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Army's Caves In To Obama's Violation OF UCMJ
By Capt Joseph R. John, October 12, 2015
The below listed article written by Col Lawrence Sellin, USAR (Ret)(PhD), he provides the unsettling and sordid details of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) case concerning the Deserted In The Face Of The Enemy, Bergdahl, and how the US Army, if it follows its current course, appears to be compromising the Uniform Code of Military Justice. It is not enough that Obama has been violating US Federal Laws, US Federal Immigration Laws, and the US Constitution for nearly 7 years, now he is forcing the US Army to violate the Uniform Code of Military Justice!!
The member of Bergdahl’s platoon reported that before Bergdahl “Deserted In The Face Of The Enemy” he sent all his personal belongings home, left his weapons and uniforms in the barracks, then “Deserted In The Face Of The Enemy”
The US Army has recorded communications of the Taliban talking on Bergdahl’s own cell phone, several days after Bergdahl “Deserted In The Face Of The Enemy”; the Taliban were saying the Deserter Bergdahl wanted to join them.
Deserter Bergdahl went from village to village asking to meet with the Taliban Radical Islamic Terrorists. The Army has other recordings where the Taliban are speaking on their own cell phones, saying Bergdahl was trying to join them, and Deserter Bergdahl finally joined their ranks.
During the 45 day search the Army conducted for Deserter Bergdahl, a number of US Army soldiers were reported to have been killed and wounded, although the details of that have been carefully concealed.
Obama held a Rose Garden Ceremony in The White House to announce he exchanged 5 of the most dangerous Radical Islamic Terrorist in the US Naval Detention Camp in Guantanamo Naval Base, Cuba (GITMO) with the “Deserter In The Face Of The Enemy” Bergdahl.
Members of Congress reported that Obama gave the Taliban hundreds of millions of dollars, besides 5 of the most dangerous Radical Islamic Terrorist in GITMO in exchange for the Deserter Bergdahl.
After the Rose Garden Ceremony, even though the US Army knew Bergdahl “Deserted In The Face Of The Enemy”, Obama’s civilian appointees in the Pentagon ensured he was retroactively promoted to Specialist, then to Sargent over a 5 year period, and announced that while Deserter Bergdahl was working with the enemy, his pay which accumulated for the 5 years, totaling $300,000, would be paid to Deserter Bergdahl.
During an Article 32 Hearing, Army prosecutors presented a very weak case in support of the charges against Bergdahl. They chose not to call any of Bergdahl's enlisted comrades who had a very different impression of Deserter Bergdahl’s behavior, than the one Bergdahl gave to investigators. Prosecutors also did not call any witnesses to support the argument that the Army lost men trying to recover Bergdahl.
Instead of recommending a General Court Martial for “Desertion In The Face Of The Enemy”, the Army’s investigating officer, Lieutenant Colonel Mark Visger, hand-picked by Obama’s civilian appointees in DOD, recommended that Bergdahl not received a General Court-Martial for “Desertion In The Face Of The Enemy”, but instead be given a Special Court-Martial---so that if he is found guilty, it would be like a misdemeanor conviction and Deserter Bergdahl could only receive a maximum prison sentence of 12 months of confinement.
“THE FIX IS IN” It is obvious that as the prosecution of Deserter Bergdahl goes forward as reported, the US Army’s Uniform Code of military Justice will be compromised, and will be looked at as just another of Obama’s “Politically Correct” institutions, like the rest of Obama’s Washington bureaucracy.
The Chairman of the Joint-Chiefs-of-Staff, The Chief of Staff of the US Army, the Secretary of the Army, and the Secretary of Defense all understand that they are corrupting 240 years of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and destroying the moral of the US Armed Forces.
