Political Firestorm Over Freeing Bowe Bergdahl; Controversial Deleted Tweet by Bergdahl's Father; 25 Years Since Tiananmen Square
ANDERSON COOPER, AC360 HOST: Hey, good evening. Thanks for joining us. We are following some of the especially dangerous weather in the Midwest in Great Plains right now. Forecaster's warning of a very long night ahead. Chad Meyers is in the Weather Center monitoring conditions. He's going to join us shortly. First, though, in the special second hour of 360, the political firestorm over the deal to free Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl from five years of captivity, there's Breaking News on that. We've learned that an early Pentagon fact finding investigation back in 2009 concluded that he left his outpost deliberately and willingly. The official who clued us in to that report says there was no definitive finding that Bergdahl deserted because that would require knowing his intent. That may become clear soon that when he's been debriefed which he hasn't so far. Whatever the answer is, whatever the conclusion, President Obama today stood by the steps he took to bring Bergdahl home.</s>BARACK OBAMA, 44TH AND CURRENT PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Regardless of the circumstances, whatever those circumstances may turn out to be, we still get an American soldier back if he's held in captivity. Period. Full stop.</s>COOPER: In the meantime back in Washington, the President's deputy of National Security Adviser calling Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee apologizing for not giving a 30-day notice of the deal as required by law. Unclear, she accepted his apology but crystal clear, she was not happy with the way this all unfolded.</s>SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN, (D-CA) CHAIR, SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: It comes with some surprise and dismay that the transfers went ahead with no consultation, totally not following the law. And in an issue of this kind of concern to a committee that bares the oversight responsibility, I think you can see that we're very dismayed about it.</s>COOPER: Our Republican lawmakers even more so, we're going to get a sense of just how politically toxic this is becoming. And David Gergen joins us. We'll as well from White House Press Secretary Jay Carney and there's more. In addition to or perhaps compounding the political acrimony, a tweet, now deleted, that Sergeant Bergdahl's father, Bob, apparently sent to a Taliban spokesman. It reads, "I'm still working to free all Guantanamo prisoners. God will repay for the death of every Afghan child, ameen." Ameen is Amen in Arabic. The Bergdahl family declined a comment on that tweet. Also today, more members of their sons unit weighed in. Most notably, his former team leader, Army Sergeant Evan Buetow, he tells the Lead's Jake Tapper that Bergdahl was seeking out the enemy.</s>SGT. EVAN BUETOW (RET.), BERGDAHL'S FORMER TEAM LEADER: I was standing right next to the radio when they heard that there's an American in a village called Yahya Khel, which is about two miles from where we were at. And it's a village that has a very, very large presence of Taliban, that there's -- the American is in Yahya Khel, he is looking for someone who speaks English so he can talk to the Taliban. And I heard it straight from the interpreter's lips as he heard it over the radio. And at that point, it was like this is kind of snowballing out of control a little bit. There's a lot more to this story than just a soldier walking away.</s>COOPER: A lot more and a lot we should add that we simply do not know at this point. Joining us now to help fill in the gaps, Retired Army Sergeant Josh Korder who also served with Bowe Bergdahl. Josh, thanks for being with us. As I said, you served in the same platoon as Bergdahl in Afghanistan. You say you're upset when you heard that the U.S. had secured his release. Why? Explain that.</s>SGT. JOSH KORDER, U.S. ARMY (RET.): I necessary wasn't upset that his release was secured. It was just more about the way it was done and the fact that there's, you know, more dangerous men out there that, you know, can basically terrorize people.</s>COOPER: Do you have any doubt that he was a deserter?</s>KORDER: There's no doubt in my mind that he deserted us.</s>COOPER: Explain that. How do you know?</s>KORDER: Just the way that he was acting. The way that he was talking. The way that he, you know, sent e-mails to his family, just everything he was doing showed that it had, you know, premeditation that he had the intent of leaving the army. What his intent upon leaving the army, I guess that's something only he knows but he definitely intended to leave and, you know, in a combat zone that's desertion.</s>COOPER: What were the circumstances that you know that that lead to his disappearance? I mean can you take me back five years ago that evening?