Coming Home: Bowe Bergdahl vs the United States

0:00:02 > 0:00:05This programme contains some strong language.

0:00:13 > 0:00:15What do I love in my life?

0:00:15 > 0:00:16Well, I love my family...

0:00:17 > 0:00:19..my mom Jani, my father Bob...

0:00:20 > 0:00:23..my sister... You know?

0:00:25 > 0:00:26I miss them, I love them,

0:00:26 > 0:00:28and, uh...

0:00:28 > 0:00:32..I pray to God to see them again.

0:00:35 > 0:00:37Every day I want to go home.

0:00:38 > 0:00:43The pain in my heart to see my family again doesn't get any smaller.

0:00:43 > 0:00:47Release me, please, I'm begging you.

0:00:49 > 0:00:52Bring me home, please.

0:00:55 > 0:00:57Bring me home.

0:00:57 > 0:00:58Please.

0:01:00 > 0:01:03Bring me home.

0:01:08 > 0:01:12So, on Saturday we were meeting some very dear friends at the park...

0:01:12 > 0:01:14- Right.- ..and that's when we got the telephone call.

0:01:15 > 0:01:18I'm trying not to cry so that you can understand what I'm saying.

0:01:18 > 0:01:22So, we answer it, and he said, "Bob?"

0:01:22 > 0:01:26I believe his exact words were, "Bob, Jani, we have him."

0:01:30 > 0:01:32I'm sorry...

0:01:32 > 0:01:36- That's OK.- That was the only day I've been able to really...

0:01:36 > 0:01:37Who was that who called?

0:01:37 > 0:01:38- Who...?- The President.

0:01:41 > 0:01:46This morning, I called Bob and Jani Bergdahl and told them that,

0:01:46 > 0:01:51after nearly five years in captivity, their son Bowe is coming home.

0:01:53 > 0:01:55Bob and Jani,

0:01:55 > 0:02:01today families across America share in the joy that I know you feel.

0:02:02 > 0:02:05As a parent, I can't imagine the hardship that you guys have gone through.

0:02:06 > 0:02:10As President, I know that I speak for all Americans when I say we cannot

0:02:10 > 0:02:14wait for the moment when you are reunited and...

0:02:16 > 0:02:18..your son Bowe is back in your arms.

0:02:21 > 0:02:26Bowe Bergdahl was America's only POW in its long war in Afghanistan.

0:02:28 > 0:02:33I just want to say thank you to everyone who has supported Bowe.

0:02:33 > 0:02:36He has had a wonderful team everywhere.

0:02:39 > 0:02:41I'd like to say to Bowe right now,

0:02:41 > 0:02:43who is having trouble speaking English...

0:02:43 > 0:02:45HE SPEAKS ARABIC

0:02:46 > 0:02:48..I'm your father, Bowe.

0:02:50 > 0:02:53To the people of Afghanistan, the same.

0:03:00 > 0:03:05Bergdahl, then a private, walked off his military outpost in Paktika Province,

0:03:05 > 0:03:07Afghanistan, in June 2009.

0:03:09 > 0:03:13He was held by the Taliban for five years before being freed in a

0:03:13 > 0:03:17controversial prisoner swap with five Taliban held at Guantanamo.

0:03:19 > 0:03:23Following his release in 2014,

0:03:23 > 0:03:26Bergdahl became a target for extraordinary claims

0:03:26 > 0:03:28by some sections of the US media.

0:03:28 > 0:03:30New documents, obtained by Fox News,

0:03:30 > 0:03:33show that he declared himself a warrior for Islam,

0:03:33 > 0:03:35even taking part in AK-47 target

0:03:35 > 0:03:39practice with his captors and playing soccer with them.

0:03:40 > 0:03:43Six young people, great people, were killed looking for him.

0:03:45 > 0:03:48He's a traitor, a no-good traitor.

0:03:49 > 0:03:51A dirty, rotten traitor.

0:03:53 > 0:03:57Somebody said the other day, "Well, he had some psychological problems, you know..."

0:03:57 > 0:03:59You know, in the old days, bing-bong...

0:04:00 > 0:04:04With Bergdahl, who is a traitor, it was treason.

0:04:04 > 0:04:06You shoot him. He gets shot.

0:04:09 > 0:04:13Brought home by one President and called a traitor by the next,

0:04:13 > 0:04:17Bowe Bergdahl was charged with desertion and endangering the lives

0:04:17 > 0:04:19of his fellow soldiers.

0:04:20 > 0:04:22He has now become one of the most vilified men

0:04:22 > 0:04:24in a deeply divided America.

0:04:25 > 0:04:28But what is the truth behind all the allegations against him?

0:04:28 > 0:04:30And where did they come from?

0:04:30 > 0:04:33And what really happened to him during his time in captivity?

0:04:52 > 0:04:55I'm Sean Langan, a film-maker and journalist.

0:04:55 > 0:05:01Back in 2008, I filmed these sequences in Afghanistan about the Taliban.

0:05:04 > 0:05:07I've got a feeling we're close, that we're being watched.

0:05:09 > 0:05:11VOICEOVER: A few months later,

0:05:11 > 0:05:15I crossed the border and was kidnapped in the tribal areas of Pakistan by

0:05:15 > 0:05:18the Haqqani Network, close allies of the Taliban.

0:05:18 > 0:05:19They're surrounding us.

0:05:20 > 0:05:23They're the same group that captured Bowe Bergdahl.

0:05:24 > 0:05:27I was held for four months, locked in a dark cell,

0:05:27 > 0:05:31interrogated and put through mock executions.

0:05:31 > 0:05:34So I understood what Bowe meant when he later said,

0:05:34 > 0:05:37"Every second in captivity feels like an eternity."

0:05:54 > 0:05:58Six weeks after Bowe's release, I headed to the small town of Hailey, Idaho,

0:05:58 > 0:06:00Bowe's hometown.

0:06:04 > 0:06:05By the time I got there,

0:06:05 > 0:06:08allegations that Bowe was not only a deserter but a traitor

0:06:08 > 0:06:11and a collaborator, too, were swirling around.

0:06:13 > 0:06:15But for Hailey on July 4th,

0:06:15 > 0:06:18Bowe's release was still a cause for celebration.

0:06:22 > 0:06:23Happy birthday, America!

0:06:42 > 0:06:44I think, for our town, it's just...

0:06:45 > 0:06:48..one of our own is coming home, so that's what important.

0:06:52 > 0:06:57He's just a hometown boy that we would love to be home...

0:06:57 > 0:06:59- Yeah.- ..with his family.

0:07:04 > 0:07:06I wanted to do a documentary, really, about coming home,

0:07:06 > 0:07:10but it's sensitive when it's someone like Bowe.

0:07:10 > 0:07:13He's... He's one of ours. The end.

0:07:13 > 0:07:16We just wanted him back.

0:07:16 > 0:07:18And the rest of it isn't really our business.

0:07:18 > 0:07:20No.

0:07:20 > 0:07:22- What's your name?- Sean.

0:07:22 > 0:07:23- Sean what?- Langan.

0:07:23 > 0:07:24But...

0:07:26 > 0:07:27I think I know who you are.

0:07:28 > 0:07:30Did you make a documentary about...

0:07:32 > 0:07:34..the group that Bowe Bergdahl was with?

0:07:34 > 0:07:36I was kidnapped by the same group.

0:07:36 > 0:07:37You were kidnapped by the same group.

0:07:37 > 0:07:39- Oh, my gosh!- Oh, my goodness!

0:07:44 > 0:07:48The reason why I wanted to make a film about an American POW coming home

0:07:48 > 0:07:51was because, as a former hostage,

0:07:51 > 0:07:55I knew coming home was often harder to endure than captivity itself.

0:07:58 > 0:08:02For four months, I was holding on whilst I was in captivity.

0:08:03 > 0:08:05And I knew I was in a fight and

0:08:05 > 0:08:07I had to batten down my emotions,

0:08:07 > 0:08:09because I wanted to get home to see my kids.

0:08:10 > 0:08:14And I'd kept two little photos, hidden from the Taliban, of my children,

0:08:14 > 0:08:15and then I get out...

0:08:17 > 0:08:1912 hours later,

0:08:19 > 0:08:22I'm being strip-searched by Scotland Yard police...

0:08:23 > 0:08:26..taking DNA swabs, taking all of my belongings,

0:08:26 > 0:08:29and they took away my photos of the children that I'd kept hidden from the

0:08:29 > 0:08:32Taliban, and then they stuck me in an interview room.

0:08:32 > 0:08:34Four months locked in a dark room.

0:08:34 > 0:08:38I had to then spend my first day of freedom in an even

0:08:38 > 0:08:42smaller cell, having been strip-searched and been interrogated.

0:08:43 > 0:08:46And I get it. No problem at all with that.

0:08:48 > 0:08:50But when you've been holding on, and you come back,

0:08:50 > 0:08:53and you think you're safe, and you let go...

0:08:54 > 0:08:57You know, an incredibly vulnerable situation.

0:09:10 > 0:09:12RAPID GUNFIRE

0:09:18 > 0:09:19Clear to fire.

0:09:19 > 0:09:20All the guns have fired.

0:09:22 > 0:09:23Shoot again.

0:09:25 > 0:09:26One more.

0:09:32 > 0:09:37It was May 2009, the eighth year of America's war in Afghanistan,

0:09:37 > 0:09:41when Bowe Bergdahl was sent to a remote outpost near the Pakistan border.

0:09:43 > 0:09:47These images of him at his base were filmed days before he disappeared.

0:09:48 > 0:09:52He'd been in Afghanistan for only six weeks.

0:09:59 > 0:10:03In the middle of the night on June 30, 2009,

0:10:03 > 0:10:07Bergdahl deserted his comrades, walking off into the mountains,

0:10:07 > 0:10:11taking with him nothing more than a camera, a knife, a compass,

0:10:11 > 0:10:14his journal, and a small selection of poems.

0:10:14 > 0:10:16He left his weapon behind.

0:10:22 > 0:10:26- What's your name? - My name is Bowe Bergdahl.

0:10:28 > 0:10:31- Where are you from?- I'm from Idaho.

0:10:31 > 0:10:32Hailey, Idaho, in the USA.

0:10:33 > 0:10:37- What's the date today? - It's July the 14th of 2009.

0:10:39 > 0:10:43Within two weeks, the Haqqani Network released a proof-of-life video,

0:10:43 > 0:10:45and demanded a ransom.

0:10:53 > 0:10:54Fast forward five years,

0:10:54 > 0:10:57and while Hailey, Idaho, was celebrating Bowe's release,

0:10:57 > 0:11:00for some in America, the mood was turning hostile.

0:11:02 > 0:11:07And Fox News weren't happy about Obama's trading Bowe for the five Taliban prisoners

0:11:07 > 0:11:08held in Guantanamo.

0:11:09 > 0:11:12Secondly, in releasing five of the most deadly terrorists that we had

0:11:12 > 0:11:14in Guantanamo.

0:11:14 > 0:11:16Do you believe the President has endangered the country?

0:11:16 > 0:11:20I think there's a distinct possibility that these five will,

0:11:20 > 0:11:23in fact, go back into the battle.

0:11:23 > 0:11:25And when you have people this highly motivated...

0:11:25 > 0:11:27That seemed to me fair comment.

0:11:27 > 0:11:30Tough questioning over a controversial deal.

0:11:30 > 0:11:31But in other Fox News pieces,

0:11:31 > 0:11:36Bowe Bergdahl was himself becoming a target, too.

0:11:36 > 0:11:39And for someone held hostage for so long, the tone was harsh.

0:11:39 > 0:11:44We lost six Americans looking for what is a deserter.

0:11:44 > 0:11:46Not only was he a deserter...

0:11:46 > 0:11:49Looks to me like a deserter or a traitor or both.

0:11:49 > 0:11:52But they also say that he might have been collaborating with the enemy.

0:11:54 > 0:11:56Confined to his Army base in Texas,

0:11:56 > 0:12:00Bergdahl had no chance of giving his side of the story,

0:12:00 > 0:12:03and there was little sign of balance when Fox News' then-senior

0:12:03 > 0:12:08correspondent Megyn Kelly met some of Bergdahl's former platoon.

0:12:08 > 0:12:11We are joined now by six members of Bowe Bergdahl's platoon.

0:12:11 > 0:12:13Guys, thank you all so much for being here.

0:12:13 > 0:12:15Raise your hand if you think he deserted.

0:12:16 > 0:12:17Wow.

0:12:17 > 0:12:21Raise your hand if you have some question about whether he deserted.

0:12:22 > 0:12:25I'm not sure about Fox News' claim to be fair.

0:12:25 > 0:12:28What do you make of this latest reporting by James Rosen that he had

0:12:28 > 0:12:31converted to Islam, that he fraternised openly with his captors,

0:12:31 > 0:12:35and declared himself a warrior for Islam, at least by August of 2012?

