Bales’s Security Clearance May Reflect Strain on Approval

U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales held a security clearance at the time he’s accused of murdering 17 Afghan civilians, and that’s prompted officials and analysts to ask if the war on terror has overwhelmed the government’s procedures for granting access to its secrets.

Bales, 38, was issued and retained a mid-level secret clearance even though he’d had financial troubles and scrapes with the law before and after he entered the service, according to two U.S. military officials with access to his records. Both asked not to be named because the details haven’t been made public. He still had his clearance at the moment he allegedly left the gate of the combat outpost where he was stationed, walked to nearby villages, and shot the 17 men, women, and children.