</s>KORDER: From what I understand, you know, he'd gone very close to his Afghan counterparts. There was talk -- it seemed like because at the same time he disappeared, two Afghan soldiers disappeared and it seemed like he had made a deal with them to try and get out of the military, get to one of their families, get to one of their houses and that they were going to try to help him to, you know, get away. But it turned out that they basically turned him over to the Taliban and, you know, made some money off of it and that's how he ended up being captured.</s>COOPER: Do you remember when you heard that he was missing and what you immediately thought?</s>KORDER: I mean, I initially was approached by one of our team leaders and he said, "Guess who's missing." And my battle buddy and I immediately said Bergdahl. We didn't even have to think about who it was that was missing when we knew that someone had disappeared.</s>COOPER: Because he had talked about what? Going off before? Or?</s>KORDER: Just because of anyone in the platoon that we knew of all these people that we fought with and knew all so well, he was the only person that we believe to be capable of that.</s>COOPER: Were you friendly with him before the disappearance? And if so, what was he like as a person?</s>KORDER: He was very strange. It was very difficult to talk to him. It was very difficult to find out basically what he was thinking. I mean, I learned after his disappearance, you know, they were telling on the news that he had a girlfriend. Well, one time I asked him, you know, "Hey, Bergdahl, you got anybody that you're dating back home?" And he told me, "No, I'm not really into that kind of thing." And it just kind of took me aback and then, you know, when I find out that he did have a girlfriend, it was just kind of weird. Why would you say something like that?</s>COOPER: Do you notice any change in his attitude toward the war or toward the service while he was there?</s>KORDER: Absolutely. There are two or three major events that happened during our deployment that were very hard for all of us but he took a particular offense to a lot of things. But the thing was is that, you know, a lot of us got angry, you know. When something happens in the military, it comes from higher. It's a decision that's made above you and a lot of times we -- you kind of got to stand together and face it, you know, we're all in this together. But he started attacking those people -- maybe inside of his head or, you know, something like that out loud. He started attacking them and I think try to justify to himself why he just didn't need to be there anymore.</s>COOPER: I mean there are reports that six soldiers were killed during the search for Bergdahl. There's some people who -- whose, you know, same and not to be that cut and dry but do you hold Bergdahl responsible for their deaths?</s>KORDER: I wouldn't necessarily say that, you know, if there was like a shooting that he pulled the trigger. But I do think that the circumstances surrounding his disappearance and him being gone certainly messed up all of the plans that the army had and set the grounds for those people to be killed because they probably wouldn't have been there. They probably have been doing all their missions. Would they have survived through the deployment? I can't say. But I can almost tell you for certainty that we wouldn't have been in those towns.</s>COOPER: Well, Josh, I know it's a hard thing to talk about. I appreciate you coming on and talking with us tonight. Thank you. Let's dig deep now with Dan O'Shea, Former Navy Seal Commander and Former Coordinator at the Hostage Working Group at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, also Investigative Reporter David Rohde who was held captive for seven months by the Taliban before he managed to escape. You know, David, clearly we're hearing more and more from these men who served with Sergeant Bergdahl. You say many have no idea that his fellow soldiers may have lost their lives looking for him. When you were held by the Taliban, were you in complete isolation from anything happening in the outside world? How much do you think he may know about the last five years?</s>DAVID ROHDE, INVESTATIVE REPORTER, REUTERS: It could be very little. I was isolated in the beginning but as time went on I was able to listen to BBC Radio Broadcast and other things. But again, I'm a civilian and I would think I would be treated much better than Bergdahl was. There was a critical thing in that last interview though about these two Afghan soldiers. There's a possibility one of the theories was maybe that Bergdahl was tricked into leaving the base or he did just walk off that base. There may have been a mental breakdown here. There's so many unanswered questions and, you know, the most important person to hear from is obviously Bergdahl.