0:12:37 > 0:12:41That one interview set the news agenda on this story.

0:12:41 > 0:12:45The media trial of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl was now truly underway.

0:12:54 > 0:12:56Before he went off to join the Army,

0:12:56 > 0:13:00Bowe had worked in Zaney's Cafe in his hometown of Hailey.

0:13:05 > 0:13:10Sue, the owner, had run the support campaign while Bowe was in captivity.

0:13:15 > 0:13:17Those ribbons have been up for five years,

0:13:17 > 0:13:23and I know mine will stay up until Bowe is safely returned to Hailey.

0:13:23 > 0:13:28It's what we do in a small town for our own people.

0:13:29 > 0:13:32In the six weeks following Bowe's release,

0:13:32 > 0:13:35the town had been on the receiving end of hate mail and death threats.

0:13:37 > 0:13:42And then, during the time that the threats were the worst,

0:13:42 > 0:13:44I actually left town.

0:13:44 > 0:13:46- So you received threats yourself? - Yes.

0:13:47 > 0:13:50They walked in. They came in here.

0:13:50 > 0:13:51- People...- Face to face.

0:13:52 > 0:13:56- People from this town, from Hailey? - I hadn't recognised any of them.

0:13:59 > 0:14:02On his Army base in Texas,

0:14:02 > 0:14:06Bowe was getting psychological support and beginning intensive debriefing.

0:14:06 > 0:14:08..in San Antonio Military Medical Center.

0:14:08 > 0:14:11During his stay here, Sergeant Bergdahl will participate

0:14:11 > 0:14:13in reintegration, a process...

0:14:13 > 0:14:16But less than two months after his release,

0:14:16 > 0:14:19the US Army announced an investigation into his disappearance.

0:14:21 > 0:14:24It would be led by a senior figure in the military, Major General Dahl.

0:14:25 > 0:14:28The Army has named a General officer to lead its investigation

0:14:28 > 0:14:31into the case of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl.

0:14:31 > 0:14:33Major General Kenneth Dahl will lead the probe.

0:14:33 > 0:14:37General Dahl's mission will be to ascertain facts about the Sergeant's

0:14:37 > 0:14:40disappearance and capture back in June of 2009,

0:14:40 > 0:14:42from an outpost in Afghanistan.

0:14:50 > 0:14:55More than a year after Bowe's release, I returned to Hailey.

0:14:55 > 0:14:57I'd been trying to talk to Bowe,

0:14:57 > 0:15:00but his lawyers didn't want him talking to anyone,

0:15:00 > 0:15:03as Bowe himself had chosen not to meet his own family.

0:15:05 > 0:15:07Bowe's parents, Bob and Jani,

0:15:07 > 0:15:10had kept out of the media spotlight since his release,

0:15:10 > 0:15:14and only reluctantly agreed to meet me because I was a former hostage.

0:15:17 > 0:15:20They live a few miles outside of Hailey in a remote valley.

0:15:22 > 0:15:25This is where Bowe grew up, and where he was home-schooled.

0:15:28 > 0:15:30I'm now really nervous.

0:15:34 > 0:15:37I'm about to meet a mother, who I know has been suffering beyond belief,

0:15:37 > 0:15:39and I'm about to ask her questions,

0:15:39 > 0:15:41and I know how fragile she is.

0:15:42 > 0:15:44And she hasn't done an interview

0:15:44 > 0:15:47for the five years he was in captivity.

0:15:48 > 0:15:50So it's a big deal for her, this.

0:15:50 > 0:15:53And I know I'm going to open up...

0:15:56 > 0:15:59..a whole lot of things that she's been bottling up, emotions.

0:16:01 > 0:16:03It's a big responsibility.

0:16:14 > 0:16:16This is Bowe.

0:16:20 > 0:16:23So dusty. This is Bowe.

0:16:23 > 0:16:24Yeah, he was a big baby.

0:16:24 > 0:16:25Yeah.

0:16:26 > 0:16:27This is a fishing trip.

0:16:27 > 0:16:31Bowe has always been an excellent fisherman, and an excellent shot.

0:16:31 > 0:16:36Bob taught him how to shoot when he was probably two years old.

0:16:38 > 0:16:40Well, this is all...

0:16:40 > 0:16:44This is all things that people have given us for Bowe.

0:16:46 > 0:16:47POW flag that...

0:16:47 > 0:16:50That's the missing-in-action one, isn't it?

0:16:50 > 0:16:51Yes. That was signed.

0:16:51 > 0:16:56All of these boxes are full of cards and newspapers and things for Bowe.

0:16:56 > 0:17:00I need to go through them and try to get rid of some things, but...

0:17:00 > 0:17:01Yeah.

0:17:03 > 0:17:05We have a lot of distrust of journalists

0:17:05 > 0:17:07because of what they continue to do to our family.

0:17:09 > 0:17:12Again, for no good reason that I know of.

0:17:14 > 0:17:16They have so vilified,

0:17:16 > 0:17:18I would even say demonised...

0:17:18 > 0:17:20- Yeah.- ..my family.

0:17:22 > 0:17:23For what reason?

0:17:23 > 0:17:25Politics?

0:17:25 > 0:17:27Who is the one that gave the "go" sign for the father and mother

0:17:27 > 0:17:31to show up in the Rose Garden and make that announcement yesterday?

0:17:31 > 0:17:36And meanwhile, he makes, in his Arabic-speaking message to his son,

0:17:36 > 0:17:39he basically praises Allah at the end.

0:17:39 > 0:17:40A nice little touch.

0:17:40 > 0:17:44He says he was growing his beard because his son was

0:17:44 > 0:17:46in captivity. Well, your son's out now.

0:17:46 > 0:17:51So, if you really no longer want to look like a member of the Taliban,

0:17:51 > 0:17:53you don't have to look like a member of the Taliban.

0:17:53 > 0:17:54Are you out of razors?

0:17:56 > 0:17:58It was polemics against Bob, like that one,

0:17:58 > 0:18:01that Jani considers so unfair and unbalanced.

0:18:02 > 0:18:05I am a devout Christian, my husband is a devout Christian,

0:18:05 > 0:18:07our children were raised that way.

0:18:08 > 0:18:12And I'm an American, and I feel that, as an American,

0:18:12 > 0:18:14we are innocent until proven guilty.

0:18:14 > 0:18:18You know for a fact that all countries aren't like that.

0:18:18 > 0:18:24- No.- And to take an American soldier and say that he's guilty before he's

0:18:24 > 0:18:26been judged or tried...

0:18:26 > 0:18:30Well, he's been judged and tried by the political...

0:18:30 > 0:18:32- Yeah.- You know, now it's the American public.

0:18:34 > 0:18:35It's just not fair.

0:18:35 > 0:18:37That's what soldiers fight for,

0:18:37 > 0:18:40and he should have been given the chance to be innocent

0:18:40 > 0:18:43until proven guilty.

0:18:43 > 0:18:45And again,

0:18:45 > 0:18:49I don't know that I should be talking about any of this publicly,

0:18:49 > 0:18:53because it's so much bigger than this little Podunk Idaho family.

0:19:01 > 0:19:04You've been going through private turmoil in the most public way.

0:19:05 > 0:19:07Yeah.

0:19:07 > 0:19:11Jani and I both, we're watching each other.

0:19:11 > 0:19:15I think we, you know, in a slow-motion way, over five years,

0:19:15 > 0:19:18I'm sure we've had...

0:19:18 > 0:19:22..several emotional breakdowns.

0:19:22 > 0:19:25Slow-motion emotional breakdowns.

0:19:26 > 0:19:30And then you recover, so they don't seem like an emotional breakdown,

0:19:30 > 0:19:34but you've actually had a mild one.

0:19:34 > 0:19:36Um...

0:19:37 > 0:19:38Yeah, we just can't...

0:19:41 > 0:19:43You know it's not over, so you can't...

0:19:43 > 0:19:45You've just got to hold...hold on.

0:19:47 > 0:19:50I think we've gotten pretty good at it.

0:19:50 > 0:19:53- You've had lots of practice, Bob. - We have.

0:19:59 > 0:20:03Two years after Bowe had been captured, and with no release in sight,

0:20:03 > 0:20:06Bob took it into his own hands to get his son back.

0:20:09 > 0:20:13I am the father of captured US soldier Bowe Robert Bergdahl.

0:20:14 > 0:20:16These are my thoughts.

0:20:16 > 0:20:18I can remain silent no longer.

0:20:18 > 0:20:21You released a video and I understand, in that video,

0:20:21 > 0:20:23you were trying to talk to them in their own language.

0:20:23 > 0:20:24Very poorly, yeah.

0:20:25 > 0:20:27But in a manner that would appeal to them.

0:20:28 > 0:20:33I personally appeal to General Kayani and General Pashas.

0:20:35 > 0:20:39Our family is counting on your professional integrity and honour to secure

0:20:39 > 0:20:40the safe return of our son.

0:20:41 > 0:20:44After Osama bin Laden was killed, you know, we were afraid,

0:20:44 > 0:20:47well, several times we were afraid they would take it out on Bowe.

0:20:49 > 0:20:53- Yeah.- And you thought you would talk right to them.

0:20:53 > 0:20:55As-Salaam-Alaikum.

0:20:55 > 0:20:59I had to assume a worst-case scenario,

0:20:59 > 0:21:03that our government would fail to recover Bowe,

0:21:03 > 0:21:05and it would be left...

0:21:06 > 0:21:08..to us.

0:21:08 > 0:21:10And...

0:21:10 > 0:21:12..yeah, that's when I started growing my beard out.

0:21:12 > 0:21:19I wanted to look as masculine and as prehistoric as I possibly could.

0:21:19 > 0:21:21Scary.

0:21:21 > 0:21:27I immediately started making a long-term plan to travel to the region

0:21:27 > 0:21:29and...um...

0:21:29 > 0:21:32..set up shop...

0:21:32 > 0:21:36..and become immersed in the culture as much as possible...

0:21:38 > 0:21:40..and get him back. That was my motto.

0:21:40 > 0:21:41"If you don't get him back, I will."

0:21:43 > 0:21:49He had heard that they will trade a relative quite often.

0:21:49 > 0:21:52So I know he was planning on a trade.

0:21:52 > 0:21:56You were prepared to walk over mountains,

0:21:56 > 0:21:58surrounded by Taliban and Al-Qaeda...?

0:21:58 > 0:22:00To see his son again.

0:22:02 > 0:22:06In 2013, Bob left on his rescue mission.

0:22:06 > 0:22:10He got as far as Qatar before the US authorities found out and put a stop

0:22:10 > 0:22:12on his passport.

0:22:15 > 0:22:17I'm so proud of my husband.

0:22:17 > 0:22:21He did everything that he could think of...

0:22:21 > 0:22:22Yeah.

0:22:22 > 0:22:25..to bring our son home alive.

0:22:26 > 0:22:30And he did an excellent job, because he's home alive.

0:22:32 > 0:22:37It's not just Bob who is being attacked as a Taliban sympathiser.

0:22:37 > 0:22:41It was been suggested that Bowe himself had converted to Islam.

0:22:41 > 0:22:45And even worse, in captivity, had collaborated with the enemy.

0:22:51 > 0:22:55A highly contentious intelligence dossier was central to this incendiary

0:22:55 > 0:22:57news piece on Fox News.

0:22:59 > 0:23:01According to secret documents obtained by Fox News,

0:23:01 > 0:23:02Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl,

0:23:02 > 0:23:06toward the end of his five years of captivity among the Haqqani Network,

0:23:06 > 0:23:09was said to have converted to Islam.

0:23:26 > 0:23:28During your son's captivity,

0:23:28 > 0:23:31the US authorities were coming to you and saying...

0:23:31 > 0:23:34They came to you saying, "We heard he escaped,

0:23:34 > 0:23:37"but we've heard intelligence reports or rumours that your son has

0:23:37 > 0:23:42"converted, that he is collaborating, that he has joined the mujahedeen."

0:23:42 > 0:23:45What was your feeling when you read those?

0:23:46 > 0:23:47I was...

0:23:48 > 0:23:49..saying, "Attaboy."

0:23:50 > 0:23:53Because that's how you escape.

0:23:53 > 0:23:55You have to earn...

0:23:58 > 0:24:00You never doubted your son?

0:24:00 > 0:24:01No. No.

0:24:02 > 0:24:05Did you ever think that, perhaps, he has converted?

0:24:05 > 0:24:07What did he have to lose?

0:24:07 > 0:24:10I mean, after years in captivity,

0:24:10 > 0:24:11and after...

0:24:13 > 0:24:16..trying to escape a dozen or so times, or more.

0:24:27 > 0:24:29And you know what? Many hostages convert...

0:24:30 > 0:24:32..to save their lives.

0:24:41 > 0:24:45I was captured for four months, and they asked me, my captors...

0:24:46 > 0:24:48...asked me whether I'd like to convert.

