Serial Podcast Season 2 Episode 5 – Reflection

       This episode goes over all of the different organizations and people who had some involvement looking for Bergdahl. The complexity that this episode demonstrates between all the different actors in This search from a family friend to the higher-ups in the CIA and State Department. One thing I noticed is that the FBI got involved which struck me as odd because they are a federal agency dealing with federal issues therefore they are not necessarily equipped with dealing in communications with the Taliban. In my personal opinion, the FBI should have handed over the communications with a Taliban member over to the CIA or state department. Also, I feel what could have been helpful in this investigation could have been to establish a point person who had enough authority in various departments so that the all the different departments could communicate their information and it would all go to the same person or team solely dedicated to hostage recovery. I know that in the podcast you hear about the team solely dedicated to finding missing people from conflict zones however the problem with this team is they don’t have enough sway and authority in the government to do their jobs fully.  One of the problems is that no one knew who was in charge and know one knew if anyone was actually in charge.

      As I watched Bowe’s father in that video where he was asking for the Pakistani government to help rescue Bowe, I couldn’t help to wonder why after 2 years did the Bergdahl family feel the need to go public. I do not think what they did in the video was from it did not break any laws. I think families of captives should not have the right to negotiate with captors however they should have the right to know what the government is doing in regards to the rescue of the captive. And they should have the right to talk to the media, to contact forms of possible rescue team options, to make public pleas and to sue the government if they suspect wrongdoing. I don’t think families of captives have a right to pay ransoms as that would just fund the group or  organization ,that held a person captive, to keep getting stronger and causing more harm to national security. Paying a ransom to release captive family member should not be a crime in the sense of jail time because of the emotional and psychological strain of having a family member captive. Also government officials should do everything in their power to bring a captive person home despite the reasons that may be surrounding the persons capture.