http://patdollard.com/2014/06/obama-wont-allow-bergdahl-to-speak-to-anyone-until-he-agrees-to-tell-story-obama-wants-him-to-tell/The above headline gives you the real translation for what’s going on in the story below. With perhaps impeachment at stake, Obama is not going to let Bergdahl admit he deserted and collaborated with the enemy to kill Americans. Obama is cutting some sort of deal with him, agreeing to not prosecute and/or convict him for desertion and treason (and perhaps agreeing to pay him cash covertly over time) in exchange for him agreeing to tell the story Obama wants him to tell. And until that deal is cut and that story is worked out in detail, Obama can’t afford for him to speak to anyone, including his parents, and perhaps say things that will contradict that yet-to-be-finalized story.
Excerpted from The Wall Street Journal: Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has declined to speak to his family after five years in harsh captivity that included being held in a cage after one attempted escape, according to a U.S. official familiar with the Army soldier’s recovery.
Doctors treating Sgt. Bergdahl at a U.S. military hospital in Germany are moving slowly because of the swirling controversy over the soldier’s release, the U.S. official said.
While he spent five years in captivity after being captured by Afghan insurgents in 2009, Sgt. Bergdahl doesn’t yet want to talk to his family on the phone, the official said. Details of Sgt. Bergdahl’s captivity were earlier reported by the New York Times.
Sgt. Bergdahl has likely been shielded from most of the backlash his release has generated in the U.S. Some former platoon soldiers have accused him of deserting his post, and lawmakers from both parties have questioned the decision to trade America’s lone prisoner of war in Afghanistan for five Taliban officials held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Local authorities canceled a homecoming celebration in his Idaho hometown because of the backlash. The celebration was canceled specifically because of threats made against the family, officials said.
The political furor, which has raged since the May 31 prisoner swap, continued through the weekend. What had at first blush seemed an uplifting story about a prisoner returning home after five years in captivity has instead become a major headache for the Obama administration, straining ties with lawmakers who felt they were kept in the dark about the prisoner swap and raising fears the freed Taliban detainees, who were sent to Qatar, could return to the battlefield.
Speaking on CNN, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry defended the administration’s decision to exchange Sgt. Bergdahl for five top Taliban detainees, saying it would have been “offensive and incomprehensible” to leave an American prisoner of war behind.
“To leave an American behind, in the hands of people that torture him, cut off his head, do any number of things, and we would consciously choose to do that? That’s the other side of this equation,” Mr. Kerry told CNN. “I don’t think anybody would think that is the appropriate thing to do.”
Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.), speaking later on CNN, said he wouldn’t have released the five Taliban detainees, saying they were evaluated during their time in Guantanamo as too great a risk and would put other American servicemen at risk. He said the Qatari government “is not renowned for its ability to keep things in security.”
“I think we should do everything in our power to win the release of any American being held but not at the expense of the lives and well-being of their fellow servicemen and women,” said Mr. McCain, who was himself a prisoner of war in Vietnam. “When we join the military, we know we take certain risks, and among those risks are wounding, death, imprisonment.”
Mr. Kerry didn’t rule out the possibility of the detainees attempting to return to fight the U.S., but warned “they also have the ability to get killed doing that.”
Doctors say that Sgt. Bergdahl’s physical health continues to slowly improve. The psychological process is likely to be more difficult.
Sgt. Bergdahl said that during his time in captivity he was kept in a cage after one attempted escape, the official said.
http://online.wsj.com/articles/u-s-official-sgt-bowe-bergdahl-has-declined-to-speak-to-his-family-1402242356?tesla=y&mg=reno64-wsj&url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304315504579612170444661860.html