0:24:49 > 0:24:52I've never spoken about this, I don't think.

0:24:55 > 0:24:58The Taliban commander came in, read out the shura's findings,

0:24:58 > 0:25:02the court hearings. Like Bowe, I was on trial.

0:25:04 > 0:25:07And he read out the hearing and said I was hereby found innocent

0:25:07 > 0:25:09of all charges.

0:25:09 > 0:25:11The commander then paused and said,

0:25:11 > 0:25:14but the shura had decided to kill me anyway to send a message to journalists

0:25:14 > 0:25:16not to try the same thing.

0:25:16 > 0:25:19So just as I thought I was freed, he laid that on me.

0:25:21 > 0:25:25And then he laughed and said, "But don't worry, Siraj Haqqani and myself overruled,

0:25:25 > 0:25:27"so you're free to go."

0:25:27 > 0:25:31Then he turned to my translator and fixer, my good friend,

0:25:31 > 0:25:35who suffered in captivity with me, worse than I did,

0:25:35 > 0:25:39because he didn't have that Western naive belief that it's hard

0:25:39 > 0:25:40to chop a man's head off...

0:25:42 > 0:25:46..and he turned to him and said the shura has found him guilty, but

0:25:46 > 0:25:48they were willing to let him go.

0:25:48 > 0:25:50And we thought it was a trick.

0:25:52 > 0:25:53So to save his life...

0:25:55 > 0:25:56..I converted.

0:25:58 > 0:26:00And I don't like talking about it, because...

0:26:03 > 0:26:04I held out for four months.

0:26:05 > 0:26:07I wasn't going to fucking convert...

0:26:08 > 0:26:10..to those hypocrites...

0:26:11 > 0:26:12..whose main god is the dollar.

0:26:17 > 0:26:18I don't want to renounce my beliefs.

0:26:22 > 0:26:24I haven't spoken about that for five years.

0:26:30 > 0:26:32And I'm only doing so now because...

0:26:33 > 0:26:36..if it does come out that Bowe did convert in captivity...

0:26:38 > 0:26:41..to save himself from being tortured, or after he was tortured...

0:26:48 > 0:26:51Unless you've been in that situation, you can't judge that.

0:27:19 > 0:27:22Before leaving Hailey, on this, my second trip,

0:27:22 > 0:27:27I wanted to find out more about Bowe, about what had really shaped him.

0:27:27 > 0:27:30Bowe had left his parents when he was 17.

0:27:30 > 0:27:33He was going through a difficult patch,

0:27:33 > 0:27:36and a former teacher of his in Hailey, Sherry Horton, put him up.

0:27:37 > 0:27:40I heard on the radio, "American soldier captured."

0:27:40 > 0:27:43And I was like, "Shit, it's Bowe." And I was like...

0:27:43 > 0:27:45- Just knew.- You just knew? - I just knew.

0:27:45 > 0:27:48Bowe's response to stressful situations,

0:27:48 > 0:27:50even when he had to just think through it, through a thing,

0:27:50 > 0:27:54was to go into the mountains for a day and just sit on a rock

0:27:54 > 0:27:56overlooking... I mean, it's gorgeous here.

0:27:56 > 0:27:59- It is gorgeous.- Looking and just kind of sitting, meditating.

0:28:01 > 0:28:04Before joining the Army, when Bowe was 20,

0:28:04 > 0:28:06he went off to join the US Coast Guard.

0:28:08 > 0:28:11But in less than one month he was discharged

0:28:11 > 0:28:13for being psychologically unfit.

0:28:13 > 0:28:15He said there was some...

0:28:15 > 0:28:18He didn't agree with some of the philosophies.

0:28:18 > 0:28:20And keep in mind he was still, at this point,

0:28:20 > 0:28:21I think he was still only 20.

0:28:21 > 0:28:24- Yeah.- I don't think he'd turned 21, even, at this point.

0:28:24 > 0:28:28And, you know, still a 20-year-old idealist who knows everything.

0:28:28 > 0:28:31- Yeah.- And... You know?

0:28:31 > 0:28:33And from what he said to me was things...

0:28:33 > 0:28:35It just didn't work.

0:28:35 > 0:28:39They would tell him to do things and if he didn't agree with them he kind

0:28:39 > 0:28:41of argued with them about, "Why am I having to do it?"

0:28:41 > 0:28:44He was a big questioner on, "Why do we do this?"

0:28:44 > 0:28:47And I remember having a conversation when he told me he was joining the

0:28:47 > 0:28:49Army, and I was like, you know,

0:28:49 > 0:28:51"You understand that what you didn't like about the Coast Guard

0:28:51 > 0:28:55"is going to be more so with the Army?"

0:28:55 > 0:28:58And by that time, he thought he had matured enough and figured out

0:28:58 > 0:29:01and understood the process a little bit more that he could handle it.

0:29:01 > 0:29:04And he had changed considerably from then to, you know,

0:29:04 > 0:29:06from Coast Guard to Army.

0:29:06 > 0:29:09There had been some change, but he was still, you know, he's still Bowe.

0:29:09 > 0:29:11He's still kind of strong-headed.

0:29:11 > 0:29:13Bowe is a questioner. He is going to ask, "Why?"

0:29:13 > 0:29:17He is going to want to know, "What's the point of doing this?"

0:29:17 > 0:29:21So, it could come across as being a little bit unstable because you're not 100%,

0:29:21 > 0:29:23"Yeah, you said, 'Go run up that hill with a gun.'

0:29:23 > 0:29:25"Let's go do that."

0:29:25 > 0:29:27You know, he's going to be, "What's on top of the hill?"

0:29:34 > 0:29:38When Bowe walked off his base in 2009,

0:29:38 > 0:29:40he inadvertently stepped into a political minefield.

0:29:43 > 0:29:48America's war in Afghanistan was becoming increasingly unpopular,

0:29:48 > 0:29:51and President Obama wanted to bring it to an end.

0:29:53 > 0:29:56Tonight, I can announce that, over the next year,

0:29:56 > 0:30:00another 34,000 American troops will come home from Afghanistan.

0:30:00 > 0:30:04This drawdown will continue and, by the end of next year,

0:30:04 > 0:30:07our war in Afghanistan will be over.

0:30:10 > 0:30:14But his policy was strongly opposed by some in the Republican Party and

0:30:14 > 0:30:15in the Pentagon.

0:30:17 > 0:30:20We're committed to winding down the war in Afghanistan,

0:30:20 > 0:30:23and we are committed to closing Gitmo.

0:30:23 > 0:30:26But we also made an ironclad commitment to bring

0:30:26 > 0:30:29our prisoners of war home.

0:30:29 > 0:30:31That's who we are as Americans.

0:30:32 > 0:30:36So when President Obama welcomed Bob and Jani to the White House,

0:30:36 > 0:30:39and used the occasion to underline his intention

0:30:39 > 0:30:41to close Guantanamo Bay

0:30:41 > 0:30:46and end the war in Afghanistan, it caused outrage amongst his critics.

0:30:46 > 0:30:48Bowe was now in the spotlight.

0:30:48 > 0:30:50THUNDER RUMBLES

0:31:00 > 0:31:04Nine months after his release came the bad news for Bergdahl.

0:31:06 > 0:31:09The US Army Forces Command has thoroughly reviewed the Army's

0:31:09 > 0:31:13investigation and formally charge Sergeant Bergdahl

0:31:13 > 0:31:18with desertion with intent to shirk important or hazardous duty

0:31:18 > 0:31:20and misbehaviour before the enemy

0:31:20 > 0:31:24by endangering the safety of a command, unit or place.

0:31:33 > 0:31:36One Fox News pundit had been leading the rest of the media pack

0:31:36 > 0:31:38on the Bergdahl story.

0:31:39 > 0:31:44- OK.- He was former US military intelligence officer Tony Shaffer.

0:31:44 > 0:31:48With leaks and intel briefings from his sources within the Pentagon,

0:31:48 > 0:31:51he was both eloquent and convincing.

0:31:51 > 0:31:55I think it was a political decision based on trying to clear people out

0:31:55 > 0:31:56of Gitmo, Guantanamo Bay,

0:31:56 > 0:32:00rather than trying to do what was best for the nation.

0:32:00 > 0:32:03What can you say you are aware of from your sources,

0:32:03 > 0:32:06and you are safe going on the record and saying,

0:32:06 > 0:32:08that you think he was guilty of?

0:32:08 > 0:32:11My reading of the tea leaves, based on the facts I know...

0:32:11 > 0:32:12..he walked off base with a purpose.

0:32:12 > 0:32:15I hope you're not just reading tea leaves, Tony.

0:32:15 > 0:32:18- You're saying to me as your former DIA...- I'm saying... I'm putting

0:32:18 > 0:32:20back my operative hat on, my assessment hat.

0:32:20 > 0:32:22He walked off base with a purpose.

0:32:22 > 0:32:25He wanted to do something.

0:32:25 > 0:32:27That something was

0:32:27 > 0:32:29within his own mind.

0:32:29 > 0:32:33I'm not sure if anybody really understands, except Bowe Bergdahl,

0:32:33 > 0:32:34what he was going to do off-post,

0:32:34 > 0:32:38but it was clear that he left post with an intention and a plan.

0:32:38 > 0:32:41There has to be a fundamental, factual basis

0:32:41 > 0:32:43for the Article 99 charge. There has to be.

0:32:43 > 0:32:45The Army, in this case, in something this high-profile,

0:32:45 > 0:32:48would not arbitrarily charge someone with Article 99,

0:32:48 > 0:32:50which essentially is a form of charging someone

0:32:50 > 0:32:53with cooperating with the enemy, it's collaboration.

0:32:53 > 0:32:56- That's what it is.- That's what it is. Misbehaviour before the enemy,

0:32:56 > 0:32:59essentially you are giving aid and comfort to the enemy.

0:32:59 > 0:33:03One layer lower than actually defecting over to them.

0:33:03 > 0:33:06Tony Shaffer was wrong about that.

0:33:06 > 0:33:10The Army has never charged Bergdahl was cooperating with the enemy.

0:33:11 > 0:33:17The Article 99 charge refers to endangering fellow soldiers.

0:33:17 > 0:33:22He was using a false definition to justify allegations.

0:33:27 > 0:33:30You are making comments that Bowe walked off-base with the intention

0:33:30 > 0:33:33- of meeting the Taliban.- That's my information that I have.

0:33:33 > 0:33:35But what did Tony Shaffer think

0:33:35 > 0:33:36about this contentious

0:33:36 > 0:33:38and disturbing report on Fox News,

0:33:38 > 0:33:40that Bergdahl had converted to Islam

0:33:40 > 0:33:42and gone over to the enemy?

0:33:43 > 0:33:45Repeated here by Megyn Kelly.

0:33:45 > 0:33:48What do you make of this latest reporting by James Rosen that he had

0:33:48 > 0:33:51converted to Islam, that he fraternised openly with his captors,

0:33:51 > 0:33:57and declared himself a warrior for Islam, at least by August of 2012?

0:33:57 > 0:34:00Where did that come from...? There was even that talk that he'd helped make IEDs.

0:34:00 > 0:34:03- Look, I...- I don't think the Taliban need a young American to teach them

0:34:03 > 0:34:05- how to make...- No, no, they have whole factories for that.

0:34:05 > 0:34:09- See what I mean? Where did that come from?- That's an excellent question, and the honest...

0:34:09 > 0:34:12Let me be... I've never talked to Megyn Kelly about this,

0:34:12 > 0:34:15I've never talked to her producers about this.

0:34:15 > 0:34:18The honest answer is - on the record, off the record -

0:34:18 > 0:34:21I have no idea where all those rumours came from.

0:34:21 > 0:34:24VOICEOVER: In fact, the source for these damaging allegations

0:34:24 > 0:34:26was the terrorists themselves.

0:34:27 > 0:34:29The leaked intelligence dossier

0:34:29 > 0:34:32reported by Fox News itself says that the source

0:34:32 > 0:34:35is a member of the Haqqani Network.

0:34:35 > 0:34:40A new contact, as it says, who's reliability has not yet been tested.

0:34:41 > 0:34:45Within the context of Fox News, the Fox News constellation,

0:34:45 > 0:34:47they have a lot of military guys

0:34:47 > 0:34:50who have had some little bit of titbits here and there.

0:34:50 > 0:34:53I think I'd like to believe my sources are better than theirs.

0:34:53 > 0:34:55I think mine might have been correct more than theirs.

0:34:55 > 0:34:57You know, at least for my sources,

0:34:57 > 0:35:00I talked to the guys who were in the room who were actually running the

0:35:00 > 0:35:02intelligence assets, so I know for a fact certain collection was

0:35:02 > 0:35:05conducted, I know certain information was obtained.

0:35:05 > 0:35:09The question now becomes how much of that is declassified

0:35:09 > 0:35:10or used in some forms.

0:35:10 > 0:35:12Is there another element to this?

