Taliban release video of captured US soldier

[David]

AP


KABUL – The Taliban released a video Friday showing a U.S. soldier who was captured more than five months ago in eastern Afghanistan.

Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl is the only known American serviceman in captivity. The U.S. airborne infantryman was taken by the Afghan Taliban in Paktika province on June 30.

"This is a horrible act which exploits a young soldier, who was clearly compelled to read a prepared statement," said a statement from U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Gregory Smith, spokesman for the NATO-led international force in Afghanistan that confirmed the man in the video is Bergdahl. "To release this video on Christmas Day is an affront to the deeply concerned family and friends of Bowe Bergdahl, demonstrating contempt for religious traditions and the teachings of Islam."

Bergdahl is shown seated, facing the camera, wearing sunglasses and what appears to be a U.S. military helmet and uniform. On one side of the image, it says: "An American soldier imprisoned by the Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan."

The man identifies himself as Bergdahl, born in Sun Valley, Idaho, and gives his rank, birth date, blood type, his unit and mother's maiden name before beginning a lengthy verbal attack on the U.S. conduct of the war in Afghanistan and its relations with Muslims. He seems healthy and doesn't appear to have been abused.

The video, which has an English-language narration in parts, also shows images of prisoners in U.S. custody being abused. The speaker says he did not suffer such ill treatment.

A statement read by a Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, appears at the end of the video and renews demands for a "limited number of prisoners" to be exchanged for Bergdahl. The statement says that more American troops could be captured.

The Geneva Conventions, which regulate the conduct of war between regular armies, bar the use of detainees for propaganda purposes and prohibit signatories from putting captured military personnel on display. As an insurgent organization, the Taliban are not party to the treaty.

Statements from captives are typically viewed as being made under duress. The insurgents also released a video of Bergdahl a few weeks after he was captured. In the July 19 video, Bergdahl appeared downcast and frightened.

Bergdahl, who was serving with a unit based in Fort Richardson, Alaska, was 23 when he vanished just five months after arriving in Afghanistan. He was serving at a base in Paktika province near the border with Pakistan in an area known to be a Taliban stronghold. On Friday, NATO said a joint Afghan-international force killed several militants in Paktika while searching for a commander of the Jalaluddin Haqqani militant network that is linked to al-Qaida.

U.S. military officials have searched for Bergdahl, but it is not publicly known whether he is even being held in Afghanistan or neighboring Pakistan.

Lt. Col. Tim Marsano, an Idaho National Guard spokesman who has been serving as a liaison between the family and media, said late Thursday night that the family had not seen the video since word of its possible release surfaced earlier this month. He spoke with Bob and Jani Bergdahl, Bowe Bergdahl's parents, earlier this week and described their mood as "anxiously awaiting" any new information about their son.

"They're very hopeful that the message will be a positive one, as far as their son's health and welfare," Marsano said.

Marsano said the family still wasn't speaking publicly about Bergdahl's capture.

The man on the video said U.S. officials keep leading America "into the same holes," citing Vietnam, Japan, Germany, Somalia, Lebanon and Iraq.

"This is just going to be the next Vietnam unless the American people stand up and stop all this nonsense," he said.












This image grab from an undated video reportedly posted on the internet by Taliban militants on December 25 allegedly shows US soldier Bowe Robert Bergdahl.

YouTube- Raw Video: Purported Taliban Footage of...

[darrels joy]

Captured US Soldier: 'Bring Me Home!'

New Taliban Video Shows Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl, Captured Nine Months Ago

By MATTHEW COLE and JIM VOJTECH

Apr. 7, 2010 —


Bowe Bergdahl pleaded for his freedom in a newly released video, telling the camera, "I want to go home." The video is the most recent proof that the 24-year-old American solder, taken captive by the Taliban in Afghanistan last summer, may be still alive.

Bergdahl, an Army private from Idaho, was captured by Afghan insurgents on June 30 after wandering off from his post near the Pakistan border. Three Afghan soldiers were captured with Bergdahl. All are said to be in captivity.

Shortly after Bergdahl was taken prisoner, his captors filmed him making a brief statement and drinking tea and released the tape on the internet.
They released a second video in December.

In the new video, Bergdahl is bearded and dressed in military issue clothing. He holds up a newspaper, but the date of the paper's publication is not visible.

Bergdahl also performs push-ups to demonstrate his physical condition and says he is being treated well, despite being a prisoner.

But Bergdahl begins to lose his composure as he talks to the camera.

"Release me please, I'm begging you," he says.

"I love my family. I haven't shown it very well because I've been pretty lost in my life and I don't think I've given my family the love that they've given me."

"Let me go," pleads Bergdahl.




Col. Tim Marsano of the Idaho Nat'l Guard, the media contact for Bowe Bergdahl's family, said that the family "is copying with this new development."

"As you can imagine," said Col. Marsano, "the last nine-plus months have been extremely difficult for the Bergdahls and they do take comfort in the words and actions of their family, their friends, the community in the Wood River Valley and from all of the cards, letters and e-mails they have received from all over the world."

Bergdahl says on the tape that he is in Afghanistan, but U.S. and Afghan sources involved in the search for Bergdahl believe he has been held in Pakistan for most of his captivity.

Bergdahl is the only known serviceman captured since the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. According to a person actively involved in the search, a top Afghan insurgent commander has taken credit for capturing the soldier and is holding him in the Pakistani tribal areas.

Bergdahl was taken by Mullah Sangeen's men from village near the U.S. military post in Paktika, where he was stationed, according to a senior Afghan Army official in the province. The captors "punched and hit the soldier after some resistance. But than they were able to take the soldier and left all of his things: weapon, body armor and radios." The Afghan official says Bergdahl and the three Afghan National Army soldiers were moved from the near-by village and quickly vanished.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/captur...ry?id=10314693

7:84 video at site.

Joy