In 2003, a US marine sergeant and his scout sniper partner were captured near the Syrian border by forces loyal to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and thereafter sold to an Al-Qaeda commander.
For the next eight years they were held captive in Damascus and through most of this time were subjected to sustained torture and interrogation. While the guards wielded the stick, the commander was quite kind to the marine and slowly gained his trust. So much so that the marine grew hateful of the very idea of America, converted to Islam and one fine day, under the orders of the 'benevolent' commander, beat his partner to death.
In 2011, the elite Delta Force of the US military carried out a raid at a terrorist compound in Afghanistan and stumbled upon the US marine. The bearded, battered soldier was flown back to the US and received a hero's welcome. During the de-briefing of this marine, fast becoming a national celebrity, a CIA agent detected some inconsistencies in his versions. Thus, began an investigation into an unnerving possibility: Has the American PoW been 'turned' by the Al-Qaeda and sent back to the US as a double agent?
Now cut to June 2009. A US army officer reached Paktika in Afghanistan as part of a platoon tasked with taking out insurgents. On June 30, he disappeared - reportedly 'captured' by the Taliban - and was declared 'Missing-Captured' by the army. A few days later, the Taliban released a video featuring the officer who said that he was taken hostage as he lagged behind his patrol.
In 2014, after five years in Taliban captivity, the frail and bearded officer (by now a sergeant -- promoted in abstentia) returned to a hero's welcome to the US. He was back thanks to the Obama administration's act of freeing five senior Taliban operatives from Guantanamo Bay and letting them go to Qatar - simply put, as part of a prisoner swap.
While the sergeant was being feted and celebrated across the US, like the marine sergeant who returned after eight years, the army conducted a review of the circumstances that led to his 'capture' by the Taliban. It revealed a queer possibility: Bowe Robert Bergdahl was perhaps not 'captured', but actually deserted the army after becoming disillusioned by the US war in Afghanistan.
A Weekly Standard report stated that military officials were also probing if he had been 'turned' by the Taliban and had actually started helping the militant outfit.
This officer-turned-sergeant is Bergdahl and he is all over TV now. The US marine sergeant captured by Al-Qaeda in 2003 was Nicholas 'Nick' Brody... he was all over TV too, but only as the protagonist in the fictional series 'Homeland.' Life, indeed, imitates art (in this case, TV serials).
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