They have nothing else, and I suppose that is why the AmeriKan media is a dying hulk.
"US soldier executes 16 Afghans; Dead include 9 children; renewed violent backlash is feared" March 12, 2012|By Graham Bowley and Taimoor Shah, New York Times
PANJWAI, Afghanistan - Stalking from home to home, a US Army sergeant methodically killed at least 16 civilians, nine of them children, in a rural section of southern Afghanistan early Sunday, Afghan and US officials said, igniting fears of a new wave of anti-American hostility.
Residents of three villages in the Panjwai District of Kandahar Province described a terrifying string of attacks in which the soldier, who had walked more than a mile from his base, tried door after door, breaking in to kill within three houses.
????
At the first, the man gathered 11 bodies, including those of four girls younger than 6, and set fire to them, villagers said.
Coming after a period of deepening public outrage, spurred by the Koran burning by US personnel last month and an earlier video showing US Marines urinating on dead militants, the apparently unprovoked killings added to a feeling of siege here among Western personnel.
Imagine how the Afghans feel after ten long years murder and torture.
Also see: Pissed-Off Afghans
So am I.
Officials described a growing sense of concern over a cascading series of missteps and offenses that has cast doubt on the ability of NATO personnel to carry out their mission and has left troops and trainers increasingly vulnerable to violence by Afghans seeking revenge.
The US military gave few details about the suspected killer other than to describe him as an Army staff sergeant who was acting alone and surrendered himself for arrest.
A senior US military official said the sergeant was attached to an Army unit based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, near Tacoma, Wash., and that he had been part of what is called a village stabilization operation in Afghanistan, in which teams of Green Berets, supported by other soldiers, try to develop close ties with village elders, organize local police units, and track down Taliban leaders.
The official said the sergeant was not a Green Beret and had been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan at least once before his current tour of duty.
President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack, calling it in a statement an “inhuman and intentional act’’ and demanding justice.
President Obama and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta called Karzai, expressing condolences and promising thorough investigations.
“This incident is tragic and shocking, and does not represent the exceptional character of our military and the respect that the United States has for the people of Afghanistan,’’ Obama said in a statement.
That's an offensive statement considering all we have done there over a damnable lie.
US officials in Kabul were scrambling to understand what had happened and appealed for calm.
“The initial reporting that we have at this time indicates there was one shooter, and we have one man in custody,’’ said Lieutenant Colonel Jimmie Cummings, a NATO spokesman.
That's what the script says.
In Panjwai, a reporter for The New York Times who inspected bodies that had been taken to the nearby US military base counted 16 dead, and saw burns on some of the children’s legs and heads.
“All the family members were killed, the dead put in a room, and blankets were put over the corpses and they were burned,’’ said Anar Gula, an elderly neighbor who rushed to the house after the soldier had left. “We put out the fire.’’
The villagers also brought some of the burned blankets on motorbikes to display at the base, Camp Belambay, in Kandahar, and show that the bodies had been set alight.
Soon, more than 300 people had gathered outside to protest.
At least five other Afghans were wounded in the attacks, officials said, some of them seriously, indicating the death toll could rise.
NATO said several casualties were being treated at a military hospital.
One of the survivors from the attack, Abdul Hadi, 40, said he was at home when a soldier broke down the door.
“My father went out to find out what was happening, and he was killed,’’ he said. “I was trying to go out and find out about the shooting but someone told me not to move, and I was covered by the women in my family in my room, so that is why I survived.’’
Hadi said there was more than one soldier involved in the attack, and at least five other villagers described seeing a number of soldiers, and also a helicopter and flares at the scene.
As suspected, this was a SPECIAL FORCES OPERATION!! I sure as hell trust what AFGHANS SAY far more than my lying mouthpiece of a media.
But that assertion was unconfirmed - other Afghan residents described seeing only one shooter - and it was unclear whether extra troops had been sent out to the village after the attack to catch the suspect.
But in a measure of the mounting levels of mistrust between Afghans and the coalition, many Afghans, including lawmakers and other officials, said they believed the attack had been planned and were incredulous one soldier could have carried out such an attack without help.
So am I!!
In his statement, Karzai said “American forces’’ had entered the houses in Panjwai, but at another point he said the killings were the act of an individual soldier.
Others called for calm. Abdul Hadi Arghandehwal, the minister of economy and the leader of Hezb-e Islami, a major Afghan political party with Islamist leanings, said there would probably be new protests.
But he said the killings should be seen as the act of an individual and not of the United States.
Elsewhere, news of the killings was only spreading slowly.
Other than the protest at the base in Kandahar, there were no immediate signs of the fury that fueled rioting across the country following the burning of Korans by US military personnel in February.
The US Embassy in Kabul, which immediately urged caution among Americans traveling or living in Afghanistan, and the military coalition rushed to head off any further outrage, deploring the attack, offering condolences for the families, and promising the soldier would be brought to justice.
Heard that before.
Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson, the NATO spokesman, expressed his “deep sadness’’ and said that while the motive for the attack was not yet clear, it looked like an isolated incident.
“I am not linking this to the recent incidents over the recent days and weeks,’’ he said. “It looks very much like an individual act.’’
Adding to the sense of concern, the killings came two days after an incident in Kapisa Province, in eastern Afghanistan, in which NATO helicopters apparently hunting Taliban insurgents instead fired on civilians, killing four and wounding another three, Afghan officials said. About 1,200 demonstrators marched in protest in Kapisa on Saturday.
