There is nothing new here for regular readers of TBR. I just find it interesting more for what is left out than what is included.Who is Bowe Bergdahl?
Bowe Bergdahl is an American soldier, who was serving in Afghanistan.
On June 30, 2009 he was captured by the Taliban-aligned Haqqani network, and held until America agreed to release five members of the Taliban from Guantánamo Bay on May 31, 2014.
At first the homeschooled Buddhist from Idaho was welcomed home as a hero.
But soon America's mood soured.
It emerged that on the night he abandoned the base, he left behind a note saying that he was going away to start a new life, and renounced his American citizenship. He had learnt to speak Pashto, the local language, and made Afghan friends.
He had told one of his friends before arriving in Afghanistan: "If this deployment is lame, I'm just going to walk off into the mountains of Pakistan."
Emails to his parents were published, which showed the contempt he felt for his homeland and the army.
"The US army is the biggest joke the world has to laugh at," he wrote.
"It is the army of liars, back-stabbers, fools, and bullies. I am sorry for everything here. These people need help, yet what they get is the most conceited country in the world telling them that they are nothing and that they are stupid, that they have no idea how to live. We don't even care when we hear each other talk about running their children down in the dirt streets with our armoured trucks. We make fun of them in front of their faces, and laugh at them for not understanding we are insulting them. I am sorry for everything. The horror that is America is disgusting."
How was he captured?
Bowe Bergdahl during his captivityBergdahl during his captivity Photo: AP
The circumstances surrounding his capture are unclear – and the subject of much speculation.
In a Taliban propaganda video, Bergdahl stated that he was captured when he fell behind on a patrol. But other sources said he simply walked out of the base, and was then captured.
In 2009, the US Department of Defense said his disappearance was due to "walking off his base in eastern Afghanistan with three Afghan counterparts."
Some soldiers who served with Bergdahl called him a deserter, giving interviews and expressing their anger. Nathan Bradley Bethea said there was no patrol happening on the night Bergdahl disappeared, and that Bergdahl had talked about his desire to walk to India.
Another colleague, Cody Full, said: "He knowingly deserted and put thousands of people in danger because he did. We swore to an oath and we upheld ours. He did not."
What happened when he was captured?
The US army launched a huge manhunt to try and find him, and left leaflets across the area asking for help.
The Taliban released a video 18 days after he vanished, showing him in captivity. Several other videos were released over the course of the next five years, in which Bergdahl was filmed pleading with the US military to leave the country.
He twice managed to escape, but was recaptured. He has reportedly told army officials that he was tortured in captivity, and held in darkness in a cage as punishment for escaping.
The Taliban initially asked for a $1 million and the release of 21 Afghan prisoners plus Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani scientist convicted of attempted murder of US soldiers in Afghanistan. But then they agreed to the release of five men held in Guantánamo, who were sent to Qatar, and Bergdahl was handed over to the American army.
When he climbed onto the helicopter to take him away, trying to communicate with his rescuers over the roar of the rotors, he wrote “SF?” on a paper plate – asking his rescuers whether they were special forces.
"Yes,” one of the men shouted. “We’ve been looking for you for a long time.”
Bergdahl then burst into tears.
Some soldiers have said that six men were killed during missions to find him. But the Pentagon has said it is impossible to attribute their deaths to Bergdahl's disappearance.
Read more:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11867392/Bowe-Bergdahl-hearing-begins-in-Texas.html