Copyright 2015, Capt. Joseph R. John. All Rights Reserved. This material can only be posted on another Web site or distributed on the Internet by giving full credit to the author. It may not be published, broadcast, or rewritten without permission from the author
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by LAWRENCE SELLIN, PHD October 11, 2015
On the night of June 30, 2009, then Army Private First Class Bowe Bergdahl went missing. On July 2, 2009, the Pentagon said that Bergdahl had walked off his base in eastern Afghanistan with three Afghan counterparts and was believed to have been taken prisoner. Bergdahl's commanding officers said that a vigorous, but unsuccessful 45-day search for Bergdahl put soldiers in danger. During his nearly five years as a captive of the Taliban, the Army twice promoted Bergdahl, first to the rank of specialist in June 2010, then to the rank of sergeant in June 2011. On May 31, 2014, Bergdahl was released from captivity in exchange for five senior Taliban commanders held at Guantanamo Bay in a controversial deal negotiated by the Obama Administration.
In June 2014, Major General Kenneth Dahl was assigned to lead the Army's investigation into the 2009 disappearance and capture of Bergdahl. In August 2014, Dahl interviewed Bergdahl. In December 2014, after a comprehensive legal review, the Dahl investigation was forwarded to a General Courts Martial Convening Authority, Gen. Mark Milley, commanding general of Forces Command.
On March 25, 2015, the Army announced, based on Gen. Milley's recommendation, that it was charging Bergdahl with misbehavior before the enemy and desertion, carrying a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
On May 13, 2015, Gen. Mark Milley was nominated to be the next Army chief of staff.
In April 2015, an Article 32 hearing of the Bergdahl evidence was scheduled for July 8. 2015. An Article 32 hearing is similar to the civilian evidentiary or probable cause hearing to determine, after a criminal complaint has been filed, whether there is enough evidence to require a trial. In June 2015, at the request of the defense, the Article 32 hearing was postponed until September 17, 2015.
According to one report of the September 17th Article 32 hearing, Army prosecutors presented a very weak case in support of the charges against Bergdahl. They chose not to call any of Bergdahl's enlisted comrades who had a very different impression of his behavior than the one Bergdahl gave to investigators. Prosecutors also did not call any witnesses to support the argument that the Army lost men trying to recover Bergdahl.
Remarkably, or perhaps not so, the Army has allegedly buried recordings of signals surveillance in Afghanistan from July 1-2, 2009, days after his disappearance, where Taliban are talking on Bergdahl's own phone saying he wanted to join them and other recordings where the Taliban, on their phones, are talking about Bergdahl trying to join them.
In an even more bizarre twist of events, the investigating officer, Major General Kenneth Dahl, appeared as a defense witness, where he provided exculpatory "psychological" evidence, describing Bergdahl as a confused, poorly adjusted idealist who doesn't deserve further punishment.
Not surprisingly, the presiding officer of the Article 32 hearing, Lt. Col. Mark Visger has reportedlyrecommended a special court-martial for Bergdahl, rather than a general court-martial, the former being essentially a military version of a misdemeanor court. The special court martial carries with it a maximum penalty of 12 months of confinement, forfeiture of two-thirds of a service member's pay for a year, reduction in rank to private and a bad-conduct discharge.
According to Bergdahl's lawyer, Eugene Fidell, Lt. Col. Visger called for even lighter penalties than that, recommending against both a bad-conduct discharge and confinement, potentially allowing Bergdahl to receive some military benefits after he leaves the Army.
All of this raises some interesting questions.
If Maj. Gen. Dahl did not feel that Bergdahl deserved further punishment, why did Gen. Milley approve such serious charges as desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, instead of recommending leniency? Or, like Obama's Rose Garden ceremony with Bergdahl's parents, was that "bad optics" for Gen. Milley, who would soon appear before the Senate for Chief of Staff confirmation hearings? Did he go with the more serious charges deliberately, with the administration's subtle blessing, confident that, in the end, the Article 32 would go nowhere?
Some final questions.
Will Bergdahl get less than a slap on the wrist? Will Maj. Gen. Dahl soon get his third star and will Lt. Col. Visger, as quickly, get promoted to full colonel?
Given the disturbing "optics" of the Bergdahl case and the allegations against CENTCOM concerning the manipulation of intelligence, should we now consider the military as nothing more than political operatives of the Obama Administration?
Lawrence Sellin, Ph.D. is a retired colonel with 29 years of service in the US Army Reserve and a veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq. Colonel Sellin is the author of "Restoring the Republic: Arguments for a Second American Revolution ". He receives email at lawrence.sellin@gmail.com.