Robert Bales

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Robert Bales
Robert Bales, March 2012.jpg
Bales in March 2012
Born (1973-06-30) June 30, 1973 (age 48)
Norwood, Ohio, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materOhio State University
OccupationFormer U.S. Army soldier
Spouse(s)Karilyn Bales
Children2
Criminal penaltyLife in prison without parole
Details
DateMarch 11, 2012 (2012-03-11)
03:00 AFT
Location(s)Balandi and Alkozai villages of Afghanistan
Target(s)Afghan civilians
Killed16
Injured6
WeaponsM4 carbine and M9 sidearm; some victims were found with both gunshot and stab wounds.
Imprisoned atU.S. Disciplinary Barracks

Robert Bales (born June 30, 1973) is a former United States Army sniper who murdered 16 Afghan civilians in Panjwayi, Kandahar, Afghanistan, on March 11, 2012 – an event known as the Kandahar massacre.

In order to avoid the death penalty, he pleaded guilty to 16 counts of murder and six counts of assault and attempted murder in a plea deal. On August 23, 2013, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.[1] Before sentencing, Bales expressed his regret by referring to the murders as "an act of cowardice."[2] Bales is supported by the United American Patriots organization and has exhausted all military appeals.[2] Since the Supreme Court denied to hear his case, Bales' attorney, John Maher announced in 2019 that he would be seeking a new trial in civilian court. This is because there is conflicting evidence in reference to the effects of mefloquine, an anti malaria drug that was given to Bales by the Army.[2]

Early life and education[]

Bales was born on June 30, 1973,[3] and raised in Norwood, Ohio, near the city of Cincinnati, the youngest of five brothers. He attended Norwood High School where he played football and was named class president.[4] After high school Bales briefly enrolled at College of Mount St. Joseph, then transferred to Ohio State University, where he studied economics for three years, but left without graduating in 1996.[5][6][7]

After leaving college, Bales worked as a stockbroker at five financial services firms in Columbus, Ohio.[8] The firms were related, sharing employees and corporate offices. During that period, while employed with Michael Patterson, Inc., Bales and the firm engaged in fraudulent securities activities.[8] In 2003, an arbitration panel found both Bales and his employer liable for financial fraud related to the handling of a retirement account and ordered them to pay $1.2 million in civil damages. Gary Liebschner, the victim, said he "never got paid a penny" of the award.[4][9] According to Liebschner's lawyer, they had not pursued legal action against Bales to collect the judgment because they were unable to locate Bales, who had joined the U.S. Army at age 28, just 18 months after the long-running arbitration case was filed.[10]

In May 1999, while still employed with a securities firm in Ohio, Bales, his brother Mark, and Marc Edwards co-founded a financial services firm named Spartina Investments in Doral, Florida. The state dissolved Spartina in September 2000, after the company failed to file its annual report in a timely manner.[11]

Bales' brother in law stated that Bales joined the Army after the 9/11 terrorist attacks because he "felt it was something he should do because he felt he had to make something right" and that joining the Army was his way of vindicating himself.[12]

In 2002 Bales was charged with assaulting his then girlfriend and ordered to undergo anger-management counseling.[4] Also in 2002, after a night out at a Tacoma casino, Bales was arrested for assaulting a security guard.[12]

In 2003, Bales met his later to be wife, Kari Primeau, while she was at a bar supporting her friend's band. Kari states that Bales was a man "full of enthusiasm, eager to tell her every little thing he was learning about war and how to wage it," until he deployed to Iraq. Their relationship grew serious while he was overseas.[12]

In 2008, Bales was briefly detained after fleeing a hit and run.[4]

Career[]

Bales at the Fort Irwin National Training Center in August 2011

Bales enlisted in the U.S. Army in November 2001, shortly after the September 11 attacks.[13] He was initially assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry of the 3rd Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division in Fort Lewis.[14] He completed three tours in the Iraq War: twelve months in 2003 and 2004, fifteen months in 2006 and 2007, and ten months in 2009 and 2010.[5] During the 2007 tour he reportedly injured his foot in the Battle of Najaf,[5] and during the 2010 tour he was treated for traumatic brain injury after his vehicle was rolled in an accident.[14]

According to public records, Bales had been involved in several incidents while stationed at Fort Lewis which had resulted in the police responding. In 2002, he got into a fight with a security guard at a Tacoma area casino and was charged with misdemeanor criminal assault, but the charge was dismissed after he paid a small fine and attended anger management classes.[15] Another confrontation outside of a bar in 2008 was also reported to police, but no charges were filed.[16]

