As previously reported, Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl is the subject of the new season of the podcast Serial. However, it appears his case on Serial will coincide with a court martial issued by a U.S. Military general regarding whether or not the previous prisoner should be considered a deserter. Bergdahl was captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan, and was held prisoner for five years before being released to the United States in a controversial prisoner trade.
According to the New York Times, the decision to subject Bergdahl to a court martial was made by General Robert B. Abrams. This decision means Bergdahl could end up spending the rest of his life in prison.
This notion was unfathomable to the original army investigator in charge of the case, Lieutenant General Kenneth Dahl, who felt that jail time, under these circumstances, would be "inappropriate."
The article explains, "According to Sergeant Bergdahl's defense lawyers, the Army lawyer who presided over the preliminary hearing also recommended that he face neither jail time nor a punitive discharge and that he go before an intermediate tribunal known as a "special court-martial" where the most severe penalty possible would be a year of confinement."
Several politicians have referred to Bergdahl as a deserter, and even a "dirty rotten traitor." Last week, the Repubicans of the House of Representatives issued a report criticizing President Barack Obama's handling of the prisoner exchange in May of 2014. This conservative contingency feels that Obama was reckless and foolish to trade Bergdahl, one prisoner, for five detainees, with the Taliban.
The Army did not elaborate on the change of heart, and the decision that Bergdahl deserved to appear before a court-martial. According to the Times, "A spokesman for Army Forces Command at Fort Bragg noted in an email that recommendations made by preliminary hearing officers "are advisory in nature."
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