Washington (CNN)UPDATE 2:08 p.m. - Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl will be charged with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, according to Bergdahl's attorney and a Congressional source.
UPDATE 1:52 p.m. - The U.S. military said Wednesday that it will make an announcement on the Bergdahl case at 3:30 EDT from Fort Bragg.
It's been nearly a year since Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl returned to the United States as part of a prisoner exchange and since the Army began a formal investigation into his disappearance from his unit. Yet the Army still hasn't made public its findings and, with them, what discipline -- if any -- Bergdahl will face for leaving his base in eastern Afghanistan in June 2009.
Where does the investigation stand?
A senior defense official told CNN in late January that a decision on whether to charge Bergdahl -- and what those charges would be -- could come "very soon, imminently." But no decision has been announced.
The Army concluded its investigation into the cir stances of Bergdahl's capture in December. Since then, it has been in the hands of Gen. Mark Milley, head of U.S. Army Forces Command, who will decide what to do.
Several U.S. military officials CNN has spoken with suggested privately that the process is taking longer than expected.
What are the options for disciplining him?
Officials say Milley only has a few choices. Doing nothing does not seem to be one of them. The sense is that Bergdahl must be held accountable for his actions. But there also appears to be little appe e for a lengthy term in military confinement given the five years Bergdahl was held by the Taliban.
READ: Oficials: Detainee swapped for Bergdahl suspected of militant activities
If Milley decides to send the case to a courts-martial, he is required to have the evidence in hand to support the charges that would be filed. That could be difficult: Some members of Bergdahl's unit have left the Army and would have to be subpoenaed to testify. The Army also promoted Bergdahl during captivity, something a defense counsel might use to challenge evidence Berghdahl was a poor soldier. National Security Adviser Susan Rice said last June that Bergdahl "served the United States with honor and distinction."
Other disciplinary options that would keep Bergdahl out of a military court include docking his pay and reducing his rank.
What were the cir stances surrounding his capture?
Bergdahl, who's now 28, was taken by the Haqqani terrorist network. But the cir stances of Bergdahl's departure from his base and how willingly he left have not been clear.
READ: Bowe Bergdahl returns home -- to a long road ahead
Some members of Bergdahl's platoon have criticized him, labeling Bergdahl a deserter.
"I was pissed off then, and I am even more so now with everything going on," former Sgt. Matt Vierkant, a member of Bergdahl's platoon when he went missing on June 30, 2009, told CNN last year. "Bowe Bergdahl deserted during a time of war, and his fellow Americans lost their lives searching for him."
What has he done since he returned to the United States?
Bergdahl was freed in May when President Barack Obama agreed to swap five Taliban prisoners who had been detained in Guantanamo Bay to secure Bergdahl's freedom, sending those detainees to Qatar.
Obama announced Bergdahl's release to fanfare in the White House Rose Garden, flanked by the Army sergeant's parents, Bob and Jani Bergdahl. His hometown of Hailey, Idaho, had planned a parade to celebrate Bergdahl's homecoming but later canceled that celebration amid security concerns stemming from the unanswered questions surrounding his disappearance and the resulting controversy over his release.
Bergdahl has remained on active duty at an administrative job at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. There, the Army assigned Bergdahl a "sponsor" to help him adjust to life in his new post. Upon returning, Bergdahl refused to meet with his parents -- and months later, Army officials said he was communicating with them but still had not met them face to face.
What about the Taliban figures he was swapped for?
The five figures the United States exchanged to secure Bergdahl's release were Khair Ulla Said Wali Khairkhwa, Mullah Mohammad Fazl, Mullah Norullah Nori, Abdul Haq Wasiq and Mohammad Nabi Omari. They were mostly mid- to high-level officials in the Taliban regime and had been detained early in the war in Afghanistan because of their positions within the Taliban, not because of ties to al Qaeda.
The detainee swap for Bergdahl has become increasingly controversial in recent weeks after a report published by the office of Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said one of the 17 intelligence agencies operating under its umbrella had judged that a prisoner released in the exchange had since contacted the Taliban. The families of other U.S. hostages taken by terror groups have complained that the Bergdahl swap also suggested there's a price American leaders are willing to pay in exchange for the safe return of U.S. citizens.
