US Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl suffered harsh treatment at the hands of his Taliban captors, including long periods of solitary confinement, according to US military officials, who also said the soldier was struggling emotionally and had not yet called his parents.
Bergdahl, released in Afghanistan on May 31 in exchange for five Taliban detainees from the Guantanamo Bay prison, is being treated at the US Army hospital in Landstuhl, Germany.
A national controversy has erupted over whether US President Barack Obama paid too high a price for Bergdahl’s freedom. US Secretary of State John Kerry has fiercely defended the exchange.
Photo: EPA
“It would have been offensive and incomprehensible to consciously leave an American behind. No matter what,” Kerry, a Vietnam War veteran, told CNN.
One US military official said Bergdahl was physically well enough to travel back to the US for treatment. He is suffering from disorders affecting his skin and gums that could be expected after his five-year captivity, the official said, confirming a report in the New York Times.
The newspaper reported on Sunday that Bergdahl told medical officials in Germany the Taliban kept him in a metal cage in the dark for weeks after he tried to escape.
Bergdahl, who was a private when he was captured, does not like being called a sergeant, the rank he was promoted to while in captivity, the military official said. The 28-year-old soldier is struggling with emotional issues and has not contacted his parents, although he is free to do so at any time, the official said on condition of anonymity.
Another US official said some of the experiences Bergdahl was relating included “harsh treatment” by the Taliban, but that was not surprising.
Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby declined comment on what Bergdahl was saying privately at the hospital.
“The Department of Defense does not comment on discussions that Sergeant Bergdahl is having with the professionals who are providing him medical and reintegration care,” Kirby said in a statement. “We will respect that process in all regards.”
The exchange deal with the Taliban, which was brokered by Qatar, has provoked an angry backlash in the US Congress over the Obama administration’s failure to notify lawmakers in advance that Taliban prisoners were leaving the Guantanamo prison camp. The former inmates were sent to Qatar, where they will remain for at least a year with restrictions.
US Representative Mike Rogers on Sunday said he thought at least three of the five former prisoners would return to the battlefield after they leave Qatar.
“I am absolutely convinced of that,” Rogers, chairman of the US House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, said on ABC’s This Week.
However, Kerry made clear that they would do so at their own considerable risk.
“I’m not telling you they don’t have some ability at some point to go back and get involved,” Kerry said in an interview with CNN’s State of the Union program. “But they also have the ability to get killed doing that.”
Kerry said the US had proven its ability to target al-Qaeda fighters in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and said Qatari officials would closely monitor the released Taliban.
“They’re not the only ones keeping an eye on them,” he said.
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