</s>COOPER: And we talked about this David last night but you believe he absolutely has a lot of questions to answer and needs to at the very least to the people he served with.</s>ROHDE: Absolutely. These soldiers that are on tonight and the last couple of days deserved answers, you know. Whatever Bergdahl's intent was, you know, these young men, you know, suffered a great deal but there should be due process. We should sort of hear from Bowe Bergdahl innocent to guilty is what, you know, General Dempsey today. But there should be an investigation, I agree. Again, I said this last night, I don't think he necessarily left that base, you know, intending to harm anyone. I think maybe he didn't understand what was out there and I guarantee just based on my own time of captivity that he regrets that decision and, you know, he regretted it for everyday of the last five years and will regret it for the rest of his life.</s>COOPER: Dan, do you think it's conceivable that -- I mean that a soldier who's been through training, who, you know, he apparently read a lot about the conflict or read a lot about the Russians there, their experience that he would have walked off not realizing the danger that he was putting himself in, that he was theoretically putting other people in?</s>DAN O'SHEA, FORMER U.S. NAVY SEAL COMMANDER: Well, again, as we've said, the only person who can really answer that is Bergdahl himself. But, you know, the bottom line is when you go through training, boot camp and certainly advanced individual training before you deploy, you build bombs with the members of your platoon, in your company, and your squad that are generally inseparable. You know, you go back and any veteran who served a hundred years, I've met guys that served four years and 40 years later they're heads of industry and they recite to me that the most meaningful time of their life was when they were in an infantry squad as a young marine. So this was the most defining experience of his life to go to combat where literally in an outpost as small as this (ph) cop or combat outpost they might have had 12 soldiers. So literally, that rewind every man to do his rotation at three-hour watch that they were on for 24/7. A critical, critical situation for him to walk up the post. That's why there's so many levels of betrayal felt by these soldiers because it's so obvious to them what his actions, you know, potentially constituted which is desertion.</s>COOPER: It's also an issue again because I mean he clearly sought out service in the military. I read that account by Hastings in Rolling Stone. Apparently he had sought out trying to get into the French Foreign Legion and before that he wasn't able to do and ended up going to the army. So clearly he wanted to be -- have some form of military service. What, you know, Dan, the administration says they saw a window of opportunity in their negotiations and that they kind of -- they had to take it and they say they were also concerned about his health and his safety. It's not exactly clear what that means. We've been told he's in stable condition. You managed, I think, more than 400 kidnapping incidents in Iraq when you were there. Does that explain -- explanation ring true to you here? Did that happen that quickly in a negotiation like this?</s>O'SHEA: Well, listen, a hostage's life is always at risk in these environments but, you know, to say that he was, you know, we can't speculate that he had, you know, some heart condition or some disease. I mean in every single case when we've watched to analyze the videos of the hostages, these proof of life videos, we would denote, you know, that the age, you know, weight loss and a number of things to give us indications. But no, that's were used in every case why we want to rescue him the way we did because the timing of this just seems, you know, why would you negotiate if they know all this now, it's now coming out these facts which of course the government had to know that these charges of desertion are going to come up. They had to expect this fallout and then the fact that they've released five senior Taliban commanders that before U.S. troops have pulled out of Afghanistan and NATO troops, we're going to let this guys back on the battlefield again. So it baffles me that they're saying that it was a health issue that forced them to play the hand at the time that they did.</s>COOPER: Dan O'Shea, it's good to have you on again and David Rohde as well. Thank you guys very much. Dan by the way has written an excellent piece for CNN.com entitled "Bergdahl still has a hard road home" A quick reminder, make sure you set your DVR so you can watch 360 whenever you want. Coming up next tonight and yet more Breaking News in the story just talking about how the deal to free Bergdahl happened and over whose objections. Also, later the history of Americans taken prisoner and how we've gotten them back.