Robert Bales perpetrator of Kandahar massacre lost all compassion for Afghans

Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who was convicted of the murder of 16 villagers including seven children in Afghanistan in 2012, says in a recent letter that he lost his compassion for both Iraqis and Afghans over the period of his four combat deployments.

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The letter was sent to the senior Army officer at Join Base Lewis-McChord. In the letter in which he asked that his life sentence be reduced, he also said his mind was consumed with war. Bales also said:'I planted war and hate for the better part of ten years and harvested violence. After being in prison two years, I understand that what I thought was normal was the farthest thing from being normal.'

A Tacoma Washington newspaper obtained the eight-page letter through the Freedom of Information Act. Bales, of Lake Tapps, Washington, was married with two children of his own. He shot 22 people in all with 17 of them being women and children in two villages near Kandahar on March 2012. One account of the events can be found here.

Bales pleaded guilty to the charges against him in a deal to avoid the death penalty and also apologized at his sentencing in 2013. Bales also described himself as being in a perpetual rage, and admitted he drank heavily and relied on sleeping pills to get to sleep. He also confessed that he was paranoid about losing his men. He came to hate and be suspicious of everyone who was not an American, especially local residents.

Bales' description of himself fits well with some of the narrative in the appended video by an Australian journalist. The Americans tried to prevent her from interviewing victims. Testimony in the video by local residents often claim that there were a number of Americans involved not just Bales. The Afghan investigator interviewed in the video also claims that to be the case. The US has always insisted that Bales acted alone. Bales was whisked out of the country before he could be interviewed by Afghan authorities about the incident. There were many demonstrations after the massacre and it was several days before U.S. officials could even reach the two villages which were the scene of the massacre.

Lawyer for Robert Bales claims U.S. forces are obstructing his investigations into Kandahar massacre

John Henry Browne the lawyer representing Robert Bales claims that U.S. forces in Afghanistan are blocking his teams fact-finding mission. He also claims that prosecutors are not cooperating with him either. Bales is the U.S. soldier accused of single-handedly murdering 17 Afghan civilians in two villages near the base where he was stationed.

Browne's team was unable to interview witnesses to the massacre. U.S. forces obstructed the team from visiting a hospital that contained injured civilians.

U.S. investigators are not sharing their own information obtained from interviews. The injured were released with no contact information available to the team. This sounds very much to be a case of obstruction of justice.

The team has only been able to interview some U.S.soldiers about the attack. Browne speculates that the lack of cooperation may reflect the weakness of the prosecution case against Bales.

Browne noted that there is an “almost complete information blackout from the government, which is having a devastating effect on our ability to investigate the charges preferred against our client.” Perhaps the government and military also wants to hide facts about the attack. Many believe that there was more than one soldier involved.

An Afghan probe claims that up to 20 U.S. soldiers were involved. At first Karzai supported the report and then completely flip-flopped and accepted the official U.S. story of one lone attacker. For more see this article.. A reporter who interviewed survivors also found witnesses who stated that more than one soldier was involved. See the attached video.

Reporter interviews survivors of Kandahar massacre and others

The official. story is that Sergeant Robert Bales acting alone carried out the massacre of 17 civilians on March 11 in two villages near Camp Balambai. However journalist Yalda Hakim visits the area and interviews a number of people including survivors and evidence contradicting the official story emerges.

I have included the remarkable video of about 15 minutes. The cameraman Ryan Sheridan does a remarkable job IMHO.

Several children interviewed speak of a number of soldiers. Two of the children tell similar stories about one soldier entering the house and killing while others were outside with lights.

Other parts of the video also are revealing. An Afghan soldier interviewed says he told authorities that a U.S. soldier had just entered the base. This would fit with the official story of a two stage rampage. However, obviously nothing was done to stop the soldier from leaving once again!

Karzai has changed his story so that it goes along completely with the Pentagon narrative. However his chief investigator in this interview gives a different viewpoint. This is excellent reporting. It should be widely distributed. For more see this site.