An interesting situation has arisen in the case of Staff Sergeant
Robert Bales, who nine months ago was convicted of killing 16 Afghan civilians in 2012. The government is continuing to withhold from the media investigative reports on the massacre because the convening authority has not yet taken action on the case, including whether to grant clemency, according to
this report by Adam Ashton in
The Olympian. Congress ought to fix the Freedom of Information Act to rectify this, or the Defense Department and services ought to change their policies regarding the release of information once a court-martial has completed its work, or Congress should simply abolish the post-trial role of the convening authority. Or all of the above.
A great deal about this case has been obscured from its first beginnings and throughout the judicial proceedings. The larger point, as noted in the piece, is the continuing lack of transparency in U.S. military justice.
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