Manning leaks led to much of what we know about soldier deaths and Bowe Bergdahl

Still from a video made by the Taliban insurgents who held


A frame, with typo, from a video made by the Taliban insurgents who released Bowe Bergdahl last week.


US soldier Bowe Bergdahl's release by Afghan insurgents was one dramatic story, to be certain. His freedom was secured by the Obama administration in exchange for the release of high-profile Taliban prisoners held at Guantánamo.

But the questions following Bergdahl's release are a new drama, which includes accusations by men who served with him that as many as 6 soldiers died searching for Bergdahl at the time he went missing.

"Bergdahl was a deserter, and soldiers from his own unit died trying to track him down," wrote Nathan Bradley Bethea in The Daily Beast.

Still from an earlier video of Bergdahl in captivity, released by the Taliban in Afghanistan.


Still from an earlier video of Bergdahl in captivity, released by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The reporting in today's New York Times by Charlie Savage, Andrew Lehren, and Eric Schmitt is impressive in breadth and depth, but perhaps most interesting: we have Chelsea Manning's leaked documents, shared with Wikileaks, to thank for much of what we now know about that murky story.

Manning, herself a former soldier, is serving a 35-year sentence for the leaks.

Video: A short video released by his captors. "Don' Come Back to Afghanistan."