There are multiple government agencies working in the Middle East: MGA, CIA, FBI, DIA, NSA, ABC (kidding). However, despite every acronym that makes up US Forces present in Pakistan, the mission to find Bowe Bergdahl was swallowed in frustration because of the lack of efficiency in the system. During an interview for Serial season 2, intelligence analyst under the pseudonym of Nathan told Sarah Koenig, “Along the way there were various, plans, options, to get him free, but no one could make a decision-at least if they could, they didn’t want to.”
In FATA, the federally administered tribal areas of Pakistan, the US struggled to pinpoint Bowe’s location because of possible coerced intelligence due to the Haqqani’s strict control over the area. They needed drones to find Bowe. Yet, the Department of Defense didn’t have drones operating in Pakistan, so they had to call on the CIA to provide them. “It was literally two years of asking for drones,” said a former DOD employee.
One of the many issues in the search for Bowe was that, to many, he wasn’t a priority, and there was no fluidity among the information shared between agencies. Although the CIA was the primary intelligence agency working in Pakistan, they were more concerned with other tasks. As Sarah Koenig said, “For the CIA, their priorities were things like targeting top al Qaeda and Haqqani members, and while hostage recovery might have been on their list, it certainly wasn’t on their top.”
When Bowe’s long time friend, Kim Harrison, got notice of Bowe’s disappearance she immediately thought of her contact at the International Police Organization. Interpol is a non-military organization that has cooperative agreements in over 180 states around the world including Pakistan. And unlike the US Military, Interpol has freedom to move throughout Pakistan. Kim was going to use her contact through Interpol to file a missing persons report in Pakistan, but she was quickly intercepted by the Department of Defense who denied the sign off on her plan because Bowe was military personnel.
As noted on Serial, “It wasn’t a military operation that got Bowe home, it was diplomacy.” It wouldn’t be until President Obama signed off on the release of five prisoners from Guantanamo Bay that we would see progress towards Bowe’s return. Though why is it that among all of the agencies we have dedicated to returning hostages, no progress was made until the highest authority was involved? This proves the “shaggy cooperation” and miscommunication between different intelligence agencies. Who was in charge? I believe the government agencies didn’t know themselves. By December 2014, President Obama ordered a review of how the US deals with hostage cases, and 6 months later organized an update of hostage protocol.
Bowe’s family was greatly affected by the inconsistency in information of his whereabouts. “The Bergdahls were the sad, scared, farce, determined parents of a POW,” said Sarah Koenig. In May of 2011 Robert Bergdahl had every right to release a video addressing the Pakistani armed forces to help free Bowe from captivity. Robert was educated in Pashtu culture, had studied the region his son was in, and would do anything to help in Bowe’s return. The video was powerful, and according to Nathan it was vital that this case became personal. In certain cases, I believe it is okay for families to negotiate with captors because if it is felt that nothing is being done to help their cause, nothing should trump the family’s own determination.
