Was it Evan Buetow's responsibility, as team leader, to have secured the post so that the Taliban, nor anyone else, "could just walk right up" into Bergdahl's base?
Did Buetow fail to secure the base so now he wants to shift blame to Bergdahl so no one will focus on the fact that Evan Buetow put his whole unit at risk by not having the base secure?
New York Times reported
Indeed, an internal Army investigation into the episode concluded that the platoon suffered from lapses in discipline and security in the period before Sergeant Bergdahl [was captured.]
The Six guys being pimped by Fox correspondent, Richard Grenell, to trash Sgt Bowe Bergdahl are:
Evan Buetow (Bergdahl's former team leader),
Cody Full,
Joshua Cornelison,
Matt Vierkant,
Justine Gurleve (former squad leader) and
Gerald Sutton
None of those guys have provided any 'evidence,' not even a morsel of evidence to support their claims of desertion, even though they have been asked for such evidence.
In some cases, their claims contradict what was leaked by wikileaks and other times their claims are contradicted by their own comments.
Evan Buetow contradicts himself:
At the beginning of one interview with Megyn Kelly Buetow said:
BUETOW: "We knew that he deserted, we knew that he was trying to find the Taliban and he was trying to find someone who could speak English so he could talk to the Taliban. That was known to us on the ground right after he left."
Yet, later in the same interview, Buetow contradicts his own early claim and says they did
not know he deserted.
(timestamp 4:27)
MEGYN KELLY: Whats the best evidence you have, that the night he went missing and ultimately wound up captured he was doing it intentionally?
BUETOW: The morning that we found out he was missing. Ummm -- we -- someone went to wake him up for his guard shift. He was not there, he was not in his tent. His weapon, his bullet proof vest, his sensitive items were left behind -- in the tent. Ummm -- we looked around the small OP we were on -- it was the size of maybe 2 acres. Umm -- some wire, some areas where anyone could just walk right up. It wasn't like a structured base with walls and a gate. We had trucks fanned out, we had a couple of bunkers, that was it. Ah -- um -- it only took a few minutes to look around and see that he was not there. We -- and at that point we knew nothing. We knew he was gone. And we had nothing else to go on so we pushed a patrol out right away to go to the neighboring village, it's right there, to see if we could find somebody who could give us some information, a direction of travel, if they saw anything. We -- we-- we -- we --- got out about 10 feet out of where we walked out and there were two boys who were walking to school came up to us and said 'hey there was an American crawling through the weeds that way' and then pointed us in the direction. They said, um -- 'he has no weapon with him and he has no gear with him.' And if -- if you know infantry men, when we go on patrol we're slammed with gear. I mean -- there's -- so they said that 'it was weird he was by himself, you guys are never by yourself.'
Ok, so not only did Buetow
not give any evidence to support his earlier allegation, '
we knew he deserted right after he left' Buetow actually gave evidence that the Taliban, or "
anyone could just walk right up" into the base and capture Bergdahl while he was using the bathroom (hence weapon, vest, goggles left behind).
And that fact, from Buetow "anyone could just walk right up" into the base would support the leaked intel where the radio transmissions show the Taliban claim they were on Bergdahl's base when they captured Bergdahl while he was using the bathroom.
From Wiki-Leaks supports Taliban entered Bergdahl's base and captured him:
July 1, 2009:
1- I SWEAR THAT I HAVE NOT HEARD ANYTHING YET. WHAT HAPPENED. IS THAT TRUE THAT THEY CAPTURED AN AMERICAN GUY?
2- YES THEY DID. HE IS ALIVE. THERE IS NO WHERE HE CAN GO (LOL)
1- IS HE STILL ALIVE?
2- YES HE IS ALIVE. BUT I DONT HAVE THE WHOLE STORY. DONT KNOW IF THEY WERE FIGHTING. ALL I KNOW IF THEY WERE FIGHTIING. ALL I KNOW THAT THEY CAPTURE HIM ALIVE AND THEY ARE WITH HIM RIGHT NOW.
