Parents lobby for POW's inclusion in Taliban prisoner swap

U.S. officials believe Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, 26, of Hailey, Idaho, is alive and is being held in the tribal area of Pakistan along the Afghanistan border.



This 2010 image shows the release by Taliban-associated video-production group Manba al-Jihad of someone who appears to be Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who has been held prisoner.

Originally published Wednesday, May 9, 2012 at 10:05 PM
By Karen DeYoung
The Washington Post

The parents of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, captured by the Taliban nearly three years ago, have appealed to the Obama administration to swap Taliban prisoners detained at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in exchange for his freedom.

The appeal, made in a newspaper interview in their home state of Idaho, has induced the administration to make public its efforts to win Bergdahl's release in U.S.-Taliban negotiations that have been stalled since January.

He is the only U.S. soldier known to be held prisoner in the Afghanistan war. U.S. officials believe that Bergdahl, of Hailey, Idaho, is alive and is being held in the tribal area of Pakistan along the Afghanistan border by members of the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network.

In an interview published Wednesday with their hometown weekly, the Idaho Mountain Express, Bob Bergdahl said the family had become frustrated with "how slowly the process has evolved" and decided to publicly advocate a prisoner swap.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2018176924_afghan10.html