Bergdahl’s lawyer: It was only one day AWOL
The Associated Press reports about yesterday’s hearing in the Bergdahl Article 32 hearing to determine if he should be tried for leaving his post and his mates for a five year stint among the Haqqani Network. His lawyer says that the most the Army should charge him with is one day AWOL;
Bowe Bergdahl’s lead attorney says there is enough evidence to show that the Army sergeant’s case should be treated as a one-day stint of being away without leave, not a more serious violation.
Eugene Fidell’s remarks came Friday toward the end of a hearing to help determine if Bergdahl should face a court-martial for walking away from his post in Afghanistan in 2009.
Major General Dahl, the lead investigator, testified that Bergdahl told him that he had intended to report to some general 19 miles away about problems Bergdahl had noticed in his unit. Yeah, that’s the best excuse he could come up with after thinking about it for five years? General Dahl testified that Bergdahl was “completely off the mark” in regards to his unit’s leadership.
According to the Christian Science Monitor, Dahl also recommended that the panel exercise compassion for Bergdahl.
“I do not believe that there is a jail sentence at the end of this process,” Major General Dahl told the military court….
A nurse, Curtis Aberle, testified that Bergdahl suffered extensive injuries and that he’ll require a lifetime of treatment. And, of course, there’s PTSD, too. Well, then they should lock his ass up and he can get his treatment at the prison clinic, I hear it’s very good. And they’re more dependable than the VA, so the panel would be doing Bergdahl a favor by locking him away if they recommended a court martial. In fact, that’s more compassion than he deserves.
Category: Dumbass Bullshit
Rope
Tree
Traitor
Some assembly required.
Ready
Aim
FIRE!!
Scaffolding
Trap door
Woodchipper
Skip the scaffolding and the trap door and go straight to the wood chipper.
Things like woodchippers were favorite killing machines of Saddam and his sons.
If they “liked” you, they would put you through the chipper head first. If they didn’t…
I don’t like Bergdahl…
Send him to Mogadishu. They have firing squads on standby.
From news reports this has got to be one of the most inept hearings. You have a nurse practitioner testifying on medical claims you could not find a MD to comment and where is the rebuttal. Reading comments on the articles there is a strong feeling of of a pre determined outcome so the administration does not look bad and those involved in the investigation are promoted. We known that would never happen right.
Nope. No surprises here, that the FIX is in. Can’t let that Traitor in the White House look bad after all …
Well, it is an Article 32; I expect that the prosecution has not yet presented its case for a courts martial yet. They are going to hammer this guy.
It is a multi-day event. Especially for this yahoo. It’ll be a while.
At the end of the day, they already have him charged for other crimes that will keep him locked away for a long while.
I’m sure there will be a laundry list of prosecution witnesses to counter these claims.
The defense attorney is pulling out all the stops though.
Why should he have the luxury of being locked away for a long time? He walked out on those that were supposed to trust him, that had his back and those that even looked for him, putting themselves in harms way. What kind of a message are we sending to the next guy that sympathizes with the enemy and thinks about going for a five year stroll in the countryside?
By putting him up in a glorified country club and treating his wounds we are giving a big FU to all of those with their noses in the sand watching our backs.
Wrong, just wrong.
If he was a sailor I would advocate keelhauling him on every ship in the fleet.
How about he wears a big red letter on his shirt, front and back for eternity?
How about branded on his forehead.
As long as it’s some place visible, and permanent.
So. Dahl doesn’t think Bergdahl deserves prison?
Well, I don’t either. He deserves a bullet/rope/good-old-fashioned-Roman-Legions-style-gauntlet.
Oh, wait. That isn’t what you meant, is it? You POS, Dahl. I hope you enjoy the taste of man-juice, you political whore.
Maybe he can become the new Sec Army’s Under-desk Assistant for 20 years? Both of them would enjoy that I’m sure.
How in the hell would walking away from your duty post “bring attention” to conditions you do not agree with? And even if (which I do not think is the case) he did so with good intentions, his actions caused the deaths of other soldiers searching for him. He endangered the lives of his platoons mates. All of this makes him prosecutable, guilty and due for a prison cell. That he suffered injuries during this does not mitigate his guilt.
I was a platoon commander in northern I Corps in 1968. I had a problem replacement Marine who we were trying to shape up but it was obvious he was a shitbird. He constantly complained to other Marines. We had dug in before dark in a platoon size night position at edge of the Trace. We had even filled sand bags assuming we would be hit. Then we got the word to move to a different position. No one was happy including me. The Marine came to me and said “I’m tired of fighting your white man’s war”. My reply was then get the fuck out of here. There was no where to go. It was dusk, we were surrounded by NVA and Dong Ha was probably 7+ clicks away.
His squad leader came 5 minutes later. The Marine walked off telling his mates the same thing he told me.there was a lot of racial tension in the rear at this time, very little in the bush. TBS never mentioned this in leadership training. I took the Guide and a black machine gunner with me to get him back. I was nervous because I had no idea what would happen. I knew that I did not want to kill him to bring him back.he had his rifle and gear. When we caught up to him he laid his weapon down on my command and I kept him under arrest with the guide and gunner. The next morning the Gunny flew out and took him away in leg irons.
This doesn’t compare to what happened with Bergdahl. What he did was far worse. He consorted with the enemy. Men died looking for him.
