Sometimes when Snippy is here, he is not here at all.
Such is the nature of properly implemented tabbed browsing with a high-speed connection to the internets using a modern era web browser such as Safari 5.1.4.
You, too, should explore the benefits of such a schema.
Uke said
12:21 AM, 03/23/12
Snippy's opinion is just wrong!
Uke said
7:21 PM, 03/23/12
I'm not about ta change my opinion on this Bales. Nope. Send him back ta stand trial in an Afghan court. That'd be the best way ta handle the whole sad episode.
Right now, military officials, lawyers, and other so called experts have stated their opinions on 'why' Bales did it. And their evidence is full of holes as well.And excuses his 'behavior' on other problems...
He wanted out. He's out. But now justice must be swiftly done. And although guilty he is, by his own confession, he hasn't been punished properly.
Bales Charged With 17 Murders in Afghan Civilian Killings
By Tony Capaccio and Gopal Ratnam - Mar 23, 2012
U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder of Afghan civilians, the Army said in a statement today.
Bales, 38, also faces six charges of assault and attempted murder, the Army said. Under U.S. military law, criminal charges were formally preferred today against Bales.
The charges allege that on March 11, Bales murdered Afghans near Belambey, in Panjwai district of Afghanistans Kandahar province, the Army said in the statement issued from Kabul. If convicted, the maximum possible punishment under the Uniform Code of Military Justice is the death penalty with a mandatory minimum sentence of imprisonment for life with eligibility for parole, the Army said.
The next step in the process is a so-called special court- martial to be convened at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, which is the home base for Bales, to begin an investigation under Article 32 of the military law, the Army said. The investigation may determine whether a general court- martial will be convened to try the case, the Army said.
Bales, a qualified sniper with the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Regiment of the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat team, was in Afghanistan in support of U.S. Special Operations forces, Defense Department officials have said.
The soldiers civilian attorney, John Henry Browne, has questioned how much evidence the military has in the case. Browne also has said his client suffered a traumatic brain injury during one of three tours in Iraq and didnt want to go to Afghanistan, where he was deployed in December.
The Krink said
9:15 AM, 03/24/12
He's heading back to Fort Lewis to face court martial. After that he will not likely to see the light of day again.
Uke said
4:03 PM, 03/24/12
Listening ta the news this morn... Lotsa coverage of this guy, Bales. Sounds like his attorney's gonna play the insanity card. Maybe 'mental' health, or that multiple combat tours took a toll on his ability to discern enemies from innocent bystanders.
The people Bales shot and killed, were already asleep, in their beds...not much of a threat at all. And his diminished mental capacity, not being able to make right, or wrong of the situation is what troubles me.
My gut feeling? He knew exactly what he was doing. These killings were well thought out, planned...and executed. Premeditated murder. Nothing tells me that Bales was crazy, stressed out, or in a diminished mental state that night. He wanted out, and knew exactly what he was doing. And he's the master liar.
He took the role of judge, jury, and executioner on himself.
Time for him, and his attorney ta argue their case before a court of his peers. In Afghanistan.
Uke said
8:48 AM, 03/25/12
Send the fucker back... Now!
Afghans: US paid $50,000 per shooting spree death
(AP Photo - Allauddin Khan)
HEIDI VOGT
From Associated Press
March 25, 2012 9:24 AM EDT
Afghan villagers pray over the grave of one of the 16 victims killed in a shooting rampage in the Panjwai district of Kandahar province south of Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, March 24, 2012.
Mohammad Wazir has trouble even drinking water now, because it reminds him of the last time he saw his 7-year-old daughter.
He had asked his wife for a drink but his daughter insisted on fetching it. Now his daughter Masooma is dead, killed along with 10 other members of his family in a shooting rampage attributed to a U.S. soldier.
The soldier faces the death penalty but Wazir and his neighbors say they feel irreparably broken.
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) The United States has paid $50,000 in compensation for each Afghan killed and $11,000 for each person wounded in the shooting spree allegedly committed by a U.S. soldier in southern Afghanistan, an Afghan official and a community elder said Sunday.
The sums, much larger than typical payments made by the U.S. to families of civilians killed in military operations in Afghanistan, come as the U.S. tries to mend relations following the killing rampage that has threatened to undermine the international effort here.
Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales is accused of sneaking off his base on March 11, then creeping into houses in two nearby villages and opening fire on families as they slept.
U.S. investigators believe the gunman returned to his base after the first attack and later slipped away to kill again, American officials have said. Bales has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder and other crimes and could face the death penalty if convicted.
That would seem to support the U.S. government's assertion contested by some Afghans that the shooter acted alone, since the killings would have been perpetrated over a longer period of time than assumed when Bales was detained outside his base in Kandahar province's Panjwai district.
