Deal for Bowe Bergdahl looks worse and worse

[mystery-ak]

Opinion
Deal for Bowe Bergdahl looks worse and worse

By Paul Sperry

October 16, 2017 | 6:43pm

The American soldier President Obama portrayed as a heroic POW of the Taliban and traded five jailed Taliban leaders for his release now looks more like the man President Trump called a “no-good traitor” who should “have been executed.”

On Monday, Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl admitted deserting his Afghan post as well as misbehaving before the enemy and endangering fellow troops, confirming the betrayal several veterans who served alongside him have alleged for years. Though capital punishment is not in the offing, he does face life in prison at his sentencing later this month.

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http://nypost.com/2017/10/16/deal-for-bowe-bergdahl-looks-worse-and-worse/

[Sanguine]

From the article:

What’s more, Army security officials say Bergdahl exhibited no signs of mental illness since being assigned to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, where he is based. In fact, one fort insider told me that when Bergdahl is not working a desk job in administration, he “regularly bowls” at the post lanes, and was even on a bowling team. (“He has been afforded all the rights and privileges that any other soldier on post has,” including leaves, in spite of his court martial.)....the source says Bergdahl also has a fondness for pot: “He has gone on leave at least once, and while he was gone, he was found by police in a marijuana farm” in Mendocino, Calif.

The military official, moreover, noted that Bergdahl .... so he and his lawyers could review classified materials for his case (yes, military brass also gave the suspected deserter and enemy sympathizer access to classified military secrets).

...
But they knew better...The Pentagon itself refused to list Bergdahl as a POW. That’s because an internal 2009 Army report found he had a history of walking off his post and more than likely deserted. It also found he shipped his laptop back home to Idaho, and left a note expressing his disillusionment with the war, before ending up in the arms of the Taliban.

Obama ...why did he trade a known deserter — and likely enemy sympathizer, if not collaborator — for five enemy commanders whom he acknowledged posed a national security risk? Simple: To justify the release from Gitmo of five “forever detainees,” who otherwise would never have been released and would have delayed achieving his promise to antiwar liberals to withdraw from Afghanistan and empty Gitmo.

....
An Army intelligence official cited circumstantial evidence linking Bergdahl’s 5-year Taliban captivity and the Taliban’s suddenly more accurate and deadly targeting of US convoys and troops. “They wouldn’t have kept him alive if he hadn’t provided information.”

Meanwhile, at least three of Obama’s freed Taliban leaders have tried to resume their terrorist ties.