Bowe Bergdahl Trial Postponed Until Next Year
The court martial of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has been postponed until February 2017, at which time the country will have a new commander-in-chief.
The presiding judge for the U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, made this ruling earlier this month after a pre-trial hearing in the case, in part because of the tens of thousands or more of classified documents that defense attorneys need to review.
The military is setting up a website to post documents suitable for release to the news media and the public, however.
Although the story has largely disappeared from the media, in March 2015, Bergdahl was charged with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. He could be sentenced to life imprisonment if convicted.
Bergdahl’s multi-lawyer defense team has argued that GOP presidential front-runner (and the military’s possible new boss) Donald Trump has tainted the cased by calling the sergeant a traitor. They have even floated the idea of calling Trump to testify at a pre-trial deposition.
Bergdahl walked away from his Afghanistan outpost in June 2009 and wound up being held prisoner by the Taliban for five years.
BREAKING: Judge Makes Stunning Decision In Bowe Bergdahl Case https://t.co/Wwii8kgXl5 via @RealJTP
— Bette Anderson (@wufandmew) May 21, 2016
On May 31, 2014, Barack Obama made headlines when he presided over a Rose Garden ceremony with Bergdahl’s parents in announcing that the soldier had been set free from captivity in exchange for five high-level Taliban commanders (who became known as the Taliban Five). They had been held by the U.S. at the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center in Cuba.
President Obama advisor Susan Rice, the same official who claimed that an Internet video caused the attack on the Benghazi, Libya, embassy compound, declared on national TV on June 1, 2014, that Bergdahl “served with honor and distinction.”
Following the swap, at least six members of Bergdahl’s platoon made several media appearances to insist that he was a deserter.
As expected, as predicted, the trial of Bowe Bergdahl has been pushed back until Obama is out of office. pic.twitter.com/AHOwTJxT5k
— Dennis (@DL1651) May 23, 2016
Some Obama critics claim that the trial postponement is a way to avoid any political embarrassment to the president and/or his preferred successor.
Sgt. Bergdahl, 29, is still on active duty with a desk job at Fort Sam Houston in Texas.
There seems to be a fundamental dispute as to whether U.S. soldiers in Bergdahl search parties were killed or wounded in the process, and presumably evidence either way will be introduced at trial. According to one previous account, however, six U.S. soldiers allegedly died in action trying to track down Bowe Bergdahl in Afghanistan.
“Prosecutors said that one soldier searching for Sgt. Bergdahl in 2009 after he abandoned his post was shot in the head,” the Washington Times claimed.
An Army hearing officially originally recommended that Bergdahl get off with what might be considered a slap on the wrist based on a finding that no other GI suffered any harm from the enemy in the search.
“But those recommendations were scrapped in December by the general overseeing the case. Gen. Robert Abrams, who leads the Army Forces Command at Fort Bragg, sided with an Army lawyer’s recommendation for a general court martial,” the Army Times reported.
Bergdahl has not yet entered a plea in the case; nor has he decided whether to seek a “bench” trial (i.e., a judge-only proceeding) or a jury trial, Reuters has noted.
Some soldiers in Bergdahl’s unit were ordered to sign confidentiality agreements, which the Daily Mail described in June 2014 as “highly unusual.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kfevn9P7O4
Evan Buetow and Cody Full, two previously apolitical soldiers in Bergdahl’s platoon, have formally endorsed Donald Trump over rival Hillary Clinton.
Cody Full described his decision in a recent appearance on Sean Hannity’s FNC show.
“The reason I’m voting for Donald Trump is because Hillary Clinton came out and told the mothers and widows of the Benghazi victims that their sons were killed over a video. Well, when those same mothers and widows came out and said that’s what Hillary told them, she proceeded to call them a liar. If a person is willing to call a Gold Star Mother or widow a liar, there is no lie she will not tell the American public.”
“Although he has not spoken publicly, through the popular podcast Serial, Bergdahl said he walked off his base to cause a crisis that would catch the attention of military brass. He wanted to warn them about what he believed were serious problems with leadership in his unit,” the Fayetteville Observer explained.
[Photo by Ted Richardson/AP]
