Former idaho soldier who served in afghanistan and helped the late reporter Michael Hastings write his groundbreaking piece on Bowe Bergdahl, americas last prisoner of war. Farwell came to know bergdahls parents after they attended the funeral of his brother who served and died in afghanistan. And we look at the five members of the taliban released from guantanamo. I would say these five arent the worst of the worst. It doesnt mean theyre good guys. Its not my job to defend them. We will speak with frank goldsmith, the attorney for one of the freed men, and Andy Worthington, author of, the guantanamo files the stories of the 774 detainees in americas illegal prison. All of that and more coming up. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. The political firestorm is continuing over the rescue of Sergeant Bowe bergdahl in exchange for five guantanamo prisoners. The deal has come under partisan attack amidst reports bergdahl voluntarily left his base after growing opposed to the war in afghanistan. The New York Times has revealed report found bergdahl most likely walked away from his army outpost in june 2009 on his own free will, but stopped short of concluding or solid evidence that he intended to permanently desert. The report also revealed bergdahl had wandered away from assigned areas while in the army at least twice before his capture, including ones in afghanistan. On thursday, president obama defended the swap. Byim never surprised controversies that are whipped up in washington. That is par for the course. But i will repeat what i said two days ago. We have a basic principle. We do not leave anybody wearing the american uniform behind. War whoserisoner of health had deteriorated, and we were deeply concerned about it and we saw an opportunity and we seized it. Im a no apologies for that. Of the Administration Officials defended the decision not to give Congress Notice of the swap saying the taliban threatened to kill bergdahl affordability if word of the swap relieved. There are other reports bergdahl escaped from his captors at least on two occasions, once in the fall of 2011 and again in 2012. We will have more after the headlines. In northeastern nigeria, boca raton militants have slaughtered hundreds of people in three state. S in borno the gunmen reportedly posed as soldiers arriving to protect the villagers, before rounding them up and opening fire. More than 2000 people have been killed this year alone by boko haram, which kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls in april. In canada, suspect has been arrested after a shooting rampage that left three Police Officers dead in new brunswick. Police shot down swaths of the city and told residents to remain inside as they searched for justin bourque. Roger brown, Commanding Officer of the Royal Canadian mounted police, spoke on thursday. Perhaps the darkest day in the history of the rcmp. We have lost three of our colleagues and three of our friends, two officers are in hospital at present and are undergoing surgery. I met with the families this morning prior to coming here. As you can all imagine, they are hurting. There is actually no way to describe the level of hurt. In the United States, student opened fire at Seattle Pacific university, killing one person before a Student Monitor used pepper spray to subdue him. Three other people were wooded the shooting, one of them critically. In afghanistan, the frontrunner in the president ial race has survived an assassination attempt in kabul. Two explosions went off as a bill abdullah was leaving a campaign event. Six people were killed, including a bodyguard and police officer. The European Central bank has taken steps to boost the economy, including cutting its Bank Deposit Rate to below zero. The move seeks to spur lending by effectively charging banks for storing money. Inflation across the eurozone fell just. 5 last month, far below the banks target, and unemployed it remains over 25 in spain and greece. Egyptian prosecutors have called for the maximum prison terms for three al jazeera journalists at their trial in cairo. Prosecutors delivered their closing arguments, accusing the journalists of producing false reports and giving a platform to the muslim brotherhood. Peter greste faces up to seven years and the other to face up to 15. They been imprisoned since december. The Obama Administration has said it looks forward to isi, theith als former army chief, who won the egyptians president ial election in a landslide. Israel has announced 1500 and settlements in the occupied west bank and East Jerusalem in retaliation for a new palestinian unity government backed by hamas. The settlements are consul consd illegal but said they were just the beginning. General motors has dismissed 15 employees and vowed to start a Compensation Fund for victims of an ignition switch defect tied to at least 13 and potentially hundreds of deaths. A internal report cites pattern of incompetence and neglect but denies an intentional coverup of the defect, which took gm more than a decade to address. A former federal prosecutor hired by gm to conduct report found multiple groups within gm reviewed the problem, but failed to take action or acted too slowly. The gm Ceo Mary Barra called the results troubling. I can tell you this report is extremely thorough, brutally tough, and deeply troubling. For those of us have dedicated our lives to this company, it is enormously painful to see our shortcomings laid out so vividly. As i read the report, i was deeply saddened and disturbed. Democratictement, senator Richard Blumenthal of connecticut called for an independent