UPDATE: 0237z LLVI TRAFFIC FROM FIELD TEAM: Freq-168.65 LOB-135 SS-26
UIM SAYS "CUT THE HEAD OFF"
UPDATE: 0610z LLVI TRAFFIC FROM REDRIDGE: freq 162.1
1- WE WERE ATTACKING THE POST HE WAS SITTING TAKING EXPLETIVE HE HAD NO GUN WITH HIM. HE WAS TAKING EXPLETIVE, HE HAS NOT CLEANED HIS BUTT YET.
2- WHAT SHEAM FOR THEM.
1- I DONT THINK HE W
2-YES LOOK THEY HAVE ALL AMERICANS, ANA HELICOPTERS THE PLANES ARE LOOKING FOR HIM.
1- I THINK HE IS BIG SHOT THAT WHY THEY ARE LOOKING FOR HIM.
3-CAN YOU GUYS MAKE A VIDEO OF HIM AND ANNOUNCE IT ALL OVER AFGHANISTAN THAT WE HAVE ONE OF THE AMERICANS.
1- WE ALREADY HAVE A VIDEO OF HIM.
So, Buetow admits anyone, including the Taliban,
"could just walk right up" into the camp and the intel shows that's exactly what the Taliban say happened. Is Evan Buetow's failure to secure the post part of what the internal Army investigation concluded?
To date, the best 'evidence' Buetow and the other 5 have is: 'he's gone so therefore he must have deserted.'
WTF?!?!
I think it's an interesting coincidence that two Fox correspondents, Ralph Peters and Kimberly Guilfoyle, have called for the Taliban to kill Bergdahl and Fox correspondent, Richard Grenell, is organizing interviews for these 6 guys to smear Bergdahl to the point where people are sending his family death threats.
Fox correspondents use flimsy, unsubstantiated claims to call for the Taliban to kill an American POW.
That said, I question the motives of Evan Buetow and the 5 other soldiers who have been smearing Sgt. Bergdahl with unsubstantiated rhetoric and hate. I also question the motives of the ginners-of-hate, like Fox, Jake Tapper, Richard Grenell & rightwinged blogs who are taking the flimsy, unsubstantiated claims of desertion by Evan Buetow et al., and turning it into calls for the Taliban to have killed, murdered, POW Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.
Will their unsubstantiated hate rhetoric get Bergdahl or his family Killed?
Do they have a motive?
Is Evan Buetow the team leader that Bergdahl wrote in a 2008 email is a "shit bag?"
Evan Buetow's comment shows that the base was not secure and the Taliban "could just walk right up" and capture Bergdahl.
However, if the leaked intel is wrong, there is the possibility that Buetow may have even given Bergdahl permission to leave base without his weapon and night goggles as was implied in a passage from Michael Hastings' 2012 Rolling Stone Magazine.
In the early-morning hours of June 30th, according to soldiers in the unit, Bowe approached his team leader [Evan Buetow] not long after he got off guard duty and asked his superior a simple question:
If I were to leave the base, would it cause problems if I took my sensitive equipment?
Yes, his team leader responded – if you took your rifle and night-vision goggles, that would cause problems.
~ Michael Hastings Rolling Stone article page 4
In the video interview, Megyn Kelly asks Buetow about that 2012 Rolling Stone passage and
Buetow changed the story a bit.
MEGYN KELLY: He asked you as the leader what would happen if he just happened to wonder off and took sensitive items.
EVAN BUETOW: No, he said, 'what would happen if my sensitive items went missing.' Which is ah -- a rhetorical question for any soldier to ask because no one doesn't know the answer to that question. I mean everything shuts down. If the weapon goes missing everything shuts down.
hmmmm .... could Evan Buetow be confusing two separate events?
Michael Hastings wrote that Bergdahl's unit was "notorious for screwing up" and they even "lost a weapon" and had to shut everything down until they found it.
By the time the month long training session ended, the platoon was so notorious for screwing up ... The discipline problems that had plagued Bowe's unit back home only got worse when immersed in the fog of war. From the start, everything seemed to go wrong ... The unit, for its part, continued to bungle even the most basic aspects of military duty. During the last week of June, the platoon spent a day resupplying at Forward Operating Base Sharana. When someone in the unit lost his weapon, everyone in the platoon had to drop what they were doing and look for it.
