Saturday, March 9, 2013

US Army Sgt Bowe Bergdahl, Prisoner of War (current)

Were you aware as of 26 Feb. 2013 SGT Bowe Bergdahl has been held captive for 191 weeks; 1337 days, 32,088 hours, 3 years + 7 months + 3 weeks + 6 days TOO LONG 
I came across a post the other night and just can't stop thinking about our U.S. Prisoner of War, Sgt Bowe Bergdahl. I can't even begin to imagine what his parents have been going through since June 2009. Were you aware that we had a United States Army soldier taken hostage June 30, 2009 in Afghanistan? I'll try and put together the information I've found through various news articles, websites and videos with links for you to read/study/research/educate yourselves so that hopefully each of you can be a supporter and make sure to get the word out so he's not just another statistic....forgotten soldier.

WHO IS BOWE BERGDAHL
Sergeant Bowe Robert Bergdahl, United States Army (dob 28 March 1986) of Hailey, Idaho, who was captured in Afghanistan on 30 June 2009 by a Taliban allied Afghan insurgent group called the Haqqani Network. He remains in captivity while the Taliban attempts to barter with America for his life in an effort to further its militant agenda. At the time of his capture, Bergdahl was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, based at Fort Richardson, Alaska before deploying to Afghanistan. He was promoted to Specialist while in captivity.

TAKEN BY TALIBAN
Bergdahl was lured from his post in eastern Afghanistan by several Afghan National Army soldiers on June 30th, 2009, and then taken by Taliban fighters in a nearby village, according to a senior Pentagon official. Bergdahl was quickly moved to Pakistan, where he has been shuttled around several locations, primarily in North Waziristan, the Pentagon official said.


FATHER'S VIDEO MESSAGE TO CAPTORS
The video is the first public statement by Bowe Bergdahl’s father since the Army private first class was captured. In the video, shot against a mountain backdrop, Robert Bergdahl wears a black shirt and a full beard. His statement follows a video released by the Taliban earlier in the week featuring a 10 second clip of Bowe Bergdahl being blindfolded and led away by his captors. The appearance is the fifth time the Idaho-born U.S. soldier, now 25, has been seen since he was captured in June of 2009 along the Afghan-Pakistani border.

THE REWARD
Days after Bergdahl’s capture, U.S. forces began distributing a leaflet in eastern Afghanistan that warned, “If you do not release the U.S. soldier, then you will be hunted.” A picture of an American soldier kicking in the door of an Afghan home covers the leaflet. The U.S. military also had a succession of efforts to locate the missing soldier and free him. Initially, a reward of $25,000 for location tips was offered to Afghans in the eastern portions of the region from which he disappeared. 
Read full story & watch all videos here.

