Report: "Many" in intelligence community fear Bergdahl may have been an active collaborator with the Taliban

Explosive stuff from James Rosen, whose private e-mail would surely be under surveillance by Eric Holder after this story if it wasn’t already.

The more damning the accusations against Bergdahl, the less the prisoner swap adds up.

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A senior official confirms to Fox News that the conduct of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl — both in his final stretch of active duty in Afghanistan and then, too, during his time when he lived among the Taliban — has been thoroughly investigated by the U.S. intelligence community and is the subject of “a major classified file.”

In conveying as much, the Defense Department source confirmed to Fox News that many within the intelligence community harbor serious outstanding concerns not only that Bergdahl may have been a deserter but that he may have been an active collaborator with the enemy

Sources told Fox News that many officials in the Executive Branch are “quite baffled” by the White House’s decision to allow the president to stand alongside Bergdahl’s father this past weekend, given the father’s history of controversial statements, emails and online posts.

There’s a Pentagon file that may or may not accuse this guy of outright treason and not only does Obama still do the deal for five Taliban bigwigs, he holds a big White House presser with Bergdahl’s father? What?

Rosen’s not the only reporter hearing whispers about collaboration either. Stephen Hayes of the Standard spoke to several soldiers from Bergdahl’s squad (one of whom tweeted at length about his suspicions this weekend) and heard lots of doubts — and not just about desertion.

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[S]everal military officials who spoke with THE WEEKLY STANDARD noted privately that Taliban attacks on U.S. forces in the Paktika province seemed to increase in frequency and effectiveness [after Bergdahl disappeared]…

[O]thers wonder whether Bergdahl helped the Taliban, either willfully or under duress. In the hours after he disappeared, according to sources familiar with the intelligence, U.S. troops received an intelligence report that Bergdahl stopped in a local village and asked how to find the Taliban. That report, if it exists, is not mentioned in the Wikileaks documents related to Bergdahl’s disappearance. But several sources with knowledge of the case insist that the report is true.

Says one platoon mate: “He’s friends with the delivery driver, he’s friends with the goat farmer, he’s got relationships with all the locals—and he stops to ask how he can find the Taliban? He could have just gone to Habib the local goat farmer and floated along with the locals.”

Intel officials told Hayes that the Pentagon thoroughly investigated Bergdahl’s disappearance, questioning members of his squad many times. Among the things they wanted to know was whether he had info that could have helped the Taliban, be it medical, tactical (how to deal with IEDs), or strategic. Two other sources told him that Bergdahl was, in fact, considered AWOL by the Army — but that the Pentagon ultimately backed down on formally designating him that way, probably because the politics of accusing Bergdahl while he was in enemy hands would have been simply too hot for comfort.

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But if all that’s true … why was Bergdahl promoted in absentia to sergeant in 2011? Why would he be in line for another promotion, to staff sergeant, this month? And why would the White House let itself get within a thousand miles of the Bergdahl family with suspicions like these ready to bubble over? It’s one thing to do a deal to get an American back; it’s another to give away the terrorist farm as part of it; and it’s another still to give away the farm for a guy whom your own investigators think may be a Taliban sympathizer. Remember, the ostensible point of the prisoner exchange is to set a precedent so that Obama can release other detainees at Gitmo later this year and finally close the prison. The last thing you’d want to do in that case is trade five especially dangerous detainees for someone whose loyalty to the U.S. is in serious question even within the administration’s own ranks. It’s a political tornado in the making; if Bergdahl does end up being proved a deserter or worse, Democrats will run screaming from future Gitmo prisoner releases. Just doesn’t make sense. Maybe the White House has reason to believe that Bergdahl’s getting a bum rap and really was taken against his will — but in that case, why isn’t Carney or anyone else pushing back hard with that information? What’s going on here?

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