Bowe Bergdahl's armed forces troubles started in 2006, when he was discharged from the Coast Guard for "psychological reasons," leading to the question: How did he end up in the Army? One explanation is that not many people wanted to fight in the Iraq War. When Bergdahl enlisted in 2008, the Army was busy lowering its recruitment standards.

Friends of Bergdahl's said he was discharged after a few months in the Coast Guard, and as seen in letters and journals provided to The Washington Post, those troubles followed him to the Army. Bergdahl wrote of dark entries about Army life and his mental wellbeing. Three days before walking off his post, he wrote in a letter, "this life is too short to serve those who compromise value, and its ethics. i am done compromising." The combination of psychological warning signs and evidence supporting allegations that Bergdahl deserted the Army means things just got even more complicated.

RELATED: UPDATE: The American Family Association Rejected Our Harvey Milk Stamp Donation

Bergdahl told his friends that he "faked" his psychological discharge to get out of the Coast Guard, and they couldn't believe that the Army let him in. “I was like, ‘Why and how did you even get in?’” Kim Harrison, a close friend of Bergdahl's, said to the Post. “‘How did they let you?’ I was furious.”

When Bergdahl enlisted in 2008, the Army was in the middle of the process of lowering its recruitment standards. In 2004, the Army celebrated four years of "Mission Accomplished" for meeting its recruitment goals for both active and reserve soldiers. In 2005, the Army fell short 6,000 active soldiers and nearly 3,000 reserve members. The next year, The Washington Post reported that the Army recruited 2,600 soldiers who fell below certain aptitude levels to reach their enrollment goal. In 2008, standards were lowered again. As Slate pointed out in early 2008, the number of recruits with high school diplomas had fallen from 94 percent in 2003 to 70.7 percent in 2007. The army also began issuing waivers for obesity and felonies.

RELATED: Eric Cantor Will Step Down on July 31 — Who'll Replace Him?

View gallery

In this file image taken from video obtained from Voice Of Jihad Website, which has been authenticat …

It's possibly the Army would have overlooked Bergdahl's warning signs. Harrison said she provided the letters and journals, which have also been seen by government officials, to the Post because she was concerned Bergdahl made a conscious decision to go AWOL. Specifically, in several correspondences with Harrison and her daughter, he alluded to plans. In one, he wrote that his "actions may become . . . odd. No red flags. Im good. But plans have begun to form, no time line yet." In June 2009, weeks before he left the base, he wrote that he was “looking at a map of afghan," and wanted to wire his money to her in case things went bad.

As with every Bergdahl update, the ramifications ofthe Post report go beyond one man. Conservatives who have argued that his alleged desertion absolved the United States of rescuing him will point to this as definitive proof. Meanwhile, a bigger, better question might be how did Bergdahl get into the military if the Coast Guard found him unfit for psychological reasons?

RELATED: The FBI Is Investigating the VA Scandal

It's not that the military's standards dropped that low — it never prioritized screening enrollees for mental health issues. Following the second shooting at the Fort Hood military base in April, military mental health screenings briefly became a big issue. Specifically, the fact that there is no mental health evaluation seemed like a mistake.Politifact noted at the time that the military does look at a soldier's health records for an indication of mental health problems. In the midst of trying to recruit soldiers for an unpopular war, the Army didn't know or didn't care that Bergdahl was troubled.

This article was originally published at http://www.thewire.com/politics/2014/06/bergdahl-was-discharged-from-the-coast-guard-for-psychological-reasons-before-he-joined-the-army/372582/

Wochit

Police: Teen School Shooter Likely Killed Self

TROUTDALE, Ore. (AP) — A 15-year-old boy accused of killing a fellow freshman in a high school locker room was heavily armed with an assault rifle, nine magazines of ammunition, handgun and knife that police said Wednesday had been taken from a secured area at his family home.

The details were released as police provided a more detailed account of the violence on Tuesday at Reynolds High School in Troutdale and a portrait emerged of 15-year-old suspect Jared Michael Padgett as a devout Mormon and aspiring serviceman.

Authorities said an autopsy had confirmed that Padgett had died in a school bathroom of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after a brief exchange of gunfire with arriving officers.

However, no link has been discovered between Padgett and 14-year-old victim Emilio Hoffman, leaving police unsure if the shooter was targeting someone in particular or had launched a random attack.

Padgett had a conflicting image among other students.

"He always talked about guns and sometimes got mad," student Kaylah Ensign said, adding that he could also be kind and respectful.

Shooter, Student Dead After School ShootingPlay Video

"He helped kids and I never would have thought he would do that," Ensign recalled. "And he was really neat."

Freshman Daniel DeLong, 15, said he would see Padgett in the school halls but did not have any classes with him.

"Honestly he looked like a really nice kid, like somebody you'd want to have on your side," DeLong said. "I never would have thought this would have happened."

