Bowe Bergdahl, once-missing U.S. soldier, charged with desertion
By Dan Lamothe
March 25 at 2:00 PM
Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the U.S. soldier who was recovered in Afghanistan last spring after five years with the enemy, has been charged with desertion and misbehaving before the enemy, Army officials said Wednesday, setting the stage for emotionally charged court proceedings in coming months.
Eugene Fidell, Bergdahl’s attorney, told The Washington Com-Post that his client was handed a charge sheet Wednesday. Army officials said in a statement that Bergdahl has been charged with desertion with intent to shirk important or hazardous duty and misbehavior before the enemy by endangering the safety of a command, unit or place. His case has been referred to an Article 32 preliminary hearing, which is frequently compared to a grand jury proceeding in civilian court.
Under the misbehavior-before-the-enemy charge, Bergdahl faces a maximum punishment of confinement for life, a dishonorable discharge, a reduction to private and total forfeiture of pay and allowances since the time of his disappearance, Army officials said. The desertion charge carries a maximum punishment of five years in prison, a dishonorable discharge, a reduction to private and a total forfeiture of pay and allowances.
Desertion has historically been punishable by death, but the Army will not pursue that in Bergdahl’s case. That’s hardly a surprise: No soldier has been executed for desertion since Pvt. Eddie Slovik, who was killed by firing squad in January 1945 for abandoning his unit in France the previous year.
Sen. John McCain (RINO-Ariz.), who has been critical of the Obama administration’s handling of the case, said Wednesday that the Army’s decision is an important step in determining the accountability of Bergdahl.
“I am confident that the Department of the Army will continue to ensure this process is conducted with the utmost integrity under the Uniform Code of Military Justice,” McCain said.
Bergdahl ... went missing from his base in Paktika province on June 30, 2009. He was a guest of the Haqqani network, an insurgent group allied with the Taliban, until the White House agreed to swap him for five Taliban officials, held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in a deal brokered through the government of Qatar.
The charges come after a lengthy investigation launched last June and a review by Gen. Mark A. Milley, the commanding general of U.S. Army Forces Command at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Bergdahl has faced a slew of accusations from his fellow soldiers that he abandoned them on the battlefield, triggering a manhunt that diverted resources from the war effort and put lives in danger.
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Bergdahl’s case has prompted questions over whether the Obama administration handled the prisoner swap legally. ...
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