inquiry into gms failures, calling the internal review the best report money can buy. The scandal over Veterans Health care is deepening. The acting secretary of Veterans Affairs says 18 additional veterans who are kept off official waiting list have died while waiting for appointments in arizona. The depths theres another 17 deaths reportedly. A bill would allow veterans facing lengthy waits to see private medical care. The senate has confirmed the obama has picked Sylvia Mathews to lead the department of health and human services. She takes over for kathleen civilians, who stepped down in april following the rocky rollout of obamacare. In mexico, a journalist has been found murdered with his body bearing signs of torture four days after he was kidnapped i unknown gunmen. He was a spokesperson for the Health Department in the resort city of acapulco and wrote a political column for a weekly newspaper. One of his final reports described protests against violence and extortion by local and federal authorities. Reporters without borders ranked mexico 152 out of 180 in its. Ost recent press Freedom Index protests are continuing in india after two cousins, ages 12 and 14, were raped and hanged from a tree last week. A state minister from the party a Prime Minister modi fueled the outrage with his comments about rape. Rate is a social crime. It is sometimes right, sometimes wrong. It is difficult to stop rapes completely as the rapist is not reveal his intentions before committing the crime. The suspects in the double murder are from the same social Police Reportedly insulted and refused up the 12yearold victims father when he reported her disappearance. The victims are from a lower caste. In the u. S. , three star athletes have been arrested on charges of raping an 18yearold girl at a postprom party in role georgia. Authorities say the three men, who were seniors at calhoun high school, used a foreign object to rape the young woman causing tearing and severe trauma. A fugitive Bank Director who faked his own suicide and vanished before being discovered by authorities last year has pleaded guilty in a multimilliondollar fraud scheme. Aubrey lee price is accused of embezzling money from a georgia bank that later collapsed, and of lying to clients as he lost tens of millions of dollars in risky transactions. Price disappeared after leaving suicide notes and was declared legally dead until he was arrested in a traffic stop. He faces up to 30 years in prison. Probing thelators worst offshore oil spill in u. S. History are warning a failed safety device could pose a risk of future catastrophic spills. A report by the chemical safety board cites improper testing and other key issues surrounding the blowout preventer, an emergency device that should have stanched the flow of oil during the 2010 bp oil spill. Devices with the same design are currently in use on at least 30 other drill rigs around the world. Plummeting ties the Monarch Butterfly population to the rise of genetically modified crops in the United States. Research in the journal of animal ecology finds monarch populations are far more sensitive to the threat of declining milkweed in their u. S. Breeding grounds than the loss of their winter habitat from deforestation in mexico. Milkweed plants have declined more than 20 in u. S. Corn belt, a key breeding area, largely because of the gmo crops, the study found. Aw york state has adopted policy change allowing transgender people to change the gender specified on their birth certificate without undergoing sex reassignment surgery. The shift follows a decadelong campaign of the Silvia Rivera law project and other groups, who say it will help transgender people access ids which accurately reflect their gender and overcome barriers to jobs, housing, and services. However, the change currently excludes prisoners, youth, and people born in new york city. Six eight, along with washington, d. C. , to lift the surgery requirement. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with juan gonzalez. Welcome to all our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. President barack obama said thursday he would make no apologies for agreeing to a prisoner swap to free Sergeant Bowe bergdahl in exchange for five guantanamo detainees. Im never surprised by controversy whipped up in washington. That is par for the course. But i will repeat what i said two days ago. We have a basic principle. We do not leave anybody wearing the american uniform behind. War whoserisoner of , and wead deteriorated were deeply concerned about it. We saw an opportunity and we seized it. Timing apologies for it. The rescue of bergdahl has touched off a political firestorm. On thursday, Administration Officials said bergdahls life could have been in danger if details of the prisoner swap had been leaked. Her goal had been held captive by the Haqqani Network for five years. Bergdahl had been held captive by Haqqani Network for five years. While some in the media have speculated that bergdahl again said that it to his captors, new reports reveal bergdahl actually escaped from his captors on at least two occasions. According to the daily beast, in his first escape, afghan sources said he avoided capture for three days and two nights of researchers finally found him. Exhausted and hiding in a shallow trench, he had dug with his own hands and covered with leaves. In another development the New York Times rebels a classified report concluded old bergdahl Bowe Bergdahl most likely walked away from his outpost on his own free will and 2009, but stopped short of concluding their solid evidence he intended to permanently