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Bowe Bergdahl's Sentence: No Prison Time November 3, 201711:44 AM ET Merrit Kennedy A military judge sentenced Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who has pleaded guilty to charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, to no prison time at a sentencing hearing Friday in Fort Bragg, N.C.

Former Taliban captive Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has symptoms similar to schizophrenia and is suffering from severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to a forensic psychiatrist who testified in the soldier's trial on Wednesday. Bergdahl's lawyers called upon forensic psychiatrist and professor Dr. Charles Morgan, who specializes in working with prisoners of war and examined Bergdahl in 2016, in the trial's third day of witness testimony. Bergdahl, 31, faces up to life in prison after he pleaded guilty to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy for abandoning his Army post in Afghanistan in June 2009. The closing arguments in the...

PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Art Commission voted Wednesday to recommend the Stephen Foster statue in Oakland be removed. The recommendation is that the statue is removed from the public and placed in a place in private and "properly contextualized." The Pittsburgh Art Commission will recommend removal of the statue within six months. Foster, a Pittsburgh native who died in 1864, is famous for classic songs including “Oh! Susanna” and “Camptown Races.” Many of his songs were used in minstrel shows in which actors performed in blackface. The statue depicts Foster sitting above shoeless, banjo-playing “Uncle Ned,” a slave character from...

The admission is in; the sentence awaits us. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl admitted deserting his Afghan post and endangering fellow troops. By all accounts this is the most serious betrayal of presidential authority in my life time. In 2014 President Obama attempted to cover Bergdahl with the achievement of a war hero, even inviting his Idaho based parents to the Rose Garden to celebrate news of his release. President Obama pointed out at the time that five Taliban leaders were freed from Guantanamo so that Bergdahl could be released from captivity. To gild the lily, National Security Adviser, Susan Rice,...

Bowe Bergdahl, the U.S. Army sergeant who pleaded guilty Monday to deserting his post in Afghanistan in 2009, says his Taliban captors were more “honest” with him than the Army has been since his release three years ago. “At least the Taliban were honest enough to say, ‘I’m the guy who’s gonna cut your throat,’ ” Bergdahl tells British TV journalist Sean Langan in an interview with the Sunday Times Magazine of London headlined "The Homecoming from Hell." Langan, too, is a former Taliban hostage. Bergdahl, 31, from Hailey, Idaho, says he never quite knew where he stood with the...

The Taliban terrorist organization has claimed responsibility for an attack directed at Secretary of Defense James Mattis who was making an unscheduled visit to Afghanistan. No casualties were reported at Kabul International Airport on Wednesday morning in the wake of the attack. Mattis had left before the shooting began. Locals said that two missiles were fired at the airport at approximately 11:00 a.m. local time. The American embassy in Kabul warned that the attack may have yet to end. "At about 11.36 am two missiles were fired on Kabul International Airport from Deh Sabz district, damaging the air force hangers...

The Taliban released a statement attributed to its emir, Hibatullah Akhundzada, earlier today. The propaganda message was clearly crafted with a Western audience in mind. Like other statements published by the jihadist group, Akhundzada’s message should be subjected to scrutiny and not taken at face value, especially given that parts of it are directly contradicted by the Taliban’s own words and deeds. Akhundzada explains that “peace” is only possible if the US and its Western allies, referred to as “occupation” forces, retreat from the country. “The main obstacle in the way of peace is the occupation,” Akhundzada’s statement reads. “Peaceful...

As the alt-left, supported by members of the Democratic Party, look to tear down more and more monuments across America, the New York Times is warning that the increasing scope of the left’s iconoclasm may be alienating centrists and mobilizing the right. In an article Friday about the movement to rip down monuments and images in the wake of the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, this month, the Times says the disputes have proliferated with “dizzying speed” and suggests that the left’s fervor has started to produce questionable results: The article goes on to say that as the campaign moves past...

China on Tuesday jumped to the defence of its all-weather ally Pakistan in the wake of United States President Donald Trump's stern warning to it over providing safe havens to terrorists, saying that Islamabad is at the frontline of combating terrorism. Trump, in his first prime-time televised address to announce his Afghanistan and South Asia policy, hit out at Pakistan for providing safe havens to 'agents of chaos' that kill Americans in Afghanistan and warned Islamabad that it has 'much to lose' by harbouring terrorists. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying, while reacting to Trump's comments on Pakistan, said, "Hope the relevant policy decision by US...

The United States on Tuesday ruled out a hasty withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan as President Donald Trump warned Pakistan of consequences if it continues to provide safe havens to terror groups and sought an enhanced role for India to bring peace in the war-torn country. Trump, in a prime-time televised address to the nation, laid out his South Asia policy saying a 'critical part' of it was to further develop US' strategic partnership with India. He said after a 'comprehensive review', it has been decided that the American strategy in Afghanistan and South Asia will change dramatically. "A...

