Bowe Bergdahl: the homecoming from hell, world exclusive interview
Tomorrow, Bowe Bergdahl will be sentenced for desertion — despite having been tortured at the hands of the Taliban for five years. Sean Langan, who has also been a hostage of the Taliban, meets him, his family and military top brass to reveal the truth behind a story that has gripped America
The Sunday Times, October 22 2017, 12:01am
When two former hostages of the Taliban come face to face, words don’t come easily — there are none that can fully convey the trauma of captivity. You know what the other has experienced. Which is why, when I was finally granted the only face-to-face interview in the world with the former American PoW Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl — who was captured by the Taliban and held hostage for five years after walking off his army base in Afghanistan in 2009 — I seriously considered turning it down.
In 2008, while on assignment for Channel 4, I was kidnapped by the same group that held Bergdahl — the Haqqani network, who operate across Afghanistan’s southeastern border — and held hostage for three months in the tribal areas of Pakistan (see below). I was locked in a dark cell, blindfolded and interrogated, and threatened with death on an almost-daily basis. But this was only a taste of what Bergdahl endured. I barely made it, and I had the companionship of a cellmate who could translate on my behalf. Bergdahl endured five years in solitary confinement, three of them locked in a cage. If my experience was a sojourn into purgatory, Bergdahl’s must have been closer to hell.
Despite his horrific ordeal, Bergdahl’s return to the US in June 2014 was the opposite of a hero’s welcome. The US army immediately assigned a two-star general to investigate why he deserted his post. The following March, Bergdahl was charged on two counts: one of “desertion with intent to shirk important or hazardous duty”, and one of “misbehaviour before the enemy by endangering the safety of a command, unit or place”. The long-awaited court martial had been due to start tomorrow at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. But in a sudden twist, Bergdahl pleaded guilty to both charges earlier this month. A military judge will now pass sentence and decide whether the 31-year-old will spend any more time incarcerated. He could face life in prison and a dishonourable discharge from the army. When I emailed him following his guilty plea, he replied: “It’s going to be a tough few months ahead.”
We first met in March last year. After months of negotiations with his lawyers to arrange a brief meeting for a BBC documentary I was making — and a blanket “no” from his lawyers for an interview — eventually Bergdahl contacted me directly and agreed to meet me at his base in San Antonio, Texas, where he has been stationed since July 2014, on administrative duties, awaiting his court martial.
READ IT AT THE SUNDAY TIMES
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