Three and a half months have come and gone and the Pentagon has offered no clarity on what happened to alleged Army deserter and Taliban collaborator Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. Fellow soldiers and other critics fear the military’s now-delayed investigation is shaping up to be a whitewash.

The case has become a political powder keg for President Obama.

Since he traded five imprisoned Taliban leaders for Bergdahl, the US Government Accountability Office has declared the swap illegal, and nearly two dozen House Democrats have joined Republicans in officially condemning the move for making “Americans less safe.”

In addition, the Taliban deal appears to have encouraged the Islamic State to put up American hostages as trade bait to free other terrorist detainees, namely “Lady al Qaeda” Aafia Siddiqui.

The five imprisoned Taliban leaders traded for Bergdahl’s release

Mohammed Nabi served as chief of security for the Taliban in Qalat, Afghanistan, and later worked as a radio operator for the Taliban's communications office in Kabul. Department of Defense Abdul Haq Wasiq served as the Taliban's deputy minister of intelligence. Department of Defense Mullah Norullah Nori was a senior Taliban commander in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif when the Taliban fought US forces in late 2001. Department of Defense Khairullah Khairkhwa served in various Taliban positions including interior minister and had direct ties to Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden. Department of Defense Human Rights Watch says Mohammad Fazl could be prosecuted for war crimes for presiding over the mass killing of Shiite Muslims in Afghanistan in 2000 and 2001 as the Taliban sought to consolidate their control over the country. Department of Defense Ad Up Next Close The rise of the 'fall boyfriend' “Needed: 2 Males interested in something steady/serious-ish as the weather... 5 View Slideshow Back Continue Share this: Facebook

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Obama in May presented Bergdahl as a hero in announcing his release in a Rose Garden ceremony featuring Bergdahl’s mother and father. The next day, his national-security adviser added another coat of varnish when she proclaimed the AWOL soldier “served the United States with honor and distinction.”

His platoon mates, however, say he did nothing of the kind. “Bergdahl is a deserter, not a hero [and] needs to answer for what he did,” said former Army Sgt. Evan Buetow, who served with Bergdahl and was present the night he vanished from his Afghan post.

Like Buetow, more than 60% of respondents to a recent Military Times survey believe that Bergdahl should be court-martialed for walking off his post in 2009 and costing the lives of six fellow soldiers who died searching for him.

But a senior Army official told me court-martialing Bergdahl would “make the president look bad.” In spite of damning evidence against him, the official expects Pentagon brass to separate him from the military with a less-than-honorable discharge, sparing Obama total embarrassment.

In a sign Bergdahl may indeed get off with a slap on the wrist, the Army has delayed its AR 15-6 investigation into his disappearance — a development that Bergdahl’s attorneys see as helpful to their client.

The Army investigator, Maj. Gen. Kenneth Dahl, was supposed to submit his findings to brass last month but has asked for an extension. The probe was limited to a 60-day window, which ended Aug. 15. There’s no longer a deadline attached, which means the investigation could drag out past the November election.

Dahl last month interviewed Bergdahl at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, in what his lawyer described as an “entirely nonconfrontational” meeting.

Critics doubt Dahl has the skills to conduct a proper interrogation. “No general does this. They have no training,” said the Army official, who requested anonymity upon describing Dahl as a “yes-man.”

If there’s any doubt this case is politically sensitive, consider that Buetow and five other platoon mates have hit roadblocks shopping an explosive book portraying Bergdahl as a “premeditated” deserter who aided the Taliban. An editor reportedly turned them down because Republicans “are all over Bergdahl and using it against Obama.”

Buetow, who was team leader of Bergdahl’s unit, says they’re not trying to politicize the issue. They just couldn’t stay quiet after Obama made him out to be a war hero.

“We’re just trying to tell the truth,” he said in an interview published last month. “It’s not my fault this would make Obama look bad.”

The evidence against 28-year-old Bergdahl is overwhelming. Here’s a bill of indictment:

Paul Sperry is a Hoover Institution media fellow and author of “Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives Have Penetrated Washington.”