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| Home Front: Politix |
| The Bergdahl Case Gets Curiouser and Curiouser |
| 2015-09-22 |
| The odd case of Army deserter Bowe Bergdahl got even weirder during his Article 32 hearing conducted by Army officials Thursday and Friday last week. The Article 32 procedure is the military equivalent of a civilian grand jury, except that the accused has quite a few more rights. Unlike a typical grand jury, the Article 32 is presented before a single hearing officer, not held in secret, allows defense counsel to be present and to cross-examine witnesses, and to call their own. All of this occurred at Bergdahl’s hearing. Bergdahl’s attorneys, led by the experienced civilian defense lawyer, Eugene Fidell, managed to present this account to the Article 32 hearing officer without calling their client to the stand and subjecting him to cross-examination. Instead, they called General Dahl who repeated Bergdahl’s account, and added for good measure that he did not believe Bergdahl deserved to be imprisoned for his offenses. They also presented witnesses that testified as to Bergdahl’s mistreatment by the Taliban, his suffering at their hands, and the permanent mental and physical injuries he sustained as a result. Overall, it appears that Fidell and his team of Army defense lawyers damaged the prosecution and laid the groundwork for a recommendation of leniency by the Article 32 hearing officer. The defense position is that Bergdahl left his post, but did not desert, since he was on he was on his way to another Army post, and planned to report there. Thus, at most according to the defense, he is guilty of AWOL, a much less severe offense than desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. It is not clear that the prosecution made a compelling case otherwise. The hearing officer’s recommendation is not binding on the convening officer, General Robert Abrams, but carries great weight. All this was clever lawyering by Bergdahl’s legal team. Presumably they allowed Bergdahl to convey his story to Dahl back in 2014 calculating that if Dahl bought it, he might recommend not going forward with the prosecution. That Fidell has been calling for the Army to release Dahl’s investigative report, suggests that the general either made such a recommendation, or was extremely ambivalent about going forward. Even if, as was the case, the Army did move to prosecute, Fidell figured on calling Dahl to the stand as a way of having Bergdahl in effect “testify” without risking a damaging cross-examination. All of this raises the question of whether or not anything Bergdahl told Dahl was in fact true. Unless Bergdahl is exposed to cross-examination, and perhaps even then, it might be pretty hard for the Army to rebut his account. But even if it is true, the Army should not accept that desertion (or leaving one’s combat post) by soldiers who disagree with their “incompetent” commanders is a minor offense. Anyone who has been in any army knows that many, if not most soldiers at any given time believe their officers and NCOs to be incompetent fools. Not infrequently, this is true, as it has been throughout history. However, all militaries count on these “fools” to run the show, there being nobody else to do so. Were the Army to cut Bergdahl a break because he was also a fool to have left his post, it would be tantamount to sanctioning such action in the future, which undermines the very essence of military discipline. Lastly, is the uncomfortable but compelling suspicion that this entire fiasco is a setup that will allow the Army to escape the Bergdahl case without embarrassing President Obama, who not only traded the Taliban terrorists for the soldier, but feted his family and proclaimed him a hero. Watching relatively inexperienced Army prosecutors blow a case against accomplished civilian defense lawyers is not entirely unusual. But it is also possible that the Army deliberately made it easy on Fidell and his team, and seeing a shadow boxing loss at the Article 32 as a political win. Article 32 hearings are a good way for the military to dispose of cases that they don’t like, since they give the appearance of having brought the manner to a mini-trial and are comparatively fair compared to civilian grand juries. At least as reported, Bergdahl’s Article 32 doesn’t appear to have made a good case against him for anything more than an AWOL charge, which I think would suit the Army just fine. It would allow the Army to dispose of the case through something less than a General Courts Martial, preserve Bergdahl’s veteran benefits for his apparent physical and psychological disabilities, and not extend the matter into the election year, embarrassing Obama and his increasingly likely successor as Democrat nominee, Vice-President Biden. Call me cynical, but I think that is where we are headed. |
| Posted by:Pappy |
| #8 The way some of these generals have sold their country's security for political gain the next round of cleaning needs to be done with a firing squad. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2015-09-22 20:16 |
| #7 General Dahl wants another star. The next president is going have to do some house cleaning by asking for some early retirements. |
| Posted by: Sven the pelter 2015-09-22 19:57 |
| #6 Were the Army to cut Bergdahl a break because he was also a fool to have left his post, it would be tantamount to sanctioning such action in the future, which undermines the very essence of military discipline. As the Village People music plays in the background. What about the fact that several died looking for this jerk? Is there some doubt that he left his post and went native? Cover up of a very bad deal? |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2015-09-22 09:32 |
| #5 Probably nothing here, but if the Bergdahl swap for 5 terrorists is somehow connected to the tragic loss of an AMBO in Benghazi. Say a desperate 'Plan B' or something equally as sinister, could we have the details of that arrangement as well ? Just something to quiet the conspiracy theorists and wild-eyed doubters. I'm sure you'll understand. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2015-09-22 07:52 |
| #4 I'd still like to read the initial Serious Incident Report (SIR) dealing with this soldier's disappearance. Please attach to it as well, the initial AR 15-6, and sworn statements from platoon members, along with contact information on the iron major who probably wrote it. Yes, that's right, the original SIR which was written within the first 24-48 hours of his disappearance. The generals can go to the club for a round of golf. No need to hear from them. This appears to be a common case of AWOL in a war zone. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2015-09-22 06:52 |
| #3 General Dahl wants another star |
| Posted by: lord garth 2015-09-22 06:28 |
| #2 Confirmed - Col. Hunt came onto Howie Carr's show during the 4:00 PM segment yesterday saying just that, before he went on O'Reilly a few hours later. |
| Posted by: Raj 2015-09-22 00:35 |
| #1 Yet another twist; COL(Ret) Hunt said tonight on Fox that intelligence collection had revealed conversations on Bergdahl's cellie by Taliban, and another cellie used by the Taliban that Bergdahl had in fact defected to the Taliban. Hunt indicated these reports had not been part of the official Army investigation. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2015-09-22 00:21 |