Interesting how that information is a f***ing afterthought.
The reaction to the Koran-burning revealed the huge cultural gap between the Americans, who saw it as an unfortunate mistake, and the Afghans, who viewed it as a crime and wanted to see those responsible tried as criminals.
But both the Afghans and US officials agreed on the severity of Sunday’s killings, and Jacobson said the case would be aggressively pursued by US legal authorities.
Panjwai, a rural suburb of Kandahar, was traditionally a Taliban stronghold. It was a focus of the US military offensive in 2010 and was the scene of heavy fighting.
The shootings carried some echoes of an incident in March 2007 in eastern Afghanistan, when several Marines opened fire with automatic weapons, killing as many as 19 civilians after a suicide car bomb struck the Marines’ convoy, wounding one Marine.
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"Calls for justice follow deaths of Afghan civilians; Some doubt US will try soldier for deaths" by Ernesto Londoño | Washington Post, March 13, 2012
KABUL — Afghan officials expressed dismay and rage Monday as villagers quietly buried 16 civilians, including nine children, allegedly shot by a rogue US soldier in southern Afghanistan the day before.
Some members of the Afghan Parliament cast doubt on the US account that a single gunman was responsible for the killings, and they questioned whether the Army staff sergeant taken into custody would be held accountable for the worst atrocity by a US service member in the decadelong war.
They are NOT THE ONLY ONES!!!
“If the culprits are not punished, then people will be forced to take part in an uprising,’’ lawmaker Nazifa Zaki said.
The 38-year-old soldier, who was deployed with the Third Stryker Brigade from Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, turned himself in at his base in Khandahar Province. His name was not released because it would be “inappropriate’’ to do so before charges are filed, said Pentagon spokesman George Little.
Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said the US military would bring appropriate charges against the soldier, and the death penalty “could be a consideration.’’
The slayings were the latest in a cascade of missteps that have shaken Afghans’ confidence in the United States.
They never wanted us there and have wanted us gone for years, sigh.
And as ghastly details and images of the bodies were broadcast on Afghan television, even some Afghans with close ties to the United States said they feared that Sunday’s killings in the Panjwai district of Kandahar Province could come to mark an irreversible turning point.
“I am concerned like never before,’’ said Waheed Omer, the Afghan president’s former spokesman, who spent years arguing that the relationship between Kabul and its Western patrons was thorny but solid and essential. “It seems we only have bad choices to make. The lines between friends and enemies are blurred like never before.’’
“Afghan blood cannot be spilled in vain,’’ said Shukria Barakzai, a member of Parliament who heads the defense committee and has had strong relationships with Western officials. Barakzai said the suspect should be tried in an Afghan court or by an international tribunal, rather than in a US military court.
“We really need a proper, very official court for that guy,’’ she said. “We really, really need it.’’
The Taliban vowed to avenge the killings, which fit masterfully into its narrative depicting foreign troops as callous killers waging a war on Islam.
I can not tell you how sick I am of pot-hollering-kettle media.
In its statement, the militant group anticipated that the United States would seek to portray the killings as the acts of a deranged soldier.
“If the perpetrators of this massacre were in fact mentally ill, then this testifies to yet another moral transgression by the American military because they are arming lunatics in Afghanistan who turn their weapons against defenseless Afghans,’’ the Taliban statement said.
Calling the episode “tragic,’’ President Obama told a television interviewer Monday that the killings underscore the need to hand over responsibility for security to Afghans. But he said it will not lead to an early withdrawal of US troops.
“I think it’s important for us to make sure that we get out in a responsible way so that we don’t end up having to go back in,’’ Obama told Pittsburgh station KDKA. “It makes me more determined to make sure that we’re getting our troops home. It’s time.’’
Panetta, speaking to reporters on his plane en route to Kyrgyzstan, said the military was still struggling to understand a motive, but he called the killings “a criminal act.’’ He said he had assured President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan that the soldier “will be brought to justice and be held accountable.’’
Obama and Panetta said the United States remained committed to the war and that the killings would not undermine the strategy or accelerate a planned drawdown of US troops over the next two years.
To deflate anger over the killings, US officials will have to act swiftly and sternly, said Davood Moradian, an assistant professor of political science at the American University of Afghanistan.
“There is a view here in Afghanistan that the US treats its soldiers differently, that there is a sense of impunity,’’ he said. “The US will need to show the Afghan people that it truly is a law-abiding nation.’’
Much will also depend on how successful the Taliban is in portraying the killings as a symptom of a doomed mission, rather than an aberration. The timing could hardly be more worrisome for the US military, which has lost hundreds of lives trying to restore Afghan control in the south and is now starting to thin out.
In the short term, the most immediate fallout could be the effect on Washington’s ability to negotiate a strategic-partnership agreement that would allow the United States to maintain troops here beyond 2014.
Oh, THAT is what is REALLY IMPORTANT!
Notice how the DEAD AFGHANS have FADED from the discussion?
In Iraq last year, a similar debate over accountability for civilian deaths ultimately doomed Washington’s goal of keeping a small contingent of US troops in the country.
I think the Iraqis were going to say get out anyway.
The calls to prosecute the suspect in an Afghan court - a highly unlikely prospect because American troops have immunity from prosecution in Afghanistan - echoed the debate about whether US service members should remain shielded from prosecution in Iraqi courts.
In Iraq, the government began curbing the authority of US troops as the American drawdown started in 2009, most notably by restricting their presence in urban areas. That stance was driven by a yearning for sovereignty after the violent years that followed the 2003 US-led occupation and by the widespread feeling among Iraqis that US troops killed civilians wantonly.
