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SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - The family of a U.S. soldier held captive by the Taliban for over two years said on Wednesday they were optimistic about the possibility of talks between the Afghan insurgent group and countries including the United States. They expressed hope that Bowe Bergdahl would be freed "as soon as possible" in a statement issued a day after the Taliban said they had reached a preliminary agreement to set up a political office in the Gulf Arab country of Qatar. "We are optimistic about the possibility of diplomatic discussions between Taliban officials and government officials from other...

The US has agreed in principle to release high-ranking Taliban officials from Guantánamo Bay in return for the Afghan insurgents' agreement to open a political office for peace negotiations in Qatar, the Guardian has learned. According to sources familiar with the talks in the US and in Afghanistan, the handful of Taliban figures will include Mullah Khair Khowa, a former interior minister, and Noorullah Noori, a former governor in northern Afghanistan. More controversially, the Taliban are demanding the release of the former army commander Mullah Fazl Akhund. Washington is reported to be considering formally handing him over to the custody...

A U.S. soldier held by the Taliban since 2009 has been recaptured after he went on the run for three days. Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl's daring escape failed when a manhunt was launched in Pakistan to find him, Taliban commanders said. He is now facing his third Christmas in captivity.

(Dec. 8) -- A new video containing footage of the only American soldier held captive by the Taliban for almost 18 months has been released on the Internet. Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl of Ketchum, Idaho, was 23 when he disappeared from his combat outpost in Afghanistan's southeastern Paktika province and was last seen in a video released in April. Images from the new footage, released Tuesday, show the soldier wearing an open-necked tan shirt, with a wound just below his left eye. Previous videos showed Bergdahl with a beard, but he appears clean-shaven with tightly cropped hair in the latest release....

A shocking new Taliban video shows an apparently bruised U.S. soldier who has been held prisoner in Afghanistan for 18 months under the threat of being beheaded. Spc. Bowe Bergdahl, 24, appears thin with a wound on his left cheek. He is seen standing next to Taliban commander Mullah Sangreen Zadran, who has previously claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and has threatened to execute him. (Snip) Bergdahl, of Hailey, Idaho, was captured by the militant group on June 30, 2009 in Paktika province in eastern Afghanistan.

KABUL, Afghanistan – A new video released by the Taliban shows a man believed to be the only known American serviceman held captive in Afghanistan, a group that tracks militant websites said Wednesday.

http://www.vaughnward.com Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.vaughnward.com/vaughn-ward’s-statement-recent-video-pfc-bowe-bergdahl Vaughn Ward’s statement on the recent video of Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl Posted Fri, 04/09/2010 - 5:35pm “My thoughts and prayers go out to Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl and his family. As a Marine Corps Officer, we are taught to leave no man behind and this circumstance is no different. I support our military commanders on the ground in Afghanistan and know that we will continue to do everything we can to bring Pfc. Bergdahl home to Idaho. However, Walt Minnick recently made statements on this issue that can’t go unchallenged, suggesting the...

The U.S. government should work out a prisoner trade with the terrorist group holding Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl of Hailey hostage, Rep. Walt Minnick, D-Idaho, said Thursday. In an appearance on Nate Shelman's afternoon show on 670 KBOI, Minnick said, "What the family and what I am hoping for is that we can work out some kind of a prisoner trade that down the road might release him but do it in a way that we get him back, but we aren't trading a thousand for one." The Taliban released a video Wednesday in which Bergdahl pleaded for his freedom, saying...

PESHAWAR: The Afghan Taliban on Thursday demanded the release of Dr Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani scientist who has been convicted by the US court on charges of her alleged attempt to murder US soldiers in Afghanistan, and threatened to execute an American soldier they were holding currently. They claimed Aafia Siddiqui’s family had approached the Taliban network through a Jirga of notables, seeking their assistance to put pressure on the US to provide her justice. “Being Muslims, it becomes our religious and moral obligation to help the distressed Pakistani woman convicted by the US court on false charges,” said a...

KABUL - The family of a U.S. soldier captured in eastern Afghanistan more than five months ago pleaded for the release of their son Friday and urged him to "stay strong." Lt. Col. Tim Marsano of the Idaho National Guard issued a statement from the family of Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl, a U.S. airborne infantryman who was taken by the Afghan Taliban in Paktika province June 30.

KABUL -- The Taliban distributed a new video Friday of a U.S. soldier who was captured this summer in Afghanistan, with an offer to release him in a prisoner exchange.A spokesman for the international forces here denounced the video, but declined to comment on the possibility of an exchange or on efforts to rescue the captive.Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl, an airborne infantryman from Ketchum, Idaho, was seized by Taliban-aligned militants on June 30. The military says he is the only American soldier who has been captured by insurgent forces during the war here.

Private Bergdahl - assuming he's still alive - is spending Christmas as a captive of the Taliban. His captors spent the last day or two uploading a video showing Private Bergdahl reading a statement. The video was divided into four segments and uploaded to YouTube on 25 December 2009. The YouTube account is:

The Taliban released a video Friday showing a U.S. soldier who was captured more than five months ago in eastern Afghanistan. Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl is the only known American serviceman in captivity. The U.S. airborne infantryman was taken by the Afghan Taliban in Paktika province on June 30.