0:35:12 > 0:35:15That it's not just about Bowe Bergdahl.

0:35:15 > 0:35:16He's become a political football...

0:35:16 > 0:35:19Exactly. It's all political, everything's political.

0:35:19 > 0:35:20And the target is the President.

0:35:20 > 0:35:22I don't necessarily think it's the President.

0:35:22 > 0:35:25I think it's the policy. At least, that's my perspective.

0:35:25 > 0:35:28I'm a think-tank guy. My guidance is, for my leadership,

0:35:28 > 0:35:29you need to protect the policy

0:35:29 > 0:35:31or the failings of the policy, that's it.

0:35:37 > 0:35:39Among Tony Shaffer's circle of ex-colleagues

0:35:39 > 0:35:44in military intelligence is Lieutenant General Mike Flynn.

0:35:44 > 0:35:48He'd been a director of the conservative think-tank

0:35:48 > 0:35:49Shaffer worked for.

0:35:51 > 0:35:54Mike Flynn was a close adviser to Donald Trump during the election

0:35:54 > 0:35:57campaign, and became the new President's

0:35:57 > 0:36:00first National Security adviser.

0:36:01 > 0:36:06He'd been in charge of intelligence operations in Afghanistan in 2009,

0:36:06 > 0:36:08when Bergdahl went missing.

0:36:09 > 0:36:16For the first 24 to 72 hours, I mean, we were in crisis operations,

0:36:16 > 0:36:21and we were... I was personally diverting every single capability,

0:36:21 > 0:36:23human intelligence-wise,

0:36:23 > 0:36:26to signals intelligence to unmanned aerial vehicles

0:36:26 > 0:36:28to space-based systems.

0:36:28 > 0:36:32I mean, we really turned on to find this soldier.

0:36:32 > 0:36:35Obviously, what he found out was that these people that

0:36:35 > 0:36:37he wanted to go and meet,

0:36:37 > 0:36:39when he decided he was going to leave that base,

0:36:39 > 0:36:41they turned out to be not such nice people.

0:36:41 > 0:36:44So you believe, sir, that he did walk off the base

0:36:44 > 0:36:47with the intention of meeting the Taliban?

0:36:47 > 0:36:48Absolutely.

0:36:48 > 0:36:51- Absolutely.- Cos that's different to just walking off-base,

0:36:51 > 0:36:53- even deserting...- Yeah.

0:36:53 > 0:36:57I think he walked off that base with the intention of deserting his unit

0:36:57 > 0:37:00to meet somebody out on the battlefield

0:37:00 > 0:37:03from the other...from the previous operations

0:37:03 > 0:37:04that they were involved in,

0:37:04 > 0:37:07and for what reason, I don't know.

0:37:07 > 0:37:10Whatever they discover and whatever investigations they can find,

0:37:10 > 0:37:15whatever they find, for Mike Flynn, I know what this kid did.

0:37:15 > 0:37:17He walked off of his camp when he shouldn't have,

0:37:17 > 0:37:19and he deserted his team.

0:37:23 > 0:37:26Something that came up right at the beginning -

0:37:26 > 0:37:27the guys on the base,

0:37:27 > 0:37:30they were listening in on their radios to Taliban radio.

0:37:30 > 0:37:33- Yep.- And they intercepted a call,

0:37:33 > 0:37:38and at the time they deciphered it as, or they translated it as -

0:37:38 > 0:37:41"We've got an American soldier here with a camera

0:37:41 > 0:37:44"trying to find someone who speaks English.

0:37:44 > 0:37:46"He wants to talk to the Taliban."

0:37:46 > 0:37:49Yes. I got that report.

0:37:49 > 0:37:52So, what you just said, I saw that report.

0:37:52 > 0:37:55That was later partially discredited.

0:37:55 > 0:37:57But maybe it was a mistranslation, or...

0:37:57 > 0:38:01- Do you feel...?- Well, whatever the translation was, I remember that.

0:38:01 > 0:38:04I remember that particular one, so, if it was mistranslated,

0:38:04 > 0:38:06which I don't think it was...

0:38:07 > 0:38:10What I was trying to match was,

0:38:10 > 0:38:13I was trying to match that kind of information with what we were being

0:38:13 > 0:38:16told by his unit and, then, when these guys said,

0:38:16 > 0:38:19"Hey, we found a US soldier, here's what he's got,"

0:38:19 > 0:38:24it just made a lot a sense that, wow, this guy deserted.

0:38:26 > 0:38:30During his captivity, I know the US military were getting reports

0:38:30 > 0:38:34that Bowe had converted, that he was working with the enemy...

0:38:34 > 0:38:37- Yeah. All kinds of stuff. - Did you believe those reports?

0:38:37 > 0:38:38I didn't believe any of it.

0:38:38 > 0:38:41I really didn't. The enemy is going to lie.

0:38:41 > 0:38:45They're going to... You know, they're going to deceive you all the time.

0:38:45 > 0:38:47And they're smart about it. Those guys are very good about it.

0:38:47 > 0:38:49I did hear someone say

0:38:49 > 0:38:52the Haqqanis are better at this stuff than we are.

0:38:52 > 0:38:54They are incredibly good at it.

0:38:54 > 0:38:56I mean, you know,

0:38:56 > 0:39:01I've seen where we've run after ghosts

0:39:01 > 0:39:03because of somebody, you know,

0:39:03 > 0:39:08somebody taking their cellphone and making a call knowing that we were

0:39:08 > 0:39:13listening and saying something that they knew to be, you know,

0:39:13 > 0:39:15part of their sort of code system,

0:39:15 > 0:39:19just to cause us to divert resources.

0:39:22 > 0:39:25So, even though Mike Flynn was quickly convinced

0:39:25 > 0:39:27Bergdahl had deserted,

0:39:27 > 0:39:31he knew that some of the most serious allegations against Bergdahl

0:39:31 > 0:39:33were deliberate enemy disinformation.

0:39:35 > 0:39:38But other damaging and highly contentious allegations came

0:39:38 > 0:39:41from within the US military itself.

0:39:42 > 0:39:47Six soldiers, they were killed after it was known

0:39:47 > 0:39:51- Bergdahl was in Pakistan. - Yeah.- Does that...?

0:39:51 > 0:39:55They were on operations that were for the purpose

0:39:55 > 0:39:58of trying to find that soldier.

0:39:58 > 0:39:59What's the date today?

0:39:59 > 0:40:02It's July 14th of 2009.

0:40:02 > 0:40:07But at what point did you know that Bowe Bergdahl was in Pakistan?

0:40:07 > 0:40:09Because it was within days,

0:40:09 > 0:40:13if not a week or two, that the Haqqanis had him in Pakistan.

0:40:13 > 0:40:17Sure, yeah. And so, in hindsight, we knew that.

0:40:17 > 0:40:19We know that.

0:40:19 > 0:40:22And I'm not sure if it was days or weeks, or even a week,

0:40:22 > 0:40:26but I think, in hindsight, we know that now.

0:40:26 > 0:40:27At the time...

0:40:29 > 0:40:31..we did not know that.

0:40:31 > 0:40:34We knew that they were trying to get him across the border.

0:40:40 > 0:40:44I was wondering whether Flynn would acknowledge that a lot of the flak

0:40:44 > 0:40:47directed at Bergdahl was, in fact, political,

0:40:47 > 0:40:50that the real target was President Obama.

0:40:52 > 0:40:56A lot of this has become a political angle because, later on,

0:40:56 > 0:40:58the White House were also wrapping up the war,

0:40:58 > 0:41:00and bringing back Bowe seemed to be kind of,

0:41:00 > 0:41:02they were making it political...

0:41:02 > 0:41:04Yeah, they did. They absolutely made this political.

0:41:04 > 0:41:07This was another, you know, "We're finishing the problem."

0:41:07 > 0:41:12You know, "We've... We're pulling out, and bringing Bowe Bergdahl home

0:41:12 > 0:41:17"is another page that we turn in the closure of this never-ending war."

0:41:17 > 0:41:22Well, the tragedy of getting into it is, you know,

0:41:22 > 0:41:25shows the complexity of getting out of it.

0:41:25 > 0:41:29And you can't just give a big speech and call it a day.

0:41:29 > 0:41:32- Right.- It doesn't work like that. Warfare doesn't work like that.

0:41:34 > 0:41:38But not all senior soldiers involved in the Bergdahl affair agreed with

0:41:38 > 0:41:40General Mike Flynn.

0:41:40 > 0:41:44- ..so help me God. - I do.- Please be seated.

0:41:44 > 0:41:47One of them is Lieutenant Colonel Jason Amerine,

0:41:47 > 0:41:51who had led the special operation to negotiate Bowe's release.

0:41:51 > 0:41:53He'd been privy to all the intel.

0:41:54 > 0:41:58In early 2013, my office was asked to help get Sergeant Bergdahl home.

0:42:00 > 0:42:02I asked him for his expert assessment

0:42:02 > 0:42:04on the most serious allegations in the media -

0:42:04 > 0:42:07that Bowe had intended to go over to the enemy,

0:42:07 > 0:42:12and why those making the allegations seemed so certain they were right.

0:42:12 > 0:42:14Let's start with certainty.

0:42:14 > 0:42:16- Yeah.- Erm...

0:42:18 > 0:42:20I do not believe

0:42:20 > 0:42:23he went off to join the Taliban and then for some reason

0:42:23 > 0:42:25they changed their mind and made him a prisoner.

0:42:25 > 0:42:27I don't believe it.

0:42:27 > 0:42:31I saw indicators that that wasn't the case,

0:42:31 > 0:42:34but I can't say with certainty that didn't happen.

0:42:34 > 0:42:37There's been a year and a half of allegations on the media.

0:42:39 > 0:42:40They seem to...

0:42:41 > 0:42:44..echo the intel reports coming out at the time.

0:42:44 > 0:42:47Intel reports are intel reports.

0:42:47 > 0:42:49If I'm out on the street and

0:42:49 > 0:42:54I have some intel source that, you know, I'm probably paying money to,

0:42:54 > 0:42:59and I say to that source, "Hey, so I hear that Bergdahl's a traitor."

0:42:59 > 0:43:02You know, "Do you have any information on that?"

0:43:02 > 0:43:04Hey, he's gone to get me a tonne of information on it.

0:43:06 > 0:43:10That's a shoddy form of intelligence gathering.

0:43:10 > 0:43:12I mean, I would hear...

0:43:13 > 0:43:17..so many second-hand accounts of his acts of treason, you know,

0:43:17 > 0:43:19and...

0:43:22 > 0:43:25..so many of them were seriously discounted.

0:43:25 > 0:43:28If Bergdahl was out there training the Taliban in how to conduct an

0:43:28 > 0:43:31ambush, there would be a video of it,

0:43:31 > 0:43:34because that would be better propaganda than, you know,

0:43:34 > 0:43:37the actual operational impact of an ambush.

0:43:37 > 0:43:40- Yeah.- There are things like that that I would hear the stories

0:43:40 > 0:43:43and I would say, "OK, well, where is the evidence?"

0:43:43 > 0:43:44And I wouldn't see the evidence.

0:43:44 > 0:43:46It was known he was in Pakistan

0:43:46 > 0:43:49before all those soldiers were killed looking for him

0:43:49 > 0:43:52- in Afghanistan.- Yeah, but, I mean, where it gets difficult is...

0:43:52 > 0:43:55I have no doubt that there were young soldiers,

0:43:55 > 0:43:59weeks and weeks after his capture, that really did believe that

0:43:59 > 0:44:02they might find Bergdahl somewhere in southern Afghanistan.

0:44:02 > 0:44:04But the command knew he was in Pakistan.

0:44:04 > 0:44:08Well, but, that doesn't... That doesn't help the families of a loved one.

0:44:08 > 0:44:09- OK.- If my son, you know,

0:44:09 > 0:44:12if Private Jason out there died looking for Bergdahl,

0:44:12 > 0:44:16and that's what all the other privates are saying he died doing,

0:44:16 > 0:44:19and then Bergdahl doesn't go to jail, I mean,

0:44:19 > 0:44:24you're going to have horrified people that simply

0:44:24 > 0:44:27never understood the big picture of what was going on -

0:44:27 > 0:44:29if we even understand the big picture.

0:44:37 > 0:44:41It was clear that Lieutenant Colonel Amerine had himself seen no credible

0:44:41 > 0:44:44intelligence that Bergdahl had actually intended to go over to the

0:44:44 > 0:44:47Taliban, nor had in fact done so.

0:44:49 > 0:44:52So, what was the source of those grave allegations?

0:44:56 > 0:45:00David Sedney had been the senior Department of Defense officer in

0:45:00 > 0:45:02Afghanistan at the time,

0:45:02 > 0:45:06and had total access to all classified intelligence.

