country. we don t negotiate with terrorists. the fact is is that we have violated that policy. reporter: the frustration was expressed by his platoon who were part of the initial rescue mission. if we would have found him i think a lot of us would have shot him, if that tells you anything. say that with sincerity that we had that much hate towards him. reporter: despite recommendations that bergdahl not face jail time the army announced this month it will court-martial bergdahl on charges of desertion and endangering other soldiers. i made it through the last five years, it kind of seems stupid to lose whatever it is that s been keeping me going. reporter: if convicted he could face life in prison but the court s decision may not matter much to those who already sieberg dall as either a hero or a deserter. nick valencia, cnn, atlanta. joining me now to discuss the case is joseph lowe,
military defense attorney and former u.s. marine. joseph, thank you so much for joining us. let me start by asking you the basic question of what you make of this turn of events, that bowe bergdahl is now set to go before a military court and not, you know court-martial, at least the gentleman who oversaw the preliminary hearing asked for a court-martial and that was effectively ignored and this is now happening. why? what do you make of it? good question. the lieutenant colonel was hired, if you will, was asked by the convening authority, the general, conduct this investigation. his tight is investigating officer. look through all the facts. look through all the evidence with all of your legal expertise, and tell us what you think we ought to do based on the octoberive facts and the law as you understand it. after going through all that information and evidence, far more than we re entitled to see, h we came up with the conclusion that this should definitely
scaredity cat and seems like a guy who does not have a strong will to do anything. so if his friend, his neighbor decided to say let s go shoot at some cars, he might go along. reporter: one counter terrorism expert says the highway plot was flimsy and wouldn t have inflicted the mass casualties that an attack in an enclosed space would have used. they say even if not many people were killed on the highway it would have generated massive news coverage and had a huge psychological affect in a place like los angeles. brian todd, cnn, washington. time for a quick break. u.s. army sergeant who spent several years in taliban captivity could now face time in prison. we ll look at the charges against bowe bergdahl as he prepares to face a military court in the coming hours. plus, donald trump is weighing in on that very, very awkward moment a t the miss universe pageant. what he says he would have done. the details, just ahead. the mi
commitment to bring our prisoners of war home. that s who we are as americans. it s a profound obligation within our military and today at least in this instance, it s a promise we ve been able to keep. reporter: but it seemed it was this moment from bergdahl s father that also caused concern and piled on to the controversy. bergdahl s father grew out his beard and learned to speak pashto in hopes to speak with his captor, the gesture only added to the critics kept tichl. but it was anything but a homecoming. celebration in his hometown of idaho canceled amid con tro controversy of bergdahl s release. president obama wants to justify his hasty bergdahl terrorist swap by claiming the soldier was too sick to wait. then he needs to share his evidence with the rest of the
podcast. from chicago, it s. the host sarah koenig chose him for the second season. in it we get a chance to hear from bergdahl ourselves. a man discharged from the coast guard for psychological reasons only to land in the u.s. army under what he calls inept leadership. bergdahl says as a 23-year-old private he didn t feel like his concerns would be taken seriously. all i was seeing was basically leadership failure to the point that the lives of the guys standing next to me were literally, from what i could see, in danger of something seriously going wrong and somebody being killed. good afternoon, everybody. reporter: shortly after bergdahl s release president obama hosted bergdahl s parents in the rose garden. he defended his decision to exchange five prisoners from guantanamo bay to bring bergdahl back home. we also made an ironclad