Questions about the reported abduction of Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl

[bijou]

A couple of stories today on this:

My prayers are with the family of Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl, the U.S. soldier seen on the Taliban abduction video released this weekend. The Jawa Report has the full clip.

All Americans should hope and pray for his release from jihadi custody.

There’s one question I have, though, about strange details initially reported on the case — details which have been deleted from later wire dispatches. Read:

    The circumstances of Bergdahl’s capture weren’t clear.

    On July 2, two U.S. officials told the AP the soldier had “just walked off” his base with three Afghans after his shift. He had no body armor or weapon and they said they had no explanation for why he left. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.

    On July 6, the Taliban claimed on their Web site that five days earlier “a drunken American soldier had come out of his garrison” and was captured by mujahadeen.

    In the video, Pfc. Bergdahl said he was lagging behind a patrol when he was captured.

    Details of such incidents are routinely held very tightly by the military as it works to retrieve a missing or captured soldier without giving away any information to captors.

The question is: Which account is accurate?

The first account strongly suggests desertion, a la Wassef Ali Hassoun.

The second account might provide an explanation for why Pfc. Bergdahl had no armor or weapon on him when captured.

The third account is totally at odds with the other two.

Follow-up questions:

Were the AP’s sources mistaken?

Did the AP botch the reporting?  ...

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/07/20/questions-about-the-reported-abduction-of-pfc-bowe-bergdahl/

Source: Bowe Bergdahl Deserted

I’ve been reporting for over a week (along with the AP and WaPo) that Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl, the US soldier who’s gone missing in eastern Afghanistan, walked off the base on his own accord.

Now, somebody close to the people searching for Bergdahl has repeated this assertion saying that the soldier left “a note behind that said he was going to the mountains to find himself. He took a journal and 4 or 5 knives with him.” My source tells me that Bergdahl arrived at a village and asked if anybody spoke English. That’s when he was captured. ...

http://trueslant.com/pjtobia/2009/07/20/source-bergdahl-deserted/

[docstew]

I thought the statement that he supposedly made about "wanting all the Soldiers to go home" (or something to that effect) sounded somewhat fishy.  That, and he still had his head attached.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Mysteriouser and mysteriouser.  The Army tends to lie its ass off when people desert/defect though, for various reasons.  Among those are that if all the rest of the troops think he chose to go, their level of giving a shit about ever finding him drops off to negative numbers.  And understandably so, it's just human nature that nobody wants to risk his own ass for a true dyed-in-the-wool liability.

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

Mysteriouser and mysteriouser.  The Army tends to lie its ass off when people desert/defect though, for various reasons.  Among those are that if all the rest of the troops think he chose to go, their level of giving a shit about ever finding him drops off to negative numbers.  And understandably so, it's just human nature that nobody wants to risk his own ass for a true dyed-in-the-wool liability.

I wonder if the others in his unit are of the opnion:

A) Damn, what a shame

B) So long, shit bag

I can't help but think he deserted and was suckered by LIPs who prtended to help him escape so they could snatch him. That would make him quite gullible or desperate but one never knows.