Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl Describes Brutal Conditions of His 5-Year Captivity
Says he attempted to escape a dozen times, was at large once for 9 days.
— -- For the first time Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has described in his own words the brutal conditions he endured as a Taliban prisoner for five years, a time during which he said he was kept in constant isolation. Bergdahl also claims he attempted to escape about a dozen times including once where he was able to evade his captors for nine days before being recaptured.
Bergdahl walked away from his unit's outpost in eastern Afghanistan in June, 2009 and was held captive by the Taliban until last May when his freedom was secured in a controversial prisoner swap for five former Taliban leaders being detained at Guantanamo.
On Wednesday the Army charged Bergdahl with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy; he could face life in prison for the latter charge.
Bergdahl’s account of his captivity was included in a statement provided to reporters by his attorney Eugene Fidell, who told ABC News it details “the really atrocious conditions in which he was held” and the worsening treatment after his escape attempts. “I think those are important facts that decision makers will take into account when they figure out how this case should be disposed of,” said Fidell.
“I was kept in constant isolation during the entire five years, with little to no understanding of time, through periods of constant darkness, periods of constant light, and periods of completely random flickering of light, and absolutely no understanding of anything that was happening behind the door I was held behind," wrote Bergdahl in the single-spaced two-page statement.
He said that in the first three months of his captivity after his two escape attempts “I was chained to a bed spread-eagle and blindfolded.” He remained constantly blindfolded except for the few times a day when he was allowed to eat and use the latrine.
As his muscles atrophied and it became difficult for him to walk his captors allowed him to sit chained on the bed. He eventually developed open wounds on his ankles “that looked like the staph infection I had had earlier that year.”
He also began to develop what he called a “growing internal sickness" that made it difficult for him to eat for the rest of his captivity and led to a dramatic weight loss.
After a year of captivity he was placed in a cage with his hands in chains except for the few times when he would wash or change clothes. For a year his feet were chained to the cage every night though that ended “because of the acute pain my feet and legs where [sic] in.” He claims that pain had developed into a “freezing numbness that continues to the present, as both feet have neuropathy.”
He would spend the rest of his captivity in the cage, but unshackled only because it was placed over plumbing that allowed him to relieve himself.
His captors would routinely play mind games with him telling him he would be executed one day, “told I would leave the next day, and the next day told I would be there for 30 years.”
Bergdahl claims he attempted to escape from his captors about a dozen times, the first one taking place just hours after he was captured in 2009 in eastern Afghanistan.
Taken to a village, he claims a Taliban fighter began punching him each time he evaded his questions. Blindfolded with a blanket over his head “I believed I had a chance to run for it and did.” But he was soon brought down by a large group of men who repeatedly punched him including one who used the butt stock of a broken AK-47.
He twice was able to escape beyond the buildings where he was being held. The first time during his first week in captivity when he escaped for 10 to 15 minutes “and after recapturing me and putting chains back on they took turns beating me with a length of thick robber [sic] hose.” Bergdahl said the escape attempt led to his being taken to a more secured compound.
His most daring escape occurred at the end of his first year of captivity when he was able to evade his captors for nine days. “Without food and only putrid water to drink, my body failed on top of a short mountain close to evening.”
He was recaptured a short time later by a large Taliban search group that proceeded to beat him severely. “One tried to rip my beard and hair out, but from what I could sense they where [sic} more worried about getting me out of that area as quickly as possible.”