Tornado Alley (PROG)

[StephanieVanbryce]

Army general calls sending Bergdahl to prison inappropriate

By Richard A. Oppel Jr. New York Times September 19, 2015

SAN ANTONIO — A general who led the Army’s investigation into the disappearance of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl from his remote outpost in Afghanistan in 2009 said on Friday that sentencing the sergeant to prison would be inappropriate.

Major General Kenneth R. Dahl, who interviewed 57 witnesses in his 59-day inquiry, testified that Bergdahl had unreasonable or delusional expectations about his deployment and about his unit’s soldiers.

But Dahl said he found Bergdahl truthful during the day and a half he interviewed him. Dahl also said that Bergdahl had shown remorse about how his decision to leave his base could have endangered others.

“I do not believe there is a jail sentence at the end,” Dahl testified. “I think it would be inappropriate.”

His testimony came during a preliminary hearing. Another defense witness, one of the military’s top debriefers of prisoners of war, suggested that Bergdahl’s captivity was the worst any American had endured since the Vietnam War.

The hearing will help determine whether Bergdahl will be court-martialed for desertion and for endangering the troops ordered to search for him. Bergdahl, 29, faces the possibility of life imprisonment on the endangerment charge — formally known as misbehavior before the enemy — and a maximum five-year sentence if convicted of desertion.

But the unequivocal statement by Dahl, elicited during questioning by Bergdahl’s lead defense lawyer, Eugene Fidell, could play a significant role going forward. If the Army officers responsible for prosecuting Bergdahl were to decide to seek prison time, they would contradict Dahl, whose investigation forms the basis for the case.

In his testimony, the first time he has spoken publicly about his investigation, Dahl impeached much of the news coverage since President Obama approved exchanging Bergdahl for five Taliban detainees in May 2014.

For example, despite claims that a half-dozen soldiers died in the search for Bergdahl, Dahl testified that he had found no evidence that any soldier had been killed in the effort. And Bergdahl did not intend to walk to China or India, as other soldiers suggested. Instead, the general said that while Bergdahl might have made the comment, it was typical idle chatter.

Nor, he said, did Bergdahl ever intend to desert and join the Taliban. When he mailed his computer home, it was not because he intended to flee, the general said. He did so because he knew he might be imprisoned once he arrived at the US base he intended to hike to, and he wanted his personal items to be in good hands.


https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/world/2015/09/18/jail-wrong-for-bergdahl-after-afghanistan-captivity-general-testifies/gBrJEZVyJTOnuiyd9ioajI/story.html?p1=Article_Recommended_ArticleText