Bowe Bergdahl is a U.S. Army soldier who was held captive by the Taliban from June 2009 until his release in May 2014, following a controversial prisoner exchange. His disappearance sparked intense media scrutiny, with allegations of desertion and misbehavior leading to military charges against him. The circumstances of his capture and the implications of his actions remain a subject of ongoing debate and investigation.

1. Bowe Bergdahl
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bowe Bergdahl
Bowe Bergdahl, c. 2009
Birthname Robert Bowdrie Bergdahl
Born March 28, 1986 (age 28)
Sun Valley, Idaho,U.S.
Allegiance United States ofAmerica
Service/branch United States Army (2008–
present)[1]
United States Coast
Guard(2006)[2]
Years of service 2006, 2008–present[1][2]
Rank
Sergeant
Unit 1st Battalion,501st Infantry
Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team
(Airborne),25th Infantry Division
Battles/wars Warin Afghanistan

2. Relations Robert "Bob" Bergdahl(father)
Jani Larson (mother)
Sky Albrecht (sister)
Robert Bowdrie "Bowe" Bergdahl (born March 28, 1986) is a United States Army soldier
who was held captive by the Taliban-aligned Haqqani network inAfghanistan from June 2009
until his release in May 2014.[3][4][5][6]
The circumstances under which Bergdahl went missing
and how he was captured by the Taliban have since become a subject of intense media
scrutiny.
Bergdahl was released on May 31, 2014, as part of a prisoner exchange for five Taliban
members who were being held at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay. This exchange
quickly became a political controversy within the United States. On March 25, 2015, the Army
announced that Bergdahl had been charged with one count of desertion and one count of
misbehavior before the enemy.
Contents
[hide]
 1 Early life and education
 2 Career
o 2.1 Before capture
 2.1.1 Last e-mail to parents
 2.1.2 Last communication with platoon
 3 Captivity
o 3.1 Circumstances of Bergdahl's disappearance
o 3.2 Contacts by Taliban
o 3.3 Search efforts
o 3.4 Torture in captivity
 4 Release
o 4.1 Release efforts
o 4.2 White House Rose Garden Ceremony
o 4.3 Return to duty
o 4.4 Debate over negotiations
 5 Military investigation and charges
 6 See also
 7 References
 8 External lins
Early life and education[edit]
Bergdahl was born in 1986, in Sun Valley, Idaho, to Robert Bergdahl, a commercial truck
driver, and his wife Jani (Larson) Bergdahl. He is
of Norwegian andSwedish ancestry.[1][7][8][9][10]
He has an older sister, Sky Albrecht
Bergdahl.[1][11][12]
Both Bergdahl and his sister were home schooled by their mother in Hailey,
Idaho. The family attended Sovereign Redeemer Presbyterian Church, an Orthodox
Presbyterian Church. He received a GED certificate through the College of Southern
Idaho when he was in his early 20s.[9][13][14][15]
As an adult, Bergdahl studied and practiced
fencing and martial arts before changing to ballet classes at the Sun Valley Ballet School
in Ketchum, Idaho.[9][13]
He has never owned a car, and rode his bicycle everywhere.[15]
He
spent time in a Buddhist monastery between 2007 and 2008.[16]
Career[edit]