What a cluster.
Pugs are gonna use this big time to take the shine of Barry nabbing Bin Laden after Bush helped him escape then jacked off for 8 years.
Only silver lining i could see, and i do not say the technology exists, but if it does, could the released detainees have been given some type of GPS traceable chip? Thus providing intel. Hey I've watched not only Star Trek but Mission Impossible too.
No jail time.
Wow.
You should read what happened during his time held captive. That probably played a major factor to my (somewhat limited) understanding of the process.
Torture, and solitary confinement for 5 years, essentially.
Bowe Bergdahl Is Dishonorably Discharged, but Avoids Prison for Desertion in Afghanistan
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/03/u...-sentence.html
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Not that some will care but:
For the first time Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has described in his own words the brutal conditions he endured as a Taliban prisoner for five years, a time during which he said he was kept in constant isolation. Bergdahl also claims he attempted to escape about a dozen times including once where he was able to evade his captors for nine days before being recaptured.
Bergdahl’s account of his captivity was included in a statement provided to reporters by his attorney Eugene Fidell, who told ABC News it details “the really atrocious conditions in which he was held” and the worsening treatment after his escape attempts. “I think those are important facts that decision makers will take into account when they figure out how this case should be disposed of,” said Fidell.
“I was kept in constant isolation during the entire five years, with little to no understanding of time, through periods of constant darkness, periods of constant light, and periods of completely random flickering of light, and absolutely no understanding of anything that was happening behind the door I was held behind," wrote Bergdahl in the single-spaced two-page statement.
He said that in the first three months of his captivity after his two escape attempts “I was chained to a bed spread-eagle and blindfolded.” He remained constantly blindfolded except for the few times a day when he was allowed to eat and use the latrine.
As his muscles atrophied and it became difficult for him to walk his captors allowed him to sit chained on the bed. He eventually developed open wounds on his ankles “that looked like the staph infection I had had earlier that year.”
He also began to develop what he called a “growing internal sickness" that made it difficult for him to eat for the rest of his captivity and led to a dramatic weight loss.
After a year of captivity he was placed in a cage with his hands in chains except for the few times when he would wash or change clothes. For a year his feet were chained to the cage every night though that ended “because of the acute pain my feet and legs where [sic] in.” He claims that pain had developed into a “freezing numbness that continues to the present, as both feet have neuropathy.”
He would spend the rest of his captivity in the cage, but unshackled only because it was placed over plumbing that allowed him to relieve himself.
His captors would routinely play mind games with him telling him he would be executed one day, “told I would leave the next day, and the next day told I would be there for 30 years.”
Bergdahl claims he attempted to escape from his captors about a dozen times, the first one taking place just hours after he was captured in 2009 in eastern Afghanistan.
Taken to a village, he claims a Taliban fighter began punching him each time he evaded his questions. Blindfolded with a blanket over his head “I believed I had a chance to run for it and did.” But he was soon brought down by a large group of men who repeatedly punched him including one who used the butt stock of a broken AK-47.
He twice was able to escape beyond the buildings where he was being held. The first time during his first week in captivity when he escaped for 10 to 15 minutes “and after recapturing me and putting chains back on they took turns beating me with a length of thick robber [sic] hose.” Bergdahl said the escape attempt led to his being taken to a more secured compound.
His most daring escape occurred at the end of his first year of captivity when he was able to evade his captors for nine days. “Without food and only putrid water to drink, my body failed on top of a short mountain close to evening.”
He was recaptured a short time later by a large Taliban search group that proceeded to beat him severely. “One tried to rip my beard and hair out, but from what I could sense they where [sic} more worried about getting me out of that area as quickly as possible.”
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/sgt-b...ry?id=29911025
He’s going to pay for this even without a prison sentence. Who in their right mind would hire this guy? For the rest of his life, every hamburger he orders will come with extra spit. And nobody will feel the least bit sorry for him.
Surprising considering that he costs others their lives, but I don't GAF either way.
I think the guy is mentally not right. Army's acceptance of the bottom of the barrel for cannon fodder is at fault for not detecting his mental problems.
And his commanding officer in the field, detected nothing?
That was essentially my thinking...time served.
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