Military prosecutors charged Bergdahl with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, a charge that could carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
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Visger’s recommendations have not been made public but a filing released Friday night by Bergdahl’s defense team indicated what Visger had recommended.
Given the disturbing “optics” of the Bergdahl case and the allegations against CENTCOM concerning the manipulation of intelligence, should we now consider the military as nothing more than political operatives of the Obama Administration?
Fellow soldiers on his small combat outpost discovered Bergdahl was missing the following morning, but it was too late: He was captured by insurgents affiliated with the Taliban, and held captive for almost five years.
This is the second time a military official has suggested Bergdahl should be spared time behind bars. Just last week, Presidential candidate Donald Trump said Bergdahl, ‘should have been executed’. In the hearing, the government presented relatively innocuous testimony from Bergdahl’s immediate chain of command, and failed to prove anything other than that Bergdahl left his post, to which he apparently admits. Bergdahl believed that by leaving his observation post and running 23 kilometers (about 14 miles) to a nearby base he could cause a stir and gain access to a high-ranking officer to complain, Dahl said. The officer in charge of the aforementioned preliminary hearing has come out with a recommendation that Bergdahl only face lower level charges and not be sentenced to any time behind bars.
However, the deal to trade Bergdahl for five senior Taliban figures was criticized by a few who argued he had intentionally deserted his command.
June 4, 2014 – Bergdahl’s Idaho hometown cancels plans to celebrate his return, citing security concerns.
He added that none of the soldiers sent to look for Bergdahl had been killed.
A court-martial, which is seeming less likely, would put the White House in a precarious situation.
Significant military prison time (no less than ten years).
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Obama cited a “sacred rule” in attempting to rescue American service members, no matter the circumstances surrounding their capture. The idea that we may have found a traitor among our own ranks on the field of battle is something which many of us take very personally, though whether this approached the full definition of “treason” is a matter of debate. General Abrams is the son of former World War II hero and Vietnam era Army Chief of Staff Creighton Abrams. The AP agreed in 2010 – at the request of the Pentagon and the White House – not to report on the proposed prisoner swap and ongoing negotiations, on the grounds that public discussion would endanger Bergdahl’s life.
