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Author Topic: Missing American Soldier Captured by the Taliban  (Read 2963 times)
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Nut44x4
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« on: July 19, 2009, 03:23:11 PM »

Soldier held in Afghanistan is 23-year-old Idahoan

HAILEY, Idaho — A soldier from Idaho who disappeared from his base in Afghanistan has been captured, the Pentagon confirmed Sunday, a day after he was seen in a Taliban video posted online.

The Defense Department released the name of Pfc. Bowe (pronounced BOH) R. Bergdahl, 23, who was serving with an Alaska-based infantry regiment. The private was last seen walking away from his base near the border with Pakistan in an area known to be a Taliban stronghold.



Even before his name became public, two U.S. defense officials confirmed to The Associated Press that the man in that 28-minute video was the captured soldier. The video, in which Bergdahl said he was "scared I won't be able to go home," provided the first public glimpse of the missing American.

The Pentagon statement said Bergdahl's whereabouts became unknown on July 1 and his status was changed July 3 to missing-captured.

It wasn't clear who initially captured Bergdahl, but the U.S. command in Afghanistan said he was being held by the Taliban and condemned the video as a violation of international law.

"I'm glad to see he appears unharmed, but again, this is a Taliban propaganda video," spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker said. "They are exploiting the soldier in violation of international law."

Bob Bergdahl, the soldier's father, told the AP Saturday that the family was requesting media respect their privacy.

"We hope and pray for our son's safe return to his comrades and then to our family, and we appreciate all the support and expressions of sympathy shown to us by our family members, our friends and others across the nation," Bob Bergdahl said in a statement issued through the Department of Defense. "Thank you, and please continue to keep Bowe in your thoughts and prayers."

On the video, which was posted on a Web site pointed out by the Taliban, Bergdahl says he's from Hailey, Idaho, a town of about 7,000 people that lies 160 miles east of Boise. The Pentagon identified his hometown as Ketchum, which is about half the size of Hailey and about 12 miles north. His family says he grew up in Blaine County, closer to Hailey.

Bergdahl entered the Army in June 2008 and went through basic training in Fort Benning, Ga., said Lt. Col. Jonathan Allen, spokesman for Fort Richardson. Bergdahl also took advanced individual and parachute training in Georgia, he said.

Bergdahl reported for duty in Alaska in October, and deployed to Afghanistan in February.

Before enlisting, Bergdahl worked as a barista at a coffee shop in Hailey, Zaney's River Street Coffee House, where a sign on the counter encouraged patrons to keep Bergdahl in their thoughts and prayers.

"Join all of us at Zaney's holding light for our friend Bowe Bergdahl. Bowe has been captured in Afghanistan," the handwritten sign said.

A similar message posted July 8 on the coffee shop's Facebook page suggests many in the small town have known for some time that Bergdahl was in danger.

Friends and former co-workers at the coffee shop declined to speak on the record Sunday to an AP reporter, saying they were abiding by the Bergdahl family's wishes for privacy.

One of the directors of the Sun Valley Ballet School in Ketchum said Bergdahl performed with the group for four or five years up to about 2008.

"He's athletic," Jill Brennan said. "He just had a knack for it. He's a wonderful young man."

In the video, Bergdahl had his head shaved and was seen with the start of a beard. He was sitting and dressed in a nondescript, gray outfit. Early in the video one captor held the soldier's dog tag up to the camera. His name and ID number were clearly visible. He was shown eating at one point and sitting cross-legged.

He said the date was July 14 and that he was captured when he lagged behind on a patrol. It's clear the video was made no earlier than July 14 because Bergdahl repeated an exaggerated Taliban claim about a Ukrainian helicopter that was shot down that day.

He was interviewed in English by his captors. He was asked his views on the war, which he called extremely hard; his desire to learn more about Islam; and the morale of American soldiers, which he said was low.

Asked how he was doing, the soldier said: "Well I'm scared, scared I won't be able to go home. It is very unnerving to be a prisoner."

He later choked up when discussing his family and his hope to marry his girlfriend.

"I have a very, very good family that I love back home in America. And I miss them every day when I'm gone," he said.

He was prompted by his interrogators to give a message to the American people.

"To my fellow Americans who have loved ones over here, who know what it's like to miss them, you have the power to make our government bring them home," he said. "Please, please bring us home so that we can be back where we belong and not over here, wasting our time and our lives and our precious life that we could be using back in our own country. Please bring us home. It is America and American people who have that power."

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

Congregants at St. John's Cathedral in Boise prayed for Bergdahl Sunday morning, and Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter, who attends the church, told the AP that he had been working to keep the soldier's name quiet until it was officially released.

Otter said he'd been in contact with representatives of Bergdahl's family, but hasn't been part of any efforts to secure the soldier's release.

"I'm sure we'll do whatever we're asked to do," Otter said of himself and other Idaho leaders.

On July 2, the U.S. military said an American soldier had disappeared after walking off his base in eastern Afghanistan with three Afghan counterparts and was believed to have been taken prisoner.

Details of such incidents are routinely held very tightly by the military as it works to retrieve a missing or captured soldier without giving away any information to captors.

But Afghan Police Gen. Nabi Mullakheil said the soldier went missing in eastern Paktika province near the border with Pakistan from an American base. The region is known to be Taliban-infested.

