Free Republic

Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, the Army soldier who is set to be charged in the mass murder of 16 Afghan civilian men, women and children, spent the weekend in pretrial isolation as military prosecutors prepared a case that may carry the death penalty. Staff Sgt. Bales, 38 years old, was brought to the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., late Friday to await the charges, which military officials said could come sometime this week. Meanwhile, a Seattle-based criminal attorney retained to defend Staff Sgt. Bales traveled to Kansas Sunday and planned to meet Monday with the soldier. Staff Sgt. Bales...

Senior US officials told the BBC the name of the suspect as he was heading back to the US to face charges. He is being flown to Fort Leavenworth, in Kansas, from Kuwait. His lawyer, John Henry Browne, said on Thursday that the suspect was a 38-year-old man who had been injured twice while serving in Iraq. He also said the accused had witnessed his friend's leg blown off the day before the killings. That incident has not been confirmed by the US Army. The Taliban called off peace talks in the wake of Sunday's deadly rampage - in which...

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A U.S. military official says the American soldier accused of killings 16 Afghan civilians on a shooting spree has been flown out of the country. The official said Wednesday that the soldier has been flown to a "pretrial confinement facility" in another country but did not provide further details.

President Obama on Tuesday said he viewed the killing of 16 Afghan civilians by a U.S. soldier as seriously as if those killed had been Americans. "The U.S. takes this as seriously as if it were our own citizens and our own children who were murdered," Obama said at the White House. Obama said he was directing the Pentagon to do a very thorough investigation of the weekend killings. He said the inquiry would "follow the facts" wherever they lead, and that anyone found responsible would be prosecuted fully. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said the death penalty is possible...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Army staff sergeant accused of the massacre of 16 villagers in Afghanistan on Sunday was treated for traumatic brain injury after being in a vehicle that rolled over in Iraq in 2010, a U.S. official said on Monday.