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PANJWAI MASSACRE TIMELINE Table of Contents PANJWAI MASSACRE TIMELINE The primary sources used in this December, 2015 timeline are the sworn statements and other evidence obtained by U.S. Army criminal investigators (Military Police soldiers, aka CID Special Agents) for CID's 2013 Report of Investigation (ROI), as released by the Army in mid-2014 to The News Tribune newspaper of Tacoma, WA, in response to the newspaper's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request(s), and to the public by The News Tribune in March, 2015. The Army withheld 1,300 pages, and heavily redacted the 1,500 pages released, hiding names in particular, so deciphering – by blogger “pow wow” in collaboration with multimedia journalist Lela Ahmadzai – preceded the compiling of this timeline and its illustrated online summary. Table of Contents (Click page links to quickly reach text sections) December 14, 2011 Page 3 U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales Reached Village Stability Platform Belamby December 20, 2011 Page 12 List Of Weapons Issued To SSG Bales By B Company, 2-3 Infantry Monday, March 5, 2012 Afternoon | Pag e 12 Two IED Explosions Injured VSP Belamby Soldiers And Sailor Early Evening | Pag e 15 Local Men Ordered To Gather To Hear U.S. Special Forces Captain Thursday, March 8, 2012 8:00 AM-2:00 PM | Pag e 17 SSG Bales Joined A Patrol To Forward Operating Base Zangabad, Then Helped Bomb A Tree Friday, March 9, 2012 5:00 AM-6:00 AM | Page 19 Video Of War Dead Viewed On The Personal Computer Of SSG Bales Saturday, March 10, 2012 Evening | Page 20 SSG Bales Criticized The U.S. Army's Rules Of Engagement 9:00 PM or 10:00 PM | Pag e 21 SSG Bales Guard Duty At VSP Belamby Ended 11:00 PM | Pag e 22 Movie-Watching, With Drinking, Concluded 11:00 PM–12:00 AM | Page 24 Special Forces Sergeant First Class Blackshear Awakened By SSG Bales Saturday, March 10, 2012 – Sunday, March 11, 2012 Page 25 Guarding Village Stability Platform Belamby 1 Sunday, March 11, 2012 1:20 AM | Page 31 U.S. Guards Heard Sporadic Gunfire Begin North Of VSP Belamby 1:30 AM | Page 32 Afghan Guard Saw A U.S. Soldier Enter VSP Belamby On Foot 1:40 AM | Page 33 U.S. Guards Heard Sporadic Gunfire End North Of VSP Belamby 2:00 AM | Page 34 SSG McLaughlin Saw SSG Bales At VSP Belamby 2:00 AM | Page 34 Local Residents Heard Gunfire In Najiban, South Of VSP Belamby 2:30 AM | Page 39 Afghan Guard Saw A U.S. Soldier Exit VSP Belamby On Foot 3:00 AM | Page 40 Afghan Army Guard Heard Gunfire Outside VSP Belamby 3:00 AM | Page 40 The Attack At The Dawood Home Began 3:00 AM | Page 45 Afghan Guards Got Word Of VSP Belamby's Gate Activity To The U.S. “Foreign Forces” 3:05 AM | Page 48 U.S. Soldiers Scrambled To Respond To The Afghan Report 3:15 AM | Page 49 U.S. Guard Heard Gunfire To The South Of VSP Belamby 3:20 AM | Page 50 SSG Bales Couldn't Be Found To Conduct Infantry Roll Call 3:30 AM | Page 53 Five Alkozai Wounded, From North Of VSP Belamby, Reached FOB Zangabad 3:40 AM | Page 56 VSP Belamby Called FOB Zangabad To Request Help Finding SSG Bales 3:40 AM-4:30 AM | Page 62 FOB Zangabad Personnel Spoke To Four Alkozai Witnesses And A Relative, As Five Injured Civilians Were Treated 4:36 AM | Page 71 FOB Zangabad's Infrared Sensor Operators Located SSG Bales 4:47 AM | Page 75 SSG Bales Reached The Gate Of VSP Belamby 10:00 PM-6:00 AM | Page 80 Two Aircraft Flew Near VSP Belamby Overnight, KAF Records Later Revealed 6:23 AM | Page 81 Special Forces Alerted The U.S. Army's Criminal Investigation Division (CID) 8:00 AM | Page 82 U.S. Army & ISAF Officers, Still Unaware Of The Murders South Of VSP Belamby, Focused On “Consequence Management” By Noon | Page 85 Vehicles Carrying Bodies Began Parking Outside VSP Belamby's Gate ADDENDUM | Pag e 97 Ibrahim Khan Houses, Alkozai ADDENDUM | Pag e 105 Alkozai Ballistics Evidence ADDENDUM | Pag e 108 The Centralized Afghanistan Government's Investigation(s) 2 TIME ACTION SOURCES DECEMBER, 2011 U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales Sources Reached Village Stability Platform Belamby On December 14, 2011, at the beginning of a year-long 21 September 2013 First Corrected deployment to Afghanistan, U.S. Army Staff Sergeant (SSG) Final Report of Investigation by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division Robert Bales arrived for a tour of duty at Village Stability (CID) Command, Exhibit 226 (26 March Platform (VSP) Belamby – aka Village Security Platform, or 2012 sworn statement to a CID Special Village Security Operation (VSO), Belambai, soon to be more Agent at Fort Bragg, NC by the Army commonly known as Camp or Combat Outpost (COP) Belambai Sergeant EOD team leader who'd – in Panjwai district of Kandahar province, Afghanistan. arrived at VSP Belamby with SSG Bales in December; that EOD Sergeant – from the 767th Ordnance Company, 192nd Bales deployed (for a fourth time in an overseas combat role) Ordnance Battalion, 52nd Ordnance 3 from Washington state's Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) on Group – left VSP Belamby in mid- December 3rd, 2011, with fellow soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, February, 2012; his replacement as EOD team leader was the Navy Petty 3rd Infantry Regiment (2-3 IN) of the 3rd Stryker Brigade Officer Second Class who lost a leg on nd Combat Team, 2 Infantry Division (3-2 ID). A March 19, 2012 March 5, 2012, as detailed below) Memo from B Company of the 2-3 IN, to which Bales belonged, states that Bales arrived at Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan on CID Exhibit 172, Page 1 (31 March 2012 December 4th, and on December 7th flew from Manas Air Base Agent's Investigation Report summary of a 27 March 2012 interview by two CID to Kandahar Airfield (KAF) in Afghanistan, the large NATO/ISAF Special Agents of a 767 EOD Army Staff (now U.S.) military base located southeast of Kandahar city, Sergeant, apparently at Camp arriving the same evening. After some "Receipt, Staging, Morehead in Kabul province, Onward Movement and Integration (RSOI)” training at KAF's Afghanistan) Special Forces Camp Brown, Bales left for VSP Belamby on CID Exhibit 229 (10 April 2012 sworn December 14, 2011, and reached that Panjwai district VSP, statement to a CID Special Agent in which was due west of KAF by air but more difficult to reach by West Virginia by a Navy Signals road, later that day. Intelligence Petty Officer Second Class, who was deployed to VSP Belamby from May 30, 2011 until January 24, A U.S. Army Sergeant (SGT), who was an Explosive Ordnance 2012, which mentions a “VSP Disposal (EOD) team leader, arrived at VSP Belamby with Zangabad”) Bales, the EOD SGT told Army CID investigators, having met CID Exhibit 225, Pages 2-5 (5 April 2012 Bales at Kandahar Airfield just before driving with him to the Agent's Investigation Report summaries VSP base at night from KAF. of multiple 28 March 2012 CID interviews of Green Berets from the VSP Belamby was located about 40 kilometers southwest of Third Special Forces Group, Operational Detachment-Alpha 3232, including ODA Kandahar city, in the Zangabad, or Horn of Panjwai, region of 3232's Captain, who were running the northern Panjwai district, about 20 minutes by air from the base in December, 2011 when Bales large KAF military base to its east. The EOD Sergeant told CID first arrived at VSP Belamby. All 8 Third that he and Bales arrived at the Special Forces-run VSP Special Forces Group soldiers interviewed that day at Fort Bragg, North Belamby on the 7th or 11th of December, 2011. Army Brigadier Carolina, refused to provide sworn General (BG) Ricky Waddell, who conducted an AR 15-6, or statements to Army CID Special Agents) Command Climate (CC), investigation immediately after the mass killings (CID received the AR 15-6 report on July 2, August, 2013 Bales sentencing hearing transcript, which contains this statement 2012, per PDF Page 1355; the public got a redacted version in by lead prosecutor Army Lieutenant 2015), states in his 2012 report to Marine Corps General John Colonel Joseph “Jay” Morse, on Page Allen, US Forces-Afghanistan Commander, that Bales remained 961: "[J]ust a thousand meters away at at Kandahar Airfield until December 13, 2011. Waddell's FOB Zangabad" Army doctors were working on wounded Afghans as Bales report, citing the B Company Memo, further states that Bales was walking back to VSP Belamby arrived at Kandahar Airfield on the evening of December 7, 2011, and arrived at VSP Belamby on the 14th of December, CID Exhibit 92; PDF Page 342 2011, where he remained for just under 3 months (89 days). ("Kuriazai [apparently east of the S. Jan/M. Naim/Nazar M. homes north of VSP Belamby] is the village located On December 15 or 20, 2011, VSP Belamby “came under outside FOB Zangabad on the North contact” (came under daytime fire from outside the base), West side," according to the March 15th when Bales and his squad of troops were present, and they sworn statement of an Army infantry Sergeant First Class based at FOB responded for the first time at their new base. No casualties Zangabad) were received by anyone at the base – then, or during patrols in the surrounding countryside and neighborhood – until March A very definitive account of the location 5, 2012.
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