From Evan Buetow's current story, the questions are:
Did the Taliban 'just walk right up' and into the base and capture Bergdahl as he was using the bathroom?
Or, Did Evan Buetow give Bergdahl permission to leave base so long as he did not take his weapon, vest & night goggles?
We just do not know the answer. Which is why all this hate ginned up by Fox, Tapper and rightwinged blogs is BS ... political BS ... that could end up getting Bergdahl or someone in his family killed.
Evan Buetow uses crumbs to jump to 'conclusions'
As for Evan Buetow's claim, 'We knew that he was trying to find the Taliban or trying to find someone who could speak English so he could talk to the Taliban.'
Intel leaks from wikileaks shows military translators picked up Afghan/Taliban chatter saying a person who looked like an American soldier with a camera was looking for someone who speaks English.
At 1012Z, LLVI receives traffic that an American Soldier with a camera is looking for someone who speaks English.
Was it a soldier with a camera, or a film maker or war correspondent with a camera looking for a translator?
British filmmaker Chris Terrill in Afghanistan
Joshua Cornelison has no evidence of desertion but a lot of hate
Joshua Cornelison is also pissed and says
he does not need nor want "proof" Bergdahl "willfully" deserted. In an interview Fox correspondent organized between Cornelison and Hardball with Chris Matthews:
JOSHUA CORNELISON: He purposefully and willfully walked away from his post in our small outpost Inmast. He predetermined when and why he was going to leave. That`s unknown to anybody except for Bowe Bergdahl. But he purposefully walked away and abandoned his post, abandoned his platoon and abandoned his Army.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Why do you -- what -- what -- what evidence do we have that he
had a clear plan?
JOSHUA CORNELISON: No, no. You would never-- You would never, ever tell anybody that you`re going to walk off the post because then you would be pulled back from the front line and you would get mental examinations, and you would no longer be in actual combat arms. So he never, ever told anybody, hey, guess what, tomorrow morning I`m going to walk off the post, because that would totally jeopardize his predetermined plan to actually leave.
That's it, no proof, no evidence at all ... just BS rhetoric not supported by fact.
In another interview arranged by Fox contributor, Richard Grenell, with the New York Times, Cornelison says he is pissed they had to look for a missing U.S. soldier
JOSHUA CORNELISON: "Yes, I'm angry. Everything that we did in those days was to advance the search for Bergdahl. If we were doing some mission and there was a reliable report that Bergdahl was somewhere, our orders were that we were to quit that mission and follow that report.”
~Conelison in an interview arranged by Fox Contributor Richard Grenell
In a video interview Fox correspondent, Richard Grenell set up with Megyn Kelly, Cornelison goes as far as to say Bergdahl enjoys being a POW in the hands of the Taliban.
Timestamp 4:16
JOSHUA CORNELISON: He doesn't seem like a captive, he seems like he's enjoying himself. You do everything you can to get back to your guys -- they care about you -- you care about them -- you would put your life down for them and they're going to do the same thing for you.
WTF? Where in the hell did Cornelison get the hair-brained idea that Bergdahl "
seems like he's enjoying himself." And what BS this guy is spewing. On the one hand he is pissed he had to search for Bergdahl and on the other hand he says he'd lay his life down for fellow soldiers. Whatever.
Is the lack of real military discipline the reason these six guys are violating their non-disclosure agreement they signed with the military?
Cody Full didn't like Bergdahl due to beer
Cody Full is pissed that Bergdahl wouldn't drink beer with him. In the interview with the New York Times, arranged by Fox correspondent, Richard Grenell, Cody Full was angry:
CODY FULL “He wouldn’t drink beer or eat barbecue and hang out with the other 20-year-olds. He was always in his bunk. He ordered Rosetta Stone for all the languages there, learning Dari and Arabic and Pashto ... I won’t get into the politics, but now that he’s back he needs to be held 100 percent accountable. For putting myself and 29 other people in my platoon in hell for 90 days.”
