Group items tagged

Sergeant Bergdahl has been the focus of attacks by Republicans in Congress and on the presidential campaign

Donald J. Trump, for one, has called the sergeant a “traitor” who should be executed, while Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona and the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, has vowed to hold hearings if the sergeant is not punished.

No date has been set for Sergeant Bergdahl’s next court hearing, which will be held at Fort Bragg, the Army said. He is currently assigned to the Army’s Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, the site of his preliminary hearing in September.

General Abrams’s decision came just days after Sergeant Bergdahl was heard for the first time publicly explaining why he left his base, in taped interviews that were broadcast by the podcast “Serial” last week.

In the interviews, which were recorded by Mark Boal, the screenwriter and producer, Sergeant Bergdahl said that he realized within 20 minutes of leaving that he had done “something serious.”

In the interviews, he told the same story that he had described to the Army’s investigating officer, Lt. Gen. Kenneth Dahl, about why he left the outpost: He wanted to cause a crisis by hiking to another base 18 miles away that would allow him to have an audience with a senior Army commander where he could outline what he felt were serious leadership problems endangering his unit.

Sergeant Bergdahl told Mr. Boal that during his hike he had also decided to surveil Taliban fighters emplacing improvised explosive devices that could be used to kill American soldiers, and to turn that information over to commanders when he arrived at the other base. He said that he “was trying to prove to the world” that he was a top soldier, and that in some sense he even wanted to emulate someone like Jason Bourne, the spy-movie character.

Republicans have asserted that the swap would embolden the Taliban to kidnap other Americans and that it was done without the required notification of Congress. Some Republicans and members of Sergeant Bergdahl’s unit have also asserted that a half-dozen or more American troops died searching for him.

But in his testimony, General Dahl — who was recently promoted from major general to lieutenant general — said that no troops had died specifically searching for Sergeant Bergdahl and that no evidence was found to support claims that he intended to walk to China or India or that he was a Taliban sympathizer.

rejected a recommendation from an Army investigating officer that the case be heard by a "special court-martial,"

 "hoped the case would not go in this direction."

the Obama administration exchanged Bergdahl for the release of five Taliban prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay in a deal that triggered outrage from some lawmakers.

Bergdahl, 29, is charged with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy.

"They're putting the hammer down."

r that his committee would hold hearings on the case if Bergdahl is not punished for his actions.

"The convening authority did not follow the advice of the preliminary hearing officer who heard the witnesses,"

Some of his platoon mates in Afghanistan said Bergdahl let his colleagues down by walking off his post,

when a manhunt was launched in an effort to find him.

Americans can hear Bergdahl's own account of his actions in the popular podcast, Serial,

he had concerns about his command's leadership and wanted to bring them to the attention of top leaders.

He said he quickly realized that leaving was a mistake, then concocted a plan to redeem himself by trying to stalk Taliban insurgents to get valuable intelligence

"I had this fantastic idea that I was going to prove to the world that I was the real thing," Bergdahl said in the interview. "You know, that I could be what it is that all those guys out there that go to the movies and watch those movies — they all want to be that — but I wanted to prove I was that."

"Doing what I did is me saying that I am like, I don't know, Jason Bourne," he said