Child witnesses to Afghan massacre say Robert Bales was not alone

cyberhog

Village leaders in Panjwai granted an Australian journalist Yalda Hakim rare access to interview child witnesses after American investigators tried to prevent Hakim from interviewing any children.

...the children told Hakim that other Americans were present during the rampage, holding flashlights in the yard.

Noorbinak, 8, told Hakim that the shooter first shot her father’s dog. Then, Noorbinak said in the video, he shot her father in the foot and dragged her mother by the hair. When her father started screaming, he shot her father, the child says. Then he turned the gun on Noorbinak and shot her in the leg.

“One man entered the room and the others were standing in the yard, holding lights,” Noorbinak said

http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/29/10927844-child-witnesses-to-afghan-massacre-say-robert-bales-was-not-alone


I think there is now good reason to believe there has been a cover-up that goes all the way to the top.

Armin_Tamzarian

cyberhog wrote: »

I think there is now good reason to believe there has been a cover-up that goes all the way to the top.

Based on the statement of a terrified 8-year old.
Aside from anything else it was dark and the child had probably just been woken from sleep.
Under such circumstances I doubt it I could trust my own version of events.

cyberhog

Armin_Tamzarian wrote: »

Aside from anything else it was dark

and we all know how hard it is to see flashlights in the dark! :rolleyes:

Armin_Tamzarian wrote: »

Under such circumstances I doubt it I could trust my own version of events.

I'd trust an eyewitness before I'd trust what the Pentagon want us to think happened.

jackiebaron

Armin_Tamzarian wrote: »

Based on the statement of a terrified 8-year old.
Aside from anything else it was dark and the child had probably just been woken from sleep.
Under such circumstances I doubt it I could trust my own version of events.

Are you being serious now or are you just taking the pïss?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30942.htm

Armin_Tamzarian

jackiebaron wrote: »

Are you being serious now or are you just taking the pïss?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30942.htm

Of course.
That child's version of events cannot be treated as a reliable source.

cyberhog

The findings of an Afghan parliamentary investigation support the child's account of the incident.

http://www.pajhwok.com/en/2012/03/15/20-us-troops-executed-panjwai-massacre-probe


8 year old kids just don't make up stories like that. The Pentagon, on the other hand, has lied through it's teeth to try to cover up similar incidents in the past.

Armin_Tamzarian

cyberhog wrote: »

8 year old kids just don't make up stories like that.

Human memory is far from the most reliable of sources at the best of times.
Especially when we're talking about a scared and confused 8 year old from a third world country.

The people with torches could have been in the area post event and the child has muddled it all up.
There's also the possibility that questions from others have shaped the child's memories.

It is of course possible that others were involved but that would involve the conspiracy of pretty much the entire base where S Sgt. Bales was posted as well as that of his superiors along with all the members of the forensics teams who investigated post event.
Not to mention the fact that Bales himself would have to happily remain silent and carry the can for the entire sorry event.

Conspiracy nuts will happily turn every event like this into some grand scheme of the Pentagon.
However, the reality of what happened is most likely a lot less far fetched.

cyberhog

Speculating about events after a parliamentary probe discredited the Pentagon's story is a rather unproductive activity.

Armin_Tamzarian

cyberhog wrote: »

Speculating about events after a parliamentary probe discredited the Pentagon's story is a rather unproductive activity.

Yeah sure, Afghan Parliamentary probe.
I'd take a long hard look at the state of that body before I'd start listening to anything they have to say.

Victor

Armin_Tamzarian wrote: »

Human memory is far from the most reliable of sources at the best of times.

Mileage will vary. Hence the usual procedure of examining all the evidence.

Especially when we're talking about a scared and confused

This will be down to the nature of the incident and the proximity of the witness to the incident.

8 year old

Traditional distrust of child witnesses is currently considered disproportionate.

from a third world country.

Pardon?

old_aussie

The story from the kid falls down on couple of points.

Firstly a muslim with a dog......ha, yeah right

Secondly there was surveillance......

A surveillance video captured by a blimp that surveys the area around the base shows that the soldier later approached the south gate of the base with an Afghan shawl covering the weapon in his hands, according to an Afghan official who was shown the footage by his US counterparts.

In the video, the man walks up to the base, lays down the weapon and raises his arms in surrender.

http://bfbs.com/news/afghanistan/us-soldier-has-no-memory-killings-55792.html

Memnoch

There's a difference between a child remembering what someone looked like and describing their facial features or the exact sequence of events and remembering whether or not there were other American soldiers that he saw there. It's not something that's easy to confuse or make a mistake about.

These reports were there from the very start.

Right now, I'm leaning towards it being covered up.

Armin_Tamzarian

old_aussie wrote: »

A surveillance video captured by a blimp that surveys the area around the base shows that the soldier later approached the south gate of the base with an Afghan shawl covering the weapon in his hands, according to an Afghan official who was shown the footage by his US counterparts.

In the video, the man walks up to the base, lays down the weapon and raises his arms in surrender.

http://bfbs.com/news/afghanistan/us-soldier-has-no-memory-killings-55792.html

Better check with the 8 year old first.
Perhaps he was monitoring the night sky at the time and has evidence that there were not blimps present in the area.