desert. The report also revealed bergdahl and wondered away from assigned areas while in the army at least twice before prior to the day he was captured, including once in afghanistan. Were joined right now by matthew farwell, a journalist and veteran of the afghan war who has been following the bergdahl story for years. He helped the late reporter Michael Hastings write his 2012 Rolling Stone hes headline, americas last prisoner of war. Came to knowll bergdahls parents after they attended the funeral of his brother, who served in iraq and afghanistan and died in an accident in germany. Matthew farwell, thank you so much for joining us. So why dont you talk about how you met Bowe Bergdahls parents, bob and jani. I did not really need them. I was giving the eulogy for my brother and looked back in the back of the church and saw to the people i thought i recognized, and it was the bergdahls. Your from idaho. My parents are from idaho. What year was this . February 3, 2010. How did you then come to know them . After that i kept in touch with them a little bit because i thought that was a classy gesture. Then michael and i did the story and i have stayed in touch. In terms of the story with michael, how did you decide to focus on the bergdahls story and gather the information, which is really definitive work on the bergdahl saga . The fbi investigated how they came to be. I have to keep some trade secrets on it. Explained for a moment. This is a side story, but michael died in a fiery car he had said at the time that he was being investigated by the fbi. Yes, and in the freedom of information act request is done by a great journalist named jason schapiro. It came back and he sent it to me in us all of the redacted portions and said, holy cow, theyre talking about me right here. I put through privacy act request, got it back and sure enough, they were looking into our controversial reporting on the story, which i think is a little unusual. But i give them credit. Hotel is about Bowe Bergdahl so tell us about Bowe Bergdahl and what you learn. Bowe is an interesting guy. Im very conflicted myself about how i feel about him and his case, but he was a young man, homeschooled, grew up in sun valley, idaho. From all accounts, very intelligent. He did a lot of traveling prior to joining the army his parents came from california . Yes, maam. California to sun valley i think the year before his older sister was born. They stayed there ever since. The sun valley ups man for 30 years. In your story, it details early on he grew to satisfied with being at home, being homeschooled and decided he wanted to pursue a life of adventure. Could you talk about that . Right. It seems he went up and work as a commercial fisherman in alaska, traveled around the state on motorcycle, you know, just these sorts of things that young man who are seeking something came to do. And the French Foreign legion . His father said he tried to join the French Foreign legion and was disqualified explain what that is, the French Foreign legion. The French Foreign legion is frances force of essentially foreign mercenaries who can come from any walk of life. Many of them are hardened criminals or refugees currently from eastern europe. Ace you join, you acquire fake name. Bowe was known around town in hailey, idaho, worked at a coffee house. He took up ballet and many have seen his performances. Yes, maam. How does he end up in u. S. Military him and that in afghanistan . He did not just and up in u. S. Military, heated up any parachute infantry. About 90 of the military our support personnel, about 10 of the actual war fighters. So he was in that 10 . It seems he just came back one day and said, hey, dad, im thinking about joining the army. Are youid in the story, thinking about joining the army or did you are ready sign up . Bowe admitted, well, yeah, i already signed up. So it is a path a lot of young men take. I took it. I dropped out of the university of virginia to join the infantry. Aside from that, i dont know. Things a notle very picture paint a not very flattering portrait of one of the problems he had with the lack of discipline and lack of actual fighting capacity of the outpost,as in, in an really, in afghanistan. Could you describe some of those problems . It seems from the video that sean smith at the guardian shot after embedding with them for about a month, it seemed to me as a former infantryman who served in that exact area and knows that ground very, very well, that the unit was operating at the same level of professionalism that is required to stay on your game there and keep your men alive and your men from walking off, apparently. I want to turn to sean iths first film, a clip, guardian reporter and was embedded with bowes unit. Had come toause he notice unit, the bergdahls said he could come to idaho and he did a 12 minute piece about bob bergdahl. So let me go to that hes right now, just a let me go to that piece right now, just a clip. Sean smith is talking not to bowe, but other soldiers who are talking here. These people just want to be left alone. Thehey got dicked with from russians for 17 years, and now we are here. These people just want to be left alone. Stuff like that. T tha a few weeks later, Bowe Bergdahl disappeared. The circumstances are unclear. That, report from the guardian from sean smith, embedded with Bowe Bergdahls unit. According to your piece that you wrote with Michael Hastings in Rolling Stone, bowe sent a final email to his peers on june 20 7 am a june27, three days before he disappeared. He wrote he also saw a military vehicle rollover an afghan debut. Matthew farwell . I thi