Dramatic sentencing hearing expected in Bowe Bergdahl case

Neo Ash

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Chicago Tribune said:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-bowe-bergdahl-case-20171022-story.html

The fate of Bowe Bergdahl — the Army sergeant who pleaded guilty to endangering his comrades by leaving his post in 2009 in Afghanistan — now rests in the hands of a judge.

A sentencing hearing for Bergdahl starts Monday at Fort Bragg and is expected to feature dramatic testimony about soldiers and a Navy SEAL badly hurt while they searched for the missing Bergdahl, who was held captive for five years by Taliban allies after leaving his post. Bergdahl faces up to life in prison on charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy after pleading guilty to the charges last week.

Bergdahl made his plea without striking a deal with prosecutors for a lesser punishment, opting instead for a move known as a "naked plea," in hopes of leniency from the judge. The plea, legal experts say, may be a sign that the evidence against Bergdahl was strong.

Eric Carpenter, a former Army lawyer who teaches law at Florida International University, said a naked plea can be advantageous by allowing the defense to refrain from agreeing to certain facts that it might otherwise have to concede to under a plea agreement.

Greg Rinckey, a former Army prosecutor and defense attorney now in private practice, said such a plea is risky.

"You don't plead someone out naked without weighing those risks," Rinckey said.

The judge, Army Col. Jeffery Nance, will also have to resolve last-minute arguments by defense attorneys that President Donald Trump has unfairly swayed the court-martial with new comments about the highly politicized case. During the presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly called Bergdahl a "traitor." The defense argues that remarks made by Trump as late as last week show that he harbors the same view now that he is commander in chief. A White House statement on Friday said, while not mentioning Bergdahl by name, that all military personnel in the justice process should use their independent judgment and that any case should be "resolved on its own facts."

Bergdahl's lawyers are hoping that the five years that he spent as a Taliban captive will win him some leniency from the judge. Bergdahl, 31, has said he was caged, kept in darkness and beaten. He said he tried to escape more than a dozen times.

The plea came after several pretrial rulings against the defense. Perhaps most significant was the judge's decision in June to allow evidence of the searchers' wounds at sentencing. The judge ruled that a Navy SEAL and an Army National Guard sergeant wouldn't have wound up in separate firefights that left them wounded if they hadn't been searching for Bergdahl.

While calling the wounded men "heroes," Bergdahl's lawyers have argued their client can't be blamed for a long chain of events that included decisions by others on the searches.

At his plea hearing, Bergahl himself said he now understands his disappearance triggered the missions, calling his actions "very inexcusable."

President Barack Obama brought Bergdahl home in 2014 in a swap for five Taliban prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, leading to criticism by Republicans including Trump.

Bergdahl has said he walked away from his remote post with the intention of reaching other commanders and drawing attention to what he saw as problems with his unit.

One of the injured soldiers who could testify, former Army Cpl. Jonathan Morita, said in a phone interview after the plea hearing that he wasn't sure whether to feel happy about Bergdahl's admission of guilt.

"It's good that he said it. But did he really mean it, or did the defense tell him to say it?" said Morita, who was injured after a rocket-propelled grenade struck his rifle. The grenade didn't explode, but it shattered the bones in his hand.

Retired Senior Chief Petty Officer James Hatch is expected to testify about a leg wound on a search mission that ended his career as a Navy SEAL.

"Senior Chief Hatch has always said he wants him to have a fair trial and a fair sentence, with the understanding of all the suffering that he caused by trying to support his own agenda," said Buddy Rake, Hatch's lawyer. He declined to say what level of punishment Hatch thinks is appropriate.

But Rake, himself a Navy veteran, believes Bergdahl should at a minimum be deprived of an honorable discharge: "As you go through life you get all sorts of trophies and awards, but the most important that I've ever received is the one that says 'honorable discharge.'"
Copyright © 2017, Chicago Tribune

Discuss...

