Michael Hastings Dies in Suspicious Car 'Crash'.....

[Peter Lemkin]

I wouldn't put it past the US Military to now put Bergdahl on trial [for desertion et al.] after five years imprisonment.

This is a big problem Peter.As much as I think Bergdahl is a good person he did desert his post in a wartime situation.This is bad.And,to make things even worse,fellow soldiers were killed while trying to locate him.This is bad.

The military has every right to court martial Bergdahl.That's the way it is.......

I thin there are more things to consider [or not yet judge him on].....apparently most of the people killed in his unit were NOT out looking for him at the time....and we do NOT know what his state of mind was...he MAY had TECHNICALLY 'deserted' his post...but he may also have gone insane from combat stress et al. We do NOT know.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: The Taliban has released a video reportedly showing the handover of Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl to U.S. special operations forces five years after he was taken captive. In the video, a clean-shaven Bergdahl is shown sitting in a pickup truck prior to his release. One of the men tells him "don't come back to Afghanistan. Next time we catch you, you won't leave here alive." He is then brought out of the truck as a Blackhawk helicopter lands in a nearby open field. Two of the men, one waving a white flag, lead Bergdahl to meet three men and what appear to be civilian close. The men pat him down and flash a thumbs-up, then lead them into the helicopter where U.S. soldiers appear to be waiting. Seconds later, the helicopter lifts off. Bergdahl was released over the weekend in exchange for five high-ranking Taliban militants who had been held at Guantánamo Bay. The White House has apologized to keep lawmakers for not notifying them of the prisoner swap in advance. Speaking with reporters on Tuesday, Senator Dianne Feinstein said she received a call Monday night.

SEN. DIANE FEINSTEIN: Unless something catastrophic happened, I think there was no reason to believe that he was instant danger. There certainly was time to pick up the phone and call and say, I know you all had concerns about this. We consulted in the past, we want you to know we have renewed these negotiations. It would give us an opportunity to ask questions and hopefully obtain answers. Now, that was not there, so therefore, we are hit with a certain set of circumstances, intelligence that we knew, policies that we knew, that were changed and a law that was essentially disregarded.

REPORTER: Senator Reid said he found out about this on Friday, though, and Speaker Boehner didn't find out 'til Saturday. Does it at all concern you about the optics of that, that Senator Reid found out ahead of time?

SEN. DIANE FEINSTEIN: I'm not going to get into that.

REPORTER: Have you had an apology from the White House for how this was handled,and ?

SEN. DIANE FEINSTEIN: Yes, I did have a call last night from the White House. And they apologi he apologized.

REPORTER: Are they acknowledging the law was broken in that apology?

SEN. DIANE FEINSTEIN: No, I didn't ask for that. I mean, it was obvious it's obvious.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Meanwhile, House Speaker John Boehner has endorsed a call for congressional hearings to look into the administration's handling of the prisoner swap. Senator John McCain also criticized the deal that led to Bergdahl's release.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN: This decision to bring Sergeant Bergdahl home, and we applaud that he is home, is ill founded. It is a mistake and it is putting the lives of American servicemen and women at risk, and to me, and that to me is unacceptable to the American people. These people have dedicated their lives to destroying us. These people have dedicated their very existence. Why do you think when the judgment was made that if they released them, it would cause great risk to the United States of America?

NERMEEN SHAIKH: During a news conference Tuesday in Poland, President Obama responded to the brewing controversy.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Let me just make a very simple point here, and that is, regardless of the circumstances, whatever the circumstances may turn out to be, we still get an American soldier back if he's held in captivity. Period. Full stop. We don't condition that. And that is what every mom and dad who sees a son or daughter sent over into war theater should expect from not just their commander-in-chief, but the United States of America.

