Speaker 1: Afghanistan. Twenty twelve, Staff Sergeant Robert Bales was leading a
Speaker 1: squad of American infantryman in a region known as the
Speaker 1: birthplace of the Taliban. He was on his fourth poor
Speaker 1: Beauty and considered to be an elite soldier until one night,
Speaker 1: for some reason, Bales left his combat outpost, walked to
Speaker 1: two nearby villages and opened fire. All told, sixteen Afghan
Speaker 1: civilians were killed that night, many of them were children.
Speaker 1: Robert Bales is a murder.
Speaker 2: It's straight up a war crime.
Speaker 1: Hearing the name Robert Bales sends chills down my spine.
Speaker 1: The reaction from the US government was swift and severe,
Speaker 1: provoking universal condemnation and the life sentence Fort Leavenworth Correctional
Speaker 1: Barracks military prison. Since then, the story of Robert Bales
Speaker 1: has faded from the public eye until now.
Speaker 2: Maybe I made a mistake, maybe I am wrong, but
Speaker 2: you have to understand the way it went down.
Speaker 1: Over the years, We've conducted a series of exclusive interviews
Speaker 1: with one of America's most notorious war criminals. They paint
Speaker 1: a complex portrait of a man changed by the global
Speaker 1: War on Terror.
Speaker 2: Nobody joins the Army after September eleventh, to be the
Speaker 2: bad guy, you know, the idea of hurting it kid,
Speaker 2: of killing a kid come on.
Speaker 1: Questions remain around Baal's mindset and motivations that fateful night,
Speaker 1: questions he seeks to answer.
Speaker 2: It comes into question, how could anyone do that? How
Speaker 2: could I go that far off track? And then I
Speaker 2: relived those days and I'm like, oh my god, I
Speaker 2: can't believe I was still alive too to.
Speaker 1: That The war within the Robert Bayles Story. It's an
Speaker 1: investigative podcast that unpacks one of the most controversial events
Speaker 1: in American military history. You'll hear from soldiers have served
Speaker 1: on that deployment.
Speaker 2: I get woken up very early in the morning and
Speaker 2: it's like, everybody, get up, go to your battle station.
Speaker 1: Someone is missing. Robert Bales's fiercest defenders. He saw he
Speaker 1: saw the Taliband get ready to attack. My goal is
Speaker 1: to get him home right so that we can be
Speaker 1: a family. His biggest detractors. He committed brutal atrocities on us.
Speaker 1: He took my whole family away from me. And experts
Speaker 1: who uncover explosive information on this polarizing.
Speaker 3: Case, Bail's deployment is merely a symptom of a broken army,
Speaker 3: scraping the bottom of the barrel and sending injured and
Speaker 3: ill service members overseas.
Speaker 1: It's all here in twelve episodes that will be both
Speaker 1: gripping and revealing.
Speaker 2: I understand why I'm here.
Speaker 1: I know because my nightmares.
Speaker 3: Tell me every day.
Speaker 1: Listen to the War within the Robert Bailes Story starting
Speaker 1: on June twenty ninth, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts.