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Bergdahl Debriefed at Landstuhl
by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700
Copyright
June 7, 2014
All Rights Reserved.
Returned June 3 in a prisoner swap with five high-value
Taliban prisoners from Camp X-Ray at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, 28-year-old Army Sgt.
Bowe Bergdahl finds himself at the center of yet another White House
controversy. Republicans and Democrats are both asking about the fallout
from the prisoner swap, asking questions about whether the secret White House
mission violated U.S. prisoner policy. Conservatives on Capitol Hill and
in virtually every conservative media outlet have blamed President Barack Obama
for threatening U.S. national security releasing dangerous terrorists.
While Bergdahl submits to debriefings at the U.S. Army Regional Medical Center
in Landstuhl, Germany, the hue-and-cry has grown for Bergdahl to be tried for
desertion. His comrades have come out forcefully alleging that Bergdahl
went AWOL from his platoon.
White House officials, including Obama, insist that the U.S. policy on “no
soldier left behind” supercedes any controversy over the murky circumstances
under which Bergdahl disappeared from his platoon June 30, 2009. Army
officials concluded years ago that Bergdahl deserted, prompting questions why
the White House grandstanded with Bergdahl’s parents, Bob and Jani, in a Rose
Garden ceremony June 1. White House officials knew for years that the Army
concluded Bergdahl deserted, making the ceremony even more inexplicable.
New allegations have now surfaced about how many of Bergdahl’s colleague died
searching for him after his June 30, 2009 disappearance. “Yes, men were
injured and killed in search for him,” said former Sgt. Matt Vierkant, a member
of Bergdahl’s platoon, fueling more ire over Obama’s insistence on a White House
ceremony.
Hosting the Bergdahl’s to pound his chest on getting their son back shows how
tone-deaf Obama has become to public opinion. Bergdahl’s debriefing at
Landstuhl should tell the whole story of what happened to the 23-year-old Army
Sgt. that disappeared June 30, 2009. White House and Pentagon officials
justified the decision to bypass Congress and negotiate with the Taliban or the
Haqqani network for Bergdahl’s release. Obama’s decision to keep it
under-the-radar was precisely to avoid the kind of PR backlash that quickly hit
the headlines on Bergdahl’s release. “Right now there is no evidence to
back that up,” referring to allegations from Bergdahl’s former platoon members
that they were killed or injured in finding the missing soldier. Sara
Andrews, a parent of one of Bergdahl’s deceased platoon members, said her son
Daryn died in a mission looking for Sgt. Bergdahl.
Army debriefers in Landstuhlm trying to get the real story, should get to the
bottom of what happened to the wayward Army sergeant. Pentagon officials,
led by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, insist that the Army hasn’t determined
with certainty whether allegations of Bergdahl’s desertion was factual.
Once debriefers determine that Bergdahl, in fact, deserted, then the
circumstances will get more dicey. Once there’s confirmation that Bergdahl
went AWOL, then the White House and Pentagon will face some tough choices.
Since he already endured the expected abuse of Taliban captivity, some have
sympathies for Bergdahl that he’s done time-served. Pentagon officials
insist that desertion requires intent, something that could be difficult to
prove if Landstuhl psychologists determine Bergdahl suffers from any type of
mental illness, including post-traumatic stress disorder.
When 49-year-old former U.N. Ambassador and current National Security Advisor
Susan Rice told CNN’s Candy Crowley May 31 that the White House bypassed
Congress for a prisoner swap with Taliban prisoners for Bergdahl, she insisted
it was due to his deteriorating medical condition. Since back in U.S.
custody, there’s no evidence Bergdahl suffers from any urgent medical condition
prompting the prisoner swap bypassing Congress. Rice finds herself in the
second deep hole after making excuses for the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the
U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya. Rice’s last gaffes cost her a promotion
to replace retiring Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Her recent
misstatements May 31 on Bergdahl could press Obama to ask for her resignation.
Instead of smartly playing the PR game, Rice shows a penchant for shoving her
foot in her mouth, embarrassing the White House.
White House officials may live to regret Obama’s Rose Garden PR stunt
celebrating Bergdahl’s release from the Taliban or Haqqani Network. More
speculation about how many of Bergdahl’s platoon died trying to find him doesn’t
bode well for the Pentagon eventual prosecution. One of Bergdahl’s former
platoon members Nathan Bradley Bethea identified eight soldiers killed looking
for Bergdahl’s following his 2009 disappearance. Reports of military
deaths will no doubt make it more difficult for the Pentagon to argue that
Bergdahl’s five-year captivity is punishment enough for any factual basis to his
desertion. With all the other foreign policy challenges, especially in the
Ukraine, Mideast and Asia, Obama didn’t need another black eye before the
upcoming Midterm elections. Rice’s public remarks last Sunday tossed more
gasoline on the White House’s brushfires.
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