US News

Accused Afghan massacre soldier Robert Bales could face death penalty

Staff sergeant Robert Bales, the US Army soldier set to be charged in the killings of 16 Afghan civilian men, women and children, spent the weekend in pretrial isolation as military prosecutors prepared a case that may carry the death penalty.

An attorney retained to defend the 38-year-old soldier prepared to meet with him Monday after he was brought to the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., to await the charges, which military officials said could come this week.

Meanwhile, a 2010 Facebook chat that emerged Sunday between Bales and a high school buddy while the soldier was in Iraq could offer a rare clue into his thinking.

Bales has been in military custody since he surrendered following what US officials described as a rampage March 11 through villages in Kandahar Province in which he allegedly shot, stabbed and set ablaze men, women and children.

Prosecutors have said nothing publicly about the case, but President Obama said he has instructed the military to prosecute the case aggressively and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the suspect could face the death penalty.

The killings stoked Afghan anger toward the US, especially coming after incidents in which US personnel burned the Koran and urinated on the corpses of Taliban fighters.

Bales’ lawyers have not denied the charges against the married father-of-two, but said they would comb through his military history to determine what factors were involved. That suggests a possible defense based on mental-health problems that may have been out of his control.

They point out that he served three tours in Iraq and a tour in Afghanistan, and suffered traumatic brain injury as well as a severe foot injury.

The Facebook conversation was from April 2010, when Bales was in his third tour of duty in Iraq. He occasionally saw and spoke with friends from his childhood in the community of Norwood, near Cincinnati.

“Sup brother?” his childhood friend, Steven Berling, wrote. “Hope all is well overseas!!! Been a long time, look me up when you get back in town … we’ll go drink some brews!!!”

“You got it,” the soldier answered. “Overseas is boring this trip, pretty dumb. Giving money to Hagi instead of bullets don’t seem right.”

In a weekend interview, Berling said he was not sure what to make of the word “hagi,” but it apparently meant “hajji,” a pejorative term commonly used by American soldiers to refer to Iraqis. US commanders spent years trying in vain to end the use of the term.

Bales’ intention was not clear, but the attitude expressed seemed to clash sharply with sentiments he has voiced publicly.

To read more, go to The Wall Street Journal.