You have never been in the military, obviously. As a Marine legal officer and pilot from 1972 to 1980, I can tell you that this happens less in the military than it does in civilian life. Military induction and training tends to weed out the criminals and psychos and military leadership does not tolerate the presence of these types of people in their commands. When this happens, and if it happened, it is an anomoly and it is delt with harshly in accordance with the UCMJ!
DITTO....
"Military induction and training tends to weed out the criminals and psychos and military leadership does not tolerate the presence of these types of people in their commands."
There have been quite a number of news posts on FR over the past few years detailing the following: lowering of standards / increase in waivers for recent enlisted into the Army, relaxing the rigors of Army bootcamp and lastly a surge in gang activity / petty criminality in the Army in general but in Iraq in particular. So for you to claim that the Army "weeds" the scumbags out, is misplaced faith. That branch has been doing all it can to keep them in with the inevitable bad consequences. Let's hope that this isn't one of them.
I would normally think that this guy would be reactivated to face UCMJ charges. Is this federal proceeding normal or would his discharge for this personality disorder prohibit that.
But since this guy is a civilian now, it looks like he'll be tried by a civilian court, not by the Army. Civilian lawyers could delay this case for years or get him off for his "personaility disorder" even if he's guilty. I fear this is just going to fuel more anti-Americanism. The tragedy is that these guys had been talking about this for a week or more. Why didn't someone report them?