Earl Milliron, a friend of the Padgett family, said Jared planned a career in the military and was devoted to his Mormon faith after being ordained as a deacon at age 12.

"I never suspected that he had serious problems, I refuse in my mind to believe that Jared Michael who did the shooting is the same Jared Michael I knew," said Milliron, 86, who has known the Padgett family for more than 25 years and belongs to the same church ward.

View gallery

Freshman Britani Iuliano, 15, embraces her mother Wendi Iuliano after students arrived at shopping c …

Jared Padgett's oldest brother had served in the military in Afghanistan and Jared was planning the same path, he said. Jared was in the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps program and was proud to be seen in his uniform.

Jared's mother and father were no longer together, and the couple had six children, Milliron said.

"I saw Jared at church every Sunday," he said. "He was very quiet, I never saw him angry, he was extremely even tempered, he was always at the best possible behavior."

Police Chief Scott Anderson said Padgett had taken the weapons used in the attack from his family home. "The weapons had been secured, but he defeated the security measures," the chief said.

Padgett took a school bus to campus before the shooting and carried a guitar case and duffel bag. Police declined, however, to say if the weapons had been concealed in the baggage.

Student, Gunman Killed in Oregon School ShootingPlay Video

At school, the shooter went to a gymnasium that was detached from the main building and shot Hoffman in a locker room. He also wounded physical education teacher Todd Rispler, who managed to make his way to an office and warn administrators about the shooting. A lockdown was ordered and authorities were notified.

As the gunman moved through a hallway, he encountered officers as they entered from two separate doors. The shooter ducked into a small restroom, police said.

"We know there was an exchange of gunfire between one of the two responding officers and the shooter," Anderson said.

Padgett was later found dead in the bathroom.

Anderson praised Rispler and the officers.

"I cannot emphasize enough the role that Mr. Rispler and the responding officers played in saving many, many lives yesterday," he said.

Jennifer Hoffman, the mother of the victim, said he loved his friends and sports, especially soccer. He had a sister and three brothers, along with a number of foster siblings he had grown up with.

She says he enjoyed science and history, but soccer was his whole life.

She urged his friends to "be happy like Emilio. Smile like him. Laugh like him."

__

Associated Press writer Steven DuBois in Portland contributed to this report.

Just a few months after announcing a sweeping presidential clemency program for drug offenders, the Obama administration has backed another sentencing plan that would shave off an average of two years of prison time for as many as 20,000 federal inmates.

For this program, the Justice Department, led by Eric Holder, doesn’t need the presidential pardon power or Congress. It only needs the U.S. Sentencing Commission, which controls sentencing guidelines for federal judges.

Last April, the independent agency voted to dramatically reduce the amount of prison time judges are required to mete out to defendants based on the amount of drugs they had on them when they were arrested. Now, the independent agency is weighing whether to make its earlier reductions for drug crimes retroactive. If it votes to do so, inmates serving time for dealing or possessing drugs can apply through a public defender for a reduction in his or her sentence. Judges would decide whether to grant the reduction or not.

If the amendment passes, the commission estimates that as many as 50,000 inmates would qualify for an average of two years off their sentences. Within the first three years, the government would save $1.3 billion in prison costs.

It's unlikely that Congress would vote to block the plan, even though technically they could. But politicians have largely left the commission alone in the past, allowing them to reduce sentences for crack offenders in 2010 and again in 2013 without interfering.

To the dismay of many in the prison rights advocacy community, Holder endorsed a more limited retroactivity plan, urging the commission Tuesday to exclude drug offenders who were also charged with possessing or using a weapon from being eligible for reduced jail time. Under the Justice Department’s plan, only about 20,000 federal inmates would be eligible for the break instead of 50,000.

“Because of public safety concerns that arise from the release of dangerous drug offenders and from the diversion of resources necessary to process over 50,000 inmates, we believe retroactivity of the drug amendment should be limited to lower level, nonviolent drug offenders without significant criminal histories,” US Attorney Sally Yates, who was representing the Justice Department, told the commission Tuesday.

Public defenders and prisoner advocates say they’re disappointed that the Obama administration is not fully backing the plan. Holder has been considered a hero to many in the prison reform movement for pushing to reverse some old, “tough on crime” drug laws that put people away for decades for non violent crimes, at the cost of billions of dollars.

"Too many Americans go to too many prisons for far too long, and for no truly good law enforcement reason," Holder told the American Bar Association last year, when announcing that he was directing federal prosecutors not to seek mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug crimes.

When Holder announced in April that the department would be actively scouring federal prisons for drug offenders eligible for presidential clemency, he further solidified advocates’ support. In fact, advocacy groups that represent prisoners’ rights are helping the Justice Department screen the first 18,000 clemency applications that came in, picking the best ones to send to the president’s desk.

