New ‘Serial’ digs into story of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, accused Afghan deserter

“And I knew that was going to happen, but suddenly it really starts to sink in that I really did something bad”. At one point he says he was trying to be a real-life Jason Bourne.

“I asked him, ‘Why are you sleeping on the frame of your bed?'” Vierkant recalled in an interview last spring. He wanted to draw attention, like a petulant child who hides and panics his parents just to spite them. He was captured by Taliban allies and spent the next five years as a hostage. He was promoted to sergeant during that time.

The exchange brought a firestorm of criticism from congressional Republicans, who said they were not notified as required by law.

Bergdahl’s stunt backfired not only on himself, but also on his fellow soldiers. It’s not clear when he will announce his decision, and Army officials declined to comment on the case on Thursday.

In the series of interviews, screenwriter Mark Boal allows Bergdahl to explain in his own words why he left his base – prompting a manhunt involving thousands of troops. If the entire American military apparatus in Afghanistan was launched into finding him, he would be able to get an audience with anyone he wanted, the theory goes.

Serial’s first season was a huge hit that resulted in a Maryland court giving its subject, a man convicted of murdering his girlfriend in 1999, a chance to appeal his sentence.

Bergdahl did not testify at a September preliminary hearing at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, where he continues to serve.

“Americans of goodwill should be afforded an opportunity, especially at this time of year, to judge the matter calmly and in its proper light”. Fidell called it a “gripping … high-quality production”.

General Robert Abrams, a combat officer who is a general court-martial convening authority, holds Bergdahl’s fate in his hands.

Abrams has wide discretion.

Now 29 and living in Idaho, he was charged in March with desertion and misbehaviour before the enemy. He can also order a special court-martial, recommend non-judicial punishment, or choose to take no action at all. Instead of simply walking 18 miles from his outpost to a forward operating base, Bergdahl decided he would first try to track Taliban insurgents placing improvised explosive.devices. “What I can say is he, like everybody else, is ready for this to be over so we can move on to other things”. “I think it would be inappropriate”.

Bergdahl acknowledges his motives weren’t entirely idealistic.

Further complicating things was the prisoner exchange that President Obama executed in 2014 to rescue Bergdahl from Taliban captivity – something that wasn’t universally well received in the States. After all, the season will, Koenig has already said, feature many, many soldiers and an examination of whether Bergdahl was right about his bosses. The five Taliban prisoners who were freed, it says, were among the most unsafe and problematic detainees at Guantanamo, and getting rid of them in this swap, it says, helped reduce the population of problematic people there who were too problematic to transfer elsewhere.

The White House dismissed the report yesterday, pointing out that Obama was merely acting on a “unique opportunity” to recover Sgt. Berghdal.