Below is my column yesterday in the Chicago Tribune. It remains unclear whether Bowe Bergdahl will be charged. However, the allegations are mounting over his disappearance from his base. This column explores some interesting possible defenses and their historical context. Bergdahl returned this week to the United States, a move that will likely magnify these questions for the Administration.
The controversy over the trade of five Taliban prisoners for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl continues to grow with allegations that President Barack Obama violated federal law and paid too high a price for the release. However, the biggest problem for the White House may not be the Taliban (including one released prisoner who said he wants to immediately rejoin the fight against America) but what to do with Bergdahl now that we have him back. Bergdahl is facing allegations that he not only deserted in June 2009, but may have collaborated with the enemy. If he faces a military trial, the White House could be looking at years of legal wrangling and a defense that might resemble another notorious case that began 40 years ago — that of Patty Hearst.
The facts of Bergdahl’s disappearance remain sketchy. While he previously stated that he had lagged behind a patrol and was captured, the Pentagon concluded that Bergdahl walked away from this base voluntarily. If true, that would make him vulnerable to a charge of being absent without leave. However, the allegations are far more serious. While the White House has said that Bergdahl tried to escape from his captors, various journalists are reporting that Bergdahl may have sought contact with the Taliban and may have been a collaborator, including times when he carried a weapon. One particularly serious allegation is that Bergdahl taught the Taliban how to convert a cellphone into the base of an improvised explosive device. Those charges would expose Bergdahl to charges of desertion and even treason.
What is known is that shortly before his release, Bergdahl sent his parents a uniform as well as messages that indicated his dissatisfaction with our country and the U.S. operations in Afghanistan. In one email, Bergdahl reportedly wrote his parents that “life is way too short to care for the damnation of others, as well as to spend it helping fools with their ideas that are wrong. … I am ashamed to even be (A)merican.” He described his commander as a “conceited old fool” and his comrades as “the army of liars, backstabbers, fools and bullies.”
To make matters worse (if that is possible), members of Bergdahl’s unit insist that soldiers died looking for him — though that claim remains under investigation.
A Bergdahl trial would only magnify the political costs for the Obama administration. The best political option for the White House would be to have Bergdahl “separated” from the service for mental and physical health problems. A trial would draw obvious comparisons to a prior case like that of Marine Pfc. Robert Garwood, convicted of aiding the enemy in the Vietnam War. In Garwood’s case, there was no allegation that he left voluntarily or sought out the enemy. However, while prisoners were released in 1973, Garwood did not return to the United States until 1979 and faced allegations of collaboration, including working for the Vietnamese as a mechanic and other roles in unguarded facilities.
However, the strongest parallel may be to the trial of Hearst, heiress to the Hearst newspaper fortune. After being kidnapped in 1974 by the Symbionese Liberation Army, Hearst appeared in a tape in 1974 announcing that she had joined the SLA and assumed the name “Tania” — after the nom de guerre of Haydee Tamara Bunke Bider, a communist guerrilla and one of Che Guevara’s comrade in arms. Hearst was captured on film 12 days later, holding a M1 carbine while robbing a bank in San Francisco.
After her arrest, Hearst refused to give evidence against the SLA members but insisted that she was brainwashed. The defense fell short and Hearst was convicted of bank robbery in 1976 and sentenced to 35 years of imprisonment. President Jimmy Carter later commuted her sentence to two years, and she was eventually granted a full pardon by President Bill Clinton in 2001.
The military laws and culture make it difficult to advance a Stockholm syndrome defense where a captive identifies or bonds with his captors. The rules governing prisoners of war require them to maintain discipline and to continue to resist the enemy while in captivity. POWs are forbidden from aiding the enemy. What looks like Stockholm syndrome to the public looks like collaboration to the military.
That leaves a mental illness defense or a type of post-traumatic stress disorder defense. Bergdahl reportedly was traumatized after seeing an Afghan child run over by an armored fighting vehicle. (Notably, one account also states that Bergdahl was held in a small metal cage after trying to escape.) That could be enough as a foundation for a claim of mental diminishment, particularly when combined with grueling captivity at the hands of the Taliban. However, it is the type of claim that did not work for Garwood or Hearst, and PTSD is more of a recognized medical condition than a legal defense.
No matter how this unfolds, the Bergdahl controversy is likely to get worse for the White House before the fall election. Bergdahl may prove to be everything that Republicans wanted Benghazi to be. And they do not have to do a thing.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor at George Washington University and has handled military and national security cases as criminal defense counsel.
