U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl at one point during his captivity converted to Islam, fraternized openly with his captors and declared himself a "mujahid," or warrior for Islam, according to secret documents prepared on the basis of a purported eyewitness account and obtained by Fox News.
The reports indicate that Bergdahl's relations with his Haqqani captors morphed over time, from periods of hostility, where he was treated very much like a hostage, to periods where, as one source told Fox News, "he became much more of an accepted fellow" than is popularly understood. He even reportedly was allowed to carry a gun at times.
Apparently these "secret documents" were provided by a shadowy private firm, called the Eclipse Group, that claims to have subcontracted with the Department of Defense.
If that gives you pause, then get a load of this:
The group is run by Duane R. ("Dewey") Clarridge, a former senior operations officer for the Central Intelligence Agency in the 1980s best known for having been indicted for lying to Congress about his role in the tangled set of events that became known as the Iran-Contra scandal. He was pardoned by the first President Bush in December 1992 while on trial.
So the group claiming that Bergdahl was a traitor is run by disgraced CIA agent who lied to Congress about Ronald Reagan's treasonous activities in the 1980's.
So of COURSE Fox News went with it.
However there are reports from more reliable sources that this whole thing is a bunch of made up crap:
During his time in Tampa as commander of U.S. Central Command, Marine Gen. James Mattis said he saw no evidence to confirm that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, released in a prisoner swap last week, collaborated with his captors.
“I have never seen one bit of verified or confirmed evidence of that,” Mattis said in a phone interview with The Tampa Tribune. “Not one bit. You hear things and it was second- and third-hand.”
Other information “specifically discounted” reports that Bergdahl, captured by the Taliban in June 2009 after leaving his outpost in Afghanistan, was working with his captors, he said. Mattis declined to comment on what that information was because it remains classified.
Hey you know, maybe it's just me, but I would be far more likely to take the word of a former CENTCOM commander than a known liar and criminal.
There are also reports that Bergdahl was not exactly treated like a collaborator during his time with the Taliban:
U.S. Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has told people treating him at an American military medical facility in Germany that he was tortured, beaten and held in a cage by his Taliban captors in Afghanistan after he tried to escape, a senior U.S. official said Sunday.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss what Bergdahl has revealed about the conditions of his captivity.
That by the way seems to confirm the reporting by the late Michael Hastings for Rolling Stone magazine.
And now thanks to Fox's lack of journalistic ethics Bergdahl's parents are receiving death threats:
The FBI is investigating threats against the parents of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the latest development in a case that has put the spotlight on the circumstances surrounding his capture in Afghanistan and release by the Taliban.
"We are working jointly with our state and local partners and taking each threat seriously," FBI Special Agent William Facer told CNN in an e-mail on Saturday.
Well I guess I will spend this Sunday afternoon being disgusted again.