AMY GOODMAN: All of this comes as Army officials now say they will pursue an investigation into whether Bowe Bergdahl should still be disciplined if they find evidence of misconduct, such as desertion. Several of the men who served with Bergdahl have taken to the media to call him a deserter. Some have also blamed him for the deaths of six to eight soldiers who went out looking for him, they say. But The New York Times reports that a review of casualty reports and military logs suggests the facts surrounding the deaths are far from definitive. Two of the soldiers who died during the most intense period of the search after Bergdahl disappeared June 30, were inside an outpost that came under attack and not on patrol looking for him. The other six soldiers died in late August and early September. For more we're joined by two guests, in Oklahoma City, James Branum is a lawyer who specializes in representing military deserters and conscientious objectors. He's also legal director for the Oklahoma Center for Conscience and Action and author of, "U.S. Army AWOL Defense: A Practical Guide." In London, England, we're joined by Charles Glass, a historian and former ABC news chief correspondent. His book, "Deserter: a Hidden History of the Second World War." In it he tells the stories of three men whose lives dramatize how the strain of war can push a soldier to the breaking point. They are among some 50,000 American soldiers who deserted in the European theater during World War II. We welcome you both to Democracy Now! James Branum, let's begin with you. Your response to the controversy that is growing around the release of Bowe Bergdahl?
JAMES BRANUM: The most important thing we have to remember is that we do not know the facts. Yesterday in The New York Times, the headline was, the facts are murky. We really do not know, and this is really a key thing here. If the allegations are true, even then we have to say that what happened is the result of war itself. This is not uncommon, this is not unexpected. War is messy. Things get crazy. In this case, what has been alleged is that Sergeant Bergdahl was struggling with issues of conscience, that there were major concerns that he had. When people are under the strain of conscience, a feeling like they're violating what they believe, they do things that may not be logical. If the allegation is correct that he left the post, this is not something you do unless you believe you have no other choice but to violate your conscience. It was effectively was a suicidal kind of act. In this case, though, he believed it seems like that, if true, it was a matter of either violate my conscience and stay or potentially suffer my own loss of life. It is unfortunate he did not know the full range of options yet under the law. But, one of the problems is the military does not inform soldiers of their rights under the law to seek a discharge on the grounds of conscience or to seek other ways of relief. I think we have to look at the full context here. Fundamentally, we really don't know the facts yet.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: James Branum, could you elaborate on that? What are some of the options available to soldiers who are struggling with their conscience in conditions of war? What could he have done, Bergdahl, had he known what his options were?
JAMES BRANUM: U.S. Military regulations allow for a service member who is currently a member of the military to file an application for conscientious objector status. In that application, they must explain in detail in an essay format what they believe about war. And they must show a few things. First of all they must show that their beliefs are sincere, that they're not motivated by cowardice or expediency but they are based upon their conscience. Second, they have to show that their beliefs are based on the the religious grounds or deep conscientious grounds. In other words, that they are stemming from the core of their being. Third, they must show that they are opposed to all wars. You can't pick and choose which one you're opposed to. You can't say, I only support just wars, that's not good enough. You have to be opposed to all war. And then finally, you have to show that your beliefs changed sometime after you listed. The reason for this is if you enlisted and had these beliefs, then you would have fraudulently enlisted. Because they ask you about this, at least in theory, when you enlist. But after the time of enlistment, our military recognizes the fact that a person's life can change. It could be religious conversion, it could be a dramatic experience. Many things happen in a service member's lives. And when those things happen, if they reach a point that the service member can no longer serve without violating their conscience, that they can apply for this status. The challenges is here is once they make the application there is a complicated and long process; interviews from a psychiatrist, interviews by a chaplain, and then in a hearing before an independent hearing officer and then it goes up the chain of command all the way up to branch level where final decision is made. It is not an easy process. It is a grueling, grueling process. That said, the process is there. The problem is, most service members do not know they have this right under the law. There's no obligation for the military to for commanders to inform service members of this right. Therefore, a right that you don't know about effectively doesn't exist. This is the logic of the miranda decision and the Supreme Court said that the typical criminal defendant may not know they have the right to not talk to the police. In the same situation here a service member may not know they have the right to apply for this status unless this is told to them. Unfortunately that is not the case, and I think there is a very high likelihood that Sergeant Bergdahl may have struggled with issues of conscience, but did not know this process was there.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to go back to 2012 to the late reporter Michael Hastings who was writing for Rolling Stone about Bowe Bergdahl. He spoke on the TV network Russia Today about Bergdahl's case..

MICHAEL HASTINGS: As to what drove Bowe Bergdahl to leave, first you have to look at, he was a 23-year-old kid who joined the Army and he expected that he was going to go over to Afghanistan and help people and be involved in this nation-building and essentially humanitarian activity. What he found when he got there was completely different. He thought he had been sold a lie. He thought that he was not being treated with respect by the superior officers. There was a serious command problem within his unit within Afghanistan. There was a serious break in command. One officer died and another got fired, three of the people he respected were kicked out. And so, that created this sort of perfect storm. You have this sort of disillusionment happening, plus all of these sort of horrible things he's seeing with war that drove him to the decision to leave.