Bowe Bergdahl Charged With Desertion, Lawyer Says

[Valin]

ABC News:

March 25 2015

 

American soldier and former Taliban captive Bowe Bergdahl has been charged with desertion for allegedly walking off his post in Afghanistan in 2009, Bergdahl's attorney told ABC News today.

 

(Snip)

 

After Bergdahl's dramatic return to the U.S., the Army launched an investigation into whether the soldier willfully left his post in Afghanistan before he was taken by the Taliban in 2009, as some Afghan war veterans alleged.

 

That investigation was concluded last October and was forwarded to senior Army leaders at the Pentagon who then designated Army Forces Command to determine whether he should face punishment. The Army was expected to formally announce Bergdahl's fate later Wednesday.

[Cyber_Liberty]

I just saw this on Drudge. Wonderful news!

 

I wonder how the media is going to minimize this and sweep it under the rug?

[NCTexan]

If Barack Obama had a white son... he'd look like Bowe Berdahl.

 

[Valin]

[Valin]

[Valin]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2Ik-lrA8Cw

 

H/T Right Scoop

[SrWoodchuck]

 

http://www.gruntstyle.com Via TheFeralIrishman

 

Edited to add: Does he know where to find sympathy in the dictionary?

Edited March 26, 2015 by SrWoodchuck

[SrWoodchuck]

Men who died looking for Bergdahl....honor them...convict him.

 

 

 

Via WeaselZippers

[Valin]

Twitter Never Forgets: These 8 Public Figures Are Probably Regretting Cheering Bergdahl’s Release

Joseph Perticone

Mar. 25 2015

 

Josh Marshall ✔ @joshtpm Follow

 

I predict many years frm now, say 2014, wingers will be so far gone theyll mercilessly attack parents of returned POW http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/conservatives-criticize-bowe-bergdahl-dad-bob …

5:04 PM - 2 Jun 2014

 

 

Markos Moulitsas ✔ @markos Follow

 

Bergdahl is now Exhibit A in right-wing media bubble http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/06/04/1304382/-Bergdahl-is-now-exhibit-A-in-the-right-wing-media-bubble …. Same bubble that convinced them President Romney would happen

 

6:39 PM - 4 Jun 2014

 

 

Donna Brazile ✔ @donnabrazile Follow

 

A Republican PR firm has been publicizing accounts that Bergdahl might have gone AWOL just to make the President look bad.

 

1:23 PM - 8 Jun 2014

 

 

 

 

H/T TOS

 

[Geee]

Bowe Bergdahl Charged: Where Do We Go From Here?

 

Charles "Cully" D. Stimson is a leading expert in criminal law, military law, military commissions and detention policy at The Heritage Foundation's Center for Legal and Judicial Studies. Read his research.

Yesterday, the Army announced its intention to charge Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy and has served him with those two charges.

 

As I explained here last June, the military had at least five options on what to do with Sgt. Bergdahl given the fact that he left his appointed place of military duty in Afghanistan during a time of armed conflict.

 

Those five options included (1) do nothing; (2) send him to an Article 15 commanding officer’s non-judicial punishment proceeding; (3) send him to an administrative discharge board for specific violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice; (4) send him directly to a Special Court-Martial, or; (5) prefer felony charges against him and send him, possibly, to a General Court-Martial.

 

The Army chose the fifth option.

 

Don’t have time to read the Washington Post or New York Times?

Then get The Morning Bell, an early morning edition of the day’s most important political news, conservative commentary and original reporting from a team committed to following the truth no matter where it leads.

 

The military justice system is unique—and for good reason. It exists to enforce good order and discipline in the armed forces and has unique aspects separate and distinct from the also-unique civilian criminal justice system. For an in-depth explanation of the unique nature of the military justice system, read my Heritage Special Report here.

That unique mission explains why, for example, it contains unique crimes, such as Article 99, Misbehavior Before the Enemy—which is meant to punish members of the armed forces who, without justification, “shamefully abandoned, surrendered, or delivered up” his appointed place of duty while he was “before or in the presence of the enemy.” There is no civilian equivalent to that crime.

But what happens next?

 

http://dailysignal.com/2015/03/26/bowe-bergdahl-charged-where-do-we-go-from-here/

[SrWoodchuck]

Thanks, Sweet @Geee!

 

I have a couple thoughts on this:

 

1.) If he abandoned his post while guarding the perimeter....he needs to hang. (I think he was off duty)

 

2.) He packed his things & shipped them home, indicating forethought and therefor premeditation.

 

3.) It was in time of war, in the field of combat operation.

 

4.) He was searching for a Taliban that could speak English. He knew he would have to negotiate for his life, and what information was he willing to trade for that?

 

5.) The fact that 8 men died looking for him (some say more than that) is an aggravating factor. (IMO)

 

6.) Knowing that the Oblunder administration wants to bury this, I couldn't predict what will happen to Bergdahl, even if he gets a guilty verdict. The prosecution of criminals worthy of severe punishment hasn't fared well under liberals. Note that, Nidal Malik Hasan, the butcher of Ft. Hood....still is waiting to roll onto a gibbet......and this jerk, sentenced in 2005, is still wasting oxygen:

 

United States v. Hasan K. Akbar was the court-martial of a United States Army soldier for a premeditated attack in the early morning hours of March 23, 2003 at Camp Pennsylvania, Kuwait during the start of the United States invasion of Iraq.