3. Two years before enlisting in the United States Army in 2008, Bergdahl had tried the United
States Coast Guard. However, he was discharged after just 26 days of basic training for
psychological reasons, receiving an "uncharacterized discharge".[2]
Bergdahl graduated from the infantry school at Fort Benning, Georgia, in late 2008.[1]
He was
then assigned to the 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th
Infantry Division, based atFort Richardson, Alaska.[17]
According to a fellow soldier, Specialist Jason Fry, Bergdahl was a quiet loner. "He wasn't one
of the troublemakers – he was focused and well-behaved." Bergdahl was isolated by choice
from his fellow soldiers; for instance, instead of socializing with his comrades during
Thanksgiving, he studied maps of Afghanistan. Bergdahl told Fry before their deployment
to Afghanistan, "If this deployment is lame, I'm just going to walk off into the mountains of
Pakistan."[1]
Bergdahl's unit was deployed to Afghanistan in May 2009.[18]
His unit was sent to an outpost
named Mest-Malak in Afghanistan to conduct counterinsurgency operations. Bergdahl began
learning to speak Pashto, and according to Fry, Bergdahl "began to gravitate away from his
unit", spending "more time with the Afghans than he did with his platoon". Bergdahl's father
described his son to military investigators as "psychologically isolated".[1]
Before capture[edit]
On June 25, 2009, Bergdahl's battalion suffered its first casualty: First Lieutenant Brian
Bradshaw was killed in a blast from a roadside bomb near the village of Yaya Kheyl, not far
from Bergdahl's outpost. Bergdahl's father believes Bradshawand Bergdahl had grown close
at the National Training Center, and Bradshaw's death darkened Bergdahl's mood.[1]
Last e-mail to parents[edit]
On June 27, 2009, Bergdahl sent an e-mail to his parents before he was captured:[1]:4
mom, dad
The future is too good to waste on lies. And life is way too short to care for the damnation of others,
as well as to spend it helping fools with their ideas that are wrong. I have seen their ideas and I am
ashamed to even be american. The horror of the self-righteous arrogance that they thrive in. It is all
revolting. [...] [Three good sergeants had been forced to move to another company] [...] and one of
the biggest shit bags is being put in charge of the team. [...] [My battalion commander was] a
conceited old fool. [...] In the US army you are cut down for being honest... but if you are a
conceited brown nosing shit bag you will be allowed to do what ever you want, and you will be
handed your higher rank... The system is wrong. I am ashamed to be an american. And the title of
US soldier is just the lie of fools. ... The US army is the biggest joke the world has to laugh at. It is
the army of liars, backstabbers, fools, and bullies. The few good SGTs are getting out as soon as
they can, [...] 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 armored 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. There are a few more boxes coming to you guys. Feel free
to open them, and use them.[1]:4
Bob Bergdahl responded to his son's final message not long after he received it.
OBEY YOUR CONSCIENCE!
Dear Bowe, In matters of life and death, and especially at war, it is never safe to ignore ones'
conscience. Ethics demands obedience to our conscience. It is best to also have a systematic oral
defense of what our conscience demands. Stand with like minded men when possible. dad.[1]:4
Last communication with platoon[edit]
A former senior military officer briefed on the investigation into Bergdahl's disappearance said
that on the night he went missing, Bergdahl left a note in his tent that said he was leaving to
start a new life.[19]
It was reported that the letter said that Bergdahl wanted to renounce his

4. citizenship.[20]
According to Senator Saxby Chambliss, the White House said there was no note
during a meeting with Congress on the release of Bergdahl.[21]
Captivity[edit]
Afghanistan
Paktika Province, where Bergdahl was captured
Coordinates: 32.5°N 68.8°E
Bergdahl went missing on the night of June 30, 2009, near the town of Yahya Kheyl in Paktika
Province.[22]
Accounts of his capture differ. In a video, Bergdahl stated that he was captured
when he fell behind on a patrol.[3]
Taliban sources allege he was ambushed after becoming
drunk off base; U.S. military sources deny that claim, stating, "The Taliban are known for lying
and what they are claiming [is] not true".[5]
A Department of Defense spokesperson said, "I'm
glad to see he appears unharmed, but again, this is a Taliban propaganda video. They are
exploiting the soldier in violation of international law."[3][4]
Other sources said Bergdahl walked
off base after his shift[23]
or that he was grabbed from a latrine.[24][25]
In 2009, the U.S.
Department of Defense attributed his disappearance to "walking off his base in eastern
Afghanistan with three Afghan counterparts and was believed to have been taken prisoner".[26]
General Nabi Mullakheil of the Afghan National Police said the capture occurred in Paktika
Province.[3]
Other sources say that he was captured by a Taliban group led by Maulvi Sangin,
who moved him to Ghazni Province.[4]
He was held by the Haqqani network, an insurgent
group affiliated with the Taliban, probably somewhere in Pakistan.[22]
Bergdahl was a Private First Class when captured; he was promoted in
absentia to Specialist on June 19, 2010, and to Sergeant on June 17, 2011.[27]
According to
soldiers in Bergdahl's platoon, the morning when Bergdahl was discovered to be missing, his
equipment was found neatly stacked, with his compass missing.[28]
Circumstances of Bergdahl's disappearance[edit]
A Pentagon investigation in 2010 concluded that Bergdahl walked away from his
unit.[29][30][31]
Bergdahl wrote e-mails to his parents in which he reported having become
disillusioned with the war effort and bothered by the treatment of Afghans by American
soldiers. He said in his e-mail he was ashamed to be American.[20]
Some sources say he left
an explanatory note before leaving, though this was denied.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey said: "The questions about this
particular soldier's conduct are separate from our effort to recover ANY U.S. service member
in enemy captivity" and that the military will investigate how Bergdahl was captured. "Like any
American, he is innocent until proven guilty.[...] Our Army’s leaders will not look away from
misconduct if it occurred. In the meantime, we will continue to care for him and his family."[32][33]