~ New York Times article
Yes, it is sad that Cody Full spent "
90 days of hell" looking for a fellow soldier who wouldn't drink beer with him. And for that, Cody Full will trash and smear Bowe Bergdahl with unsubstantiated BS claims of "desertion."
I found it interesting that Cody Full, who admits Bowe Bergdahl wouldn't give him the time of day, claims to know, without a doubt, that Bergdahl "premeditated" leaving.
CODY FULL "He knew what he was doing when he deserted us. It was premeditated. It was thought out. He was not captured. He was not forcefully taken off the base. He left on his own accord... I don't think someone who deserts during a time of war should be able to desert and get away with it."
Naturally Cody Full has no evidence to support his BS claim.
Matt Vierkant has no evidence of desertion either.
Megyn Kelly wanted to know just how badly Bergdahl wanted to desert the army.
KELLY: And how many people had a conversation with him prior to the night he went missing about his," I might walk off and go in India someday. I might walk off and go to the mountains somebody," because I read a few of you did.
MATT VIERKANT: A week or two prior, we were on a different mission, got stuck up on a mountain for about a week or so and just sitting around waitin ta do our guardshift of whatever -- talkin ta me and just -- ya know -- makin jokes whatever -- and -- he says -- ya know -- I could just see myself getting lost in these mountains. I was like well I can't see myself -- ya know -- maybe in like Colorado or Alaska. I said - ya know - I wouldn't want to be stuck in the mountains in this country period personally.
ooookay. So, Bergdahl thought the mountains of Afghanistan were beautiful and was day dreaming. Again, Matt Vierkant's anecdote is not evidence Bergdahl willfully deserted and not evidence he premeditated anything.
Justin Gerleve has no evidence of desertion either:
Well, Justin says a lot of hearsay to conclude Bergdahl deserted. Naturally, Jake Tapper is so stupid he doesn't call Gerleve out on his BS hearsay.
TAPPER: We have talked to some of your fellow soldiers who say that they believe that he walked off the base on his own volition. Is that what you think?
GERLEVE: Yes, sir. I believe that he totally deserted, not only his fellow soldiers, but his leadership that wanted the best for him and the best for our country.
TAPPER: Why do you believe that?
GERLEVE: Just from the pre-actions that he had done that was -- come to my attention, as far as mailing off all his personal items that were, as we call, high-dollar items, i.e., computer, just stuff like that. The way he talked to his fellow soldiers as far as getting lost in the mountains or wanting to walk to India, stuff like that just makes me believe that he didn't want anything to do with us anymore.
TAPPER: I spoke with your former colleague, your former battle buddy, retired Army Sergeant Evan Buetow. He said that in the day or so following Bergdahl's disappearance, you intercepted communications that an American was in a nearby town looking for someone who speaks English, so he could communicate with the Taliban. Do you know anything about that?
GERLEVE: Yes. I was standing there with Evan when those communications came across. As far as what exactly was said, I don't want to really say it, quote it. But there was talk that he was running around looking for people to speak English and wanted to seek out the Taliban.
TAPPER: And there's no doubt in your mind that it was Bergdahl that the intercepted chatter was referring to?
GERLEVE: Yes. I mean, there was no -- any other American out there running around or doing what activity, you know, that was reported to us, except for him on that day.
Yeah, cuz talking and day dreaming to fellow soldiers about beautiful mountains is "totally" a sign the soldier is going to desert. And ... it must have been Bergdahl wearing a camera cuz no one reported any other English speaking person was running around to Gerleve.
Since Jake Tapper is pathetic at real journalism, Tapper resorted to drilling for sensationalism to gin-up hate for Bergdahl.
TAPPER: A lot of soldiers with whom I have spoken were very upset, because they thought he was getting something like a hero's welcome without the full story being told. How did you feel?
GERLEVE: I feel that the hero's welcome is not right, because he did [sic] dessert. And us soldiers that were on the ground with him that morning, days prior, and the soldiers that looked for him countless of hours, countless of days, soldiers that lost their lives are the true heroes.
TAPPER: The national security adviser said that Bergdahl served with honor and distinction. Did he?
GERLEVE: No. And at this point, I don't think so at all, because, like I said, he deserted his fellow soldiers.