0:45:06 > 0:45:10Very shortly, through...I would call the military grapevine,

0:45:10 > 0:45:12there began to be reports,

0:45:12 > 0:45:15and this would be things coming from sergeants and privates and stuff,

0:45:15 > 0:45:19that he had left with the intention of trying to negotiate with

0:45:19 > 0:45:23the Taliban. So we heard those rumours through the grapevine

0:45:23 > 0:45:27inside the US military, but I never saw any evidence it was true, and

0:45:27 > 0:45:32I never saw any evidence that anybody took any action

0:45:32 > 0:45:36based on those kind of rumours and innuendo.

0:45:36 > 0:45:40- Rumint.- Well, rumint...

0:45:40 > 0:45:41This is rumour intelligence.

0:45:41 > 0:45:44Rumoured intelligence, but it's also people who are sincere,

0:45:44 > 0:45:47people who believe they saw somebody, who could have been an American,

0:45:47 > 0:45:49almost anywhere in Afghanistan.

0:45:49 > 0:45:52These aren't just rumours coming in from Afghan sources.

0:45:52 > 0:45:55Your own people are telling you that Bowe walked off-base

0:45:55 > 0:45:58with the intention of meeting the Taliban.

0:45:58 > 0:46:00It was all based upon supposition,

0:46:00 > 0:46:03and that supposition all came, actually, from a very small

0:46:03 > 0:46:05group of people, and those were the ones who served with him.

0:46:09 > 0:46:12My own belief is that a certain percentage of the so-called rumours

0:46:12 > 0:46:16that you talked about are things that people have just made up

0:46:16 > 0:46:19because they became so convinced of the fragments

0:46:19 > 0:46:22of what they'd heard that they constructed a narrative

0:46:22 > 0:46:24that became real in their own minds.

0:46:24 > 0:46:26And I've talked to these people.

0:46:26 > 0:46:30These are people who are captains and colonels, who believe -

0:46:30 > 0:46:32in the US military, or were at the time -

0:46:32 > 0:46:34who believed the kind of things you said.

0:46:34 > 0:46:37They believed it cos other people in their social structure,

0:46:37 > 0:46:39other people in the US Army told them,

0:46:39 > 0:46:41and they are accustomed to believing

0:46:41 > 0:46:44and trusting what their comrades say.

0:46:52 > 0:46:56It's the claim that six soldiers from Bergdahl's battalion lost their

0:46:56 > 0:46:59lives searching for him that's amongst the most damaging

0:46:59 > 0:47:02of all the allegations. At least two soldiers searching for Bowe

0:47:02 > 0:47:07immediately after he deserted were seriously wounded.

0:47:07 > 0:47:11But the six soldiers named by candidate Trump

0:47:11 > 0:47:16were all killed between August 18th and September 6th, 2009 -

0:47:16 > 0:47:19at least seven weeks after Bowe went missing.

0:47:21 > 0:47:26Army investigations into each death concluded that none were on missions

0:47:26 > 0:47:28whose purpose was to find Bergdahl.

0:47:29 > 0:47:31They died sometime after the Pentagon

0:47:31 > 0:47:35had ended the intense search-and-rescue mission for Bowe Bergdahl,

0:47:35 > 0:47:37and when intelligence was saying

0:47:37 > 0:47:39he'd already been moved into Pakistan.

0:47:43 > 0:47:46- What's your name? - My name is Bowe Bergdahl.

0:47:46 > 0:47:52At what point did you know Private Bergdahl was not only missing,

0:47:52 > 0:47:54but in fact had been captured?

0:47:54 > 0:47:58As the week went by,

0:47:58 > 0:48:01it did become clear that he had been...

0:48:01 > 0:48:05He was in the possession of...groups

0:48:05 > 0:48:09that were at least affiliated with the Haqqani group in Pakistan,

0:48:09 > 0:48:12and we knew, from past experience, that anyone who they captured,

0:48:12 > 0:48:16they would move to their headquarters in Pakistan.

0:48:16 > 0:48:18Within, I would say, a matter of weeks,

0:48:18 > 0:48:21it was clear that he was in Pakistan.

0:48:21 > 0:48:23What's the day today?

0:48:23 > 0:48:26It's July 14th of 2009.

0:48:26 > 0:48:29Once Private Bergdahl was taken,

0:48:29 > 0:48:33the Haqqanis communicated a request for an exchange,

0:48:33 > 0:48:36plus a monetary ransom.

0:48:36 > 0:48:39The overwhelming probability, then, at that point,

0:48:39 > 0:48:41was that he was there, and

0:48:41 > 0:48:44under their control, and in Pakistan.

0:48:46 > 0:48:49Rumours that I mentioned, feelings inside the military,

0:48:49 > 0:48:53has been used politically by people in the US political system

0:48:53 > 0:48:57to try and attack the President, so it's become involved...

0:48:57 > 0:48:59Bowe's case become a political football, you're saying?

0:48:59 > 0:49:02He's become a political... His case has become a political football for

0:49:02 > 0:49:06some people in a way that I personally think is disgusting.

0:49:06 > 0:49:10We have a guy... Six young people, great people,

0:49:10 > 0:49:12were killed looking for him.

0:49:12 > 0:49:14A dirty, rotten traitor.

0:49:14 > 0:49:18Donald Trump repeated the discounted claim about the six soldiers

0:49:18 > 0:49:21time after time on the campaign trail.

0:49:21 > 0:49:26Six young, beautiful people were killed trying to find him, right?

0:49:26 > 0:49:29Six people were killed looking for him, OK?

0:49:29 > 0:49:32Six people were killed. Young, unbelievable...

0:49:32 > 0:49:33I watched the parents on television.

0:49:44 > 0:49:48On September 18th, 2015,

0:49:48 > 0:49:50six months after being charged with desertion

0:49:50 > 0:49:53and endangering the lives of his fellow soldiers,

0:49:53 > 0:49:57Sergeant Bergdahl was finally due at a pre-trial hearing in Texas.

0:50:04 > 0:50:08If he's convicted, he could face a life sentence.

0:50:08 > 0:50:11That is the latest from Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio.

0:50:11 > 0:50:13Casey Stegall, Fox 66 news.

0:50:15 > 0:50:18- OK. Finished everything, we're all good.- OK.

0:50:18 > 0:50:21- How are you, Casey?- Hi. Good. How are you?- I've got the camera

0:50:21 > 0:50:24on you today! Hang on, you had the camera on me yesterday!

0:50:24 > 0:50:25I know.

0:50:25 > 0:50:27I don't know if Fox will allow this.

0:50:27 > 0:50:29- Really?- Yeah.

0:50:32 > 0:50:33The hearing's going on downstairs.

0:50:33 > 0:50:36I just got my first-ever sight of Bowe.

0:50:36 > 0:50:39It was quite strange to see him sitting there...

0:50:41 > 0:50:44..in his dress blue uniform, head bowed, sitting next to his lawyer.

0:50:46 > 0:50:49And it's in a small room, no cameras allowed.

0:50:49 > 0:50:52Which is why all the cameras

0:50:52 > 0:50:54are here behind me.

0:50:54 > 0:50:56We will, of course, continue to keep you updated.

0:50:56 > 0:50:59From Fort Sam Houston, I'm Amanda Weber.

0:50:59 > 0:51:02For the first time since his release,

0:51:02 > 0:51:05journalists, and through them the American public,

0:51:05 > 0:51:08were beginning to hear Bowe Bergdahl's side of the story.

0:51:10 > 0:51:12According to Major General Dahl,

0:51:12 > 0:51:15who led the investigation into Bergdahl's disappearance,

0:51:15 > 0:51:18Bowe's explanation for leaving his outpost

0:51:18 > 0:51:22was that he intended to walk to another base several miles away

0:51:22 > 0:51:24to make a complaint to senior officers

0:51:24 > 0:51:27about the leadership issues in his own unit.

0:51:30 > 0:51:34Major General Kenneth Dahl says Bergdahl left the operating post

0:51:34 > 0:51:36he was stationed at

0:51:36 > 0:51:39to try to get to a forward operating base 31km away.

0:51:39 > 0:51:42Dahl said Bergdahl wanted to cause a search-and-rescue operation so

0:51:42 > 0:51:45he could get a face-to-face with the general,

0:51:45 > 0:51:48because he wanted to air grievances he had with his unit leadership.

0:51:48 > 0:51:52The Major General who conducted the Army's two-month investigation into

0:51:52 > 0:51:56Bergdahl's actions was asked if he thought Bergdahl should go to jail.

0:51:56 > 0:51:59Dahl said he thinks jail time would be inappropriate in this case.

0:51:59 > 0:52:02General Kenneth Dahl replied

0:52:02 > 0:52:05that a jail sentence would be inappropriate.

0:52:05 > 0:52:09Live at Fort Sam Houston, KSAT 12 News.

0:52:09 > 0:52:13The defence case today, I thought was a blockbuster.

0:52:13 > 0:52:15I thought that, you know,

0:52:15 > 0:52:20they had the Major General who did this exhaustive investigation,

0:52:20 > 0:52:22who says

0:52:22 > 0:52:28he shouldn't go to jail, who says he is an idealistic, naive, misguided,

0:52:28 > 0:52:31odd young man.

0:52:31 > 0:52:35That then is, um, superseded...

0:52:35 > 0:52:38I mean, even overdone with the next guy,

0:52:38 > 0:52:42who is this former SERE instructor.

0:52:42 > 0:52:47He weeps on the stand as he recalls the suffering

0:52:47 > 0:52:51and the honour of Bergdahl while in captivity.

0:52:54 > 0:52:59That guy was Terrence Russell, from the DoD team debriefing Bergdahl.

0:52:59 > 0:53:01He told the hushed courtroom that

0:53:01 > 0:53:04Bowe was repeatedly badly beaten with cables,

0:53:04 > 0:53:06tortured, and left in his own excrement.

0:53:08 > 0:53:11Bowe, he testified, had escaped on at least two occasions,

0:53:11 > 0:53:14once lasting eight days,

0:53:14 > 0:53:19and he was then held in a seven-foot metal cage for three years.

0:53:19 > 0:53:22The torture he endured, according to Russell,

0:53:22 > 0:53:27was the worst suffered by any POW since the war in Vietnam.

0:53:36 > 0:53:38I've just had to come out for a cigarette because...

0:53:40 > 0:53:42..it's mind-blowing.

0:53:43 > 0:53:47I've just been listening to the testimony of a hostage specialist

0:53:47 > 0:53:49at the Department of Defense.

0:53:51 > 0:53:55A hostage specialist who's debriefed more than 150 prisoners of war.

0:53:55 > 0:53:59And he ended his testimony in tears, saying he'd never seen...

0:54:15 > 0:54:20This hard-core expert had to wipe tears from his eyes,

0:54:20 > 0:54:22and his voice cracked with emotion.

0:54:22 > 0:54:24You could have heard a pin drop

0:54:24 > 0:54:27in the hearing room and in the viewing room.

0:54:27 > 0:54:30I would say the last two days were a game-changer.

0:54:30 > 0:54:31Erm...

0:54:31 > 0:54:35His side had never been out there, and although he didn't testify,

0:54:35 > 0:54:39I think we in the media at least, and hopefully our viewers eventually,

0:54:39 > 0:54:43will have a sense of what the real story is.

0:54:43 > 0:54:46And I don't think the real story was out there until

0:54:46 > 0:54:4848 hours ago.

0:54:48 > 0:54:51We've heard so many allegations on the media.

0:54:51 > 0:54:53Not just Fox, but...

0:54:54 > 0:54:57What we heard in there today from the military experts who

0:54:57 > 0:55:01investigated him was something completely different,

0:55:01 > 0:55:05- and it was a little bit shocking, wasn't it?- Oh, clearly.

0:55:05 > 0:55:11I... I just felt like I had not heard the story until now.

0:55:11 > 0:55:14I think that we have not heard the story until now.

0:55:14 > 0:55:17And I think probably Bergdahl's story hasn't been told.

0:55:17 > 0:55:21- Maybe you're going to tell it. - I hope to.- Yeah, yeah.

0:55:21 > 0:55:24You know the next question I'm asking you?

0:55:26 > 0:55:28- Go for it.- You're a journalist... - Uh-huh.

0:55:28 > 0:55:33- Who do you work for?- I'm working in this case with Fox News Channel.

0:55:36 > 0:55:38But back at Fox News,

0:55:38 > 0:55:42Tony Shaffer was as passionate and polemical as ever.

0:55:42 > 0:55:45The testimony hadn't shifted his view at all.

0:55:45 > 0:55:46Do you buy that defence?

0:55:46 > 0:55:51He was just simply wanting to go out there and report discipline problems

0:55:51 > 0:55:54- inside of his unit.- I think I buy space alien abduction

0:55:54 > 0:55:58before I buy that. I mean, come on, let's take this seriously.

0:55:58 > 0:56:00Also, I've heard a thing about torture.

0:56:00 > 0:56:03"Oh, I was tortured." Gee, I think if you walk outside the wire,

0:56:03 > 0:56:06present yourself to the enemy, they capture you...