Similar forces are driving the Afghan government’s insistence that the United States halt night raids on homes of suspected insurgents, an issue that is holding up the bilateral security-cooperation pact.
Last week the United States agreed to start transferring legal custody of its inmates in Afghanistan to the Kabul government, but it has ceded little additional ground as Afghanistan has sought to assert more control over the operations of coalition troops.
See: Torture Center Transfer
A Western official in Kabul, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to offer his assessment, said he was hopeful that the anger over the shooting rampage could be overcome.
The burning of Korans by US troops on Feb. 20 - which American officials said was accidental - unleashed a wave of violent protests and prompted Afghan security forces to open fire on US military trainers, but the fury subsided after a few days.
“Everyone said the burning of the Korans was a turning point,’’ he said. “It came and it went. My best analysis is that everyone saw the abyss and no one wanted to jump in.’’
Barakzai, the lawmaker, was far less optimistic. Although she expressed worry about the turn the country could take if the foreign troop withdrawal accelerated, Barakzai said the relationship between Afghanistan and the United States is nearing a breaking point.
“If things keep going in this direction, we are really at the end of the road,’’ she said. “The trust between our governments is trashed on both sides.’’
I have none left for them or their mouthpiece media anymore, sorry.
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Much will also depend on how successful the Taliban is in portraying the killings as a symptom of a doomed mission, rather than an aberration. The timing could hardly be more worrisome for the US military, which has lost hundreds of lives trying to restore Afghan control in the south and is now starting to thin out.
In the short term, the most immediate fallout could be the effect on Washington’s ability to negotiate a strategic-partnership agreement that would allow the United States to maintain troops here beyond 2014.
Oh, THAT is what is REALLY IMPORTANT!
Notice how the DEAD AFGHANS have FADED from the discussion?
In Iraq last year, a similar debate over accountability for civilian deaths ultimately doomed Washington’s goal of keeping a small contingent of US troops in the country.
I think the Iraqis were going to say get out anyway.
The calls to prosecute the suspect in an Afghan court - a highly unlikely prospect because American troops have immunity from prosecution in Afghanistan - echoed the debate about whether US service members should remain shielded from prosecution in Iraqi courts.
In Iraq, the government began curbing the authority of US troops as the American drawdown started in 2009, most notably by restricting their presence in urban areas. That stance was driven by a yearning for sovereignty after the violent years that followed the 2003 US-led occupation and by the widespread feeling among Iraqis that US troops killed civilians wantonly.
Similar forces are driving the Afghan government’s insistence that the United States halt night raids on homes of suspected insurgents, an issue that is holding up the bilateral security-cooperation pact.
Last week the United States agreed to start transferring legal custody of its inmates in Afghanistan to the Kabul government, but it has ceded little additional ground as Afghanistan has sought to assert more control over the operations of coalition troops.
See: Torture Center Transfer
A Western official in Kabul, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to offer his assessment, said he was hopeful that the anger over the shooting rampage could be overcome.
The burning of Korans by US troops on Feb. 20 - which American officials said was accidental - unleashed a wave of violent protests and prompted Afghan security forces to open fire on US military trainers, but the fury subsided after a few days.
“Everyone said the burning of the Korans was a turning point,’’ he said. “It came and it went. My best analysis is that everyone saw the abyss and no one wanted to jump in.’’
Barakzai, the lawmaker, was far less optimistic. Although she expressed worry about the turn the country could take if the foreign troop withdrawal accelerated, Barakzai said the relationship between Afghanistan and the United States is nearing a breaking point.
“If things keep going in this direction, we are really at the end of the road,’’ she said. “The trust between our governments is trashed on both sides.’’
I have none left for them or their mouthpiece media anymore, sorry.
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"Insurgents attack event for slain Afghan civilians" by Matthew Rosenberg and Taimoor Shah | New York Times, March 14, 2012
Now WHY WOULD THEY DO THAT and give themselves a BAD NAME?
Cui bono?
PANJWAI, Afghanistan - Militants riding motorcycles attacked a high-level Afghan government delegation during a memorial service Tuesday in the village where a US soldier allegedly killed 16 people, mostly children and women, in a door-to-door rampage two days earlier.
The Tuesday assault, on a mosque in the Panjwai district of Kandahar Province, left at least one Afghan soldier dead and punctured the calm that had largely prevailed in Afghanistan since the massacre. There was no immediate claim of responsibility from the Taliban, whose roots are in the area.
Then they didn't do it. That's a hallmark of an intelligence agency operation and its mouthpiece media.
But the attack belied the Afghan government’s efforts to present itself as in control of the situation in Kandahar, where anger over Sunday’s killings is perhaps deepest.
So the U.S. and NATO will just have to STAY, right?
A reporter for the New York Times at the memorial described 20 minutes of heavy gunfire that pinned down members of the delegation, including Qayum Karzai and Shah Wali Karzai, brothers of President Hamid Karzai; General Shir Muhammad Karami, the chief of staff of the Afghan Army; the provincial governor, Tooryalai Wesa; and the deputy interior minister, General Abdul Rahman Rahman. They appeared to have escaped unharmed and after the gunfire subsided sped back to Kandahar city, the provincial capital, on a highway closed to other traffic.
Related: Addounia TV Exposes Insurgents Fabrications about Syrian Government "Massacres" Broadcast by Mainstream Media
You can see why I am taking a grain of salt with my AmeriKan media's description of event, 'eh?
