Report: Bergdahl’s Army mates shop tell-all book

Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s former platoon mates are shopping proposals for a book and movie that are sharply critical of the one-time Afghan prisoner of war, Yahoo News reports.

One book proposal depicts Bergdahl as a “premeditated” deserter who “put all of our lives in danger.” The account also questions whether he aided the Taliban after he disappeared from his post in Afghanistan in 2009 and was captured by the group.

{mosads}Bergdahl, who was released in May, after the Obama administration swapped five Taliban Guantanamo detainees for him, is now under investigation by the Army. 

The 28-year-old could be charged with violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice if he is found to have deserted. 

Any books or movies could complicate the Army’s investigation, since his former platoon mates are all potential key witnesses.

One former platoon mate, Cody Fuller, has already testified before Congress, accusing Bergdahl of deserting his post in a June hearing.

The former service members though say they want to set the record straight and many have already spoken to the media.

“There was no way we were going to sit down and be quiet while Obama was calling him a war hero,” Evan Buetow, Bergdahl’s former team leader, told Yahoo News. “We’re just trying to tell the truth. It’s not my fault this would make Obama look bad.”

Agents for the platoon mates said that some publishers were hesitant to back the project and expressed concerns the book could be used to criticize President Obama, who authorized the controversial prisoner exchange for Bergdahl.

“Conservatives are all over Bergdahl and using it against Obama,” Sarah Durand, a senior editor at Atria Books wrote to one of the soldiers’ agents, according to the report.

“[M]y concern is that this book will have to become a kind of ‘Swift Boat Veterans for Truth'” she wrote, referencing efforts by Navy veterans who served with John Kerry questioning his service in Vietnam.

Eugene R. Fidell, Bergdahl’s lawyer, said he would not comment on a book proposal that he has not seen. 

“We have made a decision not to try this case in the media. I think publishers will have to decide whether this has been hijacked for political purposes,” he said. 

One book proposal acknowledges that Bergdahl was “likely tortured” during his five years in captivity and that his fate “haunted us daily.”

The platoon mates also portray Bergdahl as an oddball and loner who seemed initially excited to fight the Taliban, but then spoke about disappearing in the mountains. 

They also discuss the frantic search for Bergdahl after he disappeared, codenamed “Operation Yukon Recovery,” carried out in difficult conditions. 

One proposal claims that after his disappearance, the Taliban improved the effectiveness of their roadside attacks on American vehicles, and suggests Bergdahl might have helped train Taliban forces. 

“I think he should be court-martialed,” Buetow told Yahoo News. “What we know is, he’s a deserter.”