US Soldier Robert Bales Sentenced To Life In Prison Without Parole

[enhanced_deficit]

US Soldier Robert Bales Sentenced To Life In Prison Without Parole ...
Huffington Post-8 hours ago
"We wanted this murderer to be executed," said Hajji Mohammad Wazir, who lost 11 family members in the attack by Staff Sgt. Robert Bales.

He avoided death penalty apparently because of a deal as he had admitted murdering 16 Afghan civilians, mostly children and women:

6/5: Staff Sgt. Robert Bales admits to killing 16 Afghans; Story of ...
CBS News video: 6/5: Staff Sgt. Robert Bales admits to killing 16 Afghans; Story of doctor who tried to save RFK - Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales ...

It is busy season for military courts.

Robert Bales, Nidal Malik Hasan, Manning: A busy week for military ...
Washington Post-1 hour ago
Also Friday, a jury sentenced Bales to life in prison without a chance of parole ... Bales said he hoped his words would be translated for the nine ...


No trial announced for neocons disgraced puppet and suspected war criminal Obama despite his drone killing of many times more innocent children,women,civilians.

 

[enhanced_deficit]

Afghan people's feedback.


Accused war criminal soldier under Obama command who murdered 16 civilians in cold blood including children, women and then burnt their bodies will not be executed apparently. Afghan family members of killed vow revenge attacks.

Afghan Massacre: US Soldier To Plead Guilty

Staff Sergeant Robert Bales is expected to admit killing 16 Afghans in their villages in order to avoid the death penalty.

10:41pm UK, Wednesday 29 May 2013

Staff Sergeant Robert Bales is awaiting trial for killing 16 civilians

The graves of some of the victims


By Sky News US Team

A US soldier charged with murdering 16 Afghans, including several women and children, after slipping away from his base is to plead guilty in order to avoid execution.
Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales will plead guilty to charges of premeditated murder on June 5 at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, where he has been awaiting court martial, according to lawyer John Henry Browne.
The plea deal must be approved by the judge in the case and the commanding general.
A sentencing-phase trial will then determine whether Bales is jailed for life with or without the possibility of parole.
As part of the deal Bales will give an account of what happened on the night of the March 11, 2012 after he left the remote Camp Belambay outpost in southern Afghanistan.
Prosecutors say he killed 16 people, including 11 members of the same family, on a rampage through two separate villages. Some of the bodies were piled up and burned in the mud-walled compounds.

An Afghan villager points to the spot where some of the victims died Lawyers for the 39-year-old married father of two have previously said he remembers little or nothing of the events.
Bales joined the Army in late 2001 following the 9/11 terrorist attacks and as his career as a stockbroker imploded. He was serving his fourth combat tour after three stints in Iraq.
In a lengthy and graphic pre-trial hearing in November, witnesses testified that he appeared calm after being apprehended covered in his alleged victims' blood.
They said Bales did things and made statements that indicated he understood what he had done and the consequences of his actions.
No motive has emerged in the attacks.

The massacre sparked angry protests in Afghanistan The killing sparked protests in Afghanistan and forced the US military to temporarily halt combat operations.


If the plea deal were accepted it could result in further anger.

In April, relatives of the victims told AP they would get revenge if Bales escaped the death penalty.

"For this one thing, we would kill 100 American soldiers," said Mohammed Wazir, who had 11 family members killed that night, including his mother and two-year-old daughter.
Said Jan, whose wife and three other relatives died, said: "I know we have no power now. But I will become stronger, and if he does not hang, I will have my revenge."

The US military justice system has not executed anyone since 1961.

http://news.sky.com/story/1097142/afghan-massacre-us-soldier-to-plead-guilty

 

[amy31416]

I would like to sentence Bales to a vacation in Afghanistan and Nidal to a vacation on a military base.

 

[enhanced_deficit]

and a vacation for First SWC plant in drone lands of Afghanistan or Gaza.

Eventually meaningful discussions should expand from lower level freedom machine pawns to midlevels.

 

[xkrazy201x]

What this guy did was terrible, but his actions make me wonder if he was under the influence of prescription medicine.

 

[enhanced_deficit]

What this guy did was terrible, but his actions make me wonder if he was under the influence of prescription medicine.

Good wondering. By same token, could Obama or Bush have been under the influence of prescription medicine too when they ordered Iraq invasion or escalation of Afghan war or drone attcaks - all that have resulted in killing of hundreds of thousands of innocent people of other etnicities.

