US soldier murders 16 civilians....

[Donovan]

In any totalitarian takeover attempt, opinionated and educated loose cannons generally die first. So I could care less about the end of Democracy, I'm very likely to catch a bullet right at the fucking start.

[Riotgear]

I'm planning on dying under the "Smart man with no education is dangerous" clause.

[username]

[Lady Cop]

June 2
(CNN) -- In amended charges presented Friday, U.S. military authorities accused Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales of illicit steroid and alcohol use in addition to 16 counts of premeditated murder for allegedly gunning down villagers in Afghanistan earlier this year.

Bales' lawyer, John Henry Browne, responded to the changes by saying he is "so relieved" that military prosecutors "came out publicly with the steroid use."

"Steroid use is going to be an issue in this case, especially where Sgt. Bales got steroids and how he got steroids," Browne told CNN.

[HairOfTheDog]

UPDATE


Robert Bales never explained why he left his base in Afghanistan and killed a village of civilians, many of them children, while they slept or pleaded for their lives.

In 2013, he pleaded guilty to the 16 murders to avoid the death penalty. His defense attorney argued that he might have had PTSD or brain damage from previous deployments, but no doctors were called to support those insinuations.

Bales is serving a life without parole sentence.

[HairOfTheDog]

Meawhile today...


^ Andrew Holmes, 25, is a free man.

Holmes was one of five soldiers from a Washington state-based Stryker brigade who were arrested in Afghanistan in 2010 in what prosecutors described as a conspiracy to kill civilians for fun.

After the first killing, one of Holmes' fellow soldiers tried to blow the whistle on the plot, but the warnings went unheeded and the soldiers murdered two more civilians over the next few months.

The killings, in Kandahar Province, were among the most serious war crime allegations of the Afghanistan war before another soldier from Washington state's Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Robert Bales, slaughtered 16 villagers in March 2012.

Holmes was accused of directly participating in the first killing, of a 15-year-old boy named Gul Mudin, and he was initially charged with conspiracy, premeditated murder and other charges before making a deal with prosecutors. He pleaded guilty in September 2011 to committing murder by an inherently dangerous act, possessing a finger bone from his victim and smoking hashish, and a judge sentenced him to seven years.

In court when he made the guilty plea, Holmes, then a private, acknowledged that he fired a heavy machine gun at a startled, unarmed civilian from 15 feet away after a co-defendant, then-Cpl. Jeremy Morlock, tossed a grenade at him. The man posed no threat, Holmes said.

"I looked at the young man. He was standing there like a deer in the headlights," he told the judge in a clear, steady voice. "I fired six to eight rounds at the man, and I've regretted it ever since."

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/former-u-s-s...es-prison/
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He should have gotten a much longer sentence, in my opinion.

[Duchess]

All he got was 7 yrs. for killing people for fun. Jesus. That's nothing, a fricken slap on the wrist. He deserves to pay with his life, either death or a lifetime spent behind bars. He killed to get his jollies!

[HairOfTheDog]

All he got was 7 yrs. for killing people for fun. Jesus. That's nothing, a fricken slap on the wrist. He deserves to pay with his life, either death or a lifetime spent behind bars. He killed to get his jollies!

And he served under 5 years of that sentence; got credit for time served awaiting trial and and 500 days for 'good behavior'.

Like Bales, Holmes is from Ohio. His family in Boise welcomed him home from Leavenworth (also where Bales is incarcerated) on Sunday after his early release. They just want to put this chapter in their lives behind them, they say. They also say he hasn't decided whether he'll appeal his dishonorable discharge.

Hello. He and his buddies targeted and preyed on vulnerable unarmed civilians, shot and blew them up, took pictures with their corpses, and then carried parts of their bodies around with them as trophies. I'd call that pretty fucking dishonorable behavior. Morons.

If the whistle blower from their unit hadn't spoken up, Holmes and his crew could still be killing the very civilians they were supposedly there to protect from brutality.

As a result of the investigation, twelve soldiers were court-martialed on charges ranging from murder to interfering with the investigation and retaliation against the whistle blower. Eleven were convicted. The ring leader of the "kill team" game, Morlock, got only 24 years for killing three people because he cooperated and testified against the others involved.

Ref: https://www.rt.com/usa/319790-early-rele...n-soldier/

[Duchess]

They also say he hasn't decided whether he'll appeal his dishonorable discharge.

It's sickening to me that he would even be allowed to do so.

[HairOfTheDog]

If you read up on the evidence and trial testimony, it will really piss you off.


^ Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs, now 28, was the leader of the brigade in which the "kill team" operated.

The evidence and testimony proves that he planted the idea of killing Afghan civilians (who he considered savages) into his subordinates' heads because they hadn't been attacked and they were bored.

Gibbs taught the soldiers under his command (the ones with the appetite) how to plant weapons near the dead bodies, and participated in the killings and desecration of the bodies. Everyone in the unit knew what was going on, it wasn't a secret. Gibbs is a full on piece of shit.

He was sentenced to life in prison. BUT, because he has a son, the jury agreed to the possibility of parole and he could be released within 10 years. What a farce.

The "kill team" executed a 15-year-old farmer who welcomed them and was simply working the fields. His father was the village elder who ended up identifying him; the father was inconsolable and protested the kill team's false claim that his son had attacked them. His protests initially went unheard. The pictures the kill team members took of themselves pulling his corpse's head back while they smile are sickening. They were shown to the jury. Photos: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maywand_District_murders

The kill team did the same thing to an old cleric Mullah Adahdad who was known in his village as peace maker. The team pretended to be making a routine visit to the village and were welcomed. There were mostly children there and the team needed to get somebody out of view so they could accomplish their goal of killing another civilian, staging it as self defense, and earning bragging rights and awards (the awards have since been revoked).

They walked as Adahdad spoke with them until they got to a secluded spot. Then, they "waxed" him with a grenade and bullets, on command of Gibbs. After which, they took their smiling photos with his corpse and took parts of his body as trophies. His wife and children helped bring the kill team down; they did not quietly accept the bullshit story the murderers told about how Adahdad had attacked them.

Shit happens in war and I think shoot first and ask questions later is often an appropriate tactic when engaged in active combat. That's not what happened here. These assholes went hunting for defenseless civilians, murdered them, lied in their reports, and bragged openly within the unit. None of them should be doing less than 25 years and Gibbs should not have the possibility of parole, in my opinion. They're murderers and a disgrace to the U.S. military.

Refs:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/no...-convicted
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/new...327?page=8