But it also raises new questions about how the suspect could have carried out the pre-dawn attacks without drawing attention from any Americans on the base.
The families of the dead, who received the money Saturday at the governor's office, were told that the money came from U.S. President Barack Obama, said Kandahar provincial council member Agha Lalai. He and community elder Jan Agha confirmed the payout amounts.
Survivors previously had received smaller compensation payments from Afghan officials $2,000 for each death and $1,000 for each person wounded.
Two U.S. officials confirmed that compensation had been paid but declined to discuss exact amounts, saying only that it reflected the devastating nature of the incident. The officials spoke anonymously because of the sensitive nature of the subject.
A spokesman for NATO and U.S. forces, Lt. Col. Jimmie Cummings, said only that coalition members often make compensation payments, but they are usually kept private.
"As the settlement of claims is in most cases a sensitive topic for those who have suffered loss, it is usually a matter of agreement that the terms of the settlement remain confidential," Cummings said.
However, civilian death compensations are occasionally made public. In 2010, U.S. troops in Helmand province said they paid $1,500-$2,000 for a death and $600-$1,500 for a serious injury.
The provided compensation figures would mean that at least $866,000 was paid out in all. Afghan officials and villagers have counted 16 dead 12 in the village of Balandi and four in neighboring Alkozai and six wounded. The U.S. military has charged Bales with 17 murders without explaining the discrepancy.
The 38-year-old soldier, who is from Lake Tapps, Washington, is accused of using his 9mm pistol and M-4 rifle, which was outfitted with a grenade launcher, to kill four men, four women, two boys and seven girls, then burning some of the bodies. The ages of the children were not disclosed in the charge sheet.
Bales is being held in a military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The mandatory minimum sentence if he is convicted is life imprisonment with the chance of parole. He could also receive the death penalty.
Families of the dead declined to comment on any payments by U.S. officials on Sunday, but some said previously that they were more concerned about seeing the perpetrator punished than money.
Kandahar is the birthplace of the Taliban and remains a dangerous area despite several offensives.
In the latest violence, a bomb struck a joint NATO-Afghan foot patrol in Kandahar's Arghandab district late Saturday, killing nine Afghans and one international service member, according to Shah Mohammad, the district administrator.
Arghandab is a farming region just outside Kandahar city that has long provided refuge for Taliban insurgents. It was one of a number of communities around Kandahar city that were targeted in a 2010 sweep to oust the insurgency from the area.
The Afghan dead included one soldier, three police officers, four members of the Afghan "local police" a government-sponsored militia force and one translator, Mohammad said.
NATO reported earlier Sunday that one of its service members was killed in a bomb attack in southern Afghanistan on Saturday but did not provide additional details. It was not clear if this referred to the same incident, as NATO usually waits for individual coalition nations to confirm the details of deaths of their troops.
____
Associated Press writer Robert Burns contributed to this report from Washington
____
Vogt reported from Kabul, and can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/heidivogt
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
-- Edited by Uke on Sunday 25th of March 2012 08:50:18 AM
BlackDog said
6:18 PM, 03/25/12
Yeah, it's not like he went nuts in a restaurant with his friends or anything like that...
Such is the nature of properly implemented tabbed browsing with a high-speed connection to the internets using a modern era web browser such as Safari 5.1.4.
You, too, should explore the benefits of such a schema.
I'm not about ta change my opinion on this Bales. Nope. Send him back ta stand trial in an Afghan court. That'd be the best way ta handle the whole sad episode.
Right now, military officials, lawyers, and other so called experts have stated their opinions on 'why' Bales did it. And their evidence is full of holes as well.And excuses his 'behavior' on other problems...
He wanted out. He's out. But now justice must be swiftly done. And although guilty he is, by his own confession, he hasn't been punished properly.
Bales Charged With 17 Murders in Afghan Civilian Killings
U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder of Afghan civilians, the Army said in a statement today.
Bales, 38, also faces six charges of assault and attempted murder, the Army said. Under U.S. military law, criminal charges were formally preferred today against Bales.
The charges allege that on March 11, Bales murdered Afghans near Belambey, in Panjwai district of Afghanistans Kandahar province, the Army said in the statement issued from Kabul. If convicted, the maximum possible punishment under the Uniform Code of Military Justice is the death penalty with a mandatory minimum sentence of imprisonment for life with eligibility for parole, the Army said.
The next step in the process is a so-called special court- martial to be convened at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, which is the home base for Bales, to begin an investigation under Article 32 of the military law, the Army said. The investigation may determine whether a general court- martial will be convened to try the case, the Army said.
Bales, a qualified sniper with the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Regiment of the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat team, was in Afghanistan in support of U.S. Special Operations forces, Defense Department officials have said.
