Did US Also Pay $$$ for Bergdahl?

[Bush92]

Negotiating With Terrorists: Inside the Capture and Release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl | TheBlaze.com

Looks to me like the only way this Paki crime syndicate works is with an infusion of cold hard cash. $$$$$$ Wonder how many millions the wunderkind in the White House paid for this traitor.

 

[waltky]

Dey prob'ly charged us for all dat hummus he ate whilst dey had him...

If Bergdahl is a war-zone deserter, he joins a fascinating and bizarre club
June 4, 2014 ~ The chatter about Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has been unrelenting. The buzz isn't just because Bergdahl had been held in captivity since going missing in Afghanistan on June 30, 2009. It's because it is widely believed that he walked off his base in a war zone with no plans to return.

Doing so would be desertion, a crime in the military in which individuals leave their unit with no plans to return, or quit to avoid hazardous duty or "important service." Army Secretary John McHugh acknowledged the desertion concerns about Bergdahl on Tuesday, but added that the Defense Department will take "as long as necessary" to help him recover medically from his time in captivity. "The Army will then review this in a comprehensive, coordinated effort that will include speaking with Sgt. Bergdahl to better learn from him the circumstances of his disappearance and captivity," McHugh said in a statement. "All other decisions will be made thereafter, and in accordance with appropriate regulations, policies and practices."

Desertion in itself is not uncommon. Thousands of U.S. service members did so annually during the height of the Iraq war, according to numerous media reports. Those individuals typically deserted while in the United States, however, either before their unit deployed, or while they were home on leave in the middle of a deployment. Many of them sought refuge in Canada, like Kimberly Rivera, an Army private who was sentenced last year to 10 months in prison for fleeing in 2007 from a break in a deployment to Iraq. What makes Bergdahl's case so unusual in modern times is that he disappeared while in a war zone. There are remarkably few known cases in recent years in which service members have been accused of fleeing their units while deployed.

A video screen grab shows Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl being loaded into a helicopter after Taliban fighters released him in eastern Afghanistan.

Perhaps the most famous case is that of Marine Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, who disappeared June 19, 2004, from his base in Fallujah, Iraq. Several media reports suggested the following month that he had been killed after being held captive, but he later resurfaced at the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon, where he had family. That reportedly came after members of his family traded gunfire in northern Lebanon with another family who had taunted him and his relatives for their ties to the U.S. In December 2004, Hassoun was charged with desertion. He denied the accusations, but then disappeared again the following month after visiting family in Utah. Little was heard from him again until 2011, when his family reached out to a publicist in Los Angeles seeking a $1 million book and movie deal, according to an Associated Press account at the time. The publicist told the AP that Hassoun's brother said the missing Marine was living in Lebanon with family.

Another famous case of a service member who went missing abroad is Air Force Maj. Jill Metzger. She disappeared while on an approved shopping trip in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, in 2006, sparking a nationwide search before she reappeared three days later in a town 20 miles away, saying she had been kidnapped. Defense officials told ABC News at the time that inconsistencies in her story raised questions whether she actually was running away from a recent marriage. She returned to active duty in 2010, however, after the Air Force Times reported that she had taken an 18-month medical leave. The Air Force released the results of its investigation in 2012 following a series of online reports that questioned her motives, saying it found she was kidnapped and had escaped after stabbing one of her captors. She was never charged with a crime.

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[waltky]

Bowe Bergdahl seeks pardon from Obama...

Bergdahl seeks pardon from Obama to avert desertion trial
December 3, 2016 | WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the former prisoner of war who's accused of endangering comrades by walking off his post in Afghanistan, is asking President Barack Obama to pardon him before leaving office.

White House and Justice Department officials said Saturday that Bergdahl had submitted copies of the clemency request seeking leniency. If granted by Obama, it would allow Bergdahl to avert a military trial scheduled for April where he faces charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. The misbehavior charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison. If the pardon isn't granted, Bergdahl's defense team said it will expand its legal strategy to the new administration by filing a motion arguing President-elect Donald Trump violated his due process rights with scathing public comments about the case. The pardon request to Obama, first reported by The New York Times, was confirmed by White House and Justice Department officials who weren't authorized to discuss the matter by name. Bergdahl, of Hailey, Idaho, walked off his post in Afghanistan in 2009 and was held captive by the Taliban and its allies for five years.

The Obama administration's decision in May 2014 to exchange him for five Taliban prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prompted criticism that included some Republicans accusing Obama of jeopardizing nation's safety. Some lawmakers were outraged that the administration didn't give Congress a 30-day notice about transferring the detainees, as required by law. Throughout his presidential campaign, Trump was Bergdahl's most vocal critic, saying repeatedly the soldier is a traitor who would have been executed in the "old days." During a July speech in Indiana, Trump lamented that Bergdahl could wind up with a light punishment. "Remember the old days? A deserter, what happened?" he said before pantomiming pulling a trigger and adding: "Bang." Bergdahl's lead defense lawyer, Eugene Fidell, declined to comment Saturday on the pardon request. But Fidell said he plans to file a motion seeking dismissal of the charges against Bergdahl shortly after the January inauguration, arguing Trump violated Bergdahl's constitutional due-process rights.

Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl arrives for a pretrial hearing at Fort Bragg, N.C. Bergdahl, a former prisoner of war accused of endangering his U.S. comrades by walking off his post in Afghanistan is asking President Barack Obama to pardon him before leaving office.​

The defense has been noting Trump's comments about Bergdahl in what they've dubbed the "Trump Defamation Log." A version included in the court record lists 40 such instances as of August. "All of these things put together and repeated rally upon rally for basically a year have a cumulative effect that I think is totally at odds with the right to a fair trial," Fidell said in a phone interview. A spokeswoman for Trump didn't respond to emails seeking comment. There is precedent for a military judge to decide a president's comments have tainted a military prosecution. In 2013, a Navy judge cited comments by Obama when he issued a pretrial order that two defendants in sexual assault cases couldn't be punitively discharged if they were found guilty.

The judge wrote that Obama's public comments about cracking down on sexual assault, specifically referencing dishonorable discharges, appeared to be demand particular results from military courts. "People in the military do what their commanders tell them to do," said Eric Carpenter, a law professor at Florida International University who served as an Army lawyer. He said there's a risk that military jurors could punish Bergdahl because they think it's what their commander-in-chief wants, rather than deciding strictly on the evidence. Carpenter said he'd be surprised if the Army judge dismissed the charges entirely, but he could give the defense leeway to question potential jurors and reject them based on their answers about Trump. Bergdahl, who faces trial at Fort Bragg, has said he walked off his post in Afghanistan because he wanted to cause an alarm and draw attention to what he saw as problems with his unit.

Bergdahl seeks pardon from Obama to avert desertion trial

 

[EvilCat Breath]

obumble gave Isis 5 top commanders.