0:56:06 > 0:56:09I think you kind of created your own circumstance

0:56:09 > 0:56:10for your own bad actions.

0:56:10 > 0:56:13So I don't buy it at all, not remotely.

0:56:13 > 0:56:17Unsurprisingly, Mike Flynn wasn't buying it either.

0:56:17 > 0:56:20Major General Dahl said he believed Bowe Bergdahl when he said he walked

0:56:20 > 0:56:24off-base to try and walk to another base to make a complaint.

0:56:24 > 0:56:26Yeah, and if Kenny Dahl, Major General Dahl, who I know,

0:56:26 > 0:56:29was sitting right here where you're sitting, I would say,

0:56:29 > 0:56:32"Kenny, that's bullshit. You really believe that?"

0:56:36 > 0:56:38Hello, Bob. Can you hear me, guys?

0:56:38 > 0:56:42- Yes.- Well, I just wanted to call you.

0:56:42 > 0:56:44The hearing ended.

0:56:44 > 0:56:46And I just met Bowe.

0:56:47 > 0:56:50It looked like a good day for Bowe.

0:56:50 > 0:56:54A likely end to the unfolding judicial process.

0:56:54 > 0:56:57But it would be up to the presiding officer to decide whether to accept

0:56:57 > 0:57:00the general's recommendations of no jail time,

0:57:00 > 0:57:03and that this case should not now go to a full court martial.

0:57:05 > 0:57:07I guess this is a good day, isn't it?

0:57:08 > 0:57:10This is a good day.

0:57:10 > 0:57:14Ever since the first day he was released -

0:57:14 > 0:57:18we've had good days ever since then, no matter what has happened,

0:57:18 > 0:57:20because it was an unprecedented miracle

0:57:20 > 0:57:22that he is out of that alive.

0:57:24 > 0:57:28For us to know that he was tortured the way he was...

0:57:28 > 0:57:32I think we thought that was a possibility.

0:57:32 > 0:57:35So, one of our contacts

0:57:35 > 0:57:39assured us that Bowe was being well taken care of,

0:57:39 > 0:57:42according to sharia law, etc.

0:57:42 > 0:57:46So, for us to find this out was shattering.

0:57:46 > 0:57:49- Oh, I see.- Shattering. And I think, you know,

0:57:49 > 0:57:54it's always niggled at the back of our mind that we could be lied to,

0:57:54 > 0:57:58and that could be a possibility and yet, you can't really go there...

0:57:58 > 0:58:02- No.- ..because if you go there, all is lost.

0:58:06 > 0:58:08Was that the first time in the hearing

0:58:08 > 0:58:11that it's really been laid out how...?

0:58:11 > 0:58:15Because I've never heard that phrase, "the worst case of prisoner abuse since Vietnam".

0:58:15 > 0:58:17No. We had not heard that either before.

0:58:17 > 0:58:19Erm...

0:58:19 > 0:58:22I could tell... I think I told you that before,

0:58:22 > 0:58:26in the Taliban's video of him sitting in the pick-up truck

0:58:26 > 0:58:28when they took the hood off,

0:58:28 > 0:58:32you could tell that he had not been treated perfectly.

0:58:32 > 0:58:36Apparently, according to the specialists, the military experts,

0:58:36 > 0:58:40before releasing him, before the handover, they fattened him up,

0:58:40 > 0:58:44- as it were.- Oh, did they?- Yeah. Took him out of the cage and...

0:58:44 > 0:58:45I had not heard that.

0:58:47 > 0:58:50I hope that gave him hope,

0:58:50 > 0:58:53but I know he probably had hope before.

0:58:55 > 0:58:59He probably didn't even know until he got in the helicopter

0:58:59 > 0:59:01that it was actually going to work this time.

0:59:03 > 0:59:06We feel

0:59:06 > 0:59:07very blessed.

0:59:07 > 0:59:09Our son is still alive.

0:59:09 > 0:59:13Other parents, you know, didn't have that blessing.

0:59:13 > 0:59:16And from the first day, just the fact that he was alive,

0:59:16 > 0:59:20we had to live with hope all those years.

0:59:20 > 0:59:22That's really all we have.

0:59:22 > 0:59:24And trust in God.

0:59:45 > 0:59:46A month after the hearing,

0:59:46 > 0:59:50there finally came some great news for Bowe and his family.

0:59:50 > 0:59:53The presiding officer recommended no further action against him.

0:59:55 > 0:59:57We've got Bergdahl,

0:59:57 > 1:00:00and yesterday I heard he probably won't even serve any time,

1:00:00 > 1:00:03and 30 years ago, he would have been shot.

1:00:03 > 1:00:05And people are tired of it.

1:00:08 > 1:00:11I wanted to hear first-hand from Terrence Russell -

1:00:11 > 1:00:14the expert with the military's Joint Personnel Recovery Agency,

1:00:14 > 1:00:18who debriefed Sergeant Bergdahl on his return home.

1:00:18 > 1:00:23His team were able to trace a lot of the allegations on the US media

1:00:23 > 1:00:25back to Haqqani disinformation.

1:00:27 > 1:00:29During the debriefing,

1:00:29 > 1:00:34talking to some of the intelligence debriefers about this

1:00:34 > 1:00:38and the information and the huge disparity between

1:00:38 > 1:00:43what had been reported while he was in captivity

1:00:43 > 1:00:46to what he was relating to us during the debriefing,

1:00:46 > 1:00:52they were absolutely amazed at the level of disinformation that the

1:00:52 > 1:00:57Taliban and the Haqqanis were spreading regarding Bowe Bergdahl.

1:00:57 > 1:01:03They didn't have any concept of just how widespread this disinformation

1:01:03 > 1:01:09was that they had been spreading about Bergdahl in captivity.

1:01:09 > 1:01:14So, what the reality was for Bowe Bergdahl was quite different

1:01:14 > 1:01:18than what the Taliban had been telling

1:01:18 > 1:01:21news sources and had been leaking and getting into

1:01:21 > 1:01:25the intelligence channels, much different than what they had been

1:01:25 > 1:01:30telling Bowe Bergdahl's mother and father, when Bob Bergdahl

1:01:30 > 1:01:31was in contact with them.

1:01:31 > 1:01:34They had said they were treating him well.

1:01:34 > 1:01:36Correct, right.

1:01:36 > 1:01:40And in fact, the conditions in captivity were horrible.

1:01:40 > 1:01:41It was anything but that.

1:01:41 > 1:01:44Scared I won't be able to go home.

1:01:46 > 1:01:50It is very unnerving to be prisoner.

1:01:51 > 1:01:56You were saying in the hearing that actually many of the allegations

1:01:56 > 1:01:58in the media against Bowe,

1:01:58 > 1:02:02you were able to trace back to Taliban, Haqqani misinformation

1:02:02 > 1:02:06- and propaganda.- Right. And that's exactly what it was.

1:02:06 > 1:02:10You know, they would keep everybody, you know...

1:02:10 > 1:02:15There's a reason the enemy uses disinformation and misinformation,

1:02:15 > 1:02:18and in this case they did that,

1:02:18 > 1:02:23and it did not certainly serve Bowe Bergdahl well.

1:02:23 > 1:02:26People believe what they hear sometimes.

1:02:26 > 1:02:30And then, when you come to find out what the facts are of the case,

1:02:30 > 1:02:32that it was anything but,

1:02:32 > 1:02:35here you have a young soldier with no training doing his best

1:02:35 > 1:02:40to fight the enemy in a way that nobody else has to fight the enemy.

1:02:40 > 1:02:45You couldn't ask for a better soldier in captivity

1:02:45 > 1:02:47than what Bowe Bergdahl did.

1:02:47 > 1:02:51He continued to fight the enemy, he continued to resist.

1:02:52 > 1:02:56He escaped within weeks of his initial capture.

1:02:58 > 1:03:01When they recaptured him and brought him back,

1:03:01 > 1:03:04they spread-eagled and secured him to a metal bedframe.

1:03:04 > 1:03:07While he was shackled to this metal bedframe

1:03:07 > 1:03:09in a spread-eagled position,

1:03:09 > 1:03:12they took a plastic pipe,

1:03:12 > 1:03:14I imagine it was like a plumbing pipe...

1:03:14 > 1:03:19- Yeah.- ..and they started beating his feet and has legs repeatedly

1:03:19 > 1:03:20with this plastic pipe.

1:03:20 > 1:03:24Later, they moved to using a copper cable.

1:03:24 > 1:03:27The idea was to just beat him

1:03:27 > 1:03:30and injure his legs and his feet

1:03:30 > 1:03:33so that she could not walk away again.

1:03:36 > 1:03:40A year after his initial escape, he escapes a second time.

1:03:41 > 1:03:46Trying everything that he can do to get away from his captors.

1:03:47 > 1:03:51Now, when he got recaptured, I ask him,

1:03:51 > 1:03:55you know, "If they tortured you the first time,

1:03:55 > 1:03:57"what did they do to you the second time?"

1:04:01 > 1:04:06And they had him take his shirt off and they saw that he was nothing but

1:04:06 > 1:04:10skin over bones. He had been out evading for eight and a half days,

1:04:10 > 1:04:13living on grass and water.

1:04:13 > 1:04:18He was physically at his limit.

1:04:18 > 1:04:22Bowe Bergdahl said that they knew that if they started beating him and

1:04:22 > 1:04:26torturing him that they were likely to kill him.

1:04:26 > 1:04:28And that's not what they wanted to do.

1:04:28 > 1:04:34They wanted him as a mechanism to gain some benefit.

1:04:35 > 1:04:38So, they didn't abuse him.

1:04:38 > 1:04:40But what they did do

1:04:40 > 1:04:42was almost as bad -

1:04:42 > 1:04:45putting him into a cage for three and a half years

1:04:45 > 1:04:49and just shoving him in a dark corner and not dealing with him,

1:04:49 > 1:04:54and barely keeping him alive over that long period of time.

1:05:00 > 1:05:05Being held in a cage with a hood over your head

1:05:05 > 1:05:08for not just weeks at a time, months at a time,

1:05:08 > 1:05:10but for three and a half years,

1:05:10 > 1:05:12he was held in solitary confinement.

1:05:12 > 1:05:15He was held in isolation,

1:05:15 > 1:05:19and that isolation is psychologically just devastating.

1:05:28 > 1:05:33What do you say to those who now say Bowe Bergdahl should be punished

1:05:33 > 1:05:35for walking off his base?

1:05:35 > 1:05:37Well, I think that he does...

1:05:37 > 1:05:41You know, we live by the code of conduct and, for military members,

1:05:41 > 1:05:43this code of conduct is important,

1:05:43 > 1:05:46and that code of conduct says you are responsible for your actions.

1:05:46 > 1:05:50I believe that Bowe Bergdahl should be held responsible for his actions

1:05:50 > 1:05:53relative to leaving that post, but, you know,

1:05:53 > 1:05:57it's my opinion that to say that he deserted with no intention of

1:05:57 > 1:06:01coming back flies in the face of what the facts are.

1:06:01 > 1:06:04Yes, he left his post and, you know,

1:06:04 > 1:06:06the reasons for that have been reported,

1:06:06 > 1:06:09but it was not to go over to the enemy.

1:06:11 > 1:06:16It's just absolutely crazy that anybody would consider him

1:06:16 > 1:06:19to be a traitor when, in fact,

1:06:19 > 1:06:23he was, in captivity, an honourable soldier.

1:06:32 > 1:06:34Terrence Russell was right.

1:06:34 > 1:06:39In captivity, Bowe had resisted the enemy like a one-man army.

1:06:39 > 1:06:42So, why did he walk off-base?

1:06:42 > 1:06:45I went back to Idaho to talk to his family.

1:06:57 > 1:07:00Sorry, you're not cooking dinner, are you?

1:07:00 > 1:07:01I am.

1:07:01 > 1:07:07- Corn bread.- I've lost count of how many meals you've made me.

1:07:07 > 1:07:11- Well, I love to cook. - You know what I did hear?

1:07:11 > 1:07:14- What?- That the first food Bowe asked for was peanut butter

1:07:14 > 1:07:17- when he got released.- Yeah, yeah.

1:07:17 > 1:07:21If you'd asked anybody in the family, they would have known that.

1:07:24 > 1:07:28I wanted to ask Bob what he knew about Bowe's psychological problems.

1:07:28 > 1:07:31In the pre-trial hearing, Bowe's mental health issues

1:07:31 > 1:07:33had been a critical issue.

1:07:35 > 1:07:37In his journals at the time, there was a two-page...

1:07:37 > 1:07:41where he is writing "zip or Velcro, zip or Velcro, zip or Velcro,"

1:07:41 > 1:07:43over two pages.

1:07:46 > 1:07:47It looks to me like...

1:07:48 > 1:07:50On the edge of a nervous breakdown.

1:07:50 > 1:07:54- I don't know what that is. - I think that's absolutely correct.

