Serial Episodes 3 & 4. Ok now about podcasts 3 & 4: Leakin Park is a big ass park. The second polygraph doesn’t at all probe into whether Mr. S went to the park to look for the body. Editor's note: Miriam Ramirez, a freelance writer and former reporter for The Monitor in McAllen, Texas, served as an active-duty Military Police/Corrections Specialist in the United States Army. She'll be recapping Serial Season 2 for Mashable. ![]() SPOILER ALERT! The following contains spoilers from Season 2, Episode 2 of the Serial podcast. Name, rank and service number. Any soldier, past or present, knows how crucial this portion of military doctrine — the Army Code of Conduct — will be when they're standing face to face with the enemy. But U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who walked away from his post in Afghanistan and spent five years with the Taliban, had a little more to say than those four words. Did this make his a Taliban-sympathizer? Not quite. Was he trying to out-smart the enemy in order to survive? Perhaps. See also: 'Serial' Episode 2: The hunt for the 'golden chicken' The Code of Conduct also recommends that prisoners of war make every effort to escape. Bergdahl knew that doing so would mean big risk and/or the threat of being killed if caught — if the deplorable living conditions he faced didn’t kill him first. Serial host Sarah Koenig describes the agony, both physical and emotional, that Bergdahl experienced while in captivity. How his own stench became so offensive that it served as armor against any future beatings. How he became so dehydrated that drinking his own urine was no longer a viable option. This is the first time many listeners will hear firsthand accounts of what five years with the Taliban were like for Bergdahl, including the nine days he spent rambling through treacherous terrain in the mountains of Afghanistan. Bergdahl compared his captivity to that of an animal that's been 'locked in a room and forgotten.' He was in the direct custody of Mullah Sangeen Zadran, a Taliban commander in charge of keeping Bergdahl prisoner up until 2013 when Sangeen was killed in a drone strike, Koenig says. By this time, the Army’s search for Bergdahl had 'dwindled,' while his peers continued to follow orders to keep looking — begrudgingly. Rumors swirled, around the Army and in headlines, that the missing soldier had converted to Islam, was trusted so much by his captors that he was permitted to sleep without restraints and even go hunting with a an “old British rifle.” Koenig says that information like this is referred to as “stray voltage,” or almost certain to be untrue. Screenwriter Mark Boal, responsible for the recorded conversations with Bergdahl, goes back and forth with Koenig, trading previously released reports — especially the one they found about Bergdahl casually riding a horse. Even if those reports proved to be false, the Army would draw its own conclusions, painting Bergdahl as a traitor. Inzenjerska komora srbije elektronski potpis. Prijavljivanje nije uspelo! Probajte ponovo! Inženjerska komora Srbije. Inzenjerska komora Srbije izdaje licence za odgovorne planere, urbaniste, projektante i izvodjace radova. Clanovi Komore su diplomirani inzenjeri arhitektonske, gradjevinske, masinske, elektrotehnicke, saobracajne i diplomirani inzenjeri druge tehnicke struke, kao i diplomirani prostorni planeri kojima je Komora izdala odgovarajucu licencu. Koenig says that the rumors certainly didn’t make him look good — but Bergdahl didn't sound like a traitor, either. All he wanted to do was get back home. Torture, abuse and neglectIn this week’s episode, Bergdahl talks about an escape attempt during which he Houdini’d his way out of shackles, ran barefoot out into a village..then was re-captured and beaten with a rubber hose. Any false move angered the insurgents, he said, making his captivity that much more torturous. As time passed, they moved him to a new venue to avoid tipping off ground forces or patterns. In the new place, they chained Bergdahl, spread-eagle, to a bed and blindfolded him. He would remain in that position for three months, he says. Showering was minimal — every three to four weeks — while bathroom breaks were allowed twice a day. Bergdahl was forced to submit to these appalling conditions; what's more, his body seemed to get used to them. But nothing could prepare him for the diarrhea that would last roughly three and a half years. In proof-of-life photos released by the Taliban, Bergdahl looks pale and malnourished. As he tells Boal in recorded conversations, he couldn't escape “the constant worry of, ‘am I gonna die today’ or ‘is something worse gonna happen today’ or ‘am I gonna get food today’ or ‘am I gonna be able to go to the bathroom without some kind of problem happening?’” During his capture, Bergdahl went four years without seeing stars. Speaking with the enemyAccording to the Taliban, Bergdahl didn’t have any valuable intel. They asked him about drones, military planes, if all American women were prostitutes and whether President Barack Obama slept with men. He was adamant he didn’t have the answers. ![]() His captors prepared messages for Bergdahl to read in several videos, where he spoke about the mistreatment of Islamic prisoners at Abu-Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay and other 'secret prisons around the world.' The Taliban also wanted the U.S. government to believe that Bergdahl was being treated well and with dignity, based on the video footage. Bergdahl’s video footage reveals that he did more than give his name, rank and service number to his captors. Although he didn't give them valuable intelligence, he did obey Taliban orders to speak on camera. The government understands there will be times when prisoners of war feel compelled to do things they do not want to do, Koenig said. Although Bergdahl is the first U.S. prisoner of war in Afghanistan, soldiers are indoctrinated to follow the ethical guidelines set forth early on in training. Yet the Code of Conduct is not the standard that the government expect soldiers to live up to. This contradiction is bound to spark further debate in Washington about what may be considered antiquated expectations and the six rules drilled into soldiers from Day One. Military officials say Bergdahl 'minimized the propaganda value.' Soldiers say he said too much. Bergdahl’s case continues in military court; most recently, he did not enter a plea when he was arraigned on Tuesday in Fort Bragg, N.C. He is charged with desertion and misbehaving before the enemy. His next court appearance is January 17. If convicted, Bergdahl faces life in prison.
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