Posted on 06/08/2014 2:07:58 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
HAILEY — In 2011, during his long five-year vigil, waiting helplessly at home while his son was held by Taliban extremists half a world away, Bob Bergdahl made a personal video for the Pakistani government that he hoped would be delivered to his boy, Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.
“These are my thoughts. I can remain silent no longer,” the father began. He stood in a black shirt, his bushy blond beard worn long, the kind sported by most militant men in the war-racked region.
In the three-minute video, he mentioned several high-ranking Pakistani generals by name, thanking them for their sacrifices. Then he went on to thank the Taliban forces that were holding his son.
“Strangely to some,” he said, “we must also thank those who have cared for our son for almost two years. We know our son is a prisoner, but at the same time a guest in your home.”
He then addressed his son, sending his love and assuring him: “We’ve been quiet in public. But we haven’t been quiet behind the scene.”
That video, along with other social media postings the 54-year-old Bergdahl made after his son was captured near the Afghan-Pakistani border in 2009, have come under greater scrutiny in the wake of the Obama administration’s controversial prisoner swap, in which the U.S. secured the 28-year-old sergeant’s release by freeing five Taliban leaders held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba....
(Excerpt) Read more at idahostatesman.com ...
I want to know how Obama had time to fly the Bergdahl parents to DC but no time to inform Congress what he was doing? Congress better not let him get by with this!!
“Bergdahl’s parents had traveled to Washington for a Memorial Day event and stayed in town for a few days to attend meetings with senior U.S. officials. They were in Washington when Obama called them Saturday morning to deliver the news, U.S. officials said.”
Bunster, I didn’t see the Wikipedia entry, but I did see this that Persevero posted a few days ago which was posted on FB by a Bergdahl family friend (assuming here) or minister. It seems to jive with what you read on Wikipedia.
I am NOT in any way attacking Persevero. He has his beliefs, I have mine. If he should be proven right, I will be the first to apologize for misjudging Bergdahl’s father. Maybe the capture of his son sent him off the deep end - deep enough to friend Al Qaida on Twitter and deep enough to cause him to record You Tube videos thanking his son’s captors. I hope that’s all this is and not something deeper.
Original post by Persevero
For all: More food for thought below (publicly posted on Facebook so I’m sharing it) Can you understand why I’m not quite willing to just latch on to the whole “family is a sleeper cell” thing?
“I mentioned recently that Bowe Bergdahl’s parents were members of an OPC church when he was captured by the Taliban and since that time I’ve had a lot of people ask me if they had become Muslims or what was up. I asked their former pastor Phil Proctor if he would mind giving me something I could share, this is what Phil wrote:
“I appreciate your asking about the Bergdahls. I’ve really been saddened about how the Christian community is jumping all over this. Here’s the deal...
I pastored the Bergdahl family in 2003, prior to going to Uganda. We were very close, and remained so throughout my time in Uganda (I just found out this evening that apparently I’m referenced in some important Rolling Stone article from 2012).
Bowe was a young man with all the dangers of home-schooling – a brilliant and inquisitive mind, a crisp thinker, and someone who had never really been exposed to evil in the world. He was wanting to determine whether the Christian faith was his own, or his parents’ and was doing a lot of exploring of ideas – never drugs or alcohol, but trying to be an outdoors/Renaissance type figure. We’ve stayed in close contact with Bob and Jani, especially since Bowe’s capture. Since we moved here to Northern Virginia, Bob and Jani have stayed in our home on a couple of occasions, and I’ve spoken on the phone with Bob once a month or so.
Bob felt (with some justification) that the US government was not going to engage with diplomatic efforts and so decided to try to free his son himself. He learned Pashtun and developed a lot of contacts in the Middle East. The Qatar connection is one that either originated with Bob or, at the very least, became very personally connected to Bob. Bob has, for quite some time, been saying that the closure of Guantanamo is integrally connected to the release of his son.
Whatever one thinks of Bob’s political views, I can attest to both he and Jani’s unwavering commitment to Christ and trust in him. I’ve prayed with both of them regularly. They both have been through a torture mill that I cannot begin to comprehend – 5 years of a living death. It has affected their health, both physically and mentally, as Bob has been completely obsessed with tracking down any possible communication avenue to get his son home. There are a number of things I would disagree with Bob on in terms of political statements, but at the end of the day, I think this whole mess is a WHOLE lot more complicated than a 30 second sound bite can explore – the very existence of Gitmo attests to the complicated nature from the very beginning, and it’s only gotten worse over the years.
To the foundational issue: Bob and Jani both have regularly confessed their dependence upon Christ and rest in him – the most recent being Bob’s conversation with me about a month ago. They are broken people who need prayer, love, and compassion. I personally intend to run as hard as I can in the opposite direction of judging his words in the moment of his crucible – I would HATE to have that standard applied to my moments of stress, which have never reached anything approaching his intensity and duration!
Feel free to forward this and use it as widely as you like.
Yours in Christ,
Phil Proctor
Pastor, Sterling Presbyterian Church (OPC)
Sterlingopc.org
FYI. My most recent conversation with Bob and Jani was 30 minutes ago. Still Christians “
Thank you. Very interesting.
You’re welcome. I found it interesting also.
That whole family are TRAITORS!!!
That whole family are TRAITORS!!!
