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I hate journalists who protect con men … Refer to him as the “All American Boy” who was unselfish and loved by everyone. The massacre in Afghanistan is so out of character. Oh, yes. According to his lawyer John Henry Browne, Bales is suffering from amnesia, can’t remember anything from the night of rage. Similar to his buddies at the Camp Belambay who used the line he was influenced by alcohol … I know that line of defense all too well in daily life as camouflage of serious crimes.
At Home, Asking How ‘Our Bobby’ Became War Crime Suspect
(NY Times) – He was not the star, just a well-regarded young man who seemed to try to do the right thing. That was Robert Bales, “our Bobby,” friends said. He was a busy, popular kid, but he made time for the autistic man down the block. Other neighborhood boys admired him. As a high school linebacker, he was good enough to be captain, but also gracious enough to help a more talented player take over his starting position. It was good for the team, he said.
That solid-guy reputation followed him into the Army infantry. He joined at the relatively seasoned age of 27, just a few weeks after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and became respected for his maturity and calm, including in battle. “He was a damn good leader and a damn good soldier,” said Zachary Parsons, who served with Staff Sergeant Bales in Iraq in 2007.
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Mr. Bales was enrolled in the College of Mount St. Joseph in 1991 and 1992. He attended Ohio State University from 1993 until 1996, declaring an economics major, according to Jim Lynch, a university spokesman. It is not clear why he left, Mr. Lynch said.Details about Mr. Bales’s life during the next several years are sketchy. Friends and his lawyer said he had worked in financial services in Columbus, Ohio, then started an investment business with his brother Mark. No sign remains of their Spartina Investments at the modest office building where they leased space in Doral, Fla., a few blocks west of Miami International Airport and south of the Doral Golf Resort and Spa …
Robert Bales as fraudster, illegal trading and making unsuitable investments in 2000
(Business Week) – Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales defrauded an Ohio couple of more than $600,000 when he served as their stock broker in 2000, according to records of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
An arbitrator in 2003 ordered Bales to pay more than $1.3 million in damages to Gary Liebschner and his wife of Carroll, Ohio. By then, Bales was already in the Army, having enlisted in November 2001, less than two months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to an Army statement.
Bales, 38, is suspected of killing at least 16 civilians in Afghanistan on March 11. He may face formal charges in U.S. military court as soon as this week, his lawyer, John Henry Browne, said in an interview yesterday.
Gary Liebschner told WCPO TV, the ABC affiliate in Cincinnati, that Bales pocketed their money after they asked him to sell some stock to cover medical bills. Bales never paid the money and the couple could never find him, Liebschner said.
Bales worked in the financial services industry in Ohio from 1996 to 2000, according to FINRA records. An arbitrator found that Bales “engaged in fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, churning, unauthorized trading and unsuitable investments,” according to a report on the FINRA website.
Emma Scanlan, an associate of Browne, didn’t respond yesterday to an e-mail seeking comment. Earlier yesterday, Browne said U.S. military charges against Bales may bring a review of U.S. strategy in the Mideast conflict and its effect on soldiers.
(ABC News) Afghan Massacre Suspect: Financial Fraud History?
See my earlier diaries – US Soldier in Kandahar Killing Spree and Robert Bales Identified as Suspect in Afghan Massacre
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
