Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales during a training exercise at Fort Irwin, CA. (Photo released in August by the 28th Public Affairs Detachment)
Military sources late Friday identified Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales as the name of the 38-year-old suspect accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians in a Sunday rampage. Bales has not yet been charged in the case. He was flown to the U.S. military maximum security prison at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas from Kuwait Friday. "I can confirm" the name of the suspect is Robert Bales, a U.S. official told Yahoo News on condition of anonymity. Bales' Seattle-area celebrity lawyer, John Henry Browne, said Friday that his client is in shock. "He is in shock, kind of like a deer in headlights at the moment," Browne said Friday morning, a local station near Joint Base Lewis-McChord King 5 News, reported. "I told him not to talk about the allegations at all, so I cannot tell you how he is responding because I told him not to talk about it." Browne earlier told reporters at a news conference Thursday that the decorated soldier wasn't happy that he had been deployed a fourth time despite sustaining two injuries, including a traumatic head injury and the partial loss of his foot in Iraq. Browne dismissed rumors that the soldier had marital troubles, and said he had two young children. "He did not want to deploy," Browne told the Seattle Times. "In fact he was told he was not going to go. Then, really almost overnight, that changed." Browne told the paper that a soldier in his unit had lost a leg in combat the day before the alleged shooting. The New York Times quoted a "senior" American official saying the soldier had been drinking before the alleged shooting. "When it all comes out, it will be a combination of stress, alcohol and domestic issues — he just snapped," the anonymous official told the paper. A U.S. defense official told the Associated Press that investigators are looking into how much of a role drinking might have played in the killings. The revelation of Bales' identity comes after criticism from Afghan President Hamid Karzai about the lack of U.S. cooperation in investigating the massacre. Karzai also questioned whether just one American soldier was involved. The soldier was one of 4,000 soldiers in the 3rd (Stryker) Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division stationed at Lewis-McChord in Washington State. The base's medical center is being investigated for allegedly down-grading post- traumatic stress diagnoses to other mental illnesses that do not prevent deployment or qualify soldiers for disability payments.
MTW- This is such a shame. I know, the plethora of stories which led up to this article, and the articles that will follow this one are many. This one, however, was at the correct time. When we have our very own Military physicians, not only from Lewis-McChord, now "downgrading" P.T.S.D. into less severe diagnoses, which NPR revealed in its 2010 investigation, being rampant in our Military, whom is the responsible party? This 38 year old Staff Sergeant has been through it. Sent back at his age for a fourth tour with PTSD, which was intentionally “downgraded” by doctors, at I wonder whose behest (where are all of the new young people enlisting?). And they wonder why he snapped? Is this what downsizing the Military is going to do to our current active or inactive troops? Give me a break. If our President had served in the Military, perhaps our Servicemen and women may be better off. Not my fault, the man I voted for WAS in the Military. We now have Soldiers being silenced by Obama, as well as being sanctioned for a Facebook page stating “I will no longer follow illegal orders from this President”. I suppose the 1st amendment does not apply to our Soldiers. Sgt. Bales will more than likely either spend the rest of his life in a mental ward, or a cell at Leavenworth. If he gets the cell, Mr. Obama should get the cell right next to his. His is, after all, the Commander-In-Chief of the Military. What has happened to the Afghans, who were massacred, is a tragedy which could have been avoided. Did anybody learn anything from Vietnam? I offer my sincere condolences to Afghanistan, as well as a big way to go for you, Mr. President. I now know why you apologize so much; you are wrong most of the time. The people who voted for you are also to blame, for you are not qualified to be in the position which you hold. Please go away. I do not care where.
GOD BLESS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, HER ARMED FORCES, AND THE ENTIRE WORLD!
Posted by Michael T. Wayne- A Little Crazy
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