KABUL (AP) - The Taliban released Friday a video purporting to show a U.S. soldier who was captured more than five months ago in eastern Afghanistan.

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) - A militant commander who is holding a U.S. soldier abducted in Afghanistan said Sunday that Taliban leader Mullah Omar's council is waiting for a response to its demands before deciding the American's fate. It was the first news of Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl, 23, made public since a Taliban video was released July 18. Maulvi Sangin, an insurgent commander for eastern Afghanistan, said the Taliban's governing body was awaiting a response to demands it made to the U.S. for his return. "The American's fate is in the hand of (leadership), which is waiting until...

There is a huge question mark about Bowe Bergdahl. While the left is suspiciously quiet about him; and some on the right are calling him the next Benedict Arnold; there is another possibility: the guy has converted to Islam. Don't panic. I'm not saying he HAS become a Muslim. In fact, on the video he denies so doing. When asked if his religion, he says Christian. When asked later about Islam, he says he wants to learn more about it. By become Muslim, I don't mean he has taken Shehada. I do mean that he has learned the fine art...

Here is an outstanding video from Newsy.com that gives perspective on the story of Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl, who is being held captive by the Taliban in Afghanistan. There have been conflicting accounts of how Bergdahl was captured, with Bergdahl himself saying via the videotape released by the Taliban that he was captured because he lagged behind his patrol. The Pentagon officially says he wandered off from base without his gun or armor. This video shows multiple reports on the story from various news outlets and asks the question, "Should the media be treating Bergdahl as a hero?" The video also...

U.S. Army Private First Class Bowe Bergdahl of Hailey, Idaho, is no longer a combatant in the Afghanistan war. Instead, he is now playing a part in an increasingly desperate information war being waged by the Taliban. Pfc. Bergdahl was recently identified in a video distributed by his captors, the Afghan Taliban, a religious-based insurgent group now fighting American, NATO and Afghan government forces under the command of Mullah Omar. Despite the nature of the conflict, Bergdahl is not a prisoner of war - he is a terrorist hostage. The difference is important. The United States government classifies persons held...

While the Pentagon said Monday that troops are "sparing no effort" to find an American soldier captured by the Taliban, his godmother in Portland disputed increasing speculation that the 23-year-old may have deserted. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who spoke at a Pentagon news conference Monday, condemned a video of Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl released by the Taliban, saying he was disgusted by the exploitation of a prisoner. Members of Bergdahl's family, who live in central Idaho, released a statement through the local sheriff and turned down all requests for interviews. The circumstances of Bergdahl's capture on June 30 are not...

WASHINGTON, July 20, 2009 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said American commanders are “sparing no effort” to locate a U.S. soldier who went missing early this month in Afghanistan. Speaking to reporters today during a Pentagon news conference, Gates also expressed his disgust at the exploitation of Army Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl, who the Defense Department identified as the missing soldier and who is featured in a video apparently released yesterday on the Internet by his captors. “Our commanders are sparing no effort to find this young soldier, and I also would say that my personal reaction was one...

Please keep this young man and his family in your prayers every day. Dear Lord grant him strength and mercy. May your divine light reside in his his soul and please keep him free from harm.

The U.S. soldier kidnapped by Taliban forces in Afghanistan may have been taken across the border to Pakistan, complicating efforts to obtain his release, according to two people involved in U.S. and Afghan military efforts to locate him, and three Afghan soldiers captured with him.

Scroll down for updates…evidence of desertion mounting… My prayers are with the family of Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl, the U.S. soldier seen on the Taliban abduction video released this weekend. The Jawa Report has the full clip. All Americans should hope and pray for his release from jihadi custody. There’s one question I have, though, about strange details initially reported on the case — details which have been deleted from later wire dispatches. Read: The circumstances of Bergdahl’s capture weren’t clear. On July 2, two U.S. officials told the AP the soldier had “just walked off” his base with three Afghans...

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon on Sunday confirmed that an American soldier who went missing from his base in Afghanistan has been captured and identified him as a private from Idaho serving with an Alaska-based infantry regiment. The Defense Department released the name of Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl, 23, of Ketchum, Idaho, one day after he was seen in a video posted online as saying he was "scared I won't be able to go home." Even before his name became public, two U.S. defense officials confirmed to The Associated Press that the man in that 28-minute video was the captured soldier....

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Pentagon has identified the American soldier who went missing June 30 from his base in eastern Afghanistan and was later confirmed to have been captured. The Defense Department said in a statement Sunday that the soldier is Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl, 23, of Ketchum, Idaho. The statement also says his status is now classified as missing-captured, rather than whereabouts unknown. In a video posted online by the Taliban on Saturday, he's heard saying he's "scared I won't be able to go home." Before the Pentagon released Bergdahl's identity, two U.S. defense officials confirmed to The Associated...