Robert Bales(born June 30, 1973)
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A man stands over the corpse of one of the seven children allegedly
shot to death by U.S. Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, ho is no being
whisked back to the United States to face justice for what the ancient
Vikings called going ‘berzerk.’
アフガニスタン駐留米兵、村民殺害の罪認め死刑回避
【AFP=時事】
アフガニスタン南部カンダハル（Kandahar）州の村で昨年3月、
米兵によって多数の村民が殺害されたとされる事件の軍事裁判で、
米陸軍のロバート・ベールズ（Robert Bales）2等軍曹（39）は5日、村民16人を殺害した罪を認めた。
判事はこれを受け、同軍曹に死刑を科さない決定を下した。最高刑は仮釈放なしの終身刑となる。
ベールズ軍曹は、軍法会議審理のために拘留中のワシントン（Washington）州シアトル（Seattle）南のルイス・マッコード合同基地（Joint Base Lewis-McChord）で、ジョン・ブラウン（John Browne）とエマ・スキャンラン（Emma Scanlan）両弁護人に挟まれて満員の法廷に現れた。
スキャンラン弁護人は、殺人未遂6件と暴行7件を含むすべての罪を認める有罪答弁を行った。
22人の被害者のうち、17人は女性や子どもで、そのほとんどが頭を撃たれていた。
ベールズ軍曹は、ノートパソコンを壊して捜査を妨害した罪については、無罪を主張した。
軍法会議判事のジェフリー・ナンス（Jeffery Nance）大佐から、有罪答弁は最終のものだと理解しているかと問われ、
ベールズ軍曹は「はい」と答えた。判決の言い渡しは8月19日に設定された。
ベールズ軍曹は、2012年3月11日夜にカンダハル州の基地を抜けだし、近くの2つの村で住民を殺害し、一部の遺体を焼いたとされる。殺害された村民のうち、9人が子どもだった。
AFPBB News 2013.6.6.
アフガニスタンで民間人射殺容疑の米兵、「事件の記憶ない」
2012年03月21日
【3月21日 AFP】アフガニスタン南部カンダハル（Kandahar）州で民家を次々と襲撃して16人を殺害した事件の容疑者、ロバート・ベールズ（Robert Bales）陸軍2等軍曹（38）は、事件当時の記憶がないと語っていると同容疑者の弁護人が19日、明らかにした。一方、米国防総省は数日内にもベールズ容疑者を訴追する方針を示している。
■事件が起きた時間の「記憶がない」
ベールズ容疑者は11日未明、カンダハルの米軍基地を抜け出した後、民家に次々と侵入して銃を乱射。子ども9人を含む住民16人を殺害したとされ、複数の遺体を燃やした疑いも持たれている。同容疑者は、イラクに3回の派遣経験があるベテラン兵士。現在、ベールズ容疑者の身柄は米カンザス（Kansas）州フォートレブンワース（Fort Leavenworth）陸軍基地内の拘束施設に収容されている
このほど、ベールズ容疑者と初めて面会した弁護人ジョン・ヘンリー・ブラウン（John Henry Browne）氏が、米CBSテレビに数時間にわたった面会の模様を語った。同氏によると、同容疑者は事件のことをほとんど覚えていないと話しているという。事件があった夜について「早い時間帯と遅い時間帯の記憶はある。だが、その間（事件が起きた時間帯）の記憶が彼にはない」と、ブラウン氏は語った。
また、ベールズ容疑者は事件時に酒に酔っていたとの報道を否定し、「ちょっと酒をすすった程度で、酔うほどの飲酒はしていない」と話していたという。
■「心身衰弱」を主張か
ブラウン氏によれば、ベールズ容疑者は精神的なショック状態にある。「彼は現地に残された部隊のことや自分が問われる罪、友人や同僚たちに及ぼす悪影響などを、かなり気にしていた」（ブラウン氏）
また、事件に対する報復行為が発生することを懸念していたという。
ブラウン氏は、法廷でベールズ容疑者の心神喪失を主張する考えはないが、神経が衰弱していたとの理由で「心神耗弱」を主張する可能性はあると説明した。
同氏は前週、ベールズ容疑者は事件前、仲間の兵士が地雷を踏んで重傷を負うところを目撃したことでストレスが悪化していたと語っていた。
一方、AFPの取材に応じた米軍幹部は、銃乱射事件における殺人に関連したベールズ容疑者の訴追が、アフガニスタン駐留米軍から「数日以内」に発表される見通しだと語った。レオン・パネッタ（Leon Panetta）米国防長官によると、ベールズ容疑者の有罪が確定した場合、最高で死刑が言い渡される可能性がある。(c)AFP/Joe Lamb
2012/03/12(月)
［ベランダイ（アフガニスタン） １１日 ロイター］ アフガニスタン南部カンダハル州で
１１日未明に発生し、１６人が死亡した米兵による銃乱射事件で、父親と姉妹１人を殺害された
ジャン・アグハさん（２０）らが、当時の様子を証言した。
アグハさんによると、父親はカーテンの合間から外の様子を見ていたところ、突然喉と顔を撃たれ
即死。その後、複数の米兵が自宅に侵入してきた。米兵が自宅にとどまっている間、アグハさんは
床に寝そべり、死んだふりをしていたという。
「とても怖かった」と語るアグハさんは
「母は目と顔を撃たれた。見た目で母と分からないほどだった。兄弟は頭と胸を撃たれ、
姉妹も殺された」と説明した。
アグハさんの証言では、「複数の」米兵が事件に関与しており、酒に酔った複数の米兵が
事件を起こしたとの別の目撃者の証言もある。
これに対し、ワシントンの米国防総省高官は、単独犯の可能性が高いとしている。
「私に向けて銃を撃ってきた。弾は壁に当たった」。こう話すアグハ・ララさんは、
米兵の様子について「彼らは笑っていた。普通の状態ではなく、酔っているように見えた」と
証言した。
その上で「これは大量虐殺だ。多くの銃弾を浴びた遺体が散乱していた。カーテンか毛布と一緒に
燃やされたようだった」と怒りをあらわにし、「これが米国人が言う支援部隊なのか。
彼らは野獣で人間性のかけらもない。タリバンの方がまだましだ」と非難した。
子ども９人と女性３人を含む計１６人が死亡した今回の事件で、北大西洋条約機構（ＮＡＴＯ）が
主導する国際治安支援部隊（ＩＳＡＦ）は、事件に関与したとして米兵１人を拘束し、取り調べを
続けている。
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イスラム主義
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「無限の正義作戦 (OIJ: Operation Infinite Justice)」→
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Guilty Plea by Sergeant in Killing of Civilians
JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. — Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, the enigmatic figure at the center of the worst American war crime in recent memory, admitted for the first time on Wednesday deliberately killing 16 Afghan civilians last year, most of them women and children.
He took the oath in a military court, swore to tell the truth, and conceded in crisp “yes sirs” and “no sirs” every major charge against him — that he shot some victims, and shot and burned others, and did so with complete awareness that he was acting on his own, without compunction or mercy or under orders by a superior Army officer. The guilty plea removes the possibility of the