Abdul Rahim Ayobi, a member of Parliament from Kandahar Province, said bullets had struck near the delegation. An Afghan military prosecutor and a second person were injured, said General Abdul Raziq, the Kandahar provincial police chief who confirmed the soldier’s death.
The militants were armed with machine guns and assault rifles. They appeared to have suffered some casualties and left behind at least one of their motorcycles.
As word of the attack on the delegation spread, the government’s media center in Kandahar initially denied it had taken place, writing on Twitter: “Media! plz don’t publish things which aren’t confirmed, there is no combat, there is no fire, all is well. everything calm and safe.’’
The delegation, which had been sent by Karzai, paid compensation to the wounded and the families of those killed in the rampage. Each death was compensated with about $2,000 and every person wounded was given about $1,000. The US government also plans to pay compensation, although it is not clear how much or when.
On Tuesday, President Obama called the killings “outrageous and unacceptable,’’ and he promised a thorough and unstinting Pentagon investigation.
“The United States takes this as seriously as if it was our own citizens, and our children, who were murdered,’’ Obama said. “We’re heartbroken over the loss of innocent life.’’
His words sound so hollow considering all the drone attacks that have occurred on his watch.
Obama sounded stern and emotional in brief remarks on the weekend killings made before an unrelated White House event.
“I’ve directed the Pentagon to make sure that we spare no effort in conducting a full investigation,’’ Obama said. “We will follow the facts wherever they lead us, and we will make sure that anybody who is involved is held fully accountable with the full force of the law.
A senior military official said investigators are looking into the possibility that alcohol played a role.
The old standby when all else fails: BLAME BOOZE!
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is underway, said it is unclear whether the suspect had been drinking before disappearing from his base or whether alcohol was simply found in his living space.
I'm just wondering how he slipped away from the base.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said the death penalty could be possible in the case.
Despite the deepening antipathy to US forces in the country, Afghanistan had largely been calm since Sunday’s killings, leaving unrealized Western fears of a repeat of the unrest that spread across the country last month after the burning of Koran by US soldiers.
I just can't imagine why!
The only demonstration since Sunday took place Tuesday morning in the city of Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan, where about 1,000 people burned an effigy of Obama and blocked a highway for about an hour, chanting “Death to America’’ and “Death to the Jews.’’
They demanded an immediate public trial for the US soldier accused of carrying out the killings and urged Karzai not to sign a strategic partnership deal that is being negotiated with the United States. The soldier will be tried through the military justice system, US officials say.
The United States has stressed that it considers the killings a crime that is distinct from the deaths of civilians during military operations - a view not shared by most Afghans, where thousands of civilians have died at the hands of the US-led coalition and the Taliban in the past decade.
It's likely millions because no one really knows.
The Taliban have sworn revenge for the massacre. A vitriolic statement Tuesday, the group’s third since the killings, threatened the dead civilians would be avenged by the beheading of any US soldiers captured by the insurgents. Calling themselves “the Islamic Emirate mujahedeen’’ and “the true defenders of our oppressed people,’’ they warned US forces that “nothing will content us but avenging every single one of the martyrs, with the help of God, by killing and beheading your sadist soldier in every inch of the country.’’
The Taliban have on rare occasions captured US and allied soldiers, but most people seized by the militants have been aid workers and journalists.
The Taliban’s statement also claimed the killings had been carried out by more than one US soldier, echoing allegations by many politicians, religious leaders, and ordinary people in Afghanistan.
Yes, EVERYONE KNOWS THIS and the mouthpiece media minimization is confirmation!
During remarks at the memorial Tuesday, Karami, the army chief of staff, said the government was investigating.
“We can’t say whether one individual or several are involved in shooting,’’ he said, “but we are working hard, and we will meet the Special Operations commander and other officials.’’
US officials say there was only one gunman, a 38-year-old staff sergeant from the Army’s conventional forces who had been assigned to a small Special Operations base near the village where the massacre took place. On his first tour in Afghanistan, he arrived in December.
Yeah, we get that a lot in this country and it is nearly always a lie.
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"Karzai at ‘end of the rope’ in deaths; Says US not aiding massacre inquiry" by Ratthew Rosenberg and Sharifullah Sahak | New York Times, March 17, 2012
KABUL - President Hamid Karzai chastised the United States on Friday, saying he was at “the end of the rope’’ over what he termed the United States’ lack of cooperation in investigating the US soldier accused of going on a rampage earlier this month and killing 16 civilians in southern Afghanistan....
Oh, NO KIDDING! The COVER-UP HAS BEGUN!
The Afghan leader also questioned whether only a single US soldier was involved in the massacre, which took place on March 11. He said the accounts of villagers - many of whom have claimed multiple soldiers took part in the shootings - did not match the US assertion that the killings were the work of a lone, rogue soldier.
I know who I TRUST!
The Afghan leader’s comments were likely to intensify the sense of crisis that has begun to permeate the relationship between the United States and Afghanistan in recent weeks.
The two allies look increasingly at odds over basic elements of the strategy to fight the Taliban, and widespread Afghan resentment at the presence of foreign troops appears to be rising amid a series of US missteps - including Marines urinating on dead Taliban fighters and soldiers burning Korans.
I was told the relationship was as strong as ever, blah, blah.
The killings in Panjwai have left both sides grasping for a way to stabilize the deteriorating relationship. President Obama and other senior US officials have repeatedly apologized, but the expressions of regret have done little to placate angry Afghans, including Karzai.
