Jail would be 'inappropriate' for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, general says during desertion hearing, During the final day of affidavit at a aggressive audition to adjudge whether Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl will face a court-martial on abrogation charges, a accepted ordered to investigate his abduction discussed his allegation for the aboriginal time and testified for the aegis about why Bergdahl does not accord in jail.
Maj. Gen. Kenneth Dahl said Bergdahl was “unrealistically idealistic” if he larboard his limited column in Afghanistan six years ago for a adjacent base, acquisitive to draw the absorption of a administrator to problems that he believed were putting his assemblage at risk.
Bergdahl, now 29, was a clandestine if he vanished June 30, 2009, and was captured by the Taliban and captivated for about 5 years by associates of the active Haqqani network. On Friday, an able who debriefed him declared the altitude as the affliction endured by any bound aback the Vietnam War.Bergdahl was freed endure year afterwards President Obama agreed to absolution 5 Taliban prisoners, a arguable bandy he dedicated even afterwards the aggressive appear Bergdahl would be charged.
Dahl said Bergdahl, whom he interviewed for a day and a bisected as allotment of his investigation, accepted during the account that he had been “young, aboveboard and inexperienced” at the time of his capture, and was “truthful” and “remorseful” about endangering adolescent soldiers affected to seek for him.
But Dahl acclaimed that no soldiers died analytic for Bergdahl and said he did “not accept there is a bastille book at the end of this process” for the sergeant, calling it “inappropriate.”
Bergdahl's advance aegis attorney, Eugene R. Fidell of Yale Law School, said in his closing statements Friday that instead of a court-martial, his applicant should face a medical appraisal lath and a beneath austere audition for traveling absent afterwards leave afore his capture. He said the canicule Bergdahl spent in bondage are the greatest mitigating agency in his case, announcement the absolute on a screen: 1,797.
The aegis aswell alleged a assistant practitioner who testified that she advised Bergdahl afterwards his acknowledgment for debilitating injuries he suffered in bondage to his shoulder, lower legs and aback that rendered him “nondeployable.” The aegis aggregation said a aggressive medical lath begin that at the time of his capture, Bergdahl aswell suffered from a “severe brainy ache or defect,” although commanders testified that they were not acquainted of that.
Former Sgt. Greg Leatherman, who supervised Bergdahl, testified Friday that he had afraid about him acceptable alienated and approved to active a superior, who absolved his concerns.The advance prosecutor countered that Bergdahl acted with “deliberate disregard” in abandoning his column and abstention chancy duty, “exponentially endangered” adolescent soldiers and chaotic the alternation of command to get attention.
“He planned,” said the prosecutor, Maj. Margaret Kurz. She said that Bergdahl had purchased Afghan accouterment for a beard and had bill “for bribes,” and had mailed home his journal, books and his laptop afore he larboard his column the night afore his assemblage was due to acknowledgment to the aforementioned abject he is accused of branch for if he was captured.
She quoted from Bergdahl's interview: “I'm traveling to get my adventitious to allocution to a general.” She said Bergdahl's victims cover those who searched for him, and “the Army as a whole.”
“He has suffered greatly,” Kurz said, but added: “He still committed a abomination and still needs to be captivated accountable.”Hearing administrator Lt. Col. Mark Visger, an Army lawyer, will acclaim to the advantageous accepted of U.S. Army Forces Command whether Bergdahl should face court-martial on accuse of abrogation and “misbehavior afore the enemy,” which carries a abeyant activity sentence.
Bergdahl did not affirm at the hearing, but as he looked on, sitting ramrod-straight in his dress uniform, his face impassive, Dahl declared what he abstruse about the soldier during a two-month analysis that included 57 interviews conducted with the advice of about two dozen people.