Chicago Tribune: June 13, 2014
“I want to know why”
JAG, The internet has made it incredibly tough for young women. A strong, common sense mom helps raise a daughter w/ those same values. It’s not always the case, it’s life and there are no guarantees. When I was a juvenile probation officer I got to know the families of the kids I supervised very well. Almost always you could see why the kid got into trouble, real bad parents. But once in awhile, I would find parents who were good, hardworking people. They had other kids who were responsible, just one kid who turned bad. Then, there are the kids w/ horrible parents who turn out good. I think they are the smallest minority. Your daughter is lucky to have you and vice versa. That’s a win/win!
BENGHAZI State Department cell phones were taken and used by terrorists. Obama and Hillary were monitoring conversations of terrorists in real time the night of Benghazi, it has been rumored.
What did Hillary and Obama know and when did they know it on the night that terrorists killed a Presidential level ambassador along with staffers and sacked the embassy resulting in a 7 hour gun battle?
The stolen State Department cell phones will tell us what Obama and Hillary were doing after they were informed that the terrorists phone calls were being monitored as they made them.
Obama and Hillary watched the Bin Laden execution in real time and they must have followed the Benghazi event in real time.
Nick… our country has LOST it’s ability to be civil…
Remember back in the Reagan days, when at the end of the day, Top O’Neil would go and have a drink with Reagan….
Those days are LONG gone… 🙁
Nick, you would LOVE my daughter.. she is just like me… 😀
and she has now taken it upon herself to argue political matters…
and of course social matter….
This day and age, not too many kids her age, have a level head..
she does for sure….
She just argued with a bunch on Tumblr that girls should not be posting
half nude photos of themselves…..
This came about after a 15 year old girl posted a photo of her bum
in short shorts and an older guys complimented her….
that girl went on a rampage on how that guy was a pedophile…
My daughter said to the girl that she was being unfair to the guy, being that her bootie didn’t have her age written across it…. 😀
Yep… that is my girl…. 😀
and she made the point that if you don’t want older men commenting on their
bodies and such, that they should not be posting provocative photos of themselves on the internet……
She was called a LOT of names for this…. But, she stuck to her guns…..
apparently girls in their TEENS these days, think that being a feminist means that they should post NUDE photos of themselves on line and that this is
how they get respect and strength….
I have to say, I am glad that I don’t have to worry… my daughter came out just fine……
I just worry for her generation….
It seems parents don’t care what their teens are doing on line these days….
I worked adverse to defense attorneys when I worked for the prosecutors office in KC. Here’s another great quality you have. We would really battle in and out of the courtroom. But they respected I was an honest investigator. When they day was over, we went out and had a beer or 8. You can put the battle aside. That’s something I taught kids as a baseball coach. When the game is over, you have to let it go.
JAG, I miss idealist also, and this blog misses him as well. I’m not BSing you when I said you should be a defense attorney. You have that tenacity. You are a great role model for your daughter. I hope she is well.
I really should have been a defense attorney….
Nick… YOU are such a love….. Now you made me blush and smile…. what is a poor girl to do… 😀
Oh, I have to say… I wish Idealist was here…. 🙁
I REALLY miss him….
JAG, Are you saying I’m a masochist? Seriously though, we need your voice on other topics. Remember, we agree on many topics.
Awwwww Nick, that is sweet that you want me to come and cream you on other threads as well… 😉
YOU know I kid… 😀
JAG, Come on over to some of the other threads, the water is fine.
Those words that Buertow said that proves that he was trying to find the taliban…. there is a transmission that was intercepted that is on that Wikileaks document dump……
This is the transcript of that day…. UN EDITED for right or left leanings….
That was posted WAY before this was even an issue…..
It is the raw translation of that transmission … so yes, I am sure of it…..
Also the fact that Army Spc. Gerald Sutton has who served with him also says that there is NO EVIDENCE what so ever that he was aiding the enemy…..
The ONLY one saying Bergdahl was aiding the Taliban is Beutow…. and if I recall correctly,
Beutow was dismissed from the Army with an other than honorable discharge…..
So, I am going to trust the guy who was released by HONORABLE Discharge, before I am going to believe the ONE guy who was released by other than honorable discharge….
and the fact that he keeps changing his story depending on what show
he is on at the time… leads be to believe that he is just not being all that honest…..