death penalty in the case.
Sergeant Bales’s court-martial will consider 16 counts of premeditated murder, six counts of attempted murder and seven counts of assault, among other charges, but no trial date was set.
The Army has charged that Sergeant Bales, 39, who was serving his fourth combat tour, walked away from a remote outpost in southern Afghanistan and shot and stabbed members of several families in an ambush in two villages in the early morning hours of March 11. At least nine of the people he is accused of killing were children.
Prosecutors at a week of pretrial hearings in early November at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, where Sergeant Bales was stationed, suggested that he had acted in deliberate fury, perhaps in revenge for a bomb attack that had caused a fellow soldier to lose a leg. Defense lawyers said evidence presented in the hearing about Sergeant Bales’s use of alcohol, steroids and sleeping aids complicated the picture of his mental state.
Sergeant Bales’s lead lawyer, John Henry Browne, called the Army’s decision to move ahead on what appears to be a fast track of prosecution “understandable but totally irresponsible.”
“The Army is trying to take the focus off the failures of the Army, which are substantial,” Mr. Browne said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. He said that Sergeant Bales, who has pleaded not guilty, had post-traumatic stress and a concussive head injury, but that the Army sent him anyway “to one of the more intense battlegrounds of Afghanistan, on his fourth deployment.”
For both sides the legal path ahead promises to be long and winding.
Since the system for military prosecutions in capital cases was revised in 1984, 16 men have been sentenced to death and five are on death row. Nine of those sentences were set aside on appeal and two were commuted to life in confinement.
The rules require that a death sentence be approved by the president to be carried out, and that has happened only once in any of the 16 cases, in 2008, under President George W. Bush. That case was then tied up in appeals. No military death sentence has been carried out since 1961.
For capital punishment to be imposed, the Army said in a statement, the court-martial panel must unanimously find Sergeant Bales guilty, with at least one aggravating factor that “substantially” outweighs any extenuating or mitigating circumstances.
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Army Seeking Death Penalty in Massacre of 16 Afghans
The United States Army will seek the death penalty against Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who is accused of killing 16 civilians in Afghanistan, officials said on Wednesday.
Sergeant Bales’s court-martial will consider 16 counts of premeditated murder, six counts of attempted murder and seven counts of assault, among other charges, but no trial date was set.
The Army has charged that Sergeant Bales, 39, who was serving his fourth combat tour, walked away from a remote outpost in southern Afghanistan and shot and stabbed members of several families in an ambush in two villages in the early morning hours of March 11. At least nine of the people he is accused of killing were children.
Prosecutors at a week of pretrial hearings in early November at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, where Sergeant Bales was stationed, suggested that he had acted in deliberate fury, perhaps in revenge for a bomb attack that had caused a fellow soldier to lose a leg. Defense lawyers said evidence presented in the hearing about Sergeant Bales’s use of alcohol, steroids and sleeping aids complicated the picture of his mental state.