On Thursday, Karzai demanded that the United States confine its troops to major bases by next year, apparently in a bid to accelerate the end of NATO’s combat role in Afghanistan. But the move would effectively reverse two main elements of the US strategy: getting its forces out into the villages to better combat the Taliban’s influence, and having them train Afghan soldiers by living and operating alongside them throughout the country.
But I thought we were leaving.
Then came Karzai’s comments Friday about the Panjwai killings....
Karzai emphasized that he wanted a good relationship with the United States, his chief foreign backer. But he insisted that the relationship must be predicated on US respect for Afghan culture and laws....
We failed.
Karzai also seemed to be making a point about night raids by coalition forces, which US commanders say are among their most effective tool against the Taliban. Karzai has long objected to them, saying storming into a home at night violates Afghan culture. Many Afghan civilians have died in night raids as well, exacerbating the divide over the operations.
Although US officials have stressed they do not see the Panjwai killings as a night raid, the distinction is not shared by most Afghans. In fact, some villagers have said they did not resist the soldier because they thought at first a night raid was taking place....
Earlier on Friday, a Turkish helicopter crashed into a house in Kabul, killing at least 12 NATO service members and two civilians, the US-led coalition and Afghan police said.
The coalition said in a statement that the cause of the crash was under investigation. It did say there was no insurgent activity in the area when the helicopter went down.
A Turkish official confirmed Friday that the dead service members were all Turkish and that the crash represented the largest loss of life for Turkey in Afghanistan.
Later, President Abdullah Gul of Turkey expressed his condolences for the deaths and signaled that Turkey would not withdraw from Afghanistan.
Yes, Turkey wants to take its place in the New World Order.
“The Turkish army, within the framework of its mission on behalf of humanity, has been providing serious contributions to the Afghan people together with our other institutions,’’ he said. “Turkey will continue supporting our Afghan brothers and friends.’’
The Turkish official said the service members were not involved in combat, but provided services like security, and that Turkey would investigate the cause of the crash.
Turkey has taken part in the NATO coalition since 2003. It now has 1,845 service members stationed in Afghanistan, according to figures posted on the coalition’s website. Its main presence is in and around Kabul, and Turkish forces also lead Provincial Reconstruction Teams in Wardak and Jawzjan provinces.
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"Suspect in Afghan massacre identified; Staff sergeant is married and has two children" by Adam Geller | Associated Press, March 17, 2012
After five days cloaked in military secrecy, the US soldier suspected in a massacre of 16 Afghan civilians has been identified as a Washington state father of two who underwent anger management counseling a decade ago after an arrest for assault on a girlfriend.
The soldier accused in the killings is Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, 38, his lawyer confirmed Friday. Bales is from Lake Tapps, Wash., a community set amid pine trees surrounding a reservoir about 35 miles south of Seattle.
Bales is married, the father of two young children and a veteran who was in the midst of his fourth tour in a war zone. Neighbors described him late Friday as good-natured and warm, and recalled seeing him playing outside the family’s modern split-level with his children, ages 3 and 4.
But court records show Bales was arrested at a Tacoma, Wash., hotel in 2002 for investigation of assault on a woman he dated before he married his wife, his lawyer, John Henry Browne, confirmed. Bales pleaded not guilty, underwent 20 hours of anger management counseling and the case was dismissed, according to court records.
Until late Friday, nearly all the very limited information known about Bales had come either from unnamed military officials or Browne.
Even seemingly straightforward information raised questions not easily answered — such as a possible defense of post-traumatic stress disorder.
For example, Bales lost part of one foot because of injuries suffered in Iraq during one of his three tours of duty there, his lawyer said. Browne also said that when the 11-year veteran heard he was being sent to Afghanistan late last year, he did not want to go. He also said that a day before the rampage through two villages, the soldier saw a comrade’s leg blown off.
Browne said he did not know if his client had been suffering from PTSD, but said it could be an issue at trial if experts believe it’s relevant. Experts on PTSD said witnessing the injury of a fellow soldier and the soldier’s own previous injuries put him at risk.
‘‘We’ve known ever since the Vietnam war that the unfortunate phenomenon of abusive violence often closely follows the injury or death of a buddy in combat,’’ said Dr. Roger Pitman, a Harvard Medical School psychiatrist who heads the PTSD Research Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital.
‘‘The injury or death of a buddy creates a kind of a blind rage.’’
The same goes for the possibility alcohol played a role.
On Friday, a senior US defense official said Bales was drinking alcohol in the hours before the attack on Afghan villagers, violating a US military order banning alcohol in war zones. The official discussed the matter on condition of anonymity because charges have not yet been filed.
Browne said his client’s family told him they were not aware of any drinking problem — not necessarily a contradiction. Pressed on the issue in interviews with news organizations, Browne said he did not know if his client had been drinking the night of the massacre.
The soldier was being flown Friday to the US military’s only maximum-security prison, at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., said a senior defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of security surrounding the move.
The move to the US does not necessarily mean an announcement of formal criminal charges is imminent, a defense official said.
Browne has said the suspect is originally from the Midwest but now lives near Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state.
The sergeant’s family says they saw no signs of aggression or anger. ‘‘They were totally shocked,’’ by accounts of the massacre, Browne said. ‘‘He’s never said anything antagonistic about Muslims. He’s in general very mild-mannered.’’
