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Bergdahl Claims Torture by Taliban
by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700
Copyright
June 8, 2014
All Rights Reserved.
Telling his debriefers at
Army Regional Medical Center in Landstuhl, Germany he was tortured by the
Taliban, 28-year-old Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl through cold water on the rising
tide of calls to charge him with desertion for going AWOL. While there are
no official reports yet, unnamed sources suggest Bergdahl was tortured by his
Haqqani Network or Taliban captors. President Barack Obama hosted
Bergdahl’s parents, Bob and Jani, at a Rose Garden event celebrating the missing
GI’s return to U.S. custody from a controversial prisoner swap June 3.
Conservatives wailed on Capitol Hill seeking to score points on Bergdahl’s
release, blaming President Barack Obama for endangering the U.S. military by
releasing hardened Taliban higher-ups warehoused in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Once Bergdahl was in U.S. custody, his former platoon-mates reacted harshly to
his release.
Engaged in “reintegration” therapy with specially trained psychologists at
Landstuhl, Bergdahl finds himself at the other end of SERE training, standing
for Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape, something developed by military
psychologists in the early 1950s to combat the pernicious brainwashing to
Americans held in captivity by the Chinese and North Koreans. Reverse SERE
training became the cornerstone of the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation techniques”
used on Taliban prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. In the wake of Sept. 11, the
Pentagon couldn’t fool around trying to break “battlefield detainees” with
information about new possible terrorist attacks. Working with SERE
experts in Landstuhl, the Army hopes to repatriate Bergdahl and reunite him with
his family once debriefers extract sufficient intel and deem him safe for
reentry.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Majahid refuted Bergdahal’s claims of torture,
insisting the former prisoner was held in “good conditions.” White House
officials have been managing adverse PR fallout from Bergdahl’s release,
complaining about dangers posed by exchanged Taliban prisoners and past deaths
of Bergdahl’s platoon members while they searched for his release after his
disappearance June 30, 2009. “It would have been offensive and
incomprehensive to consciously leave an American behind no matter,” said
Secretary of State John Kerry, defending the White House-pushed prisoner swap.
Kerry silenced Obama’s critics that the release Taliban prisoners pose no
immediate threat to U.S. military personnel. Kerry justified the prisoner
swap to get the last remaining U.S. captive in Afghanistan out before the vast
majority of U.S. troops pull out at year’s end.
Whatever comes out in Bergdahl’s debriefing, it’s going to be difficult for the
Pentagon to prosecute the 28-year-old Idaho native for desertion. Judging
by what’s been observed in press footage of Bergdahl since his June 3 release,
he looks shell-shocked, suffering from extreme battle fatigue or what’s known
today as post-traumatic stress disorder. Debriefers at Landstuhl
have their work cut out them trying to piece the Army sergeant back together.
Anyone that believes Bergdahl wasn’t tortured doesn’t know the ruthlessness of
the enemy, whose moral defect knows no boundaries. Whether or not Bergdahl
was tortured or whether members of his platoon died searching for him has
nothing to do with the fact that he was a U.S. POW. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), one of
Obama’s biggest critics and most decorated POW in U.S. history, can’t figure out
how to play the Bergdahl affair.
McCain hammered Obama for trading prisoners with the Taliban, insisting
it violated U.S. terrorism policy banning negotiating with terrorists. “But not at the expense of the lives
or well-being or their fellow servicemen and women,” said McCain, continuing to
rub it in to his 2008 presidential nemesis.
Kerry rejected McCain’s charges that releasing Taliban captives at
Gurananamo Bay threatened U.S. military personnel around the globe. “I just think that’s baloney,” said Kerry, aiming his remarks at Obama’s conservative
critics on Capitol Hill. McCain
can’t figure out whether or not it’s a good thing to see a fellow POW returned
to safety. Whatever shady
circumstances existed with Bergdahl’s June 30, 2009 disappearance, the
Pentagon’s “no soldier left behind” policy still supersedes anything Bergdahl
might have done to aid in his own capture.
Bergdahl’s Landtuhl debriefing points to brainwashing and torture during
his five years in Talban captivity.
SERE-trained psychologists in Landstuhl work round-the-clock to counteract the
effects of brainwashing and psychological trauma on the Idaho native, no longer
able to speak English, let alone interact with his family. Even if the Landstuhl debriefing
succeeds in counteracting the effects of trauma, Bergdahl won’t be normal
anytime soon. Talk of trying
Bergdahl for desertion, regardless of what really happened or the nature of his
injuries, doesn’t tell the whole story of what happened the day he disappeared.
McCain knows the damage of enemy captivity.
After abuses at Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib or other CIA black sites, the
Taliban won’t show much mercy for captured U.S. soldiers. Bergdahl’s only beginning the uphill
battle of making himself whole.
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