Spoiler:

Fuck this cock sucking traitor
 

gusmoney

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hang-em-high.png
 

Neo Ash

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Isn't it interesting how the Democratic party has conveniently forgotten about this traitor? The soliders that died trying to save his worthless ass. The terrorists that were set free as part of the bargaining.
 
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evil wasabi

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Isn't it interesting how the Democratic party has conveniently forgotten about this traitor? The soliders that died trying to save his worthless ass. The terrorists that were set free as part of the bargaining.

I prefer deserters who don’t get caught.
 

Jibbajaba

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I don't really know how to feel about this or what to think. I suspect that to really understand the gravity of the situation, you have to have served in combat, which I of course have not. As a civilian, what he did isn't comparable to anything that I can relate to.

It's not like we ave a conscripted army. To quote the retard-in-chief, this guy knew what he signed up for, so to simply decide to nope out of the war is unacceptable because that's just not how that shit works. That being said, the fact that he washed out of the coast guard basic training for "psychological" reasons tells me that maybe he wasn't the best choice to be a combat infantryman. Reading a bit more about the guy, it definitely seems like he's a little bit unhinged. While I am not trying to absolve him from blame, I can't help but wonder how he ended up on the front lines with a gun in his hand.

I think it's right that the government wanted to rescue him once it was known that he had been captured. I don't think it's right that the government was willing to make a deal to get him back, whether that deal had involved money, which the Taliban originally wanted, or a 5:1 prisoner exchange, which sounds ludicrous.

Between the fact that he spent 5 years in Taliban captivity, and the fact that he doesn't seem to be playing with a full deck, part of me hopes that he gets a lenient sentence. On the other hand, at least 6 people are dead as a direct result of what he did (and possibly more as an indirect result) so what about justice for them and their families? Yes, they knew what they were signing up for as well, but getting put in harms way searching for a deserter is not what they signed up for.

Doing some quick reading, it seems like the maximum penalty for desertion (aside from being executed, which has only been carried out once in the last 150 years) is 5 years in prison. Honestly, if this guy gets 5 years, I feel like he should say "thank you" and go serve it quietly.
 

wyo

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He's suffered more than enough for his mistake and should be set free.

The fact that he was even charged is a disgrace.
 

Neo Ash

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He's suffered more than enough for his mistake and should be set free.

The fact that he was even charged is a disgrace.

I disagree. 6 soldiers are dead because of him. He needs to pay.
 

Neo Ash

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they knew what they were getting into.

That's a pretty flippant and disrespectful remark to make about the men and women in our military. Why don't you just go ahead and tell all our troops to fuck off while you're at it.
 

norton9478

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Lulz... It doesn't get any better than this.
 

LoneSage

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I don't really know how to feel about this or what to think. I suspect that to really understand the gravity of the situation, you have to have served in combat, which I of course have not. As a civilian, what he did isn't comparable to anything that I can relate to.

It's not like we ave a conscripted army. To quote the retard-in-chief, this guy knew what he signed up for, so to simply decide to nope out of the war is unacceptable because that's just not how that shit works. That being said, the fact that he washed out of the coast guard basic training for "psychological" reasons tells me that maybe he wasn't the best choice to be a combat infantryman. Reading a bit more about the guy, it definitely seems like he's a little bit unhinged. While I am not trying to absolve him from blame, I can't help but wonder how he ended up on the front lines with a gun in his hand.

I think it's right that the government wanted to rescue him once it was known that he had been captured. I don't think it's right that the government was willing to make a deal to get him back, whether that deal had involved money, which the Taliban originally wanted, or a 5:1 prisoner exchange, which sounds ludicrous.

Between the fact that he spent 5 years in Taliban captivity, and the fact that he doesn't seem to be playing with a full deck, part of me hopes that he gets a lenient sentence. On the other hand, at least 6 people are dead as a direct result of what he did (and possibly more as an indirect result) so what about justice for them and their families? Yes, they knew what they were signing up for as well, but getting put in harms way searching for a deserter is not what they signed up for.

Doing some quick reading, it seems like the maximum penalty for desertion (aside from being executed, which has only been carried out once in the last 150 years) is 5 years in prison. Honestly, if this guy gets 5 years, I feel like he should say "thank you" and go serve it quietly.