 

[IndianaPolitico]

What this guy did was terrible, but his actions make me wonder if he was under the influence of prescription medicine.

Not every evil act was caused by a prescription drug.

 

[MoneyWhereMyMouthIs2]

Weren't there witnesses who said there were multiple soldiers involved?

 

[klamath]

I would like to sentence Bales to a vacation in Afghanistan and Nidal to a vacation on a military base.

??

 

[enhanced_deficit]

Weren't there witnesses who said there were multiple soldiers involved?

Yes in initial reports.

 

[Dr.3D]

??

In other words, let the Afghan people take are of him and the military people take care of Nidal.

 

[Snew]

Weren't there witnesses who said there were multiple soldiers involved?

yeah, the entire invasion.

 

[jclay2]

If there is evidence beyond a reasonable doubt (not his confession), then this man should be executed.

 

[vita3]

Rather see him immediately executed for his crimes, but life sentence w/o parol is some form of justice.

Good on our military courts

 

[Pericles]

What this guy did was terrible, but his actions make me wonder if he was under the influence of prescription medicine.

He is still guilty.

 

[Pericles]

??

Some people are unfamiliar with military protocol that generally frowns on beating the shit out of people who outrank you.

 

[enhanced_deficit]

Rather see him immediately executed for his crimes, but life sentence w/o parol is some form of justice.

Good on our military courts

Were you suggesting life setence w/o would be even harsher punishment for Sgt Bales than death penalty?

 

[enhanced_deficit]

Bales arrives at Leavenworth to serve life sentence in Afghan killings

Aug. 28, 2013 - 09:34PM

FORT LEAVENWORTH, KAN. — Army officials say Staff Sgt. Robert Bales has arrived at Fort Leavenworth to begin serving a life sentence for the murders of 16 civilians in Afghanistan in 2012.
The 40-year-old Bales arrived Wednesday at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks where he will spend the rest of his life without the possibility of parole. The prison is the military’s only maximum security facility.
Bales pleaded guilty in June in a deal to avoid the death penalty. He was convicted of the shooting deaths of 16 villagers during a late-night rampage.
Prosecutors say Bales knew what he was doing when he walked into two villages, shooting 22 people in all — 17 of them women and children, some of them as they screamed for help, others as they slept.

http://www.armytimes.com/article/20...avenworth-serve-life-sentence-Afghan-killings

 

[enhanced_deficit]

[h=2]US soldier admitted to killing 16 villagers; his victims' families are furious he didn't receive a death sentence.[/h] 30 Aug 2013 09:15

For the families of Staff Sgt Robert Bales' victims, the verdict was not the closure they were hoping for [Reuters]

The Americans have shown how easily they can get away with the atrocities they commit in Afghanistan. - Hedaitullah, Kandahar resident

[TD="class: articleTitle"][h=1] Afghan rage over 'Kandahar Massacre' verdict [/h] [/TD]