5. Some soldiers who served with Bergdahl have called him a deserter.[34][35][36]
Nathan Bradley
Bethea, a member of Bergdahl's battalion wrote a Daily Beast article stating that there was no
patrol the night that Bergdahl went missing, and that Bergdahl had talked about his desire to
walk to India. Bethea wrote that the brigade received an order not to discuss Bergdahl due to
safety reasons, but now that he has been found there is not a need for further silence.[37]
Cody
Full, a member of Bergdahl's platoon, 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." Full
said that Bergdahl had mailed his computer and other possessions home prior to his
disappearance.[19]
Contacts by Taliban[edit]
Wikinews has related
news:Taliban publicize
video of captured U.S.
soldier Bowe Bergdahl
On July 18, 2009, the Taliban released a video showing the captured Bergdahl.[3]
In it,
Bergdahl appeared downcast and frightened. A Department of Defense statement issued the
following day confirmed that Bergdahl had been declared "missing/whereabouts unknown" on
July 1, and that his status had been changed to "missing/captured" on July 3.[38]
In the 28-
minute video, his captors held up his dog tags to establish that the captured man was
Bergdahl.[3]
Bergdahl gave the date as July 14 and mentioned an attack that occurred that
day.[39][40][41]
In December 2009, five months after Bergdahl's disappearance, the media arm of the Taliban
released a video of "a U.S. soldier captured in Afghanistan" titled "One of Their People
Testified". The Taliban did not name the American, but the only U.S. soldier known to be in
captivity was Bergdahl. U.S. military officials had been searching for Bergdahl, but it was not
publicly known whether he was being held in Afghanistan or in neighboring Pakistan, an area
off-limits to U.S. forces based in Afghanistan.[42]
On December 25, another video was released
showing Bergdahl in a combat uniform and helmet.[43][44][45]
He described his place of birth,
deployment to Afghanistan and subsequent capture, and made several statements regarding
his humane treatment by his captors, contrasting this to the abuses suffered by insurgents in
prisons. He finished by saying that the United States should not be involved in Afghanistan
and that its presence there is akin to the Vietnam War.
The Taliban originally demanded $1 million[46]
and the release of 21 Afghan prisoners
and Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani scientist convicted in a U.S. court on charges of attempted
murder of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. Most of the Afghan prisoners sought were being held
at Guantanamo Bay.[47][48]
The Taliban later reduced its demand to six Taliban prisoners in
exchange for Bergdahl's release.[49]
After Taliban commander Awal Gul died of a heart attack
on February 2, 2011, the demand was reduced to five Taliban prisoners.[50]
On April 7, 2010, the Taliban released a third video of Bergdahl, with a full head of hair and a
beard, pleading for the release of Afghan prisoners held at Guantanamo and Bagram. In
November 2010, Bergdahl appeared briefly in a fourth video[51]
and in May 2011, in a fifth
video.[52]
In June 2010, Bergdahl managed to escape his captors but was recaptured after five
days.[53]
In August 2010, it was reported that a Taliban commander named Haji Nadeem said
Bergdahl was helping to train the Taliban in bomb-making and infantry tactics. The Pentagon
dismissed the reports as Taliban propaganda.[54][55]
In December 2011, it was reported that Bergdahl had managed to escape again the previous
August or September but was recaptured after three days.[56]
In June 2013, Bergdahl's parents
received a letter from him through the Red Cross.[57]
In January 2014, the United States
received another proof of life video dated December 14, 2013. In it, Bergdahl mentioned the