*******************************
Bales arrived in Afghanistan in December. On Feb. 1 he was assigned to a base in the Panjwai District, near Kandahar, to work with a village stability force that pairs special operations troops with villagers to help provide neighborhood security.
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"New case of Afghan killing Marine" by Robert Burns | Associated Press, March 17, 2012
WASHINGTON - An Afghan soldier shot to death a 22-year-old Marine at an outpost in southwestern Afghanistan last month in a previously undisclosed case of apparent Afghan treachery that marked at least the seventh killing of an American service member by a supposed ally in the past six weeks, Marine officials said.
Talk about agenda-pushing media manipulation!
Lance Corporal Edward J. Dycus of Greenville, Miss., was shot in the back of the head on Feb. 1 while standing guard at an Afghan-US base in the Marja district of Helmand Province.
The exact circumstances have not been disclosed, but the Dycus family has been notified that he was killed by an Afghan soldier. Marine officials discussed the matter on condition of anonymity because it is under investigation.
In another setback straining US-Afghan relations on Wednesday, an Afghan civilian interpreter at a British base in Helmand stole a coalition pickup truck, drove it at high speed onto an airfield ramp, and crashed it just as a plane carrying Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was landing.
See: Afghan crashes vehicle on runway during Panetta visit
Lieutenant General Curtis Scaparotti, the No. 2 overall commander in Afghanistan, told reporters that the truck was headed toward a group of US Marines assembled on the tarmac for Panetta’s arrival. Neither the Marines nor others in Panetta’s welcoming party were injured; the Afghan died of burns sustained in the crash.
NATO has approved of measures to help reduce the risks of attacks by supposed partners. They include embedding counterintelligence officers in the Afghan Army to detect people behaving suspiciously, increasing the number of Afghan intelligence officers, and making sure Afghan troops are paid regularly.
What do you mean the troops aren't being paid?
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"Blog by soldier’s wife chronicled pain of Army life" by Matt Flegenheimer | New York Times, March 18, 2012
NEW YORK - She detailed her pregnancy, with her husband a world away. She described the pit she got in her stomach from missing him. She wrote of her disappointment after he was passed over for a promotion.
But mostly, Karilyn Bales — the wife of Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, the soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers last week — relayed the simple anguish of life as a military wife, tending to a home with two young children, with a husband summoned for repeated deployments....
And who was responsible for that, you lying piece of dog s*** media?
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Related: Suspect in massacre said hesitant to deploy
Charges against soldier are expected this week
US soldier charged in attack in Afghanistan
Soldier faces 17 murder charges in rampage
"Afghan killings suspect meets lawyer; Seattle attorney describes an ‘emotional’ visit" by Gene Johnson | Associated Press, March 20, 2012
FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan. — The lawyer for the Army sergeant accused of slaughtering 16 Afghan civilians met with his client behind bars for the first time Monday to begin building a defense and said the soldier gave a powerfully moving account of what it is like to be on the ground in Afghanistan.
Lawyer John Henry Browne said he and Robert Bales, discussed his opposition to the Afghanistan war in interview with Bloomberg News. “People ask if we are going to put the war on trial,’’ he said. “The war is on trial. I don’t know why we are in Afghanistan. How would you like to be the mother or father of the last soldier killed in Afghanistan?’’
Related:
“I think that in the next days, the government of Afghanistan’s response to anticorruption efforts are a key test of its ability to regain the confidence of the.... American people [who] are prepared to support with hard-earned tax dollars and with most importantly, with the treasure of our country — the lives of young American men and women.... and say, ‘Hey, that’s something worth dying for.’ ’’
Is it, American?
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Court records and interviews show that Bales had commendations for good conduct after four tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He enlisted in the military after the Sept. 11, terrorist attacks.
Inspired by the lie, 'eh?
He also faced a number of troubles in recent years: A Florida investment job went sour, his Seattle-area home was condemned as he struggled to make payments on another, and he failed to get a recent promotion.
It's support the troops -- unless you are a f***ing bank.
Legal troubles included charges that he assaulted a girlfriend and, in a hit-and-run accident, ran bleeding into the woods, according to court records. He told police he fell asleep at the wheel and paid a fine to get the charges dismissed....
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"Lawyer said Bales has PTSD symptoms; Sergeant accused of killing 17 tells of nightmares" By Carol D. Leonnig | Washington Post, March 29, 2012
WASHINGTON - The soldier accused of killing 17 Afghan villagers this month told his lawyers he has suffered from severe nightmares, flashbacks of war scenes, and persistent headaches after his multiple combat tours, one of the attorneys said Wednesday.
And this country is trying to start more wars!
Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales told his legal team he has long awakened with night sweats, often replaying memories of a grisly episode that he and his infantry company witnessed in Iraq several years ago, according to John Henry Browne, a civilian lawyer.
Browne’s comments amounted to the most detailed public portrayal so far of Bales’s state of mind in the months leading up to an atrocity the soldier stands accused of committing, one of the worst involving US forces in the war in Afghanistan.
Military officials and witnesses allege that Bales left his base early in the predawn hours of March 11 and methodically killed Afghan villagers, most of them women and children. He allegedly attempted to burn the bodies before returning to base.
Browne, in an interview, did not acknowledge any wrongdoing by Bales, but the lawyer said his client told him that, on the night of the shootings, Bales returned to his base in southern Afghanistan with only a foggy memory of what had just happened. Bales, Browne said, remembered the smell of gunfire and of human bodies but not much more.
The lawyer stressed that Bales did not confess, as military officials have said.