The accepted batten of a adolescent man whose cloistral accomplishments in Hailey, Idaho, shaped his appearance of not just the apple but himself. Raised “at the bend of the grid,” home-schooled and denied accustomed amusing interactions, Bergdahl was “bright” and “well-read,” Dahl said, but introverted, with outsized expectations of himself and others.He said Bergdahl emulated the egoistic appearance John Galt in Ayn Rand's “Atlas Shrugged,” who was “willing to cede himself for the cause.” He said Bergdahl aswell mentioned his absorption in the “samurai code,” which says “if you see what you apperceive to be a moral wrong, you act immediately,” behindhand of the consequences.
Bergdahl's celebrity was partly why, afore abutting the Army, he had “washed out” of the Coast Guard during cossack camp, Dahl said.
Once he abutting the Army, Bergdahl begin accountability with his training and commanders, but was “very motivated to deploy” and not “sympathetic to the added side,” Dahl said. Rather, he was balked that he couldn't “play a bigger role.”
“Sgt. Bergdahl perceived a botheration in the administration of his army and that the botheration was so astringent that it put associates of the army in danger,” Dahl said.
Bergdahl didn't anticipate he could about-face to lower-level commanders, Dahl said, because he believed they were “only in it for the money, abandoned in it for the rank.” So he larboard his gun abaft and slipped out afterwards 10 p.m., intending to run to the abject 20 afar away, about-face himself in and appeal to allege with a general, Dahl said. Instead, by 10 a.m. the next morning, Bergdahl was captured, he said.
The soldier able and was bent twice, eventually bound by captors in a 7-square-foot metal cage for added than three years, according to Terence Russell, a Aegis Department able who debriefed Bergdahl.
Russell afraid up as he declared how Bergdahl was tortured: blindfolded, angry to a bed and baffled with a elastic corrupt and chestnut wire, denied aliment and baptize even as his anatomy atrophied and he suffered “uncontrollable diarrhea” for added than three years.
While Bergdahl appeared in videos appear by his captors, Russell said the soldier never appear classified advice and did his best to accede with the Army's cipher of conduct and resist.
“Sgt. Bergdahl did that — did the best he could do — and I account him for it,” said Russell, who served for years as an Air Force adaptation instructor. “He had to action the adversary alone. … You can't belittle how harder that is.”
Maj. Gen. Kenneth Dahl said Bergdahl was “unrealistically idealistic” if he larboard his limited column in Afghanistan six years ago for a adjacent base, acquisitive to draw the absorption of a administrator to problems that he believed were putting his assemblage at risk.
Bergdahl, now 29, was a clandestine if he vanished June 30, 2009, and was captured by the Taliban and captivated for about 5 years by associates of the active Haqqani network. On Friday, an able who debriefed him declared the altitude as the affliction endured by any bound aback the Vietnam War.Bergdahl was freed endure year afterwards President Obama agreed to absolution 5 Taliban prisoners, a arguable bandy he dedicated even afterwards the aggressive appear Bergdahl would be charged.
Dahl said Bergdahl, whom he interviewed for a day and a bisected as allotment of his investigation, accepted during the account that he had been “young, aboveboard and inexperienced” at the time of his capture, and was “truthful” and “remorseful” about endangering adolescent soldiers affected to seek for him.
But Dahl acclaimed that no soldiers died analytic for Bergdahl and said he did “not accept there is a bastille book at the end of this process” for the sergeant, calling it “inappropriate.”
Bergdahl's advance aegis attorney, Eugene R. Fidell of Yale Law School, said in his closing statements Friday that instead of a court-martial, his applicant should face a medical appraisal lath and a beneath austere audition for traveling absent afterwards leave afore his capture. He said the canicule Bergdahl spent in bondage are the greatest mitigating agency in his case, announcement the absolute on a screen: 1,797.
The aegis aswell alleged a assistant practitioner who testified that she advised Bergdahl afterwards his acknowledgment for debilitating injuries he suffered in bondage to his shoulder, lower legs and aback that rendered him “nondeployable.” The aegis aggregation said a aggressive medical lath begin that at the time of his capture, Bergdahl aswell suffered from a “severe brainy ache or defect,” although commanders testified that they were not acquainted of that.
