--- description: A previously-unseen photograph of what appears to be Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl smiling alongside with a senior Taliban commander was posted online. title: Forced Smile? Bergdahl Pictured With Taliban Commander image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7246f6aea6bc526c/69869b39f983e7059704ec08/140710-bergdahl-haqqani-430a_94afd827a0ff2d245eb292e262b797fd.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Afghanistan](/tag/afghanistan/) ## Afghanistan Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Forced Smile? Bergdahl Pictured With Taliban Commander by [NBC News](/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 10, 2014 3:07 PM CUT  An undated photo of U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl with Badruddin Haqqani, the son of former Afghan Mujahideen commander Maulvi Jalaluddin Haqqani. An undated photo of U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl with Badruddin Haqqani, the son of former Afghan Mujahideen commander Maulvi Jalaluddin Haqqani.@khorasan313 by [NBC News](/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 10, 2014 3:07 PM CUT In a new salvo in the propaganda war with the West, a previously-unseen photograph of what appears to be Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl smiling alongside with a senior Taliban commander was posted to a Twitter account associated with the Afghan Taliban. A slew of tweets posted late Wednesday claimed the former prisoner of war – who appeared thin and pale in the image – was treated well during his five years in captivity… [Read the rest of the story at NBC News](http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/bowe-bergdahl-released/bergdahl-pictured-smiling-taliban-while-captivity-n152466?cid=par-time-article%5F20140710 "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2973088/bergdahl-taliban-picture/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2973088/bergdahl-taliban-picture/"},"headline":"Forced Smile? Bergdahl Pictured With Taliban Commander","datePublished":"2014-07-10T15:07:02.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T09:04:36.027Z","description":"A previously-unseen photograph of what appears to be Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl smiling alongside with a senior Taliban commander was posted online.","url":"https://time.com/2973088/bergdahl-taliban-picture/","keywords":["Afghanistan"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7246f6aea6bc526c/69869b39f983e7059704ec08/140710-bergdahl-haqqani-430a_94afd827a0ff2d245eb292e262b797fd.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"NBC News","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nbc-news/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7246f6aea6bc526c/69869b39f983e7059704ec08/140710-bergdahl-haqqani-430a_94afd827a0ff2d245eb292e262b797fd.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Bergdahl","caption":"Bergdahl","creditText":"@khorasan313","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/afghanistan/","name":"Afghanistan"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2973088/bergdahl-taliban-picture/","name":"Forced Smile? Bergdahl Pictured With Taliban Commander"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Here’s What That Bergdahl Video Really Shows","description":"TIME's Mark Thompson on what the video really means","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/PYBoRFho/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-06-04T17:00:14.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/PYBoRFho.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/2973088/bergdahl-taliban-picture/","duration":"PT2M58S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/2973088/bergdahl-taliban-picture/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```