'High' Bergdahl Headed Right for Taliban: Villagers

Dazed soldier was probably 'smoking hashish,' district intel chief says
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 5, 2014 7:38 AM CDT
'High' Bergdahl Headed Right for Taliban: Villagers
Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, sits in a vehicle guarded by the Taliban in eastern Afghanistan.   (AP Photo/Voice Of Jihad Website via AP video)

Just how did Bowe Bergdahl end up separated from his US military base and in the hands of the Taliban? According to Afghan villagers who met Bergdahl wandering off base shortly before his capture, it seems he headed right for trouble. "It was very confusing to us. Why would he leave the base?" a villager, who lives about a half-mile from the base, told the Washington Post. "The people thought it was a covert agenda—maybe he was sent to the village by the US." But despite warnings, the US soldier seemed intent on heading into dangerous Taliban territory, the district's intelligence chief added.

"They tried to tell him not to go there, that it is dangerous. But he kept going over the mountain," the chief said, adding that Bergdahl was acting strangely and appeared in a daze. "The villagers tried to give him water and bread, but he didn't take it," he said. "We think he probably was high after smoking hashish ... Why would an American want to find the Taliban?" If Bergdahl did indeed leave his post, a US official has said there is no indication he planned to be gone permanently. Meanwhile, reports have surfaced that Bergdahl vanished multiple times from his post without permission. (More Bowe Bergdahl stories.)

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