Former Sgt. Greg Leatherman, who supervised Bergdahl, testified Friday that he had afraid about him acceptable alienated and approved to active a superior, who absolved his concerns.The advance prosecutor countered that Bergdahl acted with “deliberate disregard” in abandoning his column and abstention chancy duty, “exponentially endangered” adolescent soldiers and chaotic the alternation of command to get attention.
“He planned,” said the prosecutor, Maj. Margaret Kurz. She said that Bergdahl had purchased Afghan accouterment for a beard and had bill “for bribes,” and had mailed home his journal, books and his laptop afore he larboard his column the night afore his assemblage was due to acknowledgment to the aforementioned abject he is accused of branch for if he was captured.
She quoted from Bergdahl's interview: “I'm traveling to get my adventitious to allocution to a general.” She said Bergdahl's victims cover those who searched for him, and “the Army as a whole.”
“He has suffered greatly,” Kurz said, but added: “He still committed a abomination and still needs to be captivated accountable.”Hearing administrator Lt. Col. Mark Visger, an Army lawyer, will acclaim to the advantageous accepted of U.S. Army Forces Command whether Bergdahl should face court-martial on accuse of abrogation and “misbehavior afore the enemy,” which carries a abeyant activity sentence.
Bergdahl did not affirm at the hearing, but as he looked on, sitting ramrod-straight in his dress uniform, his face impassive, Dahl declared what he abstruse about the soldier during a two-month analysis that included 57 interviews conducted with the advice of about two dozen people.
The accepted batten of a adolescent man whose cloistral accomplishments in Hailey, Idaho, shaped his appearance of not just the apple but himself. Raised “at the bend of the grid,” home-schooled and denied accustomed amusing interactions, Bergdahl was “bright” and “well-read,” Dahl said, but introverted, with outsized expectations of himself and others.He said Bergdahl emulated the egoistic appearance John Galt in Ayn Rand's “Atlas Shrugged,” who was “willing to cede himself for the cause.” He said Bergdahl aswell mentioned his absorption in the “samurai code,” which says “if you see what you apperceive to be a moral wrong, you act immediately,” behindhand of the consequences.
Bergdahl's celebrity was partly why, afore abutting the Army, he had “washed out” of the Coast Guard during cossack camp, Dahl said.
Once he abutting the Army, Bergdahl begin accountability with his training and commanders, but was “very motivated to deploy” and not “sympathetic to the added side,” Dahl said. Rather, he was balked that he couldn't “play a bigger role.”
“Sgt. Bergdahl perceived a botheration in the administration of his army and that the botheration was so astringent that it put associates of the army in danger,” Dahl said.
Bergdahl didn't anticipate he could about-face to lower-level commanders, Dahl said, because he believed they were “only in it for the money, abandoned in it for the rank.” So he larboard his gun abaft and slipped out afterwards 10 p.m., intending to run to the abject 20 afar away, about-face himself in and appeal to allege with a general, Dahl said. Instead, by 10 a.m. the next morning, Bergdahl was captured, he said.
The soldier able and was bent twice, eventually bound by captors in a 7-square-foot metal cage for added than three years, according to Terence Russell, a Aegis Department able who debriefed Bergdahl.
Russell afraid up as he declared how Bergdahl was tortured: blindfolded, angry to a bed and baffled with a elastic corrupt and chestnut wire, denied aliment and baptize even as his anatomy atrophied and he suffered “uncontrollable diarrhea” for added than three years.
While Bergdahl appeared in videos appear by his captors, Russell said the soldier never appear classified advice and did his best to accede with the Army's cipher of conduct and resist.
“Sgt. Bergdahl did that — did the best he could do — and I account him for it,” said Russell, who served for years as an Air Force adaptation instructor. “He had to action the adversary alone. … You can't belittle how harder that is.”
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