NEWS ABOUT BOWE


The June 21, 2012 issue of Rolling Stone offers an article by written by Michael Hastings, whose “Runaway General” profile in 2010 led to the dismissal of U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, is the most revealing to date about the circumstances before and after Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was taken captive by members of the Haqqani network.  “America’s Last Prisoner of War  includes details of the undisciplined state of  the U.S. Army unit that Sergent Bergdahl assigned to, the political maneuvering occurring in Washington D.C. and how it is impacting his possible release, and excerpts of the last email that he sent to his parents before he was captured. From the article:
The discipline problems that had plagued Bowe’s unit back home only got worse when immersed in the fog of war. From the start, everything seemed to go wrong. In April, Lt. Fancey was removed from his post for clashing with a superior officer. He was replaced by Sgt. 1st Class Larry Hein, who had never held such a command – a move that left the remote outpost with no officers. According to four soldiers in the battalion, the removal of Fancey was quickly followed by a collapse in unit morale and an almost complete breakdown of authority. 
The unruly situation was captured by Sean Smith, a British documentary filmmaker with The Guardian who spent a month embedded with Bowe’s unit. His footage shows a bunch of soldiers who no longer give a shit: breaking even the most basic rules of combat, like wearing baseball caps on patrol instead of helmets. In footage from a raid on a family compound, an old Afghan woman screams at the unit, “Look at these cruel people!” One soldier bitches about what he sees as the cowardice of the Afghan villagers he is supposed to be protecting: “They say like, the Taliban comes down and aggravated­ their town and harasses them… Why don’t you kill those motherfuckers? All of you have AKs. If someone is going into my hometown, I know my town wouldn’t stand for that shit. I’d be like, ‘Fuck you, you’re dead.’” Another soldier laments, “These people just want to be left alone.” A third agrees: “They got dicked with by the Russians for 17 years, and now we’re here.” During the middle of May, Bowe went out on one of his first major missions. He described it in a detailed e-mail to his family dated May 23rd, 2009. What started as an eight-hour mission, Bowe recounted, ended up taking five days. 
While another unit was setting up a night ambush in the mountains, an MRAP – the $1.5 million armored vehicle designed to protect soldiers from the roadside bombs being used by the Taliban – got hit with an IED. Bowe’s platoon was deployed to escort a tow truck to get it down off the mountain. But on the way to escort the truck, an MRAP in Bowe’s own platoon was hit by an IED. The unit found itself stuck in the mountains for four days, guarding the wreckage while their commanders debated whether to fly in the parts needed to fix the vehicles. Some of the time, Bowe wrote his family, was spent near a village that “was not too friendly to Americans” because it had been attacked by the Taliban. “So the elders were telling us to leave,” he reported, “because the Taliban was there, and we couldn’t leave because command finely decided that they would fly in the parts (one MRAP needing a new engine) and would rebuild the MRAPs up there.” 
Once the MRAPs were finally fixed, the unit started to leave the mountains, only to be hit by yet another IED – the third of the mission – and to come under a blistering attack from rocket-propelled grenades. “It was at the point that the guys where beginning to climb into the trucks that the first RPG hit about 30m away from them,” Bowe recounted, “and then the RPKs and the AKs began to splatter bullets on us, and all around us, the gunners where only able to see a few of them, and so where firing blindly the rest of the time, up into the trees and rocks. The .50 went down on the first shot on the truck I was in, and i had to hand up my SAW for the gunner to use. I sat there and watched, there was nothing else I was allowed to do.” No soldiers were killed in the ambush, but Bowe blamed the screw-up on his superiors: “Because command where too stupid to make up there minds of what to do,” he wrote, “we where left to sit out in the middle of no where with no support to come till late mourning the next day.” He concluded his e-mail with a nod to the absurdity of the situation: “The end of the 8 hour mission that took five days, and so here i am. But Afghanistan mountains are really beautiful!”
And after Sergeant Bergdahl was taken captive:
It wasn’t long, though, before his parents began to grow frustrated by how the government was treating them in the midst of the ordeal. The Army, they felt, was subtly pressuring them not to speak to the press, and they were required to sign a nondisclosure agreement with the National Security Agency in order to view classified and top-secret material. In addition, Bob believes the military began monitoring their phones in case the kidnappers called – standard procedure in a hostage situation, but one that also enabled the U.S. military to keep tabs on the family.
Things soon got worse. Ralph Peters, an action-thriller writer who serves as a “strategic analyst” for Fox News, took to the air to condemn Bowe as an “apparent deserter.” The Taliban, he declared, could save the United States on “legal bills” by executing him. Horrified by such comments, Bob and Jani told their military liaison that they didn’t want the Army to mount an operation to rescue Bowe, fearful that he’d be killed – either by accident, or even on purpose, by an aggrieved soldier or the U.S. military itself. There have certainly been soldiers who have joined the drumbeat of hatred against Bowe: A recent Facebook post from one soldier in his unit called for his execution. Worried that any further public attention might put Bowe at greater risk, his parents decided to remain silent, releasing a statement to their local newspaper asking the press to respect their privacy. 
In what appears to be an unprecedented move, the Pentagon also scrambled to shut down any public discussion of Bowe. Members of Bowe’s brigade were required to sign nondisclosure agreements as part of their paperwork to leave Afghanistan. The agreement, according to Capt. Fancey, forbids them to discuss any “personnel recovery” efforts – an obvious reference to Bowe. According to administration sources, both the Pentagon and the White House also pressured major news outlets likeThe New York Times and the AP to steer clear of mentioning Bowe’s name to avoid putting him at further risk. (The White House was afraid hard-line elements could execute him to scuttle peace talks, officials involved in the press negotiations say.) Faced with the wall of official silence, Bob and Jani began to worry that the Pentagon wasn’t doing all that it could to get their son back. As Bowe’s sister, Sky, wrote in a private e-mail: “I am afraid our government here in D.C. would like nothing better but to sweep PFC Bergdahl under the rug and wash their hands. Read the  FULL ARTICLE at Rolling Stone online.
EARLIER ARTICLES AND VIDEOS
These articles and videos have been published over the last thirty days beginning with the video that broke three years of near silence by the Bergdahl family regarding Bowe’s capture and captivity.
VIDEO from the Daily:
ARTICLE “Idahoan’s Unlikely Journey to Life as a Taliban Prisoner” from The New York Times:
Last week his anguished family broke a yearlong silence and announced that their son had become the centerpiece in secret but stalled negotiations between the Obama administration and the Taliban over a proposed prisoner exchange. The deal, which would trade five Taliban prisoners held in Guantánamo Bay for Sergeant Bergdahl, is considered a crucial first step toward striking a broader political settlement with the Taliban to bring the decade-long war to an end. Sergeant Bergdahl’s father, Robert Bergdahl, who said he went public to try to push the Obama administration to revive the talks, has in the meantime reached out to the insurgents. He is now in regular e-mail contact with a man he believes is a member of the Taliban with accurate knowledge of his son. Read the FULL ARTICLE at The New York Times.