 

Former Sergeant Hasan Karim Akbar (born Mark Fidel Kools on April 21, 1971) threw four hand grenades into three tents in which other members of the 101st Airborne Division were sleeping, and fired his rifle at fellow soldiers in the ensuing chaos. Army Captain Christopher S. Seifert was fatally shot in the back, and Air Force Major Gregory L. Stone was killed by a grenade. Fourteen other soldiers were wounded by Akbar, mostly from grenade shrapnel.

At trial, Akbar's military defense attorneys contended that Akbar had psychiatric problems, including paranoia, irrational behavior, insomnia, and other sleep disorders. In April 2005, he was convicted and sentenced to death for the murders of Seifert and Stone.[1] The Army Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the sentence on July 13, 2012. A subsequent appeal is now pending before the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces.

[Geee]

Gitmo - he can be with friends

[Valin]

Here We Go!

 

What the Right Wing Gets Wrong About Bowe Bergdahl
Military charges against the former Afghanistan prisoner inspire a round of sadly predictable responses
John Knefel

March 26, 2015

 

(Snip)

 

The news that charges would be brought against Bergdahl elicited a predictable response from many in the media. One prominent conservative site proclaimed: "Confirmed: The Bowe Bergdahl Deal is as Disastrous as We Feared." Conservative lawmakers trafficked in similar scare tactics. "I believe it made Americans less safe," House Speaker John Boehner told Politico. "Knowing that the United States does not negotiate with terrorists is one of our greatest protections, and now it is compromised."

 

Others in the GOP went even further, conflating prisoners of war with hostages, and staking out positions that could unintentionally incentivize the execution of any future American POWs. "Regardless of his conduct, the United States should not negotiate with terrorists or trade terrorist detainees for American hostages," Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) said in a statement. Cotton recently grabbed headlines by authoring a letter to the Iranian government warning them that any nuclear agreement could be rescinded by the next administration, and has called for current Guantanamo detainees to "rot in hell."

(Snip)

All that said, there is plenty to criticize the Obama administration about in the Bergdahl case. As Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) has argued, the administration almost certainly broke the law by not advising Congress of the transfer with 30-days notice. The administration has claimed it wasn't able to do that due to changing conditions on the ground, but documents obtained by Vice News show the administration didn't keep Congress informed as talks progressed. Obama's decision to proceed with the trade in violation of his reporting requirements is a serious issue, though, arguably, a far lesser presidential power-grab than claiming the power to kill a U.S. citizen without charge or trial, as in the case of Anwar al-Awlaki's death in 2011.

(Snip)

[Valin]

The Nation chimes in.

 

We Need a Million More Bowe Bergdahls, Says a Former US Army Ranger
Richard Kreitner and Back Issues

March 26, 2015

 

The news that the most powerful organization in the known universe, the United States military, intends to focus its coercive mechanisms on a frightened, sensitive, traumatized young man, Bowe Bergdahl, has elicited howls of delight from that section of our public arena leased at below-market prices by the guild of belligerent cowards.

 

Back Issues is a blog about The Nation’s archives, but one would need a magazine much older than 150 years to find archival evidence of a time when such views had the merest claim to morality, not to mention, as the guild so often and so tediously does, piety.

 

“I am shocked at the concerted effort led by pro-war elements to pillory this guy, rather than offer serious compassion,” Robert Musil, who wrote an article on Vietnam deserters for The Nation in 1973, told me last year. “Where is all that rhetoric about ‘we support our troops’? He has suffered a lot, as have others. Where is the understanding, the compassion, the humanity? I frankly think that’s the proper response to an American kid stranded in the middle of Afghanistan who feels he has no choice but to go away from his unit.”

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

[Valin]

Bergdahl: I left my base in order to, uh, walk to another base and report wrongdoing
3:21 pm on March 27, 2015 by Allahpundit

 

Nope.

 

 

Bergdahl was planning to report what he believed to be problems with “order and discipline” in his unit, a senior Defense official tells CNN. A second official says Bergdahl had “concerns about leadership issues at his base.”…

 

Both officials declined to be identified because of the legal proceedings against Berghahl, but both have direct knowledge of the information outlined in the report. “This was a kid who had leadership concerns on his mind,” the second official said. “He wasn’t fed up, he wasn’t planning to desert.”…

 

Both officials said Bergdahl believed he could make it to the next base by relying on wilderness skills he learned growing up in rural Idaho, even though the area was full of insurgents. It was not immediately clear how far the nearest base was during that timeframe in July 2009.

 

 

(Snip)

 

Right. According to the Army’s report on Bergdahl’s disappearance, written two months after he went missing, all he took with him were knives, a compass, and water. He left his armor and weapon behind. There’s no obvious reason why a soldier intent on making it to another base through hostile territory would leave himself defenseless. That’s the sort of thing you’d do if you were preparing to give yourself up to the enemy, not confront him if need be en route to making it back to your own lines. The “headed to another base” theory doesn’t jibe either with Michael Hastings’s account in 2012 of Bergdahl’s last few weeks before deserting. His last e-mail to his parents before disappearing did contain some grumbling about leadership in his unit (CNN reported on minor disciplinary problems last year), but it went much farther than that:

 

(Snip)

 

______________________________________________________________________________

 

That's why he was looking for the Tailban, so he could report his “leadership concerns”.

 

Give Me A Break!