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[TD="class: DetailedSummary"] Kabul, Afghanistan - For more than a year, the people of Panjwai have been waiting for the answer they were promised. The pledges - money, trips to Mecca and new houses - came pouring in immediately following the March 11, 2012 killings of 16 villagers, including nine children, by a then unknown US soldier. Answers, however, were few and far between. Above all else though, what the people of this western district in Kandahar province wanted was justice. "The people wanted him to be put to death so maybe their pain and suffering could be eased, if even a little," Mohammad Amin, a Kandahar resident said of Robert Bales, the US staff sergeant who admitted to committing the worst case of civilian killings by a US soldier since the Vietnam War. As the months-long military trial progressed, however, it became increasingly clear that the justice district elders said was promised to them by Kabul and Washington, would not come. For Haji Mahmoud, a sense that America did not want this criminal to be given the death sentence, was a betrayal of everything he had been told since the days immediately following what has come to be known as the "Kandahar Massacre". Broken promises
As the head of the local shura in Panjwai, Haji Mahmoud was among the leaders present when a joint Afghan-US delegation arrived to investigate the killings in Alkozai and Najiban villages. At first, Haji Mahmoud, like so many others, was angry at the outcome of a disagreement he had witnessed between the Afghan and US representatives. The people of Panjwai were given assurances after Leon Panetta, then US defence secretary, decided Robert Bales would be tried in the United States.
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"The Americans emphasised that he would be tried in the US, but they also said that he would be given the death penalty," Haji Mahmoud said of what he believes is an unfulfilled promise.
Haji Ghulam Rassoul, a Panjwai tribal elder, who was among the delegation that travelled to Kabul four days after the massacre, told Al Jazeera that he too was given assurances that Bales would receive the harshest punishment.
"The Afghan government and the US investigative team gave us promises that the criminal will be given the death penalty," Ghulam Rassoul said.
In their initial co-operation with the international investigation, the victims’ families were confident that "the international community would stand on their promises and give this criminal the death penalty", Haji Mahmoud told Al Jazeera.
But by the summer of 2013, those confidences were shaken when on June 5, Bales pled guilty to 16 counts of premeditated murder.
"There's not a good reason in this world for why I did the horrible things I did," Bales said.
The admission, part of a plea deal, meant the prosecution would not seek the death penalty. John Henry Browne, one of Bales’ attorneys, cited that moment as reason why the defence "won the case".
For the people of Panjwai, however, on June 5, it became "evident that the foreigners have not come to rebuild Afghanistan, but to kill Afghans and destroy the nation," said Haji Obaidullah, a tribal elder.
Though the military trial at Joint Base Lewis-McChord concluded, the August 23 verdict of life without parole did not bring closure to the people of Kandahar.
"The Americans have shown how easily they can get away with the atrocities they commit in Afghanistan," Hedaitullah, a Kandahar resident, said.
Left in the dark
"Even with a long trial the people remain in the dark. We want to know how he could wander off the base not once, but twice," Mohammad Amin said in reference to Bales returning to Camp Belamby at 1:30am to reload his ammunition after killing four people in Alkozai village.

Erfan, a Kandahari translator who has worked with US and Canadian forces in the southern province for five years, told Al Jazeera he too was in disbelief at the two Afghan guards who reported seeing a soldier return to base at 1:30am and heading out again at 2:30am.
"Even the Afghan-Americans whose homes were in Kandahar could not get permission to leave the base," Erfan said.
For Haji Obaidullah, a perfect storm of events - Bales’ violation of military code by drinking alcohol with two other soldiers the night of the killings; telling a fellow soldier upon his initial return to the joint Afghan-US base that he had killed people; and later uttering a three word confession, "I did it" - means Bales is not the only culprit.
"The entire American battalion based in the area is involved. They have committed this killing jointly," Haji Obaidullah told Al Jazeera.

But Bales wandering off-base with a 9mm pistol, an M-4 rifle and grenade launcher is not the only unanswered question for the people of Panjwai.



Alleged coverup

At a March 16, 2012, meeting with Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, almost all of the elders from the families of the 16 dead insisted that there was more than one shooter.

[TABLE="class: Skyscrapper_Body in-article-item quote"]
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[TD] Many people in Kandahar were waiting for an honest verdict, now America should wait to see our verdict.
- Haji Ghulam Rassoul, Kandahar resident
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A parliamentary investigation a day prior found that up to 20 US soldiers, possibly transported in two helicopters, could have been involved in the killings.

Locals had reported walkie-talkie communication between several soldiers.

Pointing to the ashes of 11 burned bodies, including at least one child, in a Najiban home; Mohammad Amin said, "even if others didn’t pull the trigger, they could have aided him [in other ways]."

"These people who claim to be defenders of human rights, in order to hide their crimes, have purposely blamed Robert Bales for the crime they all had a part in," Haji Obaidullah said.
Before the six-person jury deliberated whether he should be granted the possibility of parole, Bales said the killings were "an act of cowardice, behind a mask of fear, bullshit and bravado".
The 39-year-old father of two also issued his first apology to the victims’ families.
"I'm truly, truly sorry to those people whose families got taken away," Bales said in the Seattle courtroom.
In Kandahar, however, his words came too late.
Though Mohammad Amin said Washington is now beholden to contribute to the reconstruction and development of this district of 77,000 residents, others believe the US must be made to suffer as they have.
With no one "to cry to", for the 22 people shot and 16 killed by Robert Bales, Haji Mahmoud said the people of Panjwai are left with few options.
"We will do something that will be show the world that we too, can get revenge," Haji Mahmoud told Al Jazeera a few days after the verdict was delivered.

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[anaconda]

I support our brave paid killers.