Posted on 03/15/2012 7:43:22 PM PDT by Mariner
SEATTLE (AP) - A Seattle attorney who represented a teenage thief known as the "Barefoot Bandit" said Thursday he has been asked to represent the U.S. soldier accused of slaughtering 16 Afghan civilians last weekend.
John Henry Browne told The Associated Press the 38-year-old staff sergeant is from the Seattle area and asked to be represented by him when he was taken into custody. Brown, a prominent Seattle defense lawyer, said he has met with the sergeant's family, and unless the soldier is returned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord in the next few days, he will travel to meet the soldier wherever he is in custody.
Browne declined to release the soldier's name, which the Army has withheld.
"Everybody is worried about the safety of his family, and I am honoring that," Browne said.
(Excerpt) Read more at komonews.com ...
That is not usually the deciding factor in a Courts Martial, but it is a good thing.
This guy damn well better be tried by Courts Martial and by the US Army.
Still, it looks, on the surface, like his best hope is psychiatric care and life in military prison.
From my point of view, Courts Martial cannot accept insanity defense and if he is found guilty, he should be executed.
How many day's has it been and we still don't have a name? This smells.
I'm willing to bet the guy's a Muslim.
After all the bullsh!t we have seen in Iraq and Afghanistan over the course of more than 10 freakin’ years, I don’t the U.S. military has the moral authority to charge this guy with any kind of crimes.
JHB is a take no prisoners attorney. He may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but he knows what he’s doing; if there ever was a guy who could keep you from riding the big swing, it’s him.
Highly decorated Staff Sargent from Ft Lewis with family in the Puget Sound region. Three tours.
My guess, Anglo-Saxon white man.
No, it DOES NOT STINK! The Army and the USA has a responsibility to keep his family safe...and probably 5 days to relocate.
Moronic.
I said this from the start. Some folks here on FR who seem to have some insider knowledge suggest that this is not the case. I stopped saying it. But my suspicions are beginning to be aroused again.
The US Military does.
Not the guys who sent them there.
Time to get your mind right and place blame where it belongs.
"He wasn't thrilled about going on another deployment," Browne said. "He was told he wasn't going back, and then he was told he was going." From what little information I have..I am prone to side with the soldier. He could not be a slouch and make Staff Sgt.(and that was his rank after his first court martial and being rif'd. I want to know MORE about the doctors that gave this man a green light to go back. He had a serious leg injury and suffered brain trauma. Military would rather deploy a sick man than give him a medical discharge which would cost the taxpayers money. Panetta is trying to cut back on military healthcare.
Time for the people so quick to call this soldier a mad man or nutcase to reserve judgement until a in depth investigation is completed...maybe the doctors were madmen to send him back over...looks like they played a little mind game with him...first he was not going and then he was going.
This soldier was HIGHLY DECORATED...would bet you he is NO muslim!
In a CM do you pay for your own lawyer?
Buddy of mine’s a retired SF colonel out of Ft Lewis. He told me after it happened the Army moved the guy’s family back on to the base. His name hasn’t been revealed yet so they can have a bit of privacy and figure out what the hell is going on and what they’ll do.
After Haditha and Lakin, I trust the military leadership almost as much as I trust Obama. Probably because they do whatever Obama tells them to do.
I read an article by Michael Yon today, where he says that he raised concerns about some of the soldiers he was embedded with and the military’s reponse was to kick Yon out of the embed program. He said that the troops are pretty demoralized by being put in a situation without enough troops and with ROE that make the mission impossible. Reading the description of this guy who the military claims went on this rampage - decorated soldier wounded seriously twice in Iraq including brain injury and a serious leg injury, told he wasn’t going to go back into combat and then suddenly in December he was sent to Afghanistan, not eager about the whole thing - and realizing that after only about 3 months ni Afghanistan he “snapped”, I’d say this could be another situation like Nidal Hasan, where there were warning signs and somebody made a bad decision to put him where they did.
None of that excuses what this guy did, if he did it. But it makes me question whether we’re being told the whole story - or ever WILL be told the whole story.
