
DC clown kreweAdministration, also quite unsurprising.My opinion is unprintable.
I’m wondering if future updates will be about “Bergdahl’s Beard”.
Bowe loved experiencing the “joy of being the fat bottomed boy” while with his captors, that’s why he didn’t make an attempt at escaping from them.
If he didn’t take dear ol’ dad’s advice and “follow his conscious” he wouldn’t be facing a long stretch in the federal pound him in the ass lockup… playing stupid games will win Bowe some really stupid prizes.
One last thing – why hasn’t he come forward and talked to the families of soldiers that were either wounded or killed looking for his dumb ass?
“One last thing – why hasn’t he come forward and talked to the families of soldiers that were either wounded or killed looking for his dumb ass?”
Taking a stab in the dark here, but I would say he doesn’t feel responsible for them, or that the deaths were not caused by him (Even though he gave info to the Enemy regarding our tactics and routes)
Time to pull out the Stan McChrystal “I voted for Pres Obama card”.
“The statement, Bergdahl’s first account of his time as a Taliban prisoner, was released by his attorney, Eugene Fidell, after the Army charged Bergdahl with desertion and misbehavior in the face of the enemy in connection with his capture.”
So, the game plan was to keep silent, presumably in order not to affect the decision makers or, more likely, to avoid unnecessary press if the decision favored Bergdahl. But now that a decision to prosecute has been rendered, it’s bullhorns and bullshit. Best of luck finding those witnesses to back up those claims. I’m sure that a few hours after his “capture” the Taliwhackers just left him alone so that he could attempt escape and earn a beating. There’s this really profitable bridge in Brooklyn. I’m retiring from toll taking and want to sell it. Anyone?
I guess that if the decision went the other way, the statement would have been burned and flushed down the toilet.
And so the dog and pony show begins in earnest.
Somebody keep my seat for me while I go fetch the popcorn.
IT’S A DAMNED DISGRACE!!
Someone needs to have a serious talk with the folks at the relevant Kalashnikov factory, that
stock should not have broken from a properly executed butt-stroke.
Otherwise, it sounds like the Taliban treated him with all the respect he was due.
David, it was probably a cheap Chinese version.
He was doing some recon….um…tacitly approved recon… when he was discovered by an old woman…no…an old crippled woman carrying something…wait…carrying a child, So, although he was spotted by her, he did them no harm. A minute later, two…no…a half dozen…Taliban fighters encircled him and he had no alternative….wait……He fought off five of them with his bare hands, but the sixth one struck him from behind with a rock…um…the butt of a rifle. More to follow.
Excellent
No.
He was on watch and having drunk himself into night blindness – no on watch and wearing sunglasses at midnight, he needed to relieve himself. On the way to the nearest porta-potty – no, ROW of porta-potties, he took a wrong turn and went through the gate – no, a crack in the wall – wait — no, thnking he heard a goat, he went through an opening and got lost in the dark. Running into some enemy – no, friendly-seeming people, he followed them and their donkeys to the nearest building. And that’s how he ended up in the hands of the bad guys.
He’s lucky he didn’t end up in a video with an orange jumpsuit and a decapitation sword.
I don’t blame him for trying to escape the Taliban, he tried to escape the US Army as well.
This will be interesting politically, and militarily as it plays out. I still wonder if the article 32 hearing will result in court martial. Until it does I am not convinced it will in spite of all the press at the moment.
I would not be surprised to find the Article 32 hearing results in no court martial and this is downgraded to an administrative separation.
This whole debacle backfired on him and the Obummer Administration.
This maggot will say anything to save his own skin. I wonder if the WH is feeding him his “script”?
More legal smoke screen. There is no way a shitbag like Private(I refused to call him Sergeant)Bergdahl could escape and evade in Indian country for nine days. Not a fucking chance.
Who are they going to subpoena to testify as to the truthfulness of these claims?
Exactly. He can make all kind of BS claims.
This guy is an NCO, we traded 5 pieces of shit for him, and we (NCO’s) can’t even smoke people in the Army anymore. Shit needs to change and fast.
Word.
Put this in the wrong place on the transgender discussion…
If anyone is interested the GAO did a report to investigate whether or not DoD at the behest of the White House violated the appropriations act when they used appropriated funds to transfer these five turds they traded for Bergdahl.
The short answer is yes, yes they did violate the appropriations act. The long answer is here: http://www.gao.gov/assets/670/665390.pdf
Then someone needs to fry.
That hack Brandon Friedman is probably so pissed that Bergdahl is being charged. After all, it was the blood thirsty platoons fault and bad leadership.
The present strategy of Bergdahl’s attorney seems to be:
Maybe Bowe did leave his unit, but the Taliban were really really mean to him and he did try to escape.
This reminds me of the classic example of chutzpah.
A kid is convicted of murdering his Mother and Father so he begs the Court for mercy because he’s an orphan.