Episode 4 - The Captors

What's happening on the other side of the door?

  1. At the beginning of this episode, Sarah Koenig describes Bowe’s experience as divided. What does she mean by this?
  1. How did Bowe’s captivity change after his big escape?
  1. Why is David Rohde’s experience in captivity a more reliable and informative account than Bowe’s?
  1. What do we learn about the Hakanis and their relationship with Pakistan?
  1. Why, according to David Rohde, did his treatment deteriorate as he was held longer? How do the Hakanis feel about non-Muslims and about Americans?
  1. How did David Rohde manage to escape, and how does he think this might have affected the way Bowe was later treated by his captors?
  1. How did Terrence Russell, Bowe’s military de-briefer, characterize Bowe’s captivity?
  1. Describe Bowe’s condition when he was being de-briefed in Germany after he was released. Why, according to psychologists, is he viewed as “not crazy”? How did Bowe manage to survive, as he recounted to his interviewer?
  1. What do we learn about Bergdahl’s captivity from a cook? Explain how this cook seemed to show Bergdahl more compassion than most of his captors?
  1. Sarah Koenig explains that Guantanamo comes up frequently in Bowe’s story. What does Guantanamo have to do with the way Bowe was treated?

Serial Episode 4 - Additional Media

Here’s an interactive map where you can see the tribal areas of Pakistan

Question #1 - Take a look at this article and interactive feature about David Rohde’s captivity (see links, and article preview on the back of this page) and compare and contrast his experience to Bowe’s.

Here’s the link to the New York Times stories:

This is a five-part series written by David Rohde about his time in captivity.

This is an interactive feature and video of David Rhode

Question #2 - How can David’s experience help us understand what Bowe went through?

David Rohde’s Captivity

By Whitney Dangerfield 01/07/2016 David Rohde, center, in Kandahar, a province in southern Afghanistan, in 2007.

On Nov. 10, 2008, David Rohde and two Afghan colleagues—Tahir Luddin, a journalist and interpreter, and AsadMangal, a driver—were kidnapped on their way to an interview with a Taliban commander. At the time, Rohde was on leave from The New York Times to write a book about Afghanistan.

The Taliban held Rohde and his colleagues in Waziristan for more than seven months. On June 20, 2009, he and Luddin escaped from a compound in Miram Shah. Just 10 days later, the Taliban captured Bowe Bergdahl.

There were many similarities between Rohde’s captivity and Bergdahl’s. The Haqqani network, a group aligned with the Taliban, held both men captive, for one. And both were moved to various locations in North and South Waziristan, parts of the tribal region of Pakistan. But Rohde had two advantages over Bergdahl: As a reporter, Rohde already knew a fair amount about the region. And, perhaps more important, Rohde was held with two Afghans, one of whom spoke English and could translate what was happening around him. So his account of his captivity gives some context to Bergdahl’s.

Rohde and his wife, Kristen Mulvihill, also wrote a book, “A Rope and a Prayer,” about their ordeal.