Col. Shaffer: Bergdahl Will Probably Get a Dishonorable Discharge
O'REILLY: "’Factor Follow-up Segment’ tonight, the military trial of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl on desertion and other charges -- you may know the back story, the Sergeant leaving his unit in Afghanistan, captured by the Taliban who tortured him according to an army investigation. Bergdahl was traded for five imprisoned Taliban commanders, a great deal for that terror crew. An army general now deciding whether Bergdahl should go to trial. Joining us now from Washington, Lieutenant Colonel Tony Shaffer who's following the story for us.”
SHAFFER: “Yes, sir.”
O'REILLY: “So, a few weeks ago I said the fix is in that they are not going to put the sergeant in prison. Now I understand the army newspaper "Stars & Stripes" has some new information. What is it?”
SHAFFER: “Mr. Fidell, working I believe with "Stars & Stripes" reported that essentially the Article 32 hearing Bill that you just referred to was very favorable and that when the defense Mr. Fidell and company presented the information that General Dahl came up with is that the story is Bowe Bergdahl deserted his post to go 19 miles to find a general to report the wrongdoing in his chain of command. And so they're saying that that circumstance, that mitigating circumstance is going to be what's necessary to allow for General Abrams, the deciding official to say he's already suffered enough, nothing more to see here, time to move on. Perhaps some sort of discharge, less than honorable, dishonorable -- something along that line without any further action.” [Crosstalk]
O'REILLY: “That's what I think is going to happen, too. But the excuse that Bergdahl went 19 miles into Apache territory which is what they call the bad guy territory to report some disenchantment he has with the American command.”
SHAFFER: “That's correct.”
O'REILLY: “I mean nobody is going to buy that. It makes the army look foolish.”
SHAFFER: “It's a lie. Bill -- it's a lie.”
O'REILLY: “But everybody's going to know that. Can't they come up with a better excuse?”
SHAFFER: “Well no, they can't. And look, Catherine Herridge has reported time and time again the factual evidence. I've had sources telling us what actually happened time and time again. Bill, this is what's going on. You see his defense attorney Mr. Fidell doing what his job is to -- try to try this in the media, with that said. And he says, you know, the prosecution didn't push back on any of this. They did. They laid out factually what actually what happened. This is the kicker. Let me read it here. ‘His personal judgment and decision jeopardized the overall mission.’ That is from one of the senior generals, one of my mentors has said. Nothing has changed here. So let's divide what has to come next which essentially is court-martial which I think will happen and what the punishment should be. Fidell is trying to blur it all together. So Bill, I think the army is going to do the right thing here. I think they're going to move forward with some level of accountability first. And then you decide what the punishment should be.”
O'REILLY: “I'm not so sure the army will do the right thing. The fact that at this point we have a crazy story. Look, I feel bad for the guy. He was tortured by the Taliban. And that will be the mitigating circumstance.”
SHAFFER: “After the court-martial.”
O'REILLY: “He was tortured. You want to put him in jail after he's tortured. It was his own fault he was tortured but still.”
SHAFFER: “Exactly.”