Bales was promoted to staff sergeant on April 1, 2008, which made him responsible for nineteen men, who he believed were insufficiently prepared. It was also at this time that he became increasingly skeptical about Special Forces superiors, claiming that they were too passive towards the enemy, accompanied by a hostile attitude and a belief that he was not being granted the respect that he'd earned.[17][18] While in Iraq, Bales was injured twice and in 2010, it is speculated that he may have sustained a traumatic brain injury when a humvee flipped over.[4] He received orders of deployment to Afghanistan in December of 2011, which were reported to have caused marital conflict and financial strain because his family was not expecting him to be deployed again.[4] On February 1, 2012, he was assigned to Camp Belambai in the Kandahar Province of Afghanistan, where he was responsible for providing base security for U.S. Army Special Forces and U.S. Navy SEALs who were engaged in village stability operations.[19][20]

Over the course of his military career he sustained 10 IED blasts.[2]

Kandahar massacre[]

Main article: Kandahar massacre

On March 10th, Bales was posted to guard duty from 2000 to 2100 with a private in his unit, with whom he discussed a promotion that he wanted, and thought he deserved, since he had already been passed over for the promotion once before.[21] While on watch, Bales thought he saw lights signaling each other across the farmland between the villages of Naja Bien and Alikozai and that Taliban insurgents were communicating in this way. At the end of his shift he alerted the new guard team, who reportedly did not take him seriously. The Army denies he ever notified the new guard team.[22] He then joined SSGT David Godwin and SGT Jason McLaughlin to drink Jack Daniels and Diet Coke from a Dasani water bottle. Bales claims to have had six or seven drinks for the next couple of hours while watching the movie Man on Fire starring Denzel Washington- a revenge fantasy about an ex-military body guard who goes on a murderous rampage after the girl he has been hired to protect is kidnapped and presumed dead.[23] According to the Army's investigation, as Bales became increasingly intoxicated, he began once again to discuss his prospective promotion to Sergeant First Class, anger he felt towards his comrades being seriously injured by insurgent attacks, complaining about the leadership of the Green Berets at their base, about his marriage and financial troubles.[24] Around midnight, Bales consumed a handful of over the counter sleeping pills, stating that he had not slept in days and wanted to rest. The pills did not move him to sleep, so he took his concerns about his leadership and the insurgents to Green Beret SGT Clayton Blackshear, putting emphasis on the fact that he felt he and his men were not doing enough to get rid of the Taliban insurgents running rampant in the area, targeting US soldiers. Bales also requested that SGT Blackshear let him take on his responsibilities, to run point when men were out patrolling on foot- a job that he had done while in Iraq. Per SGT Blackshear's testimony in the Army's investigation, Bales went so far as to state that his life did not matter as much as Blackshear's and that no one would care if he died in the line of duty.[25] SGT Blackshear informed Bales that the Green Berets were short staffed and could not take any decisive action until their forces were replenished.[26] He then went back to his room and lay awake for the rest of the night.[27]

On the night of March 11, 2012, Bales killed 16 Afghan civilians (nine children, some as young as two years old, four women and three men) in the villages of Balandi and Alkozai in the Panjwai district of Kandahar[4] near Camp Belambai.[28][29] According to official reports, Bales left combat outpost Camp Belamby at 3:00 a.m. local time wearing night vision goggles.[30][31] Bales was wearing traditional Afghan clothing over his ACU.[32][33][34][35][29] Government officials with knowledge of the investigation state that the killings were carried out in two phases, with Bales returning to base in between. An Afghan guard reported a soldier returning to base at 1:30 am, and another guard reported a soldier leaving at 2:30 am.[36] Bales is believed to have first gone to Alkozai, about 1⁄2 mile (0.80 km) north of Camp Belambay, then to Najiban (called Balandi in earlier reports), located 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) south of the base.[37] Four people were killed and six wounded in Alkozai, and twelve people were killed in Najiban. U.S. sentries at the base heard gunshots in Alkozai, but did not take action besides attempting to view Alkozai from their post inside the base.[38] Until 22 March, U.S. authorities recognized 16 people killed, including nine children, four men, and three women.[29] On 22 March that number was revised to 17,[28] but later reduced back to 16.[39] It was initially reported that five others were injured, and that number was eventually increased to six.[29]