 ARTICLE “Waiting for Bowe: America’s Last Captured Soldier” from TIME magazine:
Robert and Jani Bergdahl, parents of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, in Hailey, Idaho, May 12, 2012. Bowe Bergdahl is America’s only known current prisoner of war. Nearly three years ago, Private First Class Bowe Bergdahl, a machine gunner with the 4th Brigade (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, disappeared from his outpost in eastern Afghanistan. A short time later, the military learned that Bowe had been captured by the Taliban. For every parent who sends their son or daughter to war, the ultimate nightmare is seeing a uniformed officer walking up to the house to tell you your child is dead. For Bob and Jani Bergdahl, the nightmare has no end, as their son has been held by the Taliban for nearly three years.
Late last week, I had the honor of meeting with Bob. Since his son’s capture, he’s become a student of the history, politics and religion that permeates Afghanistan and Pakistan. He taught himself Urdu and Pashto so he could read from news reports and chat rooms in the area, and so if it ever came to it, so he could talk with his son’s captors. Nearly two years after Bow’s capture, Bob made a video he posted on Youtube where he appealed directly to the Pakistani military for Bowe’s release. Read the FULL ARTICLE at TIME online.
ARTICLE & SLIDESHOW” America’s Last Living POW: Christopher Morris Photographs a Family in Waiting” TIME magazine:
After their son was captured, the Bergdahls kept their silence. Intensely private, devout Presbyterians, they chose to work behind the scenes to try and bring their son home. But a week ago, an interview Bob had given was published in a local newspaper. It said that he was frustrated with the government for not doing enough to bring Bowe home. Bob decided to break his silence. “We do not want the American people to think we are dissatisfied with the way our government has proceeded,” Bob says. “The problem is this is extremely complex. It involves several different parties—state actors and non-state actors. This is going to be difficult to reconcile, which is why we believe diplomacy for the hostages—and Bowe’s not the only one, there are other hostages—negotiations, diplomacy are the window of opportunity here.Read the FULL ARTICLE at TIME online.
THE FAILED ATTEMPT TO ESCAPE FROM HIS CAPTORS
He is believed to be the only American soldier held in captivity by the Taliban—and about three months ago he made a daring break for freedom.

One night in late August or early September, 25-year-old Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, of Hailey, Idaho, jumped from a first-floor window of the mud-brick house in Pakistan in which he had been imprisoned and headed into the nearby underbrush and forested mountains, according to three reliable militant sources who got the story from fighters who were present during the prisoner’s attempted escape. They spoke exclusively to the Daily Beast.

Bergdahl has been in militant hands since June 30, 2009, when he was captured in Afghanistan’s Paktika province by a guerrilla force under Mullah Sangin, a senior commander in the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network. In a July 2009 video, the first of five videos that the militants have released, Bergdahl is sitting cross-legged on a blanket, with a glass mug in front of him. He explains that he was captured after falling behind on a foot patrol with his unit: the First Battalion, 501 Infantry Regiment, Fourth Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division. As he talks he stops several times so he can choke back tears. “Well, I’m scared,” he says. “It’s very unnerving to be a prisoner.”

In an interview this month near the Afghan city of Khost, an area under heavy Haqqani influence, Hafiz Hanif, a young Afghan militant who was featured in a Newsweek cover story on Al Qaeda last year and whose information has proved reliable in the past, told The Daily Beast what he had seen and heard of Bergdahl’s life—and his escape. Hanif first spotted Bergdahl last June. It was on a high mountain trail in North Waziristan, on the isolated frontier between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The young jihadist, then a 17-year-old fighter with the remnants of Al Qaeda in Pakistan’s wild and militant-infested Shawal Valley area, didn’t take any notice at first of the man, who was walking along the stony path with a group of armed fighters from the notorious Haqqani Network. The man had a beard, and was dressed like the others in ordinary tribal clothing, a loose-fitting shalwar kameez. The only thing to set him apart was that he had no weapon. “That’s the American military prisoner,” a companion told Hafiz Hanif, pointing to the unarmed man.

Hanif saw Bergdahl again several months later, again in the Shawal Valley area. This time the American was in the back seat of a pickup truck, sandwiched between two armed fighters. Hanif and two other Afghan Taliban fighters who have seen Bergdahl up close tell the Daily Beast that the U.S. soldier is in good health and has been cooperating with his captors. Over time he seemed so friendly and cooperative even trying to learn Pashto, the language of his captors—that his jailers removed the restraints they had bound him with, especially at night to prevent him from escaping. Early in the summer they began letting him move around rather freely outside. On occasion, Hanif says, the American was even allowed to carry an old, loaded rifle and join the guerrillas as they hunted birds and rabbits for food and sport in the mountains.

The militants miscalculated. Bergdahl took advantage of the lax conditions and ran.Mullah Sangin and his brother Mullah Balal, who had been put in charge of the prisoner, organized a search as soon as the escape was discovered. Nevertheless, the sources say, Bergdahl successfully avoided capture for three days and two nights. The searchers finally found him, weak, exhausted, and nearly naked—he had spent three days without food or water—hiding in a shallow trench he had dug with his own hands and covered with leaves."Obviously a mother wants to hear that her son is well," said Col. Timothy Marsano. He said she was proud to hear “that he fought off his captors.” Even then, he put up a ferocious fight. The two gunmen who found him first were unable to subdue him. “He fought like a boxer,” Hanif was told. It took five more militants to overpower him. Now back in custody, he is kept shackled at night, and his jailers are taking no chances. They constantly move him from place to place, hoping to elude any U.S. efforts to find him, Hanif says. Another Afghan source says the American’s captors shuttle him back and forth across the border.

According to one Taliban source close to senior Haqqani commanders, Bergdahl told them after his recapture that he had hoped to find villagers who might shelter him and help get word of his whereabouts to U.S. officials. The mountain tribes’ code of honor, Pashtunwali, requires them to protect and care for any stranger who seeks their assistance. But it was no use: civilians had abandoned the area long ago, squeezed out by the militants’ ever-growing presence and the unrelenting danger of Predator drone strikes. Bergdahl could find no one to help him.

Still, the militants’ own fear of the drones could eventually work in Bergdahl’s favor. When he was first captured, the militants reportedly demanded $1 million in ransom for his return, together with the release of 21 senior Taliban prisoners and Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui. (The MIT-educated Siddiqui is currently serving an 86-year sentence in America for trying to kill U.S. soldiers while she was in police custody in Afghanistan.) But 18 months after Bergdahl’s capture, with the Predators more of a threat than ever, the militants may be ready to deal. “There’s a fear that a drone could hit the golden chicken,” says another Taliban source close to the Haqqanis, using a local idiom to express the prisoner’s value. He says the Haqqanis may now be looking for what he calls an “easier” deal, willing to accept less for his release than what they thought they could get when he was first captured.