Well said.

Kinda unnerving Ash wants this guy to be executed without fully knowing the situation he was in, though. Ash, do you think soldiers who kill civilians in a war zone should be killed too?
 

basic

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That's a pretty flippant and disrespectful remark to make about the men and women in our military. Why don't you just go ahead and tell all our troops to fuck off while you're at it.

He's referencing something Trump said to the widow of the Green Beret that died. While it's still a shitty thing to say the full quote is actually “knew what he signed up for … but when it happens, it hurts anyway”. Like I said, still shitty. It was probably the best he could do to express compassion lol.
 
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evil wasabi

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That's a pretty flippant and disrespectful remark to make about the men and women in our military. Why don't you just go ahead and tell all our troops to fuck off while you're at it.

You mean like discounting the service of a navy pilot who was POW tortured in Nam?
 

Heinz

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He left his post, was captured and tortured for 5 years, a few buddies of his go on a search mission and fail miserably, the president makes a pretty brazen deal to get him back and now they want to charge the guy. Should've stayed captive!
 

evil wasabi

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McCain burned Drumpf pretty hard on cspan3 today for being a draft dodger. But yeah, Beau Bergdhal is a traitor.

Yeah, he is. But I don’t think it deserves national focus.

A trigger tells you a lot about a person.

Trump is like a lot of the gungho ultra armchair military guys who never served.
 

wyo

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Yeah, he is. But I don’t think it deserves national focus.

A trigger tells you a lot about a person.

Trump is like a lot of the gungho ultra armchair military guys who never served.

He is the very definition of a chickenhawk.
 

Xavier

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That's a pretty flippant and disrespectful remark to make about the men and women in our military. Why don't you just go ahead and tell all our troops to fuck off while you're at it.

The whole thing has been blown out of proportion because of politics.
Obama made a deal to get him back.
5 Taliban that we probably couldn't figure out what to do with otherwise.
Republicans don't like anything Obama did including getting an American soldier free.
These same faggots that were banging the war drum for eight years, support our troops blah blah blah
They end up electing somebody who berates POW's and gold star families and was a draft dodger.

It's not desertion or treason, read up on the shit.
We have a nation full of ignorant inbred yahoo motherfuckers and now we have king idiot as our leader.

Time served, if your sissy big mouthed ass disagrees lets lock you in a cage and torture you for five years and then see how you feel.

The guys obviously an idiot with some screws loose.
He was just a few days out from getting the charges dropped and then he went out and did a vlog interview.
 

famicommander

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Maybe don't join an organization that exports murder and destruction all over the world in the first place.
 

ggallegos1

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I served with a guy who was in Bergdahl's platoon and was there when he wandered off. According to him, he was always off but he was mainly in the category of soldier who would just do their initial contract and get out, the type who would never aspire to anything and would get caught doing dumb shit. I love my infantry brothers, but they aren't known for getting the cream of the crop in terms of intellect for their enlisted ranks and, much like the cav, have a dark sense of humor and a much different mindset. If you have never served, you would not truly understand, and I mean that in the least condescending way.

Bergdahl had issues with his chain of command and made it clear he didn't agree with how things were being run on his deployment. Granted he was only a private back then, so he wasn't always made aware of how grievances could be addressed. One day, he just walked off and the platoon was in chaos. Desertion is huge, especially during that time and a Soldier wandering by themselves in enemy territory is a show stopper echelons above him.

There was an image I'll never forget of a retired Sergeant First Class who was shot in the head on one of several rescue missions to save him. He now has limited physical and mental functioning, and I believe the round is still in his brain. His family, consisting of a wife and several teenage daughters, now have to wipe his ass and care for him like an invalid.

The kid wasn't bright, but he knew what he was doing. Traitor? Most likely not. Coward? Absolutely. The amount of resources put into finding him would be the same regardless of the reason for walking, because we get our troops back no matter what. I just know that if he ends up in Leavenworth with the general population, he will most likely die within the next year.
 
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