Interviewing and Interrogation – Reading Bergdahl

Dupe or Deserter?

Stan B. Walters

An Interviewing and Interrogation review and analysis of Bergdahl?  Bowe Bergdahl had just been released by his “captors” in Afghanistan in exchange for the release of 4 high value Gitmo prisoners when a major media outlet asked me to review some of Bergdahl’s writings.  In particular they wanted to get a sense of Bergdahl the man.

I decided to approach the process of reviewing the limited amount of Bergdahl’s writings from the stand point of an interrogator preparing himself to sit down and begin the interviewing and interrogation of  the man.  How does he think?  How does he perceive himself? How does he see the world around him?  What drives his behavior everyday and in particular what is his reaction to events that cause him stress and how does he handle himself in those situations? My goal during the interviewing and interrogation of Bergdahl is to determine “What was his state of mind and was his behavior intentional when his disappeared from his unit June 30, 2009?”

Immediately after reading Bergdahl, I was struck by the observation that this is a man who did little more than “dream about life” but had no effort and had no initiative or self discipline to strive to make those dreams come true.  He makes references to himself as a lone wolf in a dark world.  He sees little or nothing in the world that is for him as if he is disappointed with life and wants to find it’s beauty but would barely turn himself in that direction to go find it.  My perception is that looks at himself as a Knight without a Lord or Ronin – the Samurai without a master.

Bergdahl’s problem however with being that Knight or Samurai is that he dreams of the role BUT expects someone or something else to do the work to turn him into those romantic figures.  In a very telling passage in some of his writing Bergdahl berates the Army and the US mission in Afghanistan.  His remarks present the image of himself and his fellow warriors as nothing more than frightened cowards hiding from children behind sandbags. 

In all reality, Bergdahl has just described himself.  Bergdahl wanted to “Be all [he] could be” but the blames the Army for not “making” him into that warrior that he doesn’t have the discipline to do himself.

Starting on June 9, 2009, Bergdahl’s writings took on a significant change.  He began writing to his friends stateside in a crude code making remarks that it was not safe to talk about what was going to happen.  He hints at his plans that he knows are wrong and is concern about how others will perceive those plans.  He was fully aware that what he was going to do was wrong and could bring the world down on him.

As an interrogator, I will make an analysis of a subject’s behavior on the basis of  “plan of action continuum” that investigators use to analysis everything from serial crimes to active shooters to acts of terrorism:

Conceptualization
Planning
Preparation
Approach
Implementation

In my opinion, Bergdahl’s actions of walking away from his unit on June 30, 2009 was done with well-planned intent.  From June 9 when the dialogue of his writing’s changed until June 30, 2006 when he walked away, Bergdahl was planning and preparing.  Almost like a person ready to commit suicide, Bergdahl was saying his good byes, giving away his belongings, tying up loose ends, closing out the books.

It was not on a whim but with deliberate intent.  Bergdahl was “suiciding his current life” because it brought him no joy and no one was going to take him by the hand and lead him on the journey to find his dreams – a journey for which he had no initiative to take on his own.

In my opinion Bergdahl was not just some unfortunate soldier that due to some random set of circumstances that wandered into the hands of the enemy.  He finally developed enough initiative to take action and that was to walk away from a situation where no one would “make” him into something and find another situation and give someone else to opportunity to create his life for him.

I’m done reading…time to begin interrogating the deserter, Bergdahl.

Just my opinion…let me hear yours.

Stan B. Walters
“The Lie Guy®”
TheLieGuy.com

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