Meanwhile, however, Bergdahl and his family can only wait and hope he’ll be home soon. Col. Timothy Marsano, an Idaho National Guard public-affairs officer who acts as a media liaison for Bergdahl's parents, Jani and Robert, said they declined to comment on the Daily Beast’s information about their son. "Obviously a mother wants to hear that her son is well," Marsano said. He said she was proud to hear "that he fought off his captors," and she was pleased to "know that he's in good physical shape."
Bob Prucha, deputy director for public affairs at U.S. Central Command, said in response to the Daily Beast’s information on Bergdahl: "It's material I've never heard before. It's been a long time since we've had any indication that he's alive. We're still looking for him. We've never ceased looking and working every intelligence angle we can come up with. We get a lead, we track it down." Tara McKelvey contributed reporting to this story


BOWE'S FACEBOOK PAGE
Can we all take less than 5 minutes to make a post that tells our Facebook friends about Bowe? It's such a small bit of time compared to the 3 and a half years that he has been as a prisoner of war. Let's work together to see how many people we can invite to join us on Bowe's Facebook page.


BOWE TUESDAY
Every week Bowe's Facebook page reminds all of us not to forget BOWE TUESDAY. It's been 192 weeks since Bowe was taken captive by allies of the Taliban on 30 June 2009. Please take a minute to show your support for Bowe by making your profile picture for the day or share his Bowe Tuesday photo to remind others about him. Please invite your friends to do the same,-the more people do this the better. We all still need to work together to get the word out!

PHOTO GALLERY
If you're wondering what others are doing to raise awareness about Bowe, you might be interested in this photo album.

FREE DOWNLOADABLE BROCHURE
If you are interested in supplies that you can use to raise awareness about Bowe, click on "brochure" link. (be sure to check out the free downloadable brochure)

CONTACT YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS ON BOWE'S BEHALF
Don't forget how important it is for all of us to contact our elected officials on Bowe's behalf. We need to let them know that we feel that Bowe has been held captive far too long and we expect them to get past "we're doing everything we can" and on to "we're getting something done". If you follow this link  you'll find tips on how to contact your elected officials as well as a sample letter. More sample letters.

BOWE'S TWITTER
Bowe's Twitter presence is growing but we really need your help to get people's attention. If you'd like more info about what you can do, follow this  link — with Crystal Padgett and James Wraith.
Bowe Supporters have been working very hard to get Bowe's name out on Twitter and the work has been paying off! Follow this link and see what Charlie Daniels tweeted about Bowe. Yes, the 'Devil Went Down to Georgia' Charlie!If you're interested in finding out more about how you can help on Twitter, just follow this link.

Sign Bowe's guestbook or read public comments. 

BOWE'S APRIL 2010 VIDEO
Bowe loves riding....in his video he said he loved anything with two wheels! I have to admit, the video below had me crying hearing his pleads and repeatedly stating how much he missed his family, how much he missed his friends as he began to name them all. As he clasped his hands together as if he was praying, his shaky voice kept saying he wanted to come home, let me come home now.
Event will be created on June 1, 2013. More Details to follow soon.....God Bless You all and Thank you. Earl Hayes and Staff..........

U.S. Department of Defense, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)News Release
On the Web: http://www.defense.gov/Releases/Release.aspx?ReleaseID=12827
Media contact: +1 (703) 697-5131/697-5132, 
Public contact: http://www.defense.gov/landing/comment.aspx or +1 (703) 571-3343

IMMEDIATE RELEASE, No. 526-09, July 19, 2009
DoD Announces Soldier Status as Missing-Captured
The Department of Defense announced today the identity of a soldier listed as Missing-Captured on July 3 while supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl, 23, of Ketchum, Idaho, was declared Duty Status Whereabouts Unknown (DUSTWUN) on July 1 and his status was changed to "Missing-Captured” on July 3.

Pfc. Bergdahl is a member of 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Fort Richardson, Alaska.

For more information on the soldier, media may contact Lt. Col. Timothy Marsano at (208) 422-5268 or the Fort Richardson public affairs office at (907) 240-3126 or (907) 384-2072.

BOWE YOU ARE NOT AND WILL NOT EVER BE FORGOTTEN!!

Honestly, I've been reading so many articles and websites, I pledge to do all I can to fight for our American Prisoner of War and honor Bowe Tuesday on my BBMohr48 blog.

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