This image provided by IntelCenter on Dec. 7, 2010 shows the Taliban associated video production group Manba al-Jihad release of someone that appears to be Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was held hostage for five years after being captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan.(Photo: AFP/Getty Images)
Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl tried to escape 12 times from his captors in Afghanistan who regularly beat him and kept him chained to a bed or in a cage, according to an account released by his attorney.
His health deteriorated during his five- year captivity where he was provided little food and was constantly sick.
"The lowest point coming in the winter of the end of the first year," Bergdahl said in a statement released by attorney Eugene Fidell. He said his ribs and joints protruded from his skin and his muscle was reduced to "thin tight cords or bumps" that barely kept his joints in place.
Bergdahl was charged by the Army Wednesday with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, which carries a potential life sentence. His case moves next to a military hearing that would recommend whether to present the case to a court-martial.
He was captured by the Taliban and spent five years in captivity before he was exchanged in May in a controversial deal for the release of five Taliban prisoners held by the United States at Guantanamo Bay. The Taliban prisoners were released to Qatar.
At the time, the Pentagon said officials were worried about Bergdahl's health and needed to act quickly to get him released.
"We believed that the information we had, the intelligence we had, was such that Sgt. Bergdahl's safety and health were both in jeopardy, and in particular his health deteriorating," then Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said of his release.
The statement from Bergdahl is the first account of his time in captivity. The Army has not released its lengthy investigation into the circumstances of his capture and captivity, citing the ongoing judicial case.
"In the beginning of my captivity, after my first two escape attempts, for about three months I was chained to a bed spread-eagle and blindfolded," he wrote. "The blindfold was only taken off a few times a day to allow me to eat and use the latrine."
The statement does not address how he fell into Taliban hands. Soldiers who had served with him said he voluntarily left his outpost, endangering other members of his unit.
Bergdahl said his captors noticed that his muscles were atrophying and unchained one of his hands so he could sit up in bed. He was covered with sores and open wounds from lying on the bed without being able to move.
He said his captors beat the bottoms of his feet and elsewhere on his body with a copper cable.
Bergdahl, who remains on duty at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, said he continues to suffer from health problems stemming from his time in captivity. Highlighting his health issues could win some leniency during the military proceedings. Some forms of punishment would bar him from future health benefits.
Bergdahl said he was later moved into a cage with a hole to use as a latrine, and he was no longer restrained. His health improved somewhat during this time, he said. He was also kept in isolation during his captivity and knew nothing of the world outside his tiny cage, according to his statement.
His captors would tell him he would be soon released one day and advise him to kill himself the next. They threatened him with cutting off his nose and ears. The threats were made in a combination of fluent or broken English and sign language, he wrote.
His statements about the abuse he received and efforts to escape could help establish that he wasn't a collaborator with the enemy.
Bergdahl said his longest escape attempt, near the end of his first year in captivity, lasted nearly nine days, during which he went "without food and only putrid water to drink."
He said he collapsed on top of a mountain around dusk. He was found by a Taliban search party and was beaten. But mostly, he said, the militants were concerned with spiriting him out of the area.
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