Agent recounts livid reaction to Afghan massacre
JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. (AP) - A U.S. agent who investigated the massacre of 16 civilians in southern Afghanistan earlier this year recounted the livid reaction from local villagers and said Wednesday that it was weeks before American forces could visit the crime scenes less than a mile from a remote base.
By that time, bodies had been buried and some blood stains had been scraped from the walls, Special Agent Matthew Hoffman of the Army's Criminal Investigation Command said.
Other stains remained, on walls and floors. Investigators also recovered shell casings consistent with the weapons Staff Sgt. Robert Bales reportedly carried and a piece of fabric similar to the blanket prosecutors say he wore as a cape during the killing spree.
Hoffman testified during the third day of a preliminary hearing for Bales, who is accused of slipping away from his remote post at Camp Belambay in the middle of the night to commit the killings.
The hearing, which is expected to feature testimony from some Afghan soldiers and villagers Friday and Saturday nights, will help determine whether his case advances to a court martial on counts of premeditated murder.
Hoffman arrived at Belambay to investigate just hours after the March 11 massacre, but he and his colleagues were unable to reach the two villages where the killings occurred. An angry crowd of local residents gathered outside the post, he said, and any time they could see an American soldier, they became enraged.
Afghan investigators got out to the scenes that day, where they engaged in a firefight. They recovered some evidence and took photos that they turned over to U.S. authorities. But Hoffman and his colleagues didn't visit until April 2, and even then they feared ambush.
"We were fully expecting to be attacked at any time," he said.
He also said Bales tested positive for steroids three days after the killings.
Bales, a 39-year-old Ohio native and father of two from Lake Tapps, Wash., leaned back in his chair at the defense table and betrayed no reaction as an Army doctor, Maj. Travis Hawks, gave clinical descriptions of treating the wounded villagers as they arrived at a nearby forward operating base.
One young girl had a large bullet wound in the top of her head, he said. She was unresponsive at first, but survived after treatment.
A woman had wounds to her chest and genitals, but she and her relatives insisted that the male doctors not treat her. Prosecutors displayed photos of the victims being treated.
Earlier Wednesday, a friend testified that Bales seemed remorseful after being taken into custody. Defense witness 1st Sgt. Vernon Bigham testified by video from Kandahar Air Field in Afghanistan.
A prosecutor, Lt. Col. Jay Morse, has said Bales spent the evening before the massacre at his remote outpost of Camp Belambay with two other soldiers, watching a movie about revenge killings, sharing contraband whiskey from a plastic bottle and discussing an attack that cost one of their comrades his leg.
Within hours, a cape-wearing Bales slipped away from the post and embarked on a killing spree of his own, Morse said. He attacked one village then returned to Belambay, where he woke up a colleague and reported what he'd done, Morse said. The colleague testified that he didn't believe Bales and went back to sleep.
Bales headed out again, Morse said, and attacked the second village before returning once again in the pre-dawn darkness, bloody and incredulous that his comrades ordered him to surrender his weapons.
Bales has not entered a plea, and is not expected to testify. His attorneys, who did not give an opening statement, have not discussed the evidence, but say Bales has post-traumatic stress disorder and suffered a concussive head injury during a prior deployment to Iraq.
Bales has not participated in a medical evaluation known as a "sanity board," because his lawyers have objected to having him meet with Army doctors outside their presence.
By that time, bodies had been buried and some blood stains had been scraped from the walls, Special Agent Matthew Hoffman of the Army's Criminal Investigation Command said.
Other stains remained, on walls and floors. Investigators also recovered shell casings consistent with the weapons Staff Sgt. Robert Bales reportedly carried and a piece of fabric similar to the blanket prosecutors say he wore as a cape during the killing spree.
Hoffman testified during the third day of a preliminary hearing for Bales, who is accused of slipping away from his remote post at Camp Belambay in the middle of the night to commit the killings.
The hearing, which is expected to feature testimony from some Afghan soldiers and villagers Friday and Saturday nights, will help determine whether his case advances to a court martial on counts of premeditated murder.
Hoffman arrived at Belambay to investigate just hours after the March 11 massacre, but he and his colleagues were unable to reach the two villages where the killings occurred. An angry crowd of local residents gathered outside the post, he said, and any time they could see an American soldier, they became enraged.
Afghan investigators got out to the scenes that day, where they engaged in a firefight. They recovered some evidence and took photos that they turned over to U.S. authorities. But Hoffman and his colleagues didn't visit until April 2, and even then they feared ambush.
"We were fully expecting to be attacked at any time," he said.
He also said Bales tested positive for steroids three days after the killings.
