GI tells of torture in note on captivity

In this file image taken from video obtained from Voice Of Jihad Website, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, sits in a vehicle guarded by the Taliban in eastern Afghanistan. The U.S. military says it will make an announcement Wednesday on the case against Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the soldier who left his post in Afghanistan and was held by the Taliban for five years before being released in a prisoner exchange.
In this file image taken from video obtained from Voice Of Jihad Website, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, sits in a vehicle guarded by the Taliban in eastern Afghanistan. The U.S. military says it will make an announcement Wednesday on the case against Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the soldier who left his post in Afghanistan and was held by the Taliban for five years before being released in a prisoner exchange.

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl said he was tortured repeatedly in the five years he was held captive by the Taliban: beaten with a copper cable, chained, held in a cage and threatened with execution after trying to escape.

Bergdahl described his captivity in a note his lawyer made public Thursday after sharing it with the Army in an attempt to avert a court-martial.

The Army charged Bergdahl on Wednesday, accusing him of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy for leaving his post in Afghanistan in June 2009.

Freed last year in exchange for five Taliban commanders held prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the 28-year-old soldier from Hailey, Idaho, faces up to life in prison if convicted.

Bergdahl says he tried about a dozen times to escape, and that his captors' response was brutal.

"In the beginning of my captivity, after my first two escape attempts, for about three months I was chained to a bed spread-eagle and blindfolded," Bergdahl wrote.

"Around my ankles where the chains were, I developed open wounds. ... During these months some of the things they did was beat the bottoms of my feet and parts of my body with a copper cable."

He also says he was beaten with a rubber hose, fists and the butt of an AK-47, so hard the rifle's stock broke off. He was repeatedly threatened with execution, and "kept in constant isolation during the entire 5 years."

Bergdahl faces an Article 32 hearing before a high-ranking officer known as a "convening authority," who will decide if the evidence against him merits a court-martial.

Bergdahl's lawyer Eugene Fidell said the sergeant already suffered more than enough.

"This is a hellish environment he was kept in for nearly five years, particularly after he did his duty in trying to escape," said Fidell, a former military lawyer now in private practice. "There is no question in my mind that a convening authority would not be doing his or her duty without taking into account the circumstances under which Sgt. Bergdahl was held."

Bergdahl's two-page description of his captivity was attached to a letter Fidell sent March 2 to Gen. Mark Milley, who as commander of the U.S. Army Forces was responsible for deciding the criminal charges.

Bergdahl was captured shortly after leaving his post in June 2009 and held by the Haqqani network, an insurgent group tied to the Taliban that operates both in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

An Army investigation found that when Bergdahl walked off his post, his "specific intent was to bring what he thought were disturbing circumstances to the attention of the nearest general officer," Fidell wrote.

Given his harsh captivity, the reason he left his unit and his attempts to escape while prisoner, "it would be unduly harsh to impose on him the lifetime stigma of a court-martial conviction or an Other Than Honorable discharge and to deny him veteran's benefits," the lawyer argued.

The desertion charge carries up to five years in prison, while "misbehavior before the enemy" carries a life sentence. A conviction on either could strip him of his rank and about $300,000 in back pay, and earn him a dishonorable discharge.

Some members of Bergdahl's former Army unit want serious punishment, saying others risked their lives searching for him.

Bergdahl still needs "continuous physical therapy, medical and behavioral health appointments" at the Army medical center at Fort Sam Houston in Texas, where he has been assigned to a desk job.

Information for this article was contributed by Lolita C. Baldor, Donna Cassata, Erica Werner, Deb Riechmann, Sagar Meghani, Allen G. Breed, Emery P. Dalesio and Gene Johnson of The Associated Press.

A Section on 03/27/2015

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