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- Neal Anderth
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14 Mar 2012, 7:53 pm
On the heels of the Koran burnings there was this Sergeant that massacred a bunch of Afghans, mostly women and children, including burning and stabbing their bodies (allegedly).
He's now been flown out of the country. Many in Afghanistan are demanding that he be tried in Afghanistan. While it's obvious that the US military doesn't want to hand it's personnel over to bass akward locals, in this case it may be warranted.
If he went AWOL on his own, he essentially abandoned his post/station as a member of the military. If determined by investigation that he acted alone, went AWOL, and then committed the massacre, then it seems proper that he be handed over to Afghanis, as he essentially left the military to commit mass murder.
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- Ray Jay
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15 Mar 2012, 6:13 am
I think the image of a US soldier being beheaded on camera would be too much for most Americans. There's also the question of precedence.
It's a terrible event in a terrible war. I think that Obama is handling it just right. Let's leave with dignity and as stable a situation as possible. Emphasis on the leaving.
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- Neal Anderth
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16 Mar 2012, 7:18 pm
Turns out it really wasn't one of the most depraved massacres of all times, rather just an unfortunate anomaly resulting from alcohol, grief, injury, and over deployment.
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- bbauska
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16 Mar 2012, 7:34 pm
My sarcasm sensor just went off. Any idea what caused that?
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- Neal Anderth
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20 Mar 2012, 5:55 am
If this story holds water along with the expunged assaults, doesn't really hold up the salt of the earth gone nuts image that has been portrayed.
Robert Bales, the staff sergeant accused of massacring Afghan civilians, enlisted in the U.S. Army at the same time he was trying to avoid answering allegations he defrauded an elderly Ohio couple of their life savings in a stock fraud, according to federal documents reviewed by ABC News.
"He robbed me of my life savings," Gary Liebschner of Carroll, Ohio told ABC News.
Financial regulators found that Bales "engaged in fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, churning, unauthorized trading and unsuitable investments," according to a report on Bales filed in 2003. Bales and his associates were ordered to pay Liebschner $1,274,000 in compensatory and punitive damages but have yet to do so, according to Liebschner.
"We didn't know where he was," Liebschner told ABC News. "We heard the Bahamas, and all kinds of places."
Liebschner says he recognized Bales after news reports named him as the American soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers in a shooting rampage.
Liebschner filed a complaint against Bales in May 2000, claiming Bales took his life savings of $852,000 in AT&T stock and through a series of trades reduced its value to nothing.
The Ohio retiree recalled Bales as a "smooth talker." Asked if he regarded Bales as a con man,
Liebschner said, "You've hit the nail on the head."
At the time, Bales worked for an Ohio brokerage firm, MPI.
According to federal documents, Bales failed to appear at an arbitration hearing to resolve Liebschner's complaint.
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- Ray Jay
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20 Mar 2012, 6:09 am
This is going to get messier. Our system of justice involving hearings and motions and motives and questions of procedure and questions of insanity and mental illness will not go over well in Afghanistan.
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- rickyp
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20 Mar 2012, 1:07 pm
He's being tried under military justice which will be a lot simpler.....
And his past history as a financial fraudster really doesn't have much to do with his history as a trooper.
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- danivon
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20 Mar 2012, 1:48 pm
More worrying is the claims of Afghans that it was the work of more than one man. I don't think it would be impossible for one guy to take a compound and shoot up people in three or four seperate parts of it, but the rumours are spreading.
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- bbauska
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20 Mar 2012, 2:00 pm
If found guilty under the UCMJ, he is eligible for the death penalty. I would hope he would get it, to show justice to the Afghans.
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- Ray Jay
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20 Mar 2012, 3:45 pm
Brad, what's your expectation of timetable under the UCMJ? How successful would a "he snapped" defense be to avoid the death penalty.
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- bbauska
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20 Mar 2012, 4:46 pm
2 years as an estimate.
I would say he will be placed in prison forever, and not executed. Can't displease the death penalty opponents, but it would show support for pro-war crowd.
With the atty going to Afghanistan it will quite a delaying and fact-finding mission. The accused is allowed to have a non-military atty, and that will be to his benefit.
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- Ray Jay
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21 Mar 2012, 4:01 am
thanks ... simpler, but not simple.
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- rickyp
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23 Mar 2012, 8:52 am
I understand that there is one US soldier on death row right now. George Bush singed the presidential waiver that sent him to death row... He's been there for some time, as his crimes were committed in the late 80's. He's still appealing....
I take back my comment that military justice might be quicker....
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- bbauska
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23 Mar 2012, 9:32 am
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/us-military-death-penalty6 on death row, 2 exhausted appeal, and 1 waiting signature from the President to execute. The other, that one noted by RickyP, is under appeal.
Facts please...
