Saturday, March 31, 2012

Military (In)Justice

[Robert Bales' defense] team has made little progress on the ground in Afghanistan. “When we tried to interview the injured civilians being treated at Kandahar Hospital, we were denied access and told to coordinate with the prosecution team,” it said.

The next day, prosecutors interviewed the injured civilians, but Browne’s office found out shortly afterward that “the civilians were all released from the hospital and there was no contact information for them.

“In addition, we are being denied access to the injured civilians medical records that are in the possession of the government which makes it even more impossible for us to try to locate and interview these crucial witnesses,” it said.

“The prosecution is withholding the entire investigative file from the defense team while the potential witnesses scatter into unknown and potentially inaccessible areas in Afghanistan.”

  
Which makes it all the more suspicious that Robert Bales did not act alone, and the US military/government does not want any witness testimony to that effect revealed. Perhaps the defense team will have to spring for some investigators to go to the actual villages where the slaughter occurred. It will not be an easy discovery, nor a cheap one, but if they are going to defend their client, they're going to have to come up with the resources. Otherwise, he's going to take the fall for a very likely common policy. Another bigot patsy like Lynndie England.  Or maybe he can have a never-ending trial which never gets resolved because eventually those witnesses will die and nobody here really cares anyway.  Other than the fact that he'll have to spend some confinement time: win-win, as they say.  Lynndie who?  And by the way, what was the name of her bigot, prisoner-abusing boyfriend?  Anybody remember? 

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

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