TAPPER: Former U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Justin Gerleve, thank you so much for your time, for sharing your views. And, of course, thank you for your service, sir.
(emphasis mine)
Gerleve has no evidence Bergdahl deserted his unit and there is no evidence anyone died looking for Bergdahl and Jake Tapper is a GD lazy fool. And maybe I am confused, but I always thought the rightwingers said anyone who joined the military was a hero. I never realized, until now, that the rightwingers eliminated POWs from their hero list.
Gerald Sutton has no evidence
In the interview Fox correspondent, Richard Grenell set up with Gerald Sutton and the New York Times, Gerald Sutton disagrees with his fellow soldiers and he implied Bergdahl was a warmonger.
GERALD SUTTON: “He’d complain about not being able to go on the offensive, and being attacked and not being able to return fire. He wanted to take the fight to the enemy and do the mission of the infantry,” he said, adding, “He was a good soldier, and whenever he was told to do something, he would do it.”
~ New York Times article
In a video interview with Megyn Kelly, Sutton offered no proof Bergdahl deserted but he just knew he did.
KELLY: Gerald, I know that you were friends with Bowe in your platoon. What do you think?
GERALD SUTTON: I do think that it was premeditated and everything just like Cody said. His true motives and everything, I really don't know. He never spoke about them, but yes, pretty much what Cody said, too
Ok, sure ... just what Cody said.
The Pentagon has never stated that Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl deserted. We know Evan Buetow did not secure the post and said that "anyone could just walk right up" and into the post to capture Bergdahl or anyone else.
New York Times reported:
How he [Bergdahl] slipped off the base is another matter of debate. The observation post was rectangular, shaped like a horseshoe, perhaps 150 yards long by 100 yards wide. One end backed up to a hill near where a contingent of Afghan National Police was staying and was not fully encircled with concertina razor wire; Sergeant Bergdahl had been increasingly spending time with the Afghan policemen, who helped provide security for the back of the outpost.
Michael Hastings wrote: Evan Buetow's unit would "
bungle even the most basic aspects of military duty."
Did the men on duty responsible to keep watch throughout the night bungle their duty, fail to do their job and not notice who was coming on and off the post?
The New York Times reported:
Six soldiers were supposed to be keeping watch throughout the night — one each in the platoon’s five MRAPs, and one in a post up the hill.
Was that "
post up the hill" the same hill that
was not fully encircled with concertina razor wire thus giving rise to "
anyone could just walk right up" and into the base?
All six guys trashing Bowe Bergdahl with admit they did not see him 'walk off base,' they did not know him very well and have absolutely no evidence that Bergdahl deserted. Yet, with no evidence at all, Evan Buetow is proud of himself and told Fox's Sean Hannity "we're not going away. We're staying here. We've had the same story.."
Yes, and that same story is full of holes and riddled with unsubstantiated claims. It's flimsy, unsubstantiated stories like Evan Buetow's that got Hurricane Carter, and many others, falsely convicted.
Either these six guys are unable to think critically and thus do not even realize they have no evidence to support their claims -- or -- they are intentionally spreading false claims to cover something up and to gin up hate for Bergdahl.
Is their hate toward Bergdahl fueled by the "hero's welcome" mantra? Did they want a hero's welcome, didn't get one and now will be damned if they let Bergdahl have one?
I think it's a travesty that all soldiers coming home were denied a welcome home parade.
Is Evan Buetow the team leader that Bergdahl wrote in a 2008 email is a "shit bag?" Is Buetow taking revenge on Bergdahl for writing that?
Is the 'same story' they're telling a ruse to stop people from asking why Evan Buetow did not secure the base?
Or a ruse so no one will ask how the night patrol on the hill failed to see people walking on and off the post?
Or a ruse so no one will ask who the soldiers were that Bergdahl wrote about in 2008 who mowed down Afghan children in military trucks?
Or, is this all a ruse, partially scripted by Fox correspondent Richard Grenell with unsubstantiated claims of "premeditated" "desertion" to gin up hate against President Obama at the expense of Bergdahl and his family?
Will the unsubstantiated hate rhetoric from Evan Buetow et al., get Bergdahl Killed?