He and his doctors were both madmen.
Remember, his charge is that he killed 16 women and children in their beds right outside the gate and then burned their bodies...or some of them.
These are not the acts of a rational mind. These are surely not the acts of a Western political zealot or religious zealot.
These are the acts of a cracked mind.
Not if the Army is representing you. But JHB is doing this pro bono - most of his big cases are...
Not if you use a Military Lawyer as assigned by the Command In Charge.
However, in cases which have a political dynamic one whould very seriously consider a civilian lawyer.
But, it's at your or whomever cares about you...expense.
The US Army will not pay the fee of a civilian lawyer.
“I’m willing to bet the guy’s a Muslim. “
OK, maybe he is a gay Obama supporter who went crazy because the threat of Global Warming become too much too bear along with hearing women called bad names on the radio?
Only if you want a good lawyer. No offense to any Majors-Light Colonels out there.
It's the same in the real world.
/johnny
Hell, no!
I served in a volunteer military, and don't want any brat draftees in the mix. I want men that care and work hard.
And one situtation (that's not detailed yet) is not a pattern.
I heard of much worse back in '65.
Get over your petty self.
And welcome to FR, newbie.
/johnny
Not Jose Baez?
Add alchohol to brain trauma...danger. Add mind games to the whole scenario...first your not going..oh yes you are going.
Take a normal soldier and send him on four tours..it is a serious strain.
You know Ollie wrote about wanting to go back to Nam..his wife threatened to leave him...he was treated for mental issues.
This solider should have been treated medically and not swept over again..handwriting was on the wall. Should have healed his tortured mind before shipping him out.
Obama has demoralized our military. I still say until ALL INFO IS OUT...reserve the name calling. The man was decorated..he has children.
Add alchohol to brain trauma...danger. Add mind games to the whole scenario...first your not going..oh yes you are going.
Take a normal soldier and send him on four tours..it is a serious strain.
You know Ollie wrote about wanting to go back to Nam..his wife threatened to leave him...he was treated for mental issues.
This solider should have been treated medically and not swept over again..handwriting was on the wall. Should have healed his tortured mind before shipping him out.
Obama has demoralized our military. I still say until ALL INFO IS OUT...reserve the name calling. The man was decorated..he has children.
And I smell a troll.
/johnny
God bless you.
Ten bucks says that place would get peaceful and orderly very quickly in that case.
If the U.S. government ever sends soldiers into a foreign country for a military campaign, then every child in the 18-30 age group of every member of the legislative and executive branches of the Federal government gets drafted into service and sent off with them.
Let Obama's kids get sent off to Afghanistan as soon as they're old enough. And let Barbara and Jenna Bush fly the helicopters over there with them.
One positive development post-Vietnam is tha the days of having U.S. citizens conscripted and shipped off to a foreign land for a half-@ssed military campaign just because some @sshole in the White House thinks it's a good idea are over.
I know perfectly well what it takes for a contract.
And what is required. It cost me. Blood and treasure.
Your posting history says much more about you than anything I could ever say.
Dig deeper.
/johnny
Would advise any kid thinking of enlisting..DONT DO IT. Also, what the hell are we going to gain from being in Africa or even Afghanistan? have our oil prices gone down? will we ever change such a primitive society that has never evolved into the current century? if the war is about oil..for Gods sake..drill HERE! if the war is about nation building...get the f out.
Mariner, no dear one..not God bless me..God be with our ravaged troops whose voices are being silenced, who endure unimaginable heat and horrors...ruined lives.
21 posted on Thursday, March 15, 2012 10:23:13 PM by Radiated Spam: “I just finished my fourth tour. You couldn’t pay me enough to go back. I.can tell you among the seasoned vets there is a lot of resentment going omtowards the American public.”
Welcome to Free Republic, and thank you for your service. You deserve to hear that. We disagree, but your service gives the rest of us the ability to exercise the First Amendment.
It happens in the fog-of-war. No excuse, but it is reality when boys (18 and such) are taught to kill! I'm surprised that this hasn't happened more often with all the repeated deployments our troops have had to endure in that worthless sh*thole of a country.