I shudder when I think about could have happened to us that night.
“A nurse, Curtis Aberle, testified that Bergdahl suffered extensive injuries and that he’ll require a lifetime of treatment.”
Not saying that he didn’t suffer “extensive injuries,” but I would love to know what they were. When I was an XO, I was appalled at the excuses the medical folks made for our shitbirds.
I can only imagine what you had to put up with! I always got pissed at the Medics who always asked “What kind of a profile do you want?” when I went to get a prescription refilled, I about got counseled for saying “GFY with that profile, I just need a refill and RTD!”, I SO hated “sham enablers” like that every time I was in the ME.
About a year before I retired I went in for my PHA. When I was leaving they handed me a piece of paper that I didn’t pay much attention to until I got back to my unit. When I looked at it it was a dead man’s profile because of my hypertension. My first response was WTF who gets a profile at their PHA and they didn’t even ask me, just gave it to me.
Just because his injuries ‘might’ have occurred while he was on active duty doesn’t mean they’re service connected.
Injuries that are a result of ‘mis-adventure’ or other self inflicted stupidity are not considered service connected.
It doesn’t sound like Bergdahl has much of a lawer, he sounds like the type who could be one helluva used car salesman given how quickly he makes shit up! What’s next, will he be saying that the unicorn Bergdahl was riding accidentally took a wrong turn because a hadji had just fucked it in the ass?
While you guys are all legitimately bitching about bergdahl the blowhard, here’s a hole in the defense that has been there for a very long time.
‘Dahl, the lead investigator, testified that Bergdahl told him that he had intended to report to some general 19 miles away’ – Excuse me, 19 effing miles away in a hot zone? In enemy territory? With homemade mines/IEDs planted wherever? IN THE FREAKING DARK?
Give me a fucking break.
I can make up stories, too, but mine are at least labeled ‘FICTION’.
You would figure after these many years and the input of so many defense people they could of come up with another excuse.
Yes, you would.
The biggest hole in his story is that he did not evade the enemy to reach the General, rather, he marched straight into a village and asked for the Taliban. He did not surrender, he defected.
“The biggest hole in his story is … he marched straight into a village and asked for the Taliban.”
That is how I remember it being reported at Blackfive.
If I remember rightly, that is how it was reported in the news, too.
Get me 4 tent stakes, 4 pieces of rope about 4 feet long, and a gallon of honey. I’ll fix this shit
With Gen. Wimpsey out of the way, I believe the Pentagon really does want to burn Bergdahl. Otherwise what kind of huge bad example have they set for dealing with future fuck-ups of his kind.
There’s also the matter of establishing legal precedent. Leniency in Bergdahl’s case could be used in future cases to influence courts to consider lesser punishments.
The problem with the generals right now is that ass-wipe of a C-in-C that they are all fearful of displeasing. I think they want to drag this out until Obama is history to avoid giving him any further influence on the final outcome through command influence or a pardon.
As for Bergdahl’s defense team, all I can say is, “Holy crap! This is the best you can come up with, ridiculous assertions of one-day AWOL and a medical expert who’s a nurse-practitioner rather than a physician?”
Bergdahl’s best avenue of appeal may be inadequate counsel.
I am starting to see the logic in the Army charging this cock-monger with art 99 “misbehavior before the enemy”.
It makes the defense plea of one day UA irrelevant. It is a single act that doesn’t depend on a long period of time.
Just gets more and more wierd.Love the “explainations” as to why he did it.
I’m wondering what kind of plea bargain this confused little man is angling for?
Napoleons Grand Armee used to shoot folks who pulled this, “To encourage the others.” So did we, see the Eddie Slovak case, in WW II.
Ought to be sentanced, dropped off at Leavenworth, and forgotten.
Sounds to me like someone that has been assigned an impossible task and is throwing hail mary’s.
I have the near-certain suspicion that the Taliban inflicted a harsher term of incarceration on him than anything we are likely to ever do to someone convicted of the announced charges (past present of future).
I really, really doubt he was expecting the “welcome” he received, or whatever was done. (Probably repeatedly and frequently.)
The irony of that probability, well, all I can think of is “Be careful of what you wish.” He certainly has had opportunity of late to reconsider his treatment prior to going walkabout.
Not playing a “sympathy” card here. Just a contemplation of what “harsh treatment” means here, versus “normal every-day barbarity” in some other places.
As to the “AWOL only one day” bit, my understanding is that if you run afoul of local authorities, say getting arrested just off base, and the local police lock you up for a week or six, you are AWOL until you return to military control. I seem to recall being advised of this on several occasions when I was on active duty.
Didn’t he leave a letter of some sort suggesting he was going on a little jaunt in Taliban country, and left all his gear?
Isn’t one of the elements of desertion that a person plans to be away from their unit (or place of duty) permanently, with no intention to return? (Or is the Army just charging him with misbehavior before the enemy?)
the fact that he is alive tells me that this was, indeed, a defection. He should have escaped as many time as was necessary to get his captors to kill him, or at least cripple him. While he claimed to have escaped we only have his word for that. He lived with them for five years so you know he didn’t give them much trouble. A POW has an obligation to escape or at least resist his captors.
The only people that think Birdturd is innocent still think O.J Simpson is innocent.
I am surprised Obummer has not yet invited this clown to the White House.
His parents were honored guests.