The Washington Post say they have contacted the villagers who saw Bergdahl the day he deserted the military, and they don’t contradict anything our military personnel has said thus far. In fact, they say they tried to warn him not to go where he was headed, but he didn’t listen:
Until now, few details have emerged about the circumstances of Bergdahl’s disappearance from his base. But The Washington Post has reached Afghan villagers who spotted Bergdahl shortly after he slipped away from his base. To them, it’s clear something was wrong with the American. And he seemed to be deliberately heading for Taliban strongholds, they say.
“It was very confusing to us. Why would he leave the base?” said Jamal, an elder in the village of Yusef Khel, about a half-mile from the American military installation. (Like many Afghans, he goes by only one name). “The people thought it was a covert agenda – maybe he was sent to the village by the U.S.”
Locals remember Bergdahl walking through the village in a haze. They later told Afghan investigators that they had warned the American that he was heading into a dangerous area.
“They tried to tell him not to go there, that it is dangerous. But he kept going over the mountain. The villagers tried to give him water and bread, but he didn’t take it,” said Ibrahim Manikhel, the district’s intelligence chief.
“We think he probably was high after smoking hashish,” Manikhel said. “Why would an American want to find the Taliban?”
So our military and the Afghans seem to agree. I can’t wait for the State Dept. to call the Afghans a lie as well.