When Bales returned to the base to resupply his ammunition, he states that he told one of the sergeants that he was drinking earlier that night, that he had "just killed some military-aged males in Alikozai, that he was going to go to Naja Bien to finish it", and that he wanted the Sergeant to "take care of his wife and kids." The Sergeant was reportedly irritated, half asleep, and did not believe him, only relenting to 'take care of Bales' kids' so that he would leave him to go back to sleep.[40] Bales claims that he expected not to come back to the base. He left for the second time after resupplying his ammo, adding grenades and a grenade launcher to his resources.[41]

Bales stated in an interview that he went to the homes of suspected insurgents, where insurgent satellite phones, bombs, and rifles had been found.[42] In the same interview, Bales states that he did not find any of the enemy cache that he had been looking for.[43] He also reported being disoriented when he left the last villagers' home, realizing that he was now cold, wearing only a T-shirt and army pants.[44]

According to the Army, Bales burned some of the victims' bodies, an act considered desecration under Islamic law.[45] Bales claims that he did not do this, stating that it must have been a lantern that was knocked over.[46] Witnesses said that the eleven corpses from one family were shot in the head, stabbed, then gathered into one room and set on fire.[47][29][48] A pile of ashes was found on the floor of one victims' house; at least one child's body was found partially charred.[49] A reporter for The New York Times inspected the children's bodies taken to a nearby American military base and reported seeing burns on some of the legs and heads.[47]

When Bales exited the last house in Naja Bien, the commanding officer of the Green Berets, CPT Daniel Fields, ordered a rescue team to begin scouring the area around the base for SGT Bales, also dispatching the Persistent Ground Surveillance System- a high tech air balloon with a thermal camera attached to it. At 0430, the camera picked up SSGT Bales' signal, walking back to the base. At 0447, Bales approached the base, weapons of his fellow Americans pointed at him. He was then disarmed and turned over to the Green Berets.[50]

According to the Army, Bales went back and forth for the next eight hours between confessing and obstructing the investigation.[51] Afghans from the surrounding villages had loaded the bodies of their loved ones onto trucks and were bringing them to the base.[52]

On March 24, U.S. Army investigators said Bales was the sole person responsible for the shootings, which were the result of two separate attacks. Investigators said Bales returned to Camp Belambai after the first attack and left the camp an hour later to commit the second.[53][54] It was reported that when he finally returned to the camp and surrendered his weapon, it was wrapped in an Afghan shawl.[4] After being arrested, Bales sought out attorney John Henry Browne, well known in Washington state for reducing his clients otherwise hefty prison sentences and representing Ted Bundy in court.[55]

Immediately after the massacre, the Afghan Army's criminal investigation division went to the scene to attempt to investigate but came under enemy fire- one Afghan soldier was killed in the interaction. When the soldiers finally gained access to the crime scene, families had already removed the bodies and buried them. No photos of the bodies were taken, and DNA evidence was scraped off of the walls of Afghan homes for forensic evidence. A page and a half report was written and officially submitted. The lack of forensic evidence prohibited the confirmation of the accuracy of Afghan allegations against Bales, also ruling out the possibility of the incident being Taliban-enhanced, spurred by political motives. The DNA evidence gathered from the walls of Afghan homes and from the family members of the deceased was never cross referenced against the US database to verify if any of the victims were enemy combatants. In place of a legitimate investigation, the United States government paid $848,485 in solatium to families of the deceased. At the time of the incident, then-President Obama was attempting to appease then-Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Political tensions had risen over U.S. soldiers burning Qurans and urinating on dead Taliban bodies and attempts to sign the Strategic Partnership Agreement.[2]

A senior military official said Bales had been drinking alcohol with two other soldiers on the night of the shootings, in violation of military rules in combat zones.[56] According to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Bales acknowledged the killings and "told individuals what happened" immediately after being captured.[57] Minutes later, he refused to speak with investigators and asked for an attorney.[58][59] Bales' civilian Seattle-based attorney, John Henry Browne, later said, "I don't know that the government is going to prove much. There's no forensic evidence. There's no confession."[4][60] Browne met with Bales on the 19th of March and claims that his client remembers "very little" of the event.[4] At the time of November 5th, 2012, Browne refused to give any concrete information on this topic for fear of the Army kicking him off the case for "disclosing still classified information."[55] However, in May 2013, Browne said his client would confess to the massacre in return for avoiding the death penalty.[61]

