Former Taliban prisoner Bowe Bergdahl speaks out for first time

Between six and seven men with AK-47s approached him on motorcycles in the desert, taking him as a prisoner of war for five years. We will make them as carefully and consistently as we can.

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Bergdahl’s captivity is mentioned only briefly as the podcast begins.

And then, for five years: the horror of a tiny, blackened dirt room. It is everything that you’re missing, it is everybody, everyone is out there.

He continued, “You know, that I could be what it is that all those guys out there that go to the movies and watch those movies, they all want to be that, but I wanted to prove that I was that”. “And, I mean” – Bergdahl paused – “I hate doors now”.

He adds: “It’s like you’re standing there, screaming in your mind”. Bergdahl admits he left on his own volition with a plan to return.

The already chart-topping first episode, which hit the internet overnight, sees Bergdahl open up for the first time about his years spent as a captive – and, most controversially, why he walked out on his comrades.

He wanted to create a “Dustwun” – the radio signal for duty status whereabouts unknown – that would scramble the military and the Central Intelligence Agency so that when he returned, he might be able to get the ear of a general.

“I felt that I would rather be in Leavenworth than standing over the bodies of guys in my platoon”, said Bergdahl, who conceded his actions were “stupid”.

In a rebuttal, Democrats said the report was “unbalanced” and “partisan”, but agreed with the conclusion that the Department of Defense didn’t “adequately inform” Congress about the prisoner transfer.

But about 20 minutes into the ill-fated journey, Bergdahl said he realized he had made a mistake.

The narrative Bergdahl laid out to Boal matches what he told Army investigators at a preliminary court hearing in September. But Dahl concluded that Bergdahl was misguided in his beliefs, however sincerely held.

‘Suddenly, it really starts to sink in that I really did something bad. “I don’t know, Jason Bourne”.

Bergdahl’s stunt backfired not only on himself, but also on his fellow soldiers.

At the time of the exchange, the administration said negotiations were tenuous and they feared any leak of information would threaten Bergdahl’s life. He bought an Afghan robe at the “hajji shop” on Sharona, withdrew $300 in dollars and Afghan currency for possible bribes, and mailed home his computer and other items so the government couldn’t take them after his expected arrest. This season of Serial will look into why Bergdahl left his post, as well as the reverberations it had in the military and world events. She told the Army Times after Bergdahl was released, “It gets really hurtful when I think – this guy was worth my son’s life?”

“It is irresponsible to put these terrorists that much closer to the battlefield to settle a campaign promise and unconscionable to mislead Congress in the process”, he said.

Now 29 and living in Idaho, he was charged in March with desertion and misbehaviour before the enemy. The finding is similar to that of an earlier nonpartisan Government Accountability Office investigation a year ago.