Afghans in contact with the Taliban told the AP that the soldier was held by a Taliban group led by a commander called Maulvi Sangin, who operates in the area where the American went missing. They said the fighters initially planned to smuggle the soldier across the border into Pakistan but ruled that out because of U.S. missile strikes and Pakistani bombing attacks against militant targets in the area. Instead, they decided to move him north into Taliban-controlled areas of Ghazni province.

The Afghans spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of arrest or reprisal. It was impossible to independently confirm their information.

A brigade commander for the Afghan national army in southeastern Afghanistan, Gen. Asrar Ahmad Khan, said Afghan and coalition forces have been working together for 15 days searching for the missing soldier.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, said the militants holding the soldier haven't yet set any conditions for his release.

There are still shots from the video at the link 
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gsxx9CcbDztJw-PO6rqserut6-KgD99HLN7O0
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« Reply #1 on: July 20, 2009, 06:43:41 PM »

Family of captured soldier wants privacy in ordeal
By JOHN MILLER (AP) – 1 hour ago

HAILEY, Idaho — The parents of a U.S. soldier captured in Afghanistan pleaded for privacy Monday as they coped with what they called an extremely difficult ordeal.

Meanwhile, residents of Hailey, Idaho, tied yellow ribbons on trees along Main Street as a sign of solidarity with the family of Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl, who was captured three weeks ago.

Few, however, would speak openly about Bergdahl because of fears that any remarks might hurt the possibility of his safe return.

The family statement came two days after the Taliban released a video of Bergdahl in captivity expressing his fear that he would never see or hug his family again. The footage showed Bergdahl with his head shaved, eating a meal and sitting cross-legged on what appeared to be a bunk.

On Monday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates condemned the video, saying he was disgusted by the exploitation of a prisoner.

"Our commanders are sparing no effort to find this young soldier," Gates said at a Pentagon news conference.

Bergdahl, 23, grew up just outside Hailey, a central Idaho resort town where residents said he was educated at home, danced ballet and rode his bike everywhere in town.

They also called him adventurous and said he joined the Army at least in part because he wanted to learn more about the world. He had been stationed at Fort Richardson, Alaska.

Bergdahl's parents, Bob and Jani Bergdahl, live on a stretch of unpaved road west of Hailey.

"We'd like to remind all of you our sole focus is seeing our beloved son Bowe safely home," the family said in the statement read by Blaine County Sheriff Walt Femling. "Please continue to keep Bowe in your thoughts and prayers, and we ask for your continued acceptance of our need for privacy."

The family has refused requests to be interviewed. Femling declined to answer personal questions about Bergdahl.

"They're not going to do anything to jeopardize Bowe," he said of the family.

The circumstances of Bergdahl's capture on June 30 weren't clear.

On July 2, two U.S. officials told The Associated Press the soldier had "just walked off" his base with three Afghans after his shift. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record.

On July 6, the Taliban claimed on their Web site that five days earlier "a drunken American soldier had come out of his garrison" and was captured by mujahedeen.

Details of such incidents are routinely held very tightly by the military as it works to retrieve a missing or captured soldier without giving away any information to captors.

Officials with U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla., declined to give additional details of his capture.

Bergdahl's family learned of his capture when a member of the Idaho National Guard came to their home in early July. Over the weekend of July 4, four service members who specialize in hostage events visited and told them what their son might be experiencing in captivity as well as what the military was doing to have him released.

Lt. Col. Tim Marsano, a spokesman for the Idaho National Guard, said the tone of the meeting was optimistic.

"They were here to help prepare the family for his return," Marsano said.

Military officials in Afghanistan refused a request from the AP to interview fellow soldiers from Bergdahl's Army unit. Spokesman Navy Lt. Robert Carr in Kabul said the military was controlling the flow of information so nothing could be used against the other American forces or Bergdahl.

Carr, stationed at the International Security Assistance Force headquarters, said every effort was being made to find and return Bergdahl.

"We condemn the Taliban in using him as a propaganda tool," Carr said, referring to a video issued by the Taliban. "We are almost positive that everything they have him saying is forced."

Not all family members of captured soldiers stay quiet about such situations.

Keith Maupin, whose son was captured in Iraq in April 2004, was vocal during the four years his 20-year-old son Pfc. Matt Maupin was missing before his body was found.

"I know if they stay quiet, they're not going to get any information," Maupin told the AP from his home in Ohio. "They've got to stay on top of it."

Some say the discretion exhibited in Hailey fits with the region's history of respecting the privacy of part-time celebrity visitors and residents such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis and Demi Moore

"It's just the way we are," said Hailey Chamber of Commerce Director Jim Spinelli.

On Monday, three women carrying hundreds of yellow ribbons declined to answer questions or give their full names.

One woman who identified herself only as "Leigh" said she had known Bowe Bergdahl for years.

"We just want him home," she said.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gsxx9CcbDztJw-PO6rqserut6-KgD99IDTHG0
Logged

Brothers and Sisters, I bid you beware/Of giving your heart to a dog to tear  -- Rudyard Kipling

One who doesn't trust is never deceived...

'I remained too much inside my head and ended up losing my mind' -Edgar Allen Poe
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