Bales, 38, is being held at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., pending a full military investigation. He faces the possibility of the death penalty on charges of premeditated murder.
Military officials have declined to offer a public explanation for Bales’s alleged actions, and the formal charges against him shed no light on a possible motive.
Bales had recently been passed over for a promotion, and he and his wife were under financial strain. This month, they put their house in the Tacoma, Wash., area up for sale for $50,000 less than the purchase price.
In recent years, Bales had several brushes with the law after incidents in which he was alleged to have been drinking.
Browne disputed any suggestion that alcohol had played a role in the attack in question in Afghanistan. He said that Bales had “two sips’’ of an unknown liquor that a Special Forces soldier had smuggled onto the base in a Gatorade bottle.
Browne, who met Bales face-to-face for the first time last week, said his client did, however, describe suffering symptoms strongly associated with posttraumatic stress disorder as a result of his combat experiences.
“There was a time when everyone in the room was crying when he described what he saw,’’ Browne said of the meeting that he, partner Emma Scanlan, and a military defense lawyer had with Bales. Browne said the “horror of war’’ become a routine backdrop for Bales, who also reported “seeing bodies all over the place’’ and “putting body parts in bags’’ in Iraq.
Bales, who joined the Army in 2001, served three tours in Iraq. The second tour, when he reportedly experienced a particularly harrowing occurrence, took place from June 2006 through September 2007. Browne declined to discuss that episode, saying it was classified.
Bales did not share the seriousness of the PTSD-like symptoms with his wife, Karilyn, because he did not want to worry her, according to Browne. In an interview with NBC News over the weekend, Karilyn Bales described her husband as a “very tough guy’’ who had shielded her from “a lot of what he went through.’’
Browne said Bales also attributed his headaches to a concussive brain injury he suffered in Iraq when the Stryker vehicle he was riding in hit a roadside bomb and overturned.
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"Evidence in massacre hidden, lawyer says" Associated Press, March 31, 2012
SEATTLE - The attorney for the American soldier accused of killing 17 Afghan civilians said Friday that the US government is “hiding evidence’’ from the defense team.
I'm not surprised, and it sure wouldn't be the first time. It's called a COVER-UP, and it is the RULE not the exception!
John Henry Browne said that members of the defense team in Afghanistan were told they would have access to witnesses at a hospital, but later found the people had been released.
He also said the federal government has not surrendered files to the defense team representing Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales.
The defense team said in a statement the prosecution is withholding information “while potential witnesses scatter.’’
“It’s outrageous,’’ Browne said. “What they are basically doing is hiding evidence. The only reason to hide evidence is if you don’t have evidence.’’
An Army spokesman did not return a call seeking comment on Browne’s allegations.
Bales faces 17 counts of premeditated murder. He was being held at a military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
The defense statement said the team in Afghanistan attempted to interview injured civilians being treated at a hospital in Kandahar, but were denied access.
The prosecution team interviewed the civilians, but the defense team said they were unable to, after the people were released and no contact information was provided.
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"Army says post-traumatic stress can be treated; Redeploys many after diagnosis" by Julie Watson | Associated Press, March 24, 2012
SAN DIEGO - It is still not known if the soldier accused of killing 17 Afghans was ever diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, but even if he had been, that alone would not have prevented him from being sent back to war....
Many returned to the battlefield after mental health providers determined that their treatment worked and their symptoms had gone into remission, say Army officials and mental health professionals who treat service members. The Army does not track the exact number in combat diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder nor those who are in combat and taking medicine for it.
For some Americans, Bales is the epitome of a soldier afflicted by war’s psychological wounds, pushed by the Army beyond his limits. Bales’s attorney says he does not know if his client suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder but his initial statements appear to be building a possible defense around the argument that the horrific crime was the result of a 10-year military veteran sent back to a war zone for a fourth time after being traumatized.
Mental health professionals say it is reasonable to consider post-traumatic stress disorder but it probably was not the sole factor that sent the 38-year-old father from Washington state over the edge. Still, there is much that is not known about the psychological wounds of war.
Yeah, thanks for bringing them to us with the war-promoting, agenda-pushing lies, AmeriKan media!
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"Soldier may have split attacks into two stages" by Robert Burns | associated press, March 25, 2012
WASHINGTON - US investigators believe the US soldier accused of killing 17 Afghan civilians split the attacks into two episodes, returning to his base after the first attack and later slipping away to kill again, two American officials said Saturday.
Oh, WHAT A STENCH of a TURN this COVER-STORY CRAP TOOK!
This scenario seems to support the US government’s assertion - contested by some Afghans - that the killings were done by one person, since they would have been perpetrated over a longer period of time than assumed when Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales was detained March 11 outside his base.
But it also raises new questions about how Bales, who was formally charged Friday with 17 counts of premeditated murder and other crimes, could have carried out the nighttime attacks without drawing attention from any Americans on the Kandahar Province base.
Or Afghans!
The two American officials who disclosed the investigators’ finding spoke on condition of anonymity because the politically sensitive inquiry is ongoing.
Many details about the killings, including a possible motive, have not been made public. The documents released by the US military Friday in connection with the murder charges do not include a timeline or a narrative of what is alleged to have happened....
US investigators now believe....
PFFFFFFFFFFTTT!
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"Confusion grows over alleged 17th Afghan victim; Report saying fetus was included later discounted" by Rod Nordland | New York times, March 27, 2012
KABUL — The mystery over the identity of the 17th Afghan victim in the murder case against Staff Sergeant Robert Bales grew murkier Monday, after an Afghan police official initially asserted that a pregnant woman’s fetus was also among the dead, only to retract the statement a few hours later....
