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American held hostage by al Qaeda appeals to Obama... (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter VA703
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Doctor Detroit
Please remove your headgear
Best thing about public transport is you can watch live Canadian Parliament while you sit back and relax.
MC Gas Money
Footballguy
tommyboy
Footballguy
How drunk are you?
This is the quote, tell me where i say its true.
tommyboy said:
Widbil83
Footballguy
East Coast Bias
Footballguy
whoknew
Footballguy
Link
JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO – FORT SAM HOUSTON, Tex. — The Army general who carried out an investigation last year into the alleged desertion of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl believes that a jail sentence would be “inappropriate,” despite the massive search caused by him walking away from his unit’s outpost in Afghanistan.
Maj. Gen. Kenneth Dahl testified Friday in Bergdahl’s case that he found the soldier “unrealistically idealistic” about other people and remorseful for the massive search his actions caused. He left his platoon’s outpost, Observation Post Mest in Paktika province, with plans to run 19 miles to the larger Forward Operating Base Sharana, cause a disruption and get the attention of a general.
“I do not believe that there is a jail sentence at the end of this process,” Dahl said.
Bergdahl, 29, faces charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy in what is the military’s most closely watched desertion case in decades. If convicted, he faces life in prison.
Dahl was ordered to investigate Bergdahl’s alleged desertion last year after he was recovered by U.S. Special Operations troops in Afghanistan as part of a controversial deal approved by the White House in which five Taliban officials were released from detention from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. They now live in Qatar.
The general interviewed Bergdahl for hours in August 2014, compiling a 371-page transcript of their conversation. The investigation itself lasted 59 days and found that Bergdahl left without his platoon without his firearm, a 5.56 mm squad automatic weapon, because he wanted to blend into his surroundings until he reached the larger base.
Dahl called Bergdahl “very bright and very well read”and fascinated by Samurai warrior culture. He knew he would get in trouble for running away from his base but told Dahl he felt compelled to do so at the time because he was concerned his platoon was in danger because of perceived poor leadership.
Bergdahl was deeply critical of many fellow soldiers, Dahl said. Despite being a low-ranking enlisted soldier, Bergdahl believed that he should have a larger role in targeting the Taliban. He considered taking a fellow soldier’s M9 pistol with him on his run to Sharana but likely decided against it because he didn’t want to get him in trouble.
“I think he actually believed that if five Taliban rolled up on him, he would have been able to dispose of them,” Dahl said.
Instead, Bergdahl was quickly captured and beaten in the process, Dahl said. He was shuttled between a number of insurgents that first day on motorcycles and in vehicles, while U.S. soldiers frantically searched for him.
“I got the impression they didn’t know what the heck to do with him,” Dahl said of the insurgents who captured Bergdahl.
Dahl contributed Bergdahl’s unconventional upbringing “near the edge of the grid” in part for his views. There is no evidence he was sympathetic to the Taliban, but he did have “outsize impressions of his capabilities,” Dahl testified.
Bergdahl saw problems with his leaders that other soldiers did not, Dahl said. In one example, Bergdahl’s battalion command sergeant major said in jest during a motivational speech that he liked to pillage and plunder while deployed, and Bergdahl took it to heart.
In another, Bergdahl witnessed his battalion commander, then-Lt. Col. Clinton Baker, launch a tirade at soldiers who were not wearing the correct uniform while in Afghanistan, Dahl said. Baker kicked rocks in the process, and Bergdahl believed he was disturbing graves in an Afghan cemetery by doing so, Dahl said.
“I think he absolutely believed that the things he perceived were absolutely true,” Dahl said of Bergdahl.
Bergdahl also found his pre-deployment training at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., “lame,” and was surprised that he was told to lock his wall locker to protect his possessions on an Army base, Dahl said. Soldiers should be able to trust one another, Bergdahl reasoned.
JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO – FORT SAM HOUSTON, Tex. — The Army general who carried out an investigation last year into the alleged desertion of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl believes that a jail sentence would be “inappropriate,” despite the massive search caused by him walking away from his unit’s outpost in Afghanistan.
Maj. Gen. Kenneth Dahl testified Friday in Bergdahl’s case that he found the soldier “unrealistically idealistic” about other people and remorseful for the massive search his actions caused. He left his platoon’s outpost, Observation Post Mest in Paktika province, with plans to run 19 miles to the larger Forward Operating Base Sharana, cause a disruption and get the attention of a general.
“I do not believe that there is a jail sentence at the end of this process,” Dahl said.
Bergdahl, 29, faces charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy in what is the military’s most closely watched desertion case in decades. If convicted, he faces life in prison.
Dahl was ordered to investigate Bergdahl’s alleged desertion last year after he was recovered by U.S. Special Operations troops in Afghanistan as part of a controversial deal approved by the White House in which five Taliban officials were released from detention from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. They now live in Qatar.
The general interviewed Bergdahl for hours in August 2014, compiling a 371-page transcript of their conversation. The investigation itself lasted 59 days and found that Bergdahl left without his platoon without his firearm, a 5.56 mm squad automatic weapon, because he wanted to blend into his surroundings until he reached the larger base.
Dahl called Bergdahl “very bright and very well read”and fascinated by Samurai warrior culture. He knew he would get in trouble for running away from his base but told Dahl he felt compelled to do so at the time because he was concerned his platoon was in danger because of perceived poor leadership.