6. death of South African president Nelson Mandela, showing that the video had been filmed
after December 5.
In early 2014, the United States attempted to secure the release of Bergdahl by paying
a ransom, later shown to be a scam. Pentagon states that a ransom was not paid, but it was a
payment for intelligence, that led to the release of Bergdahl.[58]
Search efforts[edit]
According to soldiers from Bergdahl's platoon, fellow soldiers described an increase in attacks
against the United States in Paktika Province in the days and weeks following Bergdahl's
disappearance;[59]
Significant resources were deployed in an effort to find
Bergdahl.[28]
Two Pashto-language leaflets were distributed by the U.S. military in seeking
Bergdahl.[5]
One showed a smiling GI shaking hands with Afghan children, with a caption that
called him a guest in Afghanistan. The other showed a door being broken down and
threatened that those holding Bergdahl would be hunted down.[5]
According to soldiers involved in the operations to find Bergdahl, at least six soldiers were
killed in the search;[59]
this includes six soldiers in the same battalion as Bergdahl.[28]
A
spokesman for the Pentagon said that it is impossible to confirm whether anybody's death was
directly linked to the search for Bergdahl,[19][60]
but said the Pentagon will look further into the
circumstances of the deaths being associated with the search.[60]
Due to resources being diverted to find Bergdahl, the closing of Combat Outpost Keating was
delayed, which may have led to eight American soldiers being killed on October 3, 2009,
after 300 Taliban insurgentsoverran the base.[19][59]
A former senior military officer disputed that
the diversion of resources led to the attack, noting that COP Keating was in "a dangerous
region in Afghanistan in the middle of the ‘fighting season’" and that "it is 'difficult to establish a
direct cause and effect.'”[19]
According to The New York Times, "A review of the database of
casualties in the Afghan war suggests that Sergeant Bergdahl’s critics appear to be blaming
him for every American soldier killed in Paktika Province in the four-month period that followed
his disappearance."[19]
Torture in captivity[edit]
According to a senior U.S. official, Bergdahl told military officials that he had been tortured,
beaten, and held in a cage by his Taliban captors in Afghanistan after he tried to escape.[61]
He
told medical officials that he was locked in a metal cage in total darkness for weeks at a time
as punishment for trying to escape.[62]
Release[edit]
Afghanistan
Khost Province, where Bergdahl was released

7. Coordinates: 33.3°N 69.9°E
On May 31, 2014, Bergdahl was released by his captors and recovered by Delta Force,
a Special Mission Unit component of the Joint Special Operations Command in
eastern Afghanistan.[63]
The release was brokered by the American, Qatar, and Afghanistan
governments with the Taliban, in exchange for five Guantanamo Baydetainees transferred to
Qatari custody for at least one year. On 10:30 a.m. (EDT) May 31, 2014, Bergdahl was
handed over by 18 Taliban members to a special operations team[64]
in eastern
Afghanistan,[65]
near Khost on the Pakistani border, in what was described as a "peaceful
handover".[66]
A video of the handover was later released by the Taliban.[67]
Bergdahl was treated by U.S. military medical staff at an undisclosed base in eastern
Afghanistan. He was then transferred to Bagram Airfield before being flown toLandstuhl
Regional Medical Center, Germany, for medical treatment.[68]
On June 13, 2014 he was flown
by military plane to San Antonio, Texas where he was taken to the Brooke Army Medical
Center to complete his recovery and reintegration.[69]
The Taliban detainees – known as the "Taliban Five"[70]
– who were transferred from
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to custody in Doha, Qatar, are Mohammad Fazl,Khairullah
Khairkhwa, Abdul Haq Wasiq, Norullah Noori, and Mohammad Nabi Omari.[71]
They were the
Taliban army chief of staff, a Taliban deputy minister of intelligence, a former Taliban interior
minister, and two other senior Taliban figures.[72]
Some U.S. lawmakers have said that the prisoner swap that led to Bergdahl's release may
have been illegal.[73]
The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014 mandates
that all prisoner transfers from Guantanamo Bay require 30 days' notice to Congress, which
was not done in this case.[74]
When President Barack Obama signed the bill, he released
a signing statement saying that the restriction interfered with the president's executive
power as commander-in-chief.[75]
The White House released a statement acknowledging that
the release of the Guantanamo prisoners did not comply with the law but cited the president's
signing statement, and "unique and exigent circumstances" as justification.[76][77]
One year
earlier, Jay Carney (then-spokesperson for the White House) had assured the press that the
decision to free Bergdahl would only be made after consulting Congress, in accordance with
said law.[78]
Release efforts[edit]
For months, U.S. negotiators sought to arrange the transfer of five Taliban detainees held
at Guantanamo Bay detention camp to the Persian Gulf state of Qatar. The transfer was
intended as one of a series of confidence-building measures designed to open the door to
political talks between the Taliban and Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government.[79]
That
move – at the center of U.S. strategy for ending the long, costly conflict in Afghanistan – was
supposed to lead directly to Bergdahl's release. The Taliban has consistently called for the
United States to release those held at Guantanamo Bay in exchange for freeing Western
prisoners. But the Guantanamo transfer proposal ground to a halt when the Taliban rejected
U.S. conditions designed to ensure transferred Taliban would not slip away and re-emerge as
military leaders.[80]
Ultimately, the Obama administration agreed to the prisoner exchange,
allowing Bergdahl to be released on May 31, 2014.[81]
White House Rose Garden Ceremony[edit]
On May 31, 2014, President Obama appeared with Bob and Jani Bergdahl in the White House
Rose Garden where he delivered a speech about the prisoner swap that resulted in the
recovery of their son.[82]
Return to duty[edit]
On July 13, 2014, it was reported that Bergdahl would soon return to duty at Fort Sam
Houston in San Antonio, Texas. This was confirmed by Army officials on July 14, with a