Very interesting read. Thanks for posting.
Although I think the family might be a few fries short of a happy meal...I can actually understand them kissing up to the animals that had their son. For whatever reason they may have had him. Believe me, if my kid were in that kind of danger I would gladly wear a burka and lie my a** off.
I don’t think the family had anything to do with the “swap” no matter what they say. I really believe that it was Bronco Bama trying to score some points during the VA scandal. It backfired. The parents probably petitioned him for help. But unless it were what he perceived to be politically beneficial, he would not have raised a hand to help.
Very interesting read. Thanks for posting.
Although I think the family might be a few fries short of a happy meal...I can actually understand them kissing up to the animals that had their son. For whatever reason they may have had him. Believe me, if my kid were in that kind of danger I would gladly wear a burka and lie my a** off.
I don’t think the family had anything to do with the “swap” no matter what they say. I really believe that it was Bronco Bama trying to score some points during the VA scandal. It backfired. The parents probably petitioned him for help. But unless it were what he perceived to be politically beneficial, he would not have raised a hand to help.
The parents did ask for his help, I’m sure but as you said, without it benefitting Zero, no help from him.
I do think the parents are strange, but then again, they probably think I am. I am more focused on the fact that their son walked away from his unit, his responsibilities and his oath. Get him home, put him before a court martial and put him in Leavenworth is what I say. People were lost looking for him and now with this swap there is an even bigger target on the backs of our service members.
We need to pay his student loans off and send him back to 8th grade...He never got an education...just some indoctrination!
Bergdahl ping.
“Believe me, if my kid were in that kind of danger I would gladly wear a burka and lie my a** off.”
But if your son was like Bowe’s Army “comrades,” he would have been disgusted with you for so doing.
Great Post. One thing I can’t get out of my mind, is the Bergdahl Dad in The Rose Garden saying “...I am Your Father Bowe...”, moments before he began reciting the Arabic stuff. Why on earth would you be telling your son that? I just can’t let that one go. “...I Am Your Father Bowe...”. No one has asked that question either, but it’s sticking in my mind.
“I am your father’s brother’s nephew’s cousin’s former roommate.”
Hailey is a liberal oasis in a Republican state, attracting the rich and famous to skiing in Ketchum and hiking in the Sawtooth mountains. Bruce Willis owns the Hailey theatre and other Hollywood stars with property nearby include Tom Hanks, Brooke Shields and Robin Williams.
Eccentricity is almost the norm. Even before Bowe’s capture, Bob would talk incessantly about philosophy, history and politics. “Sometimes it’s hard to talk to him because he does get into all this intellectual stuff — he almost reads and thinks too much,” said Lee Ann Ferris, a long-time neighbour.
Another friend said Bob had once flirted with joining the Aryan Nation, a white supremacist group, and moving to the woods of northern Idaho.
“I love him but you have to understand, Bob is a kook. Half the stuff he talks about never happens — he changes his mind and six months later it’s something else.”
In the past five years, Bob, a devout Presbyterian, has studied Pashto and Urdu, the Koran and Middle Eastern history for several hours a day. Tortured by Taliban videos of his son, he considered travelling to Afghanistan on his own rescue mission.
His father responded to Bowe’s final email denouncing an “army of liars, backstabbers, fools, and bullies” — and stating that “the horror that is america [sic] is disgusting” — with a message bearing the subject line: “OBEY YOUR CONSCIENCE!”
But there have been persistent reports that he converted to Islam in captivity and a Pentagon-funded investigation included claims that he played football with his captors, took part in AK-47 target practice and giggled frequently, saying “Salaam”, the Arabic word for peace.
Four days before his son’s release, Bob sent a tweet — now deleted — to a Taliban spokesman, saying: “I am still working to free all Guantanamo prisoners. God will repay for the death of every Afghan child, ameen.[sic]” Some suspect father and son have developed a form of Stockholm syndrome.
I wondered if he thought he was Darth Vader addressing Luke Skywalker. It had a very weird vibe to it.
“These people need help, yet what they get is the most conceited country in the world telling them that they are nothing and that they are stupid,” he wrote in an email to his parents on June 27, 2009.
Three days later, according to Rolling Stone, the 23-year-old soldier simply walked off his base in Patika province, carrying a knife, his diary and a small camera.
Bergdahl’s parents got rare access to insiders; data for sympathizer of Gitmo detainees
The Obama administration gave the parents of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl extraordinary insider access to the military’s hunt for their son by having them take part in a series of secure video conferences with senior commanders as well as White House and State Department officials.
A former government official involved in American hostage issues said he had never heard of giving a family such access and questioned whether sensitive information could have been conveyed to Robert and Jani Bergdahl and somehow leaked out. A family spokesman said he knows of no such breach.
Soon after Sgt. Bergdahl went missing in Afghanistan in June 2009, the Obama administration approved an outreach program that involved the Bergdahls traveling from their home in Hailey, Idaho, to the state’s National Guard headquarters in Boise.
There they were hooked into secure video conferences that included representatives of U.S. Central Command, which runs the war in Afghanistan, as well as with White House, State Department and intelligence officials.
Yep...I saw it too ....same with his wife, which few seem to mention.
I think he and his wife are certainly in hiding...but I also suspect that won’t bother them much at all.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.