Sergeant Bales’s lead lawyer, John Henry Browne, called the Army’s decision to move ahead on what appears to be a fast track of prosecution “understandable but totally irresponsible.”
“The Army is trying to take the focus off the failures of the Army, which are substantial,” Mr. Browne said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. He said that Sergeant Bales, who has pleaded not guilty, had post-traumatic stress and a concussive head injury, but that the Army sent him anyway “to one of the more intense battlegrounds of Afghanistan, on his fourth deployment.”
For both sides the legal path ahead promises to be long and winding.
Since the system for military prosecutions in capital cases was revised in 1984, 16 men have been sentenced to death and five are on death row. Nine of those sentences were set aside on appeal and two were commuted to life in confinement.
The rules require that a death sentence be approved by the president to be carried out, and that has happened only once in any of the 16 cases, in 2008, under President George W. Bush. That case was then tied up in appeals. No military death sentence has been carried out since 1961.
For capital punishment to be imposed, the Army said in a statement, the court-martial panel must unanimously find Sergeant Bales guilty, with at least one aggravating factor that “substantially” outweighs any extenuating or mitigating circumstances.
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[Not a good reason': Sgt. Robert Bales admits to Afghan massacre]
A U.S. soldier pleaded guilty Wednesday to executing 16 Afghan civilians — many of them women and children — and said he couldn't explain why he did it.
"I've asked that question a million times since then, and there's not a good reason in the world for why I did the horrible things I did," Staff Sgt. Robert Bales told a military judge.
Bales, who struck a deal with prosecutors to avoid the death penalty, admitted he aimed to kill during two rogue raids on family compounds in Kandahar province in March 2012.
"I formed the intent as I raised my weapon," he said.
He recounted grappling with an older woman as he entered one compound.
"Upon completion of that struggle, I did form the intent to kill anyone in that compound," he said.
Asked whether the woman was armed in way way, Bales replied, "No, sir, she was not.'
Bales spoke in a clear, emotionless voice as he went through each of the 16 killings, describing how he left his base, went to the village and systematically gunned down defenseless civilians with an M4 military assault rifle and 9mm handgun
He ended each chilling confession with the statement, "This act was without legal justification."
He said he did not remember setting a compound on fire, but did not dispute it.
"There was a kerosene lantern in the room, and based on the evidence ... that lantern was used to set those people on fire," he said.
"I remember there being a lantern in the room, remember there being a fire, remember there were matches in my pocket," he added.
"But to say I remember throwing it on those people, I don't recall that. But I have seen pictures and it's the only thing that makes sense, sir."
The judge, Col. Jefferey Nance, asked if Bales believed he was "authorized or justified or acting in self defense" when he shot and burned the civilians.
"No, sir," he replied.
"Do you believe you conduct was wrong?" Nance asked.
"Yes, sir," Bales replied.
His recounting of the atrocities in a military courtroom in Washington state came after he pleaded guilty to premeditated murder, attempted murder and aggravated assault. He pleaded not guilty to a charge that involved a stolen laptop.
In August, a jury will determine if his life sentence will include the possibility of parole. Bales requested that one-third of the panel be comprised of enlisted members, not just officers.
Bales' lawyers have said the married father of two suffered from PTSD and brain injury after four combat deployments and was under the influence of drugs and alcohol the night of the raids on family compounds in Kandahar province.
Prosecutors have said the massacre was preplanned and that Bales was angry about a bomb blast near his outpost that wounded a fellow soldier.
This story was originally published on Wed Jun 5, 2013
March 19, 2012
The legal defense for Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, who went on a rampage and killed 16 innocent Afghan civilians, will bring the issue of battle fatigue and post traumatic stress disorder [PTSD] to a genuine court of justice rather than a clever film or TV show script.
Unlike much of the rest of the world, in the United States, PTSDhas not been accepted as a genuine mental disorder. Since the days of the Vietnam War and Cambodia, U.S. troops have been welcomed home coldly, and troops have been found to suffer from mental difficulties. They are dispatched to save the world with much pomp and ceremony, but when the time comes to go home, they encounter a completely different kind of hostility from their own government, where the system tends to consider such a condition an embarrassment and people, at the very least, practice a kind of self conscious uncertainty about the subject.
This shunning of the mentally injured is a fact that has yet to be confronted. In the minds of U.S. combatants, the confusion is stark and real. But instead of being treated like heroes for risking life and limb for the cause, whatever that cause may be, “Johnny” doesn’t come marching home to a warm and heartfelt reception. Since the days of Vietnam, the issue has been the subject of many a book and film. That has held true through Afghanistan, Iraq and the Kuwait liberation, and the gap between the massacres at My Lai and Panjwaiis one of time - not texture.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
In the case of Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, on trial will be the U.S. system of military justice itself. There is now no doubt now that Bales has been removed from the jurisdiction of the Afghan judicial system. He is being taken stateside where his defense will be embraced by many an NGO and increasingly sympathetic individuals with political power. If the case is conducted as a civilian trial to show that PTSD is a form of deep stress leading to diminished capabilities, a legion of medical and psychological experts will be trotted out.