8. spokeswoman saying that "He will now return to regular duty within the command where he
can contribute to the mission."[83]
Debate over negotiations[edit]
Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said he was "extremely troubled"
and that "This fundamental shift in U.S. policy signals to terrorists around the world a greater
incentive to take U.S. hostages".[84]
This sentiment was repeated by Congressmen Buck
McKeon and James Inhofe, who released a joint statement saying that terrorists now have a
"strong incentive" to capture more soldiers.[85]
Ted Poe, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs
Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade, stated that the Bergdahl exchange
appeared to violate the United States policy of not negotiating with terrorists.[86]
Anderson Cooper asked White House spokesman Jay Carney if it can "still be said that the
United States does not negotiate with terrorists" to which Carney replied:
It can be ... because when you put on the uniform of the United States and you go and fight on
behalf of your country in a foreign land at war, and you’re taken captive by the enemy, the
principle that we don’t leave our men and women behind doesn’t have an asterisk attached to
it depending on who’s holding you.
Cooper followed up by asking "Even if it was a group like Al Qaeda, there would be
negotiations with them?" to which Carney replied:
What I’m saying is he was a prisoner in an armed conflict, and we were engaged in an effort
for five years to try to recover him. As an admiral said on TV today, he said when one of your
shipmates goes overboard, you go get them. You don’t ask whether he jumped or he was
pushed or he fell. You go get him first and then you find out.[87]
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said Bergdahl was a "prisoner of war" and that "We didn't
negotiate with terrorists".[88]
Time magazine published an article stating that the Taliban are:
[N]ot really a 'terrorist' enemy as we commonly understand the word. The group is not on the
State Department’s official list of terrorist organizations and has long been a battlefield enemy
in the ground war for control of Afghanistan. It is not plotting to, say, hijack American
airplanes—even if it does have sympathies with people who are. Ditto the Taliban leaders
released over the weekend.
Time pointed out that the United States and other countries have "negotiated with terrorists"
multiple times in previous years.[89]
In February 2014, CNN published an article discussing the possibility of releasing Bergdahl in
exchange for the five Taliban, and concluded that "discussions about the release of Bergdahl
with the Afghan Taliban are not directly with a terrorist organization per se, but instead with an
insurgent group that has a terrorist wing".[90]
In August 2014, the Government Accountability
Office published a report stating that the Pentagon broke the law when conducting the
prisoner exchange, due to it failing to notify U.S. Congress in advance, as required by the
law.[91]
In September 2014, The U.S. House of Representatives voted 249 to 163, with 22 Democrats
joining the Republican majority in favor of the resolution that condemned president Obama for
failing to give Congress a 30-day notice before exchanging prisoner of war Bowe Bergdahl
and therefore breaking the U.S. law.[92]
National Security Advisor Susan Rice appeared on ABC News "This Week," June 1, 2014,
saying Bergdahl “served the United States with honor and distinction.”[93]
Military investigation and charges[edit]
On June 16, 2014, the U.S. Army said that it has begun investigating the facts and
circumstances surrounding the disappearance and capture of Bergdahl in Afghanistan.[94]
On
June 25, 2014, the U.S. Army stated that there is "no evidence" that Bergdahl "engaged in any

9. misconduct" during his years in captivity.[95]
The 2010 Pentagon investigation referred to above
dealt with events leading up to his capture. In July 2014, Bergdahl was returned to active
duty.[96]
In August 2014, it was announced that an investigation headed by Major General
Kenneth Dahl would be conducted.[97]
In December 2014 the Army referred Bergdahl's case to
a four-star general for a possible court-martial.[98]
On March 25, 2015, the Army announced
that Bergdahl had been charged with two counts under the Uniform Code of Military Justice:
one count of “desertion with intent to shirk important or hazardous duty” and one count of
“misbehavior before the enemy by endangering the safety of a command, unit or
place.”[99][100][101]
President Obama Administration response to media after news of Bergdahlcourt-
martial
White House Communications Director Jen Psaki on March 25, 2014 said, "Absolutely!" in
response to FNC Meghan Kelly asking her if exchanging Bergdahl for five Taliban
commanders was worth it knowing what we know now about Bergdahl and the activities of the
released prisoners . [102]
See also[edit]
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