1:07:54 > 1:07:59- OK.- I think anybody who is entertaining ideas

1:07:59 > 1:08:05like running 18 miles to a FOB is...has broken down.

1:08:05 > 1:08:09What did come up in the hearing was that your son,

1:08:09 > 1:08:14after 23, 29 days in the US Coast Guard, had been rejected as,

1:08:14 > 1:08:19and the term was... They used the phrase "psychologically unfit".

1:08:19 > 1:08:22No-one was saying... You know, that's just a medical report.

1:08:22 > 1:08:27- Right.- But he was found there, in the base, the US Coast Guard,

1:08:27 > 1:08:31sort of...hands on his head, some blood on his hands,

1:08:31 > 1:08:34and so he was asked to leave on medical reasons.

1:08:34 > 1:08:37Knowing what you knew from what happened in the US Coast Guard,

1:08:37 > 1:08:38were you not really concerned?

1:08:38 > 1:08:42No, we didn't know that. We learned about his short stint

1:08:42 > 1:08:46in the Coast Guard when his effects came home and we saw this...

1:08:46 > 1:08:50..order dismissing him from the Cost Guard.

1:08:50 > 1:08:52Oh, my God.

1:08:55 > 1:08:58It was becoming more and more clear to me that Bowe should never have

1:08:58 > 1:09:00been allowed to join the US Army

1:09:00 > 1:09:02because of the psychological problems for which

1:09:02 > 1:09:04the US Coast Guard had thrown him out.

1:09:05 > 1:09:09But when he joined up in 2008, knowing about his problems,

1:09:09 > 1:09:12the US Army issued him a medical waiver.

1:09:22 > 1:09:24Despite his psychological issues,

1:09:24 > 1:09:27Bowe had resisted the enemy in captivity.

1:09:27 > 1:09:29His father, on the other hand,

1:09:29 > 1:09:32reached out to the Taliban to save his son.

1:09:32 > 1:09:35And many said he went too far.

1:09:35 > 1:09:38But at least now Bob had shaved off his beard.

1:09:38 > 1:09:44I grew it in solidarity for my son's captivity

1:09:44 > 1:09:48in this prehistoric land of Afghanistan,

1:09:48 > 1:09:55where male, um, patriarchal culture

1:09:55 > 1:09:57is so dominant.

1:09:57 > 1:09:59Let me say something directly to the Taliban...

1:10:03 > 1:10:05HE SPEAKS PASHTO

1:10:08 > 1:10:13To be a good presuppositional Christian,

1:10:13 > 1:10:18I had to know the worldview of other people.

1:10:18 > 1:10:22I only speak a little Pashto, but I'm trying.

1:10:23 > 1:10:25HE CONTINUES IN PASHTO

1:10:29 > 1:10:32But you're now getting drawn in, and sympathetic,

1:10:32 > 1:10:37and now we know your son endured the worst torture any prisoner has faced

1:10:37 > 1:10:39since Vietnam.

1:10:40 > 1:10:42- Yeah.- These are people you were...

1:10:42 > 1:10:47Yeah, that hurts. And had I travelled there...

1:10:48 > 1:10:52..um, and discovered those facts...

1:10:55 > 1:10:57Yeah, the...

1:10:58 > 1:11:02These were people you were empathising with.

1:11:02 > 1:11:04Well, yeah. But...

1:11:04 > 1:11:06Putting your son spread-eagled. I don't want to be...

1:11:06 > 1:11:08- Empathising with...- I'll just give you one element -

1:11:08 > 1:11:11they were beating your son with copper cables

1:11:11 > 1:11:13and locking him in a cage.

1:11:13 > 1:11:15Yeah. Erm...

1:11:17 > 1:11:22If I had to discover that personally on my own, as his father,

1:11:22 > 1:11:26having been granted - quote unquote - "safe passage",

1:11:26 > 1:11:31it would probably have been completely revoked at that point.

1:11:31 > 1:11:35I do not live here, I live in Afghanistan.

1:11:35 > 1:11:38My cellphone is set on Afghan time.

1:11:38 > 1:11:42My weather is Afghan weather.

1:11:42 > 1:11:47I might be standing here, but I am living vicariously through my son.

1:11:47 > 1:11:50And appealing to the Taliban to save your son...

1:11:50 > 1:11:51Whatever. I don't care.

1:11:51 > 1:11:53You've reached out and you've lost the American public.

1:11:53 > 1:11:55I don't care. I don't care.

1:11:55 > 1:12:00If America hates me for getting my son back, well, then, fuck them!

1:12:00 > 1:12:02Yeah.

1:12:02 > 1:12:07If you don't understand that it's a father's capacity as a father

1:12:07 > 1:12:11to do everything he can to get his flesh and blood back...

1:12:11 > 1:12:12Yeah.

1:12:12 > 1:12:17..then you're condemning Abraham from getting Lot back.

1:12:17 > 1:12:18You're condemning biblical theology.

1:12:18 > 1:12:20Blood is thicker than water.

1:12:20 > 1:12:27- Right.- Jesus will go to the other end to save the lost sheep.

1:12:27 > 1:12:30He'll leave the ninety-nine to get the hundredth.

1:12:44 > 1:12:48As Christmas 2015 approached, Bob and Jani were still waiting

1:12:48 > 1:12:52for news about whether their son Bowe would face a court martial.

1:12:52 > 1:12:55Despite all their prayers for his safe return,

1:12:55 > 1:12:57their nightmare hadn't ended.

1:13:01 > 1:13:05So, that's 2008. And is that the last time you all saw him?

1:13:05 > 1:13:09Um... Yep, basically. Yep.

1:13:11 > 1:13:13- That's the last time I saw him. - Yeah.

1:13:20 > 1:13:22So, even tonight, as we sit here,

1:13:22 > 1:13:26the report's now gone to the General to decide whether this goes

1:13:26 > 1:13:31to court martial. So, you're still in the weeds with this.

1:13:31 > 1:13:35We're still in limbo. It's been over six and a half years now,

1:13:35 > 1:13:39and we're still in limbo as to...everything.

1:13:39 > 1:13:44One way or another. But our son is alive, and that's a miracle.

1:13:44 > 1:13:46I mean, Bob, I think, you know, I know Jani's worried.

1:13:46 > 1:13:48But when I think about it,

1:13:48 > 1:13:52that your son was captured and tortured by the enemy,

1:13:52 > 1:13:58and now being held on a base and put through mental torture here

1:13:58 > 1:14:00in America, really,

1:14:00 > 1:14:04it would be almost inhuman of you not to be angry and bitter.

1:14:07 > 1:14:10Yeah, Jani's the most forgiving person...

1:14:12 > 1:14:14..I've ever known and most people have ever known.

1:14:36 > 1:14:39But the Pentagon was under intense pressure to prosecute Bergdahl,

1:14:39 > 1:14:41and not just from the media.

1:14:41 > 1:14:45Senator John McCain, an ex-Vietnam POW,

1:14:45 > 1:14:48had threatened the Army that, if they didn't prosecute,

1:14:48 > 1:14:49the Senate would investigate.

1:15:04 > 1:15:09On December the 14th, 2015, General Robert Abrams,

1:15:09 > 1:15:12the Commander of US Army Forces Command,

1:15:12 > 1:15:15announced that Bowe would now face a full court martial.

1:15:16 > 1:15:20Another piece of breaking news related to Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl,

1:15:20 > 1:15:23that we're hearing he will now face a general court martial.

1:15:23 > 1:15:25Now, this is significant news, Brooke,

1:15:25 > 1:15:28in light of the fact that there was a recommendation that pretty much

1:15:28 > 1:15:32said, "You know what, I've reviewed this, I've evaluated this,

1:15:32 > 1:15:36"from the underlying Army investigator, and as a result of it,

1:15:36 > 1:15:38"we should really end this here."

1:15:38 > 1:15:41Well, the General, of course, went against that recommendation,

1:15:41 > 1:15:45and as a result of that, because of the full-blown trial that he's

1:15:45 > 1:15:49now exposed to, he could face a life sentence.

1:16:01 > 1:16:04I'd been trying to get an interview with Bowe since he was released,

1:16:04 > 1:16:07and now, finally, I'd got the call.

1:16:07 > 1:16:08Bowe was ready to talk.

1:16:12 > 1:16:14We agreed to meet in a remote farmhouse

1:16:14 > 1:16:16near his base in San Antonio, Texas.

1:16:16 > 1:16:21But I was now dreading coming face to face with my fellow hostage,

1:16:21 > 1:16:24because it would mean coming face to face with my own past.

1:16:26 > 1:16:31Some experiences are so traumatic they never quite fade into memory,

1:16:31 > 1:16:33but live forevermore in the present tense.

1:16:33 > 1:16:35And as I walked into that toolshed,

1:16:35 > 1:16:38it was like stepping back into my own cell.

1:16:45 > 1:16:48Now, listen, let me say hello first.

1:16:48 > 1:16:53Is that light OK, or is it too strong in your face?

1:16:53 > 1:16:57- No, it's all right. Don't worry about it.- Yeah.

1:16:59 > 1:17:03- Are you nervous?- Oh, yeah, certainly. No, I am nervous.

1:17:05 > 1:17:09I'm always nervous around people, though.

1:17:09 > 1:17:11I'm not sure people are really...

1:17:11 > 1:17:15And maybe no-one ever can begin to fathom what it's like to be held

1:17:15 > 1:17:18captive for five years.

1:17:18 > 1:17:20There are no rules to surviving.

1:17:20 > 1:17:23When you're in a survival mode, there really are no rules.

1:17:26 > 1:17:28Just to,

1:17:28 > 1:17:30you know...

1:17:30 > 1:17:34When it comes to drinking urine, when it comes to, you know,

1:17:34 > 1:17:36eating food that has been thrown in the dirt

1:17:36 > 1:17:41that, you know, is basically mixed with faeces,

1:17:41 > 1:17:44there's no rules to surviving.

1:17:44 > 1:17:48Every day, basically, you know, at some point in time I tell myself,

1:17:48 > 1:17:54"You're not making it out of this. You're a dead man." And that...

1:17:54 > 1:17:56Did you become used to being beaten?

1:17:56 > 1:17:58I mean, you were beaten with copper cables.

1:17:58 > 1:18:03Yeah, in the very beginning, that was the most frequent times for it.

1:18:03 > 1:18:06Erm...

1:18:06 > 1:18:09But then, after my escape, because my health had gotten so bad...

1:18:09 > 1:18:13I mean, that was another reason why I was able to escape,

1:18:13 > 1:18:16was because my health was going bad.

1:18:16 > 1:18:20You know, it was getting so bad

1:18:20 > 1:18:22that I was literally looking at myself,

1:18:22 > 1:18:25you know, looking at my joints, looking at my ribs and going...

1:18:27 > 1:18:30.."I'm just going to die here from sickness...

1:18:32 > 1:18:33.."or, you know, I can die escaping."

1:18:35 > 1:18:39I'm almost... I can't believe you kept trying to escape.

1:18:39 > 1:18:42That kind of courage...

1:18:42 > 1:18:45The first escape, the second escape... What kept driving you on?

1:18:45 > 1:18:49Because that's why you ended up enduring the worst case

1:18:49 > 1:18:53of prisoner abuse, that you kept escaping and

1:18:53 > 1:18:55they kept punishing you.

1:18:56 > 1:18:58Yeah, it's...

1:19:00 > 1:19:04You know, it's a combination of so many things, I think.

1:19:04 > 1:19:05And...

1:19:10 > 1:19:13And one of them...

1:19:13 > 1:19:16One of the things that drove me was...

1:19:18 > 1:19:21..you know, you get to that point of being executed.

1:19:21 > 1:19:25Like, you know, they showed me movies, or videos, home videos,

1:19:25 > 1:19:27of people being executed...

1:19:27 > 1:19:30- Yeah.- And, you know, it's extremely graphic,

1:19:30 > 1:19:34how a guy with his hands tied behind his back and his feet tied,

1:19:34 > 1:19:37you know, tied up, and their hands and feet are pulled up

1:19:37 > 1:19:40- so the guy's arching... - Yeah.

1:19:40 > 1:19:44And then they grab his hair, they grab his chin,

1:19:44 > 1:19:46and then they start sawing away at his neck,

1:19:46 > 1:19:49and they don't use sharp blades, and they don't go very fast.

1:19:49 > 1:19:53- No. I've seen it.- Yeah. - And they saw away.- Yeah.

1:19:53 > 1:19:58My greatest fear, I think, was having my throat cut in the dark.

1:19:58 > 1:19:59Yeah.

1:20:02 > 1:20:04Yeah, I don't think...

1:20:07 > 1:20:12I don't think there's anyone out there who would find that

1:20:12 > 1:20:15a very nice reality to find themselves in,

1:20:15 > 1:20:20the fact that the guys who are on the other side of the door...