The soldiers civilian attorney, John Henry Browne, has questioned how much evidence the military has in the case. Browne also has said his client suffered a traumatic brain injury during one of three tours in Iraq and didnt want to go to Afghanistan, where he was deployed in December.
not likely to see the light of day again.
The people Bales shot and killed, were already asleep, in their beds...not much of a threat at all. And his diminished mental capacity, not being able to make right, or wrong of the situation is what troubles me.
My gut feeling? He knew exactly what he was doing. These killings were well thought out, planned...and executed. Premeditated murder. Nothing tells me that Bales was crazy, stressed out, or in a diminished mental state that night. He wanted out, and knew exactly what he was doing. And he's the master liar.
He took the role of judge, jury, and executioner on himself.
Time for him, and his attorney ta argue their case before a court of his peers. In Afghanistan.
Send the fucker back... Now!
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) The United States has paid $50,000 in compensation for each Afghan killed and $11,000 for each person wounded in the shooting spree allegedly committed by a U.S. soldier in southern Afghanistan, an Afghan official and a community elder said Sunday.
The sums, much larger than typical payments made by the U.S. to families of civilians killed in military operations in Afghanistan, come as the U.S. tries to mend relations following the killing rampage that has threatened to undermine the international effort here.
Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales is accused of sneaking off his base on March 11, then creeping into houses in two nearby villages and opening fire on families as they slept.
U.S. investigators believe the gunman returned to his base after the first attack and later slipped away to kill again, American officials have said. Bales has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder and other crimes and could face the death penalty if convicted.
That would seem to support the U.S. government's assertion contested by some Afghans that the shooter acted alone, since the killings would have been perpetrated over a longer period of time than assumed when Bales was detained outside his base in Kandahar province's Panjwai district.
But it also raises new questions about how the suspect could have carried out the pre-dawn attacks without drawing attention from any Americans on the base.
The families of the dead, who received the money Saturday at the governor's office, were told that the money came from U.S. President Barack Obama, said Kandahar provincial council member Agha Lalai. He and community elder Jan Agha confirmed the payout amounts.
Survivors previously had received smaller compensation payments from Afghan officials $2,000 for each death and $1,000 for each person wounded.
Two U.S. officials confirmed that compensation had been paid but declined to discuss exact amounts, saying only that it reflected the devastating nature of the incident. The officials spoke anonymously because of the sensitive nature of the subject.
A spokesman for NATO and U.S. forces, Lt. Col. Jimmie Cummings, said only that coalition members often make compensation payments, but they are usually kept private.
"As the settlement of claims is in most cases a sensitive topic for those who have suffered loss, it is usually a matter of agreement that the terms of the settlement remain confidential," Cummings said.
However, civilian death compensations are occasionally made public. In 2010, U.S. troops in Helmand province said they paid $1,500-$2,000 for a death and $600-$1,500 for a serious injury.
The provided compensation figures would mean that at least $866,000 was paid out in all. Afghan officials and villagers have counted 16 dead 12 in the village of Balandi and four in neighboring Alkozai and six wounded. The U.S. military has charged Bales with 17 murders without explaining the discrepancy.
The 38-year-old soldier, who is from Lake Tapps, Washington, is accused of using his 9mm pistol and M-4 rifle, which was outfitted with a grenade launcher, to kill four men, four women, two boys and seven girls, then burning some of the bodies. The ages of the children were not disclosed in the charge sheet.
Bales is being held in a military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The mandatory minimum sentence if he is convicted is life imprisonment with the chance of parole. He could also receive the death penalty.
Families of the dead declined to comment on any payments by U.S. officials on Sunday, but some said previously that they were more concerned about seeing the perpetrator punished than money.
Kandahar is the birthplace of the Taliban and remains a dangerous area despite several offensives.
In the latest violence, a bomb struck a joint NATO-Afghan foot patrol in Kandahar's Arghandab district late Saturday, killing nine Afghans and one international service member, according to Shah Mohammad, the district administrator.
Arghandab is a farming region just outside Kandahar city that has long provided refuge for Taliban insurgents. It was one of a number of communities around Kandahar city that were targeted in a 2010 sweep to oust the insurgency from the area.
The Afghan dead included one soldier, three police officers, four members of the Afghan "local police" a government-sponsored militia force and one translator, Mohammad said.
NATO reported earlier Sunday that one of its service members was killed in a bomb attack in southern Afghanistan on Saturday but did not provide additional details. It was not clear if this referred to the same incident, as NATO usually waits for individual coalition nations to confirm the details of deaths of their troops.
____
Associated Press writer Robert Burns contributed to this report from Washington
____
Vogt reported from Kabul, and can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/heidivogt
-- Edited by Uke on Sunday 25th of March 2012 08:50:18 AM