Blog Post #2
The bizarre tale of Bowe Bergdahl continues in the second episode of Serial 2, The Golden Chicken, as Sarah Koeing dives into the complicated details of Bowe’s capture by the Taliban.
“We were blessed.”
The controversy behind Bergdahl’s capture are deviated into two sects: (1) Bergdahl walked into a Kuchi (nomad) tent and that is how the Taliban got a hold of him or (2) Bergdahl was kidnapped out in the open by guys on motorcycles. Countless rumors and descriptions of Bergdahl and his capture arose in Afghanistan, and I cannot help but find it interesting at the amount of time, resources, and energy invested into finding this man. “Even if you are looking for Osama Bin Laden,” a soldier commented when discussing the undertaking of the DUSTWUN situation, “then your subject is changed to look for the DUSTWUN.” While listening to accounts from the Taliban and the Wikileaks sources, it made more sense to me that the Taliban were tipped off by the rumors of a missing American soldier being spread, due to the ‘all-hands-on-deck’ search for the DUSTWUN. It was said that soldiers from Bergdahl’s platoon questioned boys at a school of a missing American soldier, and that might have tipped off the kids, then tipped off the adults, and then gotten to the Taliban that there was a missing American soldier in the midst. Although, as mentioned before, there are discrepancies in this story.
“If you do not release the American soldier, you will be hunted.”
Wikileaks is an anti-secrecy organization, founded by Julian Assange in 2006, whose purpose is to “to bring important news and information to the public… so readers and historians alike can see evidence of the truth” (The Sun). Although I do agree on the fact that disclosure by the government is important in facilitating in reliable relationships with the people, I cannot find myself to be partial to Wikileaks. Despite providing sources and documents of government envoys and activity abroad, it seems to me that Wikileaks is shady. Granted, the government has proven to be disreputable at times as well, so it is effective that they are taking counter-measures. In the podcast, they cited a report from Wikileaks that detailed the DUSTWUN being initiated and accounts of a missing American soldier. In the report, it stated that an American soldier was carrying a camera and was looking for someone who spoke English. The podcast was juggling between the diverging stories of Bowe’s capture that it may have collided with the accounts being reported and disclosed on Wikileaks. The account on Wikileaks seemed to support Bergdahl’s story of being kidnapped in the open rather than in the Kuchi tent. It is specifically seen in this account on Wikileaks:
UPDATE: 1248z SPOT REPORT MISSING US SOLDIER WAS LAST SEEN IN A VILLAGE AT GRID LOCATION VB 611 818; A BAG WAS COVERING HIS HEAD AND HE WAS WEARING DARK KHAKI APPAREL. HE WAS BEING TRANSPORTED IN A BLACK TOYOTA CORROLLA WHICH IN ADDITION WAS BEING ESCORTED BY 3-5 MOTORCYCLES.
As the podcast continues with the Bowe Bergdahl story, I am interested to see how more individuals from his platoon react to his own reasoning for his departure and more look into tenuous relationship between the America and Afghanistan, as the search for Bowe continues.
“You do not leave anyone out there in a war zone.”
The Sun Article