Still, if true, the sargent needed help. I can understand opening fire on the barbaric men anywhere and anytime, but women and children? Not acceptable.
God bless you Kate.
Too bad it wudn't for somethin'.
Mariner, tell me why we are over there? in Afghanistan?
“Correction: I don’t think the U.S. military has the moral authority ... “
The US Military does.
Exactly.
Good 'un!
Hell Kate, you've heard the story before:)
It started as an effort to depose the Taliban and make 'em pay for hosting those terrorist camps that trained those 911 bombers and many others.
However, then those damn politicians got involved and things got out of control.
We should have been out of there at the end of 2002, mid-2003 at the LATEST.
Mission complete.
11 years in Afghanistan. The Russkies knew better and pulled out after 9.
The only thing that keeps me going is knowing that the sorry bastards that put people such as obma in the White House will eventually get done in by obama.
I despise obama voters more every day.
The likely reason for this is to protect his family here in the states.
I would imagine because your government has welcomed in, tens of thousands of Muslims, and continues to do so.
You have my utmost respect. And thank you for your service
Can you expand on the cause of the resentment toward the American public?
I know your history kid
You have more than proven yourself
I am proud of you
I know a lot of Draftees who cared and worked hard. Do you have a special resentment to Draftees?
The story stinks to high heavens. A few lines from one story...
******************
“Sunday’s shooting rampage began in Balandi, a village about 1.5 kilometers (nearly a mile) south of the base.”
“Eleven were from one family. Five other people were wounded.”
“Two who lost relatives insisted that not one — but at least two — soldiers took part in the shootings.”
“Mohammad Wazir told the delegation that he was out of town when 11 of his relatives were slain at his house about 2:30 a.m.”
“It was the closing scene of a massacre that left 16 civilians, including nine children, dead in two villages in southern Kandahar province.”
“He said his sister told him that she heard gunfire and saw at least two soldiers firing inside their walled compound before she ran to hide in the kitchen of her uncle’s home nearby.”
“After the killings in Balandi, south of the base, four other people were gunned down in the village of Alkozai, about 1 kilometer (less than a mile) north of the base.”
“Sayed Jan said he was in the nearby city of Kandahar where he does construction work when the shooting occurred shortly before 3 a.m. at his house in Alkozai. He told the delegation that his cousins next door saw two men enter the house and gun down four people. The cousins ran to safety.”
“Marine Gen. John Allen, the top commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, said Monday in Washington that an Afghan soldier on guard duty reported seeing a U.S. soldier walk off the base. That report prompted a head count, which revealed that the staff sergeant was missing. A search party was organized, but others on the base could not find the missing soldier before the attacks occurred, Allen said.”
“Members of the Afghan delegation investigating the killings said one Afghan guard working from midnight to 2 a.m. saw a U.S. soldier return to the base around 1:30 a.m. Another Afghan soldier who replaced the first and worked until 4 a.m. said he saw a U.S. soldier leaving the base at 2:30 a.m. It’s unknown whether the Afghan guards saw the same U.S. soldier.”
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/students-protest-us-soldier-killed-afghans-15907521
Seriously, think about some of it...it does NOT make sense.
The timing of leaving base (and how does one just leave base with weapons and a fair amount of ammo and it is only Afghan guards guarding?).
The time the US soldier is supposedly seen leaving base, the camp check, the timing of the killings (phone calls received by out of town relative would verify that timeline) He walks a mile South to a town, kills, burns, then walks a mile or so North to a town and kills. They appear targeted at particular families, oddly, ones where men are *out of town*?
There is TOO much that doesn’t add up...we are missing a bunch of information here and what we do have, stinks.
I call B/S. The more you reply the more revealing troll you are.
IBTZ!!!!!
Well you have more information than I do then. The only thing I've read is "unnamed soldier".
I’ve read enough (at Blackfive) to question the character of Michael Yon.
Sorry if I don’t believe someone who just signed up yesterday.
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