1:20:20 > 1:20:24..they don't just cut people's throats,

1:20:24 > 1:20:30they delight in cutting people's throats, because it's culturally

1:20:30 > 1:20:32and religiously...

1:20:35 > 1:20:39..acceptable and delightful and justified.

1:20:42 > 1:20:44It wasn't

1:20:44 > 1:20:49being scared of dying, it was forcing myself to embrace

1:20:49 > 1:20:51that I was a dead man.

1:20:51 > 1:20:56That it didn't matter what direction I went in, if I stayed or if I went,

1:20:56 > 1:20:59or if I went,

1:20:59 > 1:21:02I was dead. And that fatalistic...

1:21:02 > 1:21:05And there's... That was where,

1:21:05 > 1:21:09you know, the moments of taking a deep breath and just saying,

1:21:09 > 1:21:11"Let it go," in the sense of life,

1:21:11 > 1:21:13you know?

1:21:20 > 1:21:26Late 2010 saw Bowe's longest escape, for eight days,

1:21:26 > 1:21:30confirmed by both US military intelligence and the Taliban.

1:21:32 > 1:21:37I'm sitting there in the corner with a room full of guys with AK-47s and

1:21:37 > 1:21:39pistols in their holsters.

1:21:39 > 1:21:43And, basically, I'm sitting there going,

1:21:43 > 1:21:46"I just escaped from, you know,

1:21:46 > 1:21:50"their house, after the guy that was guarding that house told me

1:21:50 > 1:21:53"that if I tried to escape they're going to kill me."

1:21:53 > 1:21:55And when I got to that room,

1:21:55 > 1:21:59when they first brought me into that room, and the Haqqani guy got there,

1:21:59 > 1:22:03he sat down in the middle of the room and he looks at me and he says,

1:22:03 > 1:22:08"Two days, we're going to kill you." And, you know,

1:22:08 > 1:22:10and I just sat there.

1:22:10 > 1:22:11Or...

1:22:13 > 1:22:16Yeah, I just sat there

1:22:16 > 1:22:21and everybody sat there, and then I just kind of looked down.

1:22:21 > 1:22:23You know, I looked up at him and I said, "Oh."

1:22:23 > 1:22:25And I look back down at my hands.

1:22:25 > 1:22:28Because I'm just sitting there, there's nothing...

1:22:28 > 1:22:31- You know, I was done. - You were resigned to your fate.

1:22:31 > 1:22:32Yeah, I was exhausted,

1:22:32 > 1:22:36my body was burned out and passing out from just standing up.

1:22:36 > 1:22:37And it didn't matter.

1:22:37 > 1:22:40You know, I had resigned myself to that.

1:22:42 > 1:22:44And that's when they came up with the cage,

1:22:44 > 1:22:47to stop him from ever escaping again.

1:22:49 > 1:22:52When you say cage, what is that? What are you talking about?

1:22:52 > 1:22:55It's a cage that was welded together.

1:22:55 > 1:23:01It was about seven foot long by about six foot wide

1:23:01 > 1:23:03and about maybe six feet by one inch tall.

1:23:03 > 1:23:06- And you're... How tall are you? You're...- Just shy of six feet.

1:23:06 > 1:23:09- So, you...- Yeah.- I mean, that was after that escape,

1:23:09 > 1:23:11that eight, ten-day escape, they decided,

1:23:11 > 1:23:15"This guy keeps running away, we're going to stick him in a cage."

1:23:15 > 1:23:18- Mm-hm. Yeah. That's it.- And how long were you in that cage for?

1:23:18 > 1:23:20For the remainder of the time.

1:23:20 > 1:23:22Everywhere I went, there was that cage.

1:23:22 > 1:23:24- How long was that?- So...- A year?

1:23:24 > 1:23:26First year, so...

1:23:26 > 1:23:30Second, third, fourth and into the fifth year.

1:23:30 > 1:23:32What, you were three or four years in a cage?

1:23:32 > 1:23:35Yeah. Yeah.

1:23:35 > 1:23:38And would you be kept in this cage

1:23:38 > 1:23:42at night? Would you be allowed out of the cage?

1:23:42 > 1:23:47For the majority of the time, the only times I was...

1:23:47 > 1:23:51When they first put the cage in the room and I was put into it,

1:23:51 > 1:23:56they would take me out twice a day to go to the latrine.

1:23:56 > 1:23:59And when I went to the latrine, they'd have to have handcuffs on me.

1:23:59 > 1:24:03So, basically the trade-off was, you know, for leaving the cage,

1:24:03 > 1:24:07I had to have handcuffs on me 24/7.

1:24:07 > 1:24:14And so I was that way for, you know, an extended period of time.

1:24:14 > 1:24:16Did you exercise in the cage?

1:24:16 > 1:24:19I couldn't actually exercise in the cage because the bar...

1:24:19 > 1:24:21It was an elevated cage,

1:24:21 > 1:24:23and the bars on the bottom were extremely thin and they cut into the

1:24:23 > 1:24:27bottoms of my feet, and then, in the first...

1:24:27 > 1:24:34Sorry, in the first year in the cage, the second winter,

1:24:34 > 1:24:36that was when my feet just went dead.

1:24:36 > 1:24:39The US military heard you'd, um,

1:24:39 > 1:24:41converted inside.

1:24:41 > 1:24:44They asked your father, by the way. They said, "What do you think?"

1:24:44 > 1:24:46And he said, "I don't believe it.

1:24:46 > 1:24:49"He'll only be doing that to fool them so he can escape."

1:24:49 > 1:24:52Mm-hm. Yeah.

1:24:52 > 1:24:53I think it's...

1:24:53 > 1:24:56If they actually... If they literally...

1:24:58 > 1:25:03..thought that was possible, then it just discredits the professional

1:25:03 > 1:25:07psychologists and professional investigators that were aware of...

1:25:07 > 1:25:09..you know, looking into who I was.

1:25:09 > 1:25:12You go talk to the people who I know,

1:25:12 > 1:25:15you go talk to the people who I was around most,

1:25:15 > 1:25:17and they're going to say, "No, he's not going to be

1:25:17 > 1:25:20"that type of a person." You know, it's...

1:25:20 > 1:25:21It's insulting, frankly.

1:25:21 > 1:25:27It's very insulting, the idea that they think I did that.

1:25:27 > 1:25:30People are now saying you should be put in jail, er...

1:25:30 > 1:25:33What's the...? Leavenworth, the military jail.

1:25:33 > 1:25:37- Yeah.- I mean, you could be facing

1:25:37 > 1:25:38five years in prison.

1:25:38 > 1:25:40Yeah.

1:25:41 > 1:25:43At least they had the decency of saying, you know,

1:25:43 > 1:25:45"I'm the guy who's going to cut your head off."

1:25:45 > 1:25:48But being back here, it's just like, you know,

1:25:48 > 1:25:52that guy who you just passed in the hallway with the piece of paperwork

1:25:52 > 1:25:56that he just had you sign could very easily be the person,

1:25:56 > 1:26:00or very easily be representing the people who are good to make sure

1:26:00 > 1:26:02that you spend the rest... You know, years in prison,

1:26:02 > 1:26:04or they're going to make sure that they hit you

1:26:04 > 1:26:06with everything they can.

1:26:06 > 1:26:10Donald Trump suggested in the old days you would have been shot.

1:26:10 > 1:26:12- Yeah.- When America was strong.

1:26:12 > 1:26:15- Mm-hm.- Did you see that?- Yeah.

1:26:15 > 1:26:18And that's... You might as well go

1:26:18 > 1:26:21back to kangaroo courts and lynch mobs.

1:26:21 > 1:26:23The people who want to hang me,

1:26:23 > 1:26:25you're never going to convince those people.

1:26:25 > 1:26:29The people who are to the point of saying, "Yeah, just shoot him,"

1:26:29 > 1:26:32you could never convince those people to change their minds.

1:26:32 > 1:26:34- And if...- It hurts, though? - It does hurt.

1:26:34 > 1:26:35These are your fellow countrymen.

1:26:35 > 1:26:38- Yeah.- Fellow soldiers.

1:26:38 > 1:26:42Yeah. It does hurt. However...you can't change that.

1:26:42 > 1:26:46So, you either dwell on it or you just simply say, "OK,"

1:26:46 > 1:26:48and you move on.

1:26:49 > 1:26:51And when this airs,

1:26:51 > 1:26:54you may be facing a jail sentence.

1:26:54 > 1:26:55Possibly, yes.

1:27:03 > 1:27:06Ladies and gentlemen, the next President of the United States,

1:27:06 > 1:27:09Donald Trump!

1:27:09 > 1:27:11Thank you, it's been an honour. God bless.

1:27:11 > 1:27:12Thank God.

1:27:17 > 1:27:19Bowe had been used as a political football,

1:27:19 > 1:27:22especially in the presidential campaign.

1:27:22 > 1:27:27The attacks on him had been based on false allegations and fake news,

1:27:27 > 1:27:29just like in his media trial.

1:27:32 > 1:27:35For Bowe's family, though, caught up in the eye of the storm,

1:27:35 > 1:27:37the whole thing had been traumatic.

1:27:37 > 1:27:39I found coming home difficult,

1:27:39 > 1:27:43and have suffered post-traumatic stress disorder but, for Bowe,

1:27:43 > 1:27:46coming home has certainly been harder than captivity.

1:27:46 > 1:27:49And in a surprise development days before his trial,

1:27:49 > 1:27:51he decided to plead guilty to both charges.

1:27:53 > 1:27:56But not all his critics agreed with President Trump,

1:27:56 > 1:27:58that Bowe should be shot.

1:27:58 > 1:28:01I mean, I don't think that he should serve another day in any sort of

1:28:01 > 1:28:04confinement or jail or anything like that.

1:28:04 > 1:28:08I think there has to be a decision by the United States military about,

1:28:08 > 1:28:10you know, his service.

1:28:10 > 1:28:14How his service is characterised, that's a different issue.

1:28:14 > 1:28:15But I think, if I were the judge,

1:28:15 > 1:28:18if I were the military judge, let's say,

1:28:18 > 1:28:21or if I were a judge judging Bowe Bergdahl,

1:28:21 > 1:28:24I would not put him another day in captivity,

1:28:24 > 1:28:27and I would actually recommend,

1:28:27 > 1:28:31if not direct, that he be given some sort of, you know,

1:28:31 > 1:28:38mental-health support as part of his captivity because, frankly,

1:28:38 > 1:28:41even though he put himself into the situation to a degree,

1:28:41 > 1:28:45we, the United States government, and the United States military,

1:28:45 > 1:28:47put him in Afghanistan.

1:28:49 > 1:28:52I love my family, I love my friends.

1:28:52 > 1:28:54The names that I have given,

1:28:54 > 1:28:57my mum Jani, my father Bob, you know.

1:28:58 > 1:29:04You talk about you missing home, missing your family,

1:29:04 > 1:29:06but it's come out that you haven't met your family

1:29:06 > 1:29:08- since you've been back, a year and a half.- Mm-hm.

1:29:08 > 1:29:13Family is a very difficult thing. It's a very complicated issue.

1:29:13 > 1:29:15You're not... You know, you can't...

1:29:15 > 1:29:18You can choose your friends, but you can't choose...

1:29:18 > 1:29:21Strangely enough, you can't choose your enemies

1:29:21 > 1:29:23and you can't choose your family.

1:29:23 > 1:29:25So, there's a lot of issues.

1:29:31 > 1:29:35Family dynamics...are complicated.

1:29:35 > 1:29:38Especially when you have really strong personalities,

1:29:38 > 1:29:39like our family does.

1:29:39 > 1:29:41And...

1:29:43 > 1:29:46..uh, things will be fine...

1:29:47 > 1:29:49..regardless of...

1:29:51 > 1:29:55..how long it takes and what comes to pass.

1:29:55 > 1:29:59It's just, it's part of the drill.

1:29:59 > 1:30:02This has been hard on all of us.

1:30:13 > 1:30:16A good parent shows unconditional love, I guess.

1:30:16 > 1:30:18And I am still fighting for my son.

1:30:18 > 1:30:22That's my baby, no-one else saved his life several times as a baby.

1:30:22 > 1:30:24You know, no-one else gave birth to him.

1:30:24 > 1:30:28No-one else was there when he teethed on and on and on.

1:30:28 > 1:30:31Yes.

1:30:31 > 1:30:33It's my son. It's our son.

1:30:47 > 1:30:50Whatever the reason Bowe Bergdahl deserted his base,

1:30:50 > 1:30:53he has paid a terrible price.

1:30:53 > 1:30:56Estranged from his family, tortured by the Taliban,

1:30:56 > 1:30:58vilified by his comrades,

1:30:58 > 1:31:02attacked by politicians and judged by the media.

1:31:04 > 1:31:07But how do you punish a man who's already spent

1:31:07 > 1:31:09five years in captivity?

1:31:09 > 1:31:11Surely, he's suffered enough.