Army: Robert Bales’ medical records to remain classified

[unhappycamper]

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2014/09/02/3358411/army-robert-bales-medical-records.html?sp=/99/296/331/354/



Staff Sgt. Robert Bales murdered 16 Afghan civilians in the early morning of March 11, 2012. This photograph was taken after his arrest in Afghanistan's Kandahar Province. The photo was obtained through the Freedom of Information Act from the Army Criminal Investigation Command.

Army: Robert Bales’ medical records to remain classified
By Adam Ashton
Staff writer
September 2, 2014

The Army’s official public accounting of Staff Sgt. Robert Bales’ massacre of unarmed Afghan civilians will not settle lingering questions about whether the military failed to catch signs of his instability or whether he had access to a paranoia-inducing antimalarial drug.

The Army rejected a Freedom of Information Act request from The News Tribune seeking Bales’ medical records, which would include descriptions of any medication he was taking and whether he had been flagged for mental health issues prior to the last of his four deployments with a Joint Base Lewis-McChord Stryker brigade.

The Army cited a privacy exemption in the Freedom of Information Act in denying The News Tribune’s request. The denial from the Army Medical Command was dated on July 14.

The military generally does not release information about an individual’s medical history, but the newspaper had sought the records in the interest of assessing whether the Army had missed opportunities to divert him from the Afghanistan deployment.