In an interview about the investigation with an Army intelligence officer, it stated that crime scene evidence, specifically that of shot patterns, was being looked at to determine the true nature of the crime. The officer stated that as a sniper "Bales is trained to wait for his shot and quietly blend back into his surroundings. But, allegedly, he went contrary to his strongest skillset. He burst into the open, fired up close, and stayed at the scene." the officer deemed this "incomprehensible behavior" and stated that the investigation was ruling out nothing as possible influences in Bales' motivation.[4]

In alternative theories to the massacre, villagers claimed that the crime was committed by more than one soldier.[55] A woman by the name of Bibi Massoma claims that two Americans entered the room- one of them shot her husband while the other shot her six month old baby.[55] Villagers in the area are also confused as to how a lone sniper was responsible for the killings in both the Balandi and Alkozai villages, since they were a 30 minute walk apart, in addition to having to sneak off base, past Special Forces troops, patrols and military surveillance measures.[55]

Detention[]

After his arrest, Bales was transferred out of Afghanistan, stopping at a U.S. military base in Kuwait. His stop in Kuwait upset the Kuwaiti government, as they had heard about the Bales case from news reports before being informed by the U.S. government. According to an unnamed official: "When they learned about it, the Kuwaitis blew a gasket and wanted him out of there."[56]

On March 16, 2012, Bales was flown from Kuwait to the Midwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. According to U.S. Army Colonel James Hutton, Chief of Media Relations, Bales was being held in special housing in his own cell, and was able to go outside the cell "for hygiene and recreational purposes".[53]

On March 19th, 2012, Bales meets with Seattle-based attorney John Henry Browne at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, prison.[4]

On March 23, 2012, the U.S. government charged Bales with seventeen counts of murder, six counts of attempted murder, and six counts of assault.[62]

On June 1, 2012, the government dropped one of the murder charges, because one victim had been double counted.[39] Simultaneously, other charges were filed, including abuse of steroids, alcohol consumption, and attempting to destroy evidence.[63] Assault charges were increased from six to seven.[39]

In October 2012, Bales was transferred to Northwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.[64][65]

Trial[]

Civilian attorney John Henry Browne defended Bales with assigned military lawyers.[58][66] Browne described Bales as "mild-mannered", claiming his client was upset after seeing a friend's leg blown off the day before the killings, but held no animosity toward Muslims.[67] "I think the message for the public in general is that he's one of our boys and they need to treat him fairly."[56][66] Browne denied the deadly rampage was caused by alcohol intoxication or marital problems and said Bales was "reluctant to serve."[66] According to Browne, Bales did not want to return to the front lines. Browne said, "He wasn't thrilled about going on another deployment ... he was told he wasn't going back, and then he was told he was going."[68] Browne also criticized anonymous reports from government officials, stating "the government is going to want to blame this on an individual rather than blame it on the war."[56]

Bales had no documented history of mental disorder, and had undergone an extensive mental health screening to become a sniper in 2008.[14][69][70] In 2010, he suffered a concussion in a humvee accident, underwent traumatic brain injury treatment at Fort Lewis, and was deemed healthy. Although Bales was never diagnosed with a mental disorder, Fort Lewis-McChord has had a history of psychiatric misdiagnosis and may have sent soldiers with PTSD back into combat.[4] Investigators examining his medical history described his ten-year U.S. Army tenure as "unremarkable" and found no evidence of serious traumatic brain injury or post-traumatic stress.[14][58][69] A high-ranking U.S. official told The New York Times, "When it all comes out, it will be a combination of stress, alcohol and domestic issues—he just snapped."[56] However, Bales had been taking an anti-malaria medication (mefloquine) now known to cause a wide range of side effects, to include aggression, paranoia, psychosis, hallucinations, and suicidal thinking.[2] The Army, as well as the prosecution, deny providing the drug to Bales, although a fellow soldier had witnessed the distribution.[2] The prosecution also ignored the testimony of mefloquine experts, Dr. Remington Nevin and Dr. Stephen Stahl, who had confirmed that Bales was "unquestionably laboring under the effects of mefloquine intoxication"[2] The prosecution also ignored the fact that, coincidentally, the Army stopped administering the drug to soldiers after Bales' incident.[2] It was also found that Bales had started taking stanozolol three weeks before the massacre.[12]