I should revise that to say… I am only abel to find this tidbit of info
in Professor Turley’s articles……
It may appear in other articles…. I am just not able to find it….
and I know that it does not appear on any of the mainstream articles
and none of the right wing articles I have read…..
Darren…. is there a way to edit our posts????
If not, can you let me know…..
No Paul… I didn’t…. POW means the EXACT same thing as Missing Captured…. so, it is just fine to use the old term of POW……
and no… it is ridiculous that Bergdahl would have to teach them how to make IED’s with a cellphone……
These guys know how to do this and have for a VERY long time….
and when the cellphones are upgraded…. they keep up
with the technology……
and I have to say… it is ONLY Professor Turley’s articles that mention this…..
JAG – Just because someone teaches algebra to freshmen in NYC does not mean all freshmen across America know algebra. I think it is Jung who has a collective conscious but I do not believe it includes the making of IEDs.
I have to say… I would love to see Jonathan Turley’s sources for this article….
I have been reading EVERY single thing I can get my hands on….
I have even been in contact with the journalist who worked with Hastings on the Rolling Stone article…… Matt Farwell….. he has done a few very informative interviews on Bergdahl…. not to mention one of the best articles written about this case…..
The ONLY things I have not read, are pages that are CLEARLY conspiracy theory Right wing sites…….
and not ONCE have I seen this…….
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From Professor Turley’s blog post above……
One particularly serious allegation is that Bergdahl taught the Taliban how to convert a cellphone into the base of an improvised explosive device. Those charges would expose Bergdahl to charges of desertion and even treason.
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So, this is why I have a hard to believing the right wing on this….
It starts out… he left his base…..
Then people start adding things…..
Sgt. Evan Buetow started out by telling journalists that he left the base and left a note….. That was found to be false…..
Then he said that he heard the radio transmission of Bergdahl looking for somebody who spoke English…..
I know that is false, due to seeing the wikileaks document MYSELF with the transcript of that transmission…..
Now, somebody is saying that he had to teach the Taliban how to
set up a CELLPHONE for use with an IED……
——————————————
Does anybody else see just how insanely ridiculous that sounds????
hehehehehehe…..
Yeah…. Cuz the Taliban just learned from 5 years ago how to set up a Cellphone IED…… and had to learn it from an American POW…..
for Petes sake….. This has to be one of the most
uninformed things I have read on this case to date……
Of course…. only people on the left are going to see what I am saying…..
JAG – the Taliban learned 5 years ago does not mean all the Taliban learned. There are always new students to teach. New phones on the market, etc. BTW, didn’t you make the contention that he was not a POW?
on 1, June 16, 2014 at 11:36 amBob, Esq.
Show me where I spin Paul. And on whose behalf have I been doing this spinning?
I’m really f’n curious.
*********************************
http://youtu.be/A-f-Auo9QcE
Maybe the penguin spins for this little girl.
Colin Powell even came out and admitted that there were no WMD’s……
It is quite clear that you guys have no idea what you are talking about…..
ALL of the people involved have come out and said there were no WMD’s……
ONLY you right wingers making comments on blogs are still trying to convince people that there were….
as the ones involved have already come clean…..
There is no use saying that there were WMD’s….. the reports are out… the books are out… Colin and Bush have already said it….. It is out there…..
There were NO WMD’s….. PERIOD….
————————————————————————–
and if Benghazi was a coverup…. WHY is it that the Republicans
couldn’t seem to find that in the FIRST 8 Investigations????
What is it that Obama and Hillary were trying to coverup????
Dr Blix said his team of inspectors had visited 500 sites but found no evidence of weapons of mass destruction.
As head of the UN’s Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) between 1999 and 2003, Dr Blix was a key figure in the run-up to the March 2003 invasion as he sought to determine the extent of Saddam’s weapons programme.
‘No smoking gun’
Asked about the inspections he oversaw between November 2002 and 18 March 2003 – when his team was forced to pull out of Iraq on the eve of the war – he said he was “looking for smoking guns” but did not find any.
While his team discovered prohibited items such as missiles beyond the permitted range, missile engines and a stash of undeclared documents, he said these were “fragments” and not “very important” in the bigger picture.
“We carried out about six inspections per day over a long period of time.
“All in all, we carried out about 700 inspections at different 500 sites and, in no case, did we find any weapons of mass destruction.”
Although Iraq failed to comply with some of its disarmament obligations, he added it “was very hard for them to declare any weapons when they did not have any”.