The clemency program is directed at inmates who have served at least 10 years in prison on a non-violent drug charge, and who would have been given less time for their crime if they were prosecuted under today’s laws and policies. More than 20,000 prisoners could potentially meet the clemency criteria, according to an internal Justice Department estimate, a stunning number that the president is almost certainly not going to grant. Such a large clemency grant would spark accusations of overreach. Republicans have already registered their disapproval with the clemency program, voting last month to block funds the pardon attorney’s office needs to sift through the flood of new applications.

The U.S. Sentencing Commission’s retroactivity plan provides relief for non-violent drug offenders sentenced under out of date laws, but also insulates the White House from political blowback.

“Commutation is an extraordinary act and a very considered judgment,” said Mary Price, general counsel of Families against Mandatory Minimums, which is involved in helping screen the clemency applications. “Retroactivity is about making things right for the people who get left behind after everybody has decided that a sentence should be lower than it is today.”

The Commission is set to vote on the amendment on July 18.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House signaled on Wednesday that it was looking to strengthen Iraqi forces to help them deal with an insurgency rather than to meet what one U.S. official said were past Iraqi requests for U.S. air strikes.

An Obama administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Iraq had previously made clear its interest in drone strikes or bombing by manned U.S. aircraft to help it beat back the militant onslaught.

Sunni rebels from an al Qaeda splinter group overran the Iraqi city of Tikrit on Wednesday and closed in on the biggest oil refinery in the country, making further gains in their rapid military advance against the Shi'ite-led government in Baghdad. [ID:nL5N0OS24U]

The threat to the Baiji refinery came after militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL group, seized the northern city of Mosul, advancing their aim of creating a Sunni Caliphate straddling the border between Iraq and Syria.

The White House, however, suggested that air strikes were not at the top of its agenda as it considers what it may do to help the Iraqi government against an insurgency that has drawn strength from the civil war in neighboring Syria.

"While the national security team always looks at a range of options, the current focus of our discussions with the government of Iraq and our policy considerations is to build the capacity of the Iraqis to successfully confront and deal with the threat posed by ISIL," White House national security council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said in an emailed comment.

View gallery

Iraqi men chant slogans against the al-Qaida breakaway group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (I …

The Obama administration official who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity declined to provide details on what the United States might do to help Iraq, saying only that it was "considering (a) range of requests."

The Wall Street Journal, quoting senior U.S. officials, first reported that Iraq had signaled it would let the United States strike al Qaeda militant targets in Iraq with manned aircraft or drones.

Separately, the New York Times reported that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki secretly asked the Obama administration to consider air strikes against militant staging areas as the threat from Sunni insurgents mounted last month.

An Iraqi official told Reuters that Iraq wanted U.S. air strikes but believed the Obama administration was not interested in getting involved.

The official said such strikes would be covered under the strategic framework agreement signed by the United States and Iraq in 2008. Within this, limited U.S. forces could operate on the ground to carry out such strikes, he added.

View gallery

Areas under the control of the al-Qaida group, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. (AP)

But the official said he did not think the Americans had any interest in such a deepened commitment.

DOUBT ABOUT DRONES

The Times quoted American experts who visited Baghdad this year as saying they were told that Iraqi leaders hoped American air power could be used to hit militant staging and training areas inside Iraq, and help Iraq’s forces stop them from crossing into the country from Syria.

The White House declined to confirm either newspaper report.

"We are not going to get into details of our diplomatic discussions but the government of Iraq has made clear that they welcome our support" against the militants, Meehan said in a separate statement.

IRAQ'S SECOND LARGEST CITY FALLS TO EXTREMISTSPlay Video

"We have expedited shipments of military equipment since the beginning of the year, ramped up training of Iraqi Security Forces, and worked intensively to help Iraq implement a holistic approach to counter this terrorist threat," she added. "Our assistance has been comprehensive, is continuing and will increase."

The fall of Mosul, Iraq's second-biggest city, is a blow to attempts to defeat the militants, who have seized territory in Iraq over the past year following the withdrawal of U.S. forces.

A former U.S. official, who worked on Iraq issues, said the Obama administration viewed Iraq as a dispute that did not affect the United States directly and that Washington should steer clear of entangling itself in it directly.

Another U.S. official who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity questioned the utility of drones, saying it might not be possible to deploy them effectively in time to stem the current crisis in Iraq.

"What does it require to have drones come to a country? It requires a very, very high level of intel capability and expertise. So you can’t just send drones on an airplane and have them land and have them work," said this official.

"They wouldn’t have, in this sort of period of time, the ability, given what is going on here, to field the drones (effectively)," he added. "I believe it would take longer than the current crisis (may require)."

This official said that once militants had taken control of cities, it would require "incredibly intense fighting" on the ground to dislodge them.

(Reporting by Arshad Mohammed, Ned Parker, Steve Holland and Peter Cooney; Editing by Missy Ryan, Prudence Crowther, Robert Birsel)

The White House has reportedly declined Iraqi requests for air power to help beat back a growing insurgency.
Rebels seize two cities