The confusion came as Bales’s wife, Karilyn, appeared in her first television interview and defended her husband, saying that he did not show signs of post-traumatic stress disorder and that she did not believe he could have committed such a massacre of civilians, including women and children.
We are all coming to that conclusion for different reasons.
“He loves children, and he would not do that,’’ she told NBC’s “Today’’ show. “It’s heartbreaking.’’
She described her husband as “a very tough guy’’ who did not appear to have symptoms of the disorder, such as nightmares. But, she said, “he shielded me from a lot of what he went through.’’ He never told her about a traumatic brain injury he had in Iraq, until he returned home.
The accusations are “unbelievable to me,’’ his wife said. “He loves children, he’s like a big kid himself,’’ she said. “I have no idea what happened, but he would not . . . he loves children, and he would not do that.’’
Karilyn Bales was in a grocery store when she first heard of the rampage in a phone call from her parents.
“They said, well, it looks like a US soldier, some Afghan civilians were killed by a soldier,’’ she said. She learned more when she got home.
“I saw 38-year-old staff sergeant, and I don’t think there are very many of those, and I probably prayed and prayed that my husband wasn’t involved,’’ she said. “And then, I received a phone call from the Army saying that they would like to come out and talk to me. And I was relieved, because when you get a phone call, you know that your soldier is not deceased.’’
She said she started crying after being told about the shootings....
US military officials also initially reported that Bales had killed 16 civilians. But the military’s charge sheet against Bales lists 17 counts of murder with premeditation, and it lists the names of 16 of the victims - although those names are redacted on copies of the sheet released by the Army....
Afghan and US officials said US officials paid compensation to the family members of the 16 dead and six wounded victims last Saturday; at the rate of $50,000 for each fatality and $11,000 for each injury, that totals $866,000...
Oh, a NEARLY MILLION DOLLAR payoff by the bankrupted AmeriKan taxpayer!!
Of course, NO AMOUNT of money can make up for the special forces slaughter because Afghan lives are PRICELESS! That's the way we see things here!
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Related: Afghans: US paid $50,000 per shooting spree death
Also see: Afghan killings underscore need for a clear plan for withdrawal
Afghan mission losing support in US
Click to continue reading this article
Why the headline change, Globe?
The links to violence
That is one of them, yeah.
A profile in question marks
That's another.
120 soldiers go home to shouts of joy
Providence Guardsman dies saving child in Afghanistan
UPDATES:
"3 US soldiers among 10 dead in Afghan attack; Taliban claims responsibility for suicide bombing" by Amir Shah and Patrick Quinn | Associated Press, April 05, 2012
KABUL - A suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed at least 10 people, including three US soldiers, at a park in a relatively peaceful area of northern Afghanistan on Wednesday, part of rising violence at the start of the spring fighting season.
The Taliban, which claimed responsibility for the attack, are targeting Afghan and NATO security forces as in an effort to assert their power and undermine US work to build up the Afghan military, which will take the lead in combat responsibility during the next couple of years....
Faryab Province is relatively calm but is a stronghold of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, an Al Qaeda affiliate that has been most active in Afghanistan’s northern provinces.
Oh, "Al-CIA-Duh" was behind this one, hanh?!!!!!!!!!!
The group was formed in 1991, initially hoping for an Islamic state in Uzbekistan, which borders Afghanistan. Later it expanded its goal to seek an Islamic state across Central Asia.
A CIA spin-off, 'eh?
On March 26, a joint Afghan and coalition force in Faryab killed the group’s leader in Afghanistan, Makhdum Nusrat. The coalition said Nusrat led attacks against Afghan and coalition troops in the north for the past eight months and was plotting the assassination of a member of parliament in Kabul.
Militants also have stepped up attacks against international and Afghan troops nationwide in recent weeks.
Nine Afghan policemen were killed and 11 were abducted across the nation in the past three days.
Related: Afghan militants kill 9 policemen, kidnap 11 in 2 days
Fighting in Afghanistan usually wanes in winter months as Taliban fighters take a break because of winter weather, only to surge in the spring. Heavy snow covers many of the mountain passes used by the Taliban and other insurgent fighters to cross primarily into eastern Afghanistan from safe havens in neighboring Pakistan.
So says my pos war paper.
Anger against foreign forces also has risen following a series of missteps, including the inadvertent burning of copies of Koran, the Muslim holy book, and other religious materials in February, and the slayings of 17 Afghan civilians allegedly by a rogue US soldier. Foreign troops also have found themselves increasingly targeted by members of the Afghan national security forces, or militants posing in their uniforms.
I love bulls*** background paragraphs, don't you?
So far this year, 97 NATO service members have been killed in Afghanistan, including at least 55 Americans.
Who gives a damn anymore? They should have been out yesteryear, in fact, never should have been sent at all.
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Another loner in Afghanistan:
"Afghan suicide bomber kills only himself" January 12, 2012
KABUL - A suicide bomber slipped inside police headquarters in Kandahar in southern Afghanistan yesterday, detonating his cache of explosives and wounding one officer, the chief of the headquarters said.
No one but the attacker was killed by the blast, which occurred shortly after noon, Kandahar provincial police chief General Abdul Razaq said.
“The insurgents have always tried to disrupt the security situation but they will never succeed,’’ Razaq told reporters, according to a statement from the provincial government.
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