CBS: Army ‘Threw the Book at Bergdahl’

MARTIN: “Bowe Bergdahl was the only U.S. soldier missing in Afghanistan, so bringing him home was an important part of ending that war. Well, the war is winding down but the legal battle over Bergdahl is just beginning.”
[clip starts]
MARTIN (voice-over): "The Army threw the book at Bergdahl charging him with desertion which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. And with misbehavior before the enemy which carries a much stiffer penalty.”
KING: “A maximum potential penalty of a dishonorable discharge reduction to the rank of E-1 total forfeiture of all paying allowances and possible confinement for life.”
MARTIN (voice-over): “Bergdahl was held by the enemy for five years until his captors freed him last May in exchange for five senior members of the Taliban held at Guantanamo. Bergdahl’s attorney released a statement in which the Army sergeant described the conditions of his captivity: kept in isolation, blindfolded chained to a bed, beaten with a copper cable, opened wounds on his wrists from handcuffs.”
FIDELL: “You wouldn't want your worst enemy to be treated the way the Taliban treated Sergeant Bergdahl. And I might add, by the way, during those nearly five years he made something like a dozen escape attempts which it was his duty to do as a soldier.”
MARTIN (voice-over): “Eugene Fidell questioned whether his client could get a fair trial after what he called the deluge of vilification.”
FIDELL: “You know, basically calling my client every name in the book suggesting that he should be hanged and shot.”
MARTIN (voice-over): “Former soldiers who served with Bergdahl and had to go looking for him after he disappeared felt the charges were justified.”
BETHEA: “What I see is that he deserted there's no way around it.”
NN MALE: “Life imprisonment would be the best thing. Anything less than that and I feel like it would be cheating.”
[clip ends]
MARTIN: “The Army will now convene the military equivalent of a Grand Jury to hear the evidence against Bergdahl and determine if it merits a Court Martial. That will almost certainly take months since there are thousands of pages of evidence which the defense has not yet seen.”