Bergdahl was deeply critical of many fellow soldiers, Dahl said. Despite being a low-ranking enlisted soldier, Bergdahl believed that he should have a larger role in targeting the Taliban. He considered taking a fellow soldier’s M9 pistol with him on his run to Sharana but likely decided against it because he didn’t want to get him in trouble.
“I think he actually believed that if five Taliban rolled up on him, he would have been able to dispose of them,” Dahl said.
Instead, Bergdahl was quickly captured and beaten in the process, Dahl said. He was shuttled between a number of insurgents that first day on motorcycles and in vehicles, while U.S. soldiers frantically searched for him.
“I got the impression they didn’t know what the heck to do with him,” Dahl said of the insurgents who captured Bergdahl.
Dahl contributed Bergdahl’s unconventional upbringing “near the edge of the grid” in part for his views. There is no evidence he was sympathetic to the Taliban, but he did have “outsize impressions of his capabilities,” Dahl testified.
Bergdahl saw problems with his leaders that other soldiers did not, Dahl said. In one example, Bergdahl’s battalion command sergeant major said in jest during a motivational speech that he liked to pillage and plunder while deployed, and Bergdahl took it to heart.
In another, Bergdahl witnessed his battalion commander, then-Lt. Col. Clinton Baker, launch a tirade at soldiers who were not wearing the correct uniform while in Afghanistan, Dahl said. Baker kicked rocks in the process, and Bergdahl believed he was disturbing graves in an Afghan cemetery by doing so, Dahl said.
“I think he absolutely believed that the things he perceived were absolutely true,” Dahl said of Bergdahl.
Bergdahl also found his pre-deployment training at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., “lame,” and was surprised that he was told to lock his wall locker to protect his possessions on an Army base, Dahl said. Soldiers should be able to trust one another, Bergdahl reasoned.
SaintsInDome2006
Footballguy
So I guess this means the trial is finally underway.
What are the charges?
What are the charges?
SaintsInDome2006
Footballguy
That's a new assertion, isn't it?
jonessed
Footballguy
Yes. I think that's the new defense position. I haven't seen it anywhere before.
Last edited by a moderator:
Tackling Dummies
Footballguy
Life w/o parole is fine.
Max Power
Footballguy
East Coast Bias
Footballguy
Guilty plea entered. Will be Private Bergdahl soon.
-OZ-
Footballguy
Max Power
Footballguy
-OZ-
Footballguy
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/10/trumps-statements-interfere-with-bowe-bergdahls-sentencing.html
His sentencing was delayed on Monday as the military judge presiding over the case, Colonel Jeffery A. Nance, listenedto the defense argue that Trump’s recent statements about Bergdahl had prevented him from getting a fair hearing. Bergdahl faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
While running for president, Trump called Bergdahl “a dirty rotten traitor” and repeatedly said that he should be executed. Nance had previously ruled that Trump’s comments did not constitute unlawful command influence because they were made before he was elected. But on October 16, the president spoke about Bergdahl again. When asked about the case, Trump said that he couldn’t discuss it, “But I think people have heard my comments in the past.” As commander in chief of the military, Trump is now Nance’s boss.
Nance told the defense that, regardless of what Trump said, “I don’t have any doubt whatsoever that I can be fair and impartial in the sentencing in this matter.” However, he expressed concern that the situation would undermine “confidence in the military justice system.”
“Words have meaning. And ‘but’ means what?” Nance asked prosecutor Maj. Justin Oshana, who disputed [defense attorney Eugene Fidell’s] assertion that Trump continues to hold such views about Bergdahl.
“The reasons [to dismiss earlier accusations] tend to be eroded when the now-president of the United States apparently adopts those past statements,” Nance told the prosecutor. Nance added his interpretation of Trump’s meaning to be: “I shouldn’t comment on that, but I think everyone knows what I think on Bowe Bergdahl.”
Pressed further on Trump’s verbiage, Oshana offered that the president’s words were “not the best constructed,” a statement that elicited stifled chuckles in the courtroom.
-OZ-
Footballguy
sbonomo
Footballguy
DallasDMac
Footballguy
whoknew
Footballguy
A lot of this is from the second season of Serial. But he probably never should have been in the army to begin with - he washed out of the coast guard for mental health reasons.
And the reason he left his post was stupid - but it’s not like he was trying to aid the enemy. He thought he was proving a point about the dysfunction of the army.
And finally, I think he paid for what he did. He was tortured for five years.
He did a really stupid thing. While lives were put in danger looking for him, nobody actually died. And there is a lot of dispute over whether anyone actually was seriously injured. He has paid dearly for his stupidity.
Finally, the initial officer who investigated his case agreed he should not be sent to prison.
-OZ-
Footballguy
Pretty good summary.
Also consider his life is never going to be normal again. How many people have been singled out by the president as a traitor, been a hostage for 5 years, has major psychological issues and is probably ineligible for VA assistance? It's entirely possible he'd be better off in Leavenworth.
All of which is his fault. But confinement wouldn't do much in this case and IMO wasn't warranted.
DallasDMac
Footballguy
Didn't one soldier take a bullet to the head and is now totally paralyzed? That seems somewhat serious.
whoknew
Footballguy
DallasDMac
Footballguy
It was quoted on a live newscast today. If I can recall the channel, I could probably find it.
DallasDMac
Footballguy
Here's a USA Today story that mentions him, Allen is his name.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/10/26/army-sgt-bowe-bergdahl-searchers-describe-harrowing-firefight-serious-wounds/803546001/