Before any professional investigation had been conducted, before sanity results and forensic examination results were released, then-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta announced that the United States would seek the death penalty, and then-President Barack Obama instructed the military to "prosecute" the case aggressively.[55]

As part of the legal proceedings, an Article 32 hearing was held November 5–13, 2012, at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.[71] The hearing included eyewitnesses testimony from Afghanistan via a live video link; Bales did not testify.[72][73] An expert later identified some of the Afghani witnesses as having ties to Taliban and who used improvised explosives against U.S. service members.[2] The Afghan witnesses claimed to be farmers, but it was noted that one had a Taliban tattoo, one was a coalition detainee at an Afghan detention facility, and others had left their fingerprints on IEDs intended to kill U.S. personnel.[2] Per the Army's release of records, pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, prosecutors coordinated with the state department to fly the enemy combatant Afghan eyewitnesses overseas to America using fake visas, false social security numbers, and stated that they were "government contractors." These Afghan personnel were also flown on civilian flights via Delta Airlines.[2] It has been speculated that these witnesses were coached prior to trial.[2] Because of the tensions between the United States and Afghanistan, combined with the insufficient crime scene investigation on behalf of the Afghani criminal investigation division and lack of cross referencing forensic data, as well as the eyewitness testimonies from Afghanis, the prosecution did not have to prove the government's case in a trial with due process, evidence, witnesses, etc. Instead, the trial went straight to sentencing after receiving the guilty plea.[2]

On May 29, 2013, it was announced Bales would plead guilty (thereby avoiding the death penalty) and describe the events of March 11, 2012.[73] On June 5, Bales pleaded guilty in a plea deal to 16 counts of murder and six counts of assault and attempted murder. When asked by Judge Col. Jeffery Nance "What was your reason for killing them?", he said he had asked himself that question "a million times" and added, "There's not a good reason in this world for why I did the horrible things I did." He maintained he didn't recall setting bodies on fire, but admitted the evidence was clear that he had. He said he'd taken the steroids solely to be "huge and jacked" and blamed them for "definitely" increasing his irritability and anger.[74]

At the sentencing hearing, defense attorneys argued for a sentence of life with the possibility of parole, arguing that he was a troubled man who snapped, not a "cold-blooded murderer". Bales took to the stand to issue an apology to his victims. Lt. Col Jay Morse, a member of the US Army Trial Counsel Assistance Program, was the lead prosecutor in the Bales case.[75] The prosecution, seeking life without the possibility of parole, closed their arguments with: "In just a few short hours, Sgt. Bales wiped out generations. Sgt. Bales dares to ask you for mercy when he has shown none."[76]

On August 23, 2013, a six-person panel sentenced Bales to life in prison without parole.[1][77][78] He was also demoted to the lowest enlisted rank, dishonorably discharged, and will forfeit all pay and allowances.[64] A commanding general overseeing the court-martial has the option of reducing the sentence to life with the possibility of parole.[79] Afghan villagers and the families of Bales' victims were upset by the decision, saying he deserved death.[76][79] Bales is incarcerated in the maximum security section of United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth.[64]In September 2017, the U.S. Army Criminal Appeals Court upheld Bales' conviction and sentencing. The three-judge panel called the allegation of the use of Mefloquine by the defense "speculative."[80]The US Supreme Court later refused to hear Bales' appeal. In December 2020 the defense of Bales filed a request for forgiveness from President Donald Trump.[81] On January 20, 2021 it was confirmed that Bales was not forgiven by Trump.[82]

Prison interviews[]

During several months of interviews while incarcerated, Bales revealed in depth his recollection of his actions the night of the murders, and why he believed he acted the way he did, to reporter Brendan Vaughan in an article published in GQ magazine on October 21, 2015.[12]

Personal life[]

Bales is married and has two children.[83]

Bales' wife reports that when she would wake up at night from nightmares or had a bad feeling about the safety of her family, Bales would get out of bed and perform a full patrol of the home, looking through closets and under beds, then go outside to lap the perimeter of their house a few times before getting back into bed.[84]

After the massacre, his family was moved from their home in Lake Tapps, Washington, for their protection.[56][66][83]

The Bales family was struggling financially and had put its home up for sale three days before the shootings.[85] The property was listed for $229,000, approximately $50,000 less than what they had paid for it in 2005, and was worth $100,000 less than what they owed the bank.[85][86]

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