An edict announced Monday by the militia's supreme leader, Mulla Mohammad Omar, calling for the destruction of all statues in line with "Islamic" laws, has caused shock around the world. Afghanistan is home to an array of pre-Islamic historic treasures from its days as a key stop on the ancient Silk Road and a strategic battleground for conquerers dating back to Alexander the Great and the Aryans before him. The two massive Bamiyan Buddhas, carved into a sandstone cliff near the provincial capital in central Afghanistan, stand 50 meters (165 feet) and 34.5 meters (114 feet) tall and were built...

The hacktivist collective Anonymous is planning a "Denouncement Day" this Friday to "denounce the Confederacy, to denounce racism, bigotry and hate," saying "it is time to take down these monuments of hate ourselves." Supporters plan to gather at 6 p.m. EST at the statue of Rear Adm. Raphael Semmes in Mobile, Ala., the Confederate Soldiers Monument in Little Rock, the Jackson Guards Memorial in Jacksonport, Ark., the Searcy Confederate Memorial in Searcy, Ark., the Our Confederate Dead monument in Munn Park in Lakeland, Fla., the Confederate Monument in Piedmont Park in Atlanta (which was defaced with spray paint this week),...

A Gwinnett County judge and longtime local politician has been suspended after making controversial Facebook posts about protests over Confederate memorials in Charlottesville, Virginia, and elsewhere. Judge Jim Hinkle — a magistrate judge who served as mayor of the city of Grayson for more than two decades before retiring in 2013 — took to Facebook on Saturday to label the Charlottesville protesters “snowflakes” with “no concept of history.” On Tuesday morning, he followed that missive with another post, this one comparing “the nut cases tearing down monuments” to the so-called Islamic State. A few hours after that post — which...

The Taliban sends an “open letter” to the president urging the U.S. to leave Afghanistan. A note by the Taliban spokesman was sent to journalists Tuesday morning, saying President Trump recognized the errors of his predecessors by reviewing Afghan policy. The letter recommends the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the country, as well as not tasking the military with the strategy. The note additionally stated a withdrawal would put American troops “out of harm’s way,” and bring an end to an inherited war. This comes after the Trump administration proposed an increase of deployed troops to the area. Meanwhile. at...

China started secret negotiations with Taliban terrorists at least as early as late 2014, and last week diplomatically supported the Taliban, along with allies Pakistan, Iran and Russia. China’s dialogue rewards Taliban violence, increases Taliban influence and sidelines the elected government of Afghanistan. China and its allies should follow the global norm: no negotiation with terrorists. Failing that, the U.S. and Europe should sanction Chinese companies involved in Afghanistan. China’s history with Islamic extremists in Afghanistan stretches back to the 1980s, when it provided weapons to anti-Soviet mujahideen. During Taliban rule of Afghanistan in the late 1990s, China promised to...

Protesters ripped down a monument of a Confederate soldier Monday evening. The monument has stood in Durham County, NC since 1924. WNCN reports: A crowd of protesters gathered outside the old Durham County courthouse on Main Street Monday evening in opposition to a Confederate monument in front of the government building. Around 7:10 p.m. a woman climbed the statue using a ladder and attached a rope around the statue. Moments later, The crowd pulled on the rope and the statue fell. In 1924, the Confederate statue was dedicated to Durham. Engraved on the front of the monument is “The Confederate...

Government security forces said a small bus owned by the Ministry of Mines had been destroyed in the blast. Three civilian vehicles and 15 shops were destroyed or damaged in the blast, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. The Taliban, which is battling the Western-backed government and a NATO-led coalition for control of Afghanistan, has launched a wave of attacks around the country in recent days including the suicide attack that killed prominent Shiite Muslim cleric Ramazan Hussainzada last month. Hussainzada was also a senior leader of Afghanistan's Hazara community.

Highlights o India has displaced Pakistan on a list of countries facing terror attacks in 2016 o According to the report, out of 11,072 terror attacks in 2016 worldwide, India bore the brunt of 927 o The US analysis labelled Naxals as the third most deadly terror organisation in the world after IS and Taliban [Caption] The Modi government has decided not to seek a political outreach and concentrate on intensive security operations. NEW DELHI: India has displaced Pakistan on a list of countries facing terror attacks in 2016, with higher fatalities and injuries than its restive neighbour, according to...

At least four American soldiers were shot and killed in an apparent insider attack by an Afghan soldier at a base in northern Afghanistan on Saturday, a military official said. "An Afghan soldier shot and killed four American troops inside the base," said Abdul Qahar Araam, spokesman for the Afghan Army's 209th Corps. "We are investigating.

Three U.S. soldiers were killed and another wounded during an attack in eastern Afghanistan, according to three U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity. A local Afghan official said earlier two U.S. soldiers were killed and two others wounded during the shooting in Achin district, where U.S. special forces have been fighting alongside Afghan troops against Islamic State and Taliban militants.