Bales, a 39-year-old Ohio native and father of two from Lake Tapps, Wash., leaned back in his chair at the defense table and betrayed no reaction as an Army doctor, Maj. Travis Hawks, gave clinical descriptions of treating the wounded villagers as they arrived at a nearby forward operating base.
One young girl had a large bullet wound in the top of her head, he said. She was unresponsive at first, but survived after treatment.
A woman had wounds to her chest and genitals, but she and her relatives insisted that the male doctors not treat her. Prosecutors displayed photos of the victims being treated.
Earlier Wednesday, a friend testified that Bales seemed remorseful after being taken into custody. Defense witness 1st Sgt. Vernon Bigham testified by video from Kandahar Air Field in Afghanistan.
A prosecutor, Lt. Col. Jay Morse, has said Bales spent the evening before the massacre at his remote outpost of Camp Belambay with two other soldiers, watching a movie about revenge killings, sharing contraband whiskey from a plastic bottle and discussing an attack that cost one of their comrades his leg.
Within hours, a cape-wearing Bales slipped away from the post and embarked on a killing spree of his own, Morse said. He attacked one village then returned to Belambay, where he woke up a colleague and reported what he'd done, Morse said. The colleague testified that he didn't believe Bales and went back to sleep.
Bales headed out again, Morse said, and attacked the second village before returning once again in the pre-dawn darkness, bloody and incredulous that his comrades ordered him to surrender his weapons.
Bales has not entered a plea, and is not expected to testify. His attorneys, who did not give an opening statement, have not discussed the evidence, but say Bales has post-traumatic stress disorder and suffered a concussive head injury during a prior deployment to Iraq.
Bales has not participated in a medical evaluation known as a "sanity board," because his lawyers have objected to having him meet with Army doctors outside their presence.
best wishes, in a very complex ed part of the world the Americans have been sent to ,we probably cant beleave the reasoning let alone the disregards that they are seeing and are for gin to. when only them there to stop the madness. i wish them only that they bring their beautiful faces home! and lets pray the unamericans can find humanity. not another life should be lost!
Bales is pretty much done.
The evidence released thus far is pretty condemning, although the defense has it's bite at the apple coming up. That is our process, after all, and Bale is entitled to as vigorous a defense as his team can mount.
I'm a combat veteran, a veteran of a counter-insurgency war similar to the Afghanistan campaign. I know very well just how much hate can build up in your mind when you don't know if the civilian you helped yesterday is a insurge or not and you watch your friends bleed and die day after day. That, however, does nothing to excuse Bale's actions. He was surrounded by good troops, had good leadership, and was an experienced NCO. Flipping the switch like he did is inexcusable and piddles on the names of all the men he supposedly did this for.
If the facts of the case are proven and he is found guilty, I really do feel that the death penalty is warranted in this case.
Wow!!! No comments>>>!>! By keeping quiet who are we really supporting? An American, our military or a mass murderer??
@NickM1979 I'm a veteran and a supporter of our military generally, Nick. But just like with several other cases, civilian and military, I tend to hold my outrage until the case is fully heard. Bales is accused of something heinous and he'll have to go through the whole process before we can really find out what happened.
Note my comments above insofar as my reactions go. If Bale is the killer, he deserves the severest penalty as can be handed down by the Court. That might even include death. If it DOES include death, I would even support bringing the families of those he killed to the US to witness it if they chose to do so.
 @svensson  @NickM1979  I am not against due process. I sincerely believe that everyone deserves a fair trial. But I am very disappointed with the silence on this matter by the otherwise super opinionated members on this site.
Â
By being silent we are responding in the same way we accuse muslims of doing when a muslim terrorist is caught harming our citizens.
@NickM1979 @svensson I think that in some ways our commentary is influenced by the Vietnam-era Calley case and by the earlier Iraq Abu Ghraib Prison cases. Also, there is the unfamiliarity most civilians have with the Uniform Code of Military Justice and courts martial to begin with.
Â
What the general public is aware of is that someone we've been asked repeatedly to honor and respect [a combat veteran] stands accused of something terrible. Certainly, no one wants to think about the de-humanizing process of war as it relates to a loved one. More importantly, no one wants to think about a loved one being capable of such a thing as Bale is accused of doing.
Â
Also consider how much of the news cycle has been taken up with election coverage these last six months and the determination shown by the military to not allow this case to be politicized like Calley and Abu Ghraib were. Even the Fort Hood shooting case, which was updated twice this month, is receiving a muted media response in order to let the process work itself through.
Â
More than anything else, I think that it isn't hypocrisy [which is what I believe you're implying here] as much as it is that the military is trying to not let these cases get out of hand from a media standpoint.
i had said in response to an earlier article the silence on this one is "deafening". would this comment string be so empty if he killed children sleeping in their beds in our neighborhoods?  In Seattle? Tacoma? Bellevue?