Seattle attorney John Henry Browne objects to background check in Afghan case

A Seattle attorney for a U.S. soldier accused of massacring 17 Afghan villagers in March doesn’t want to undergo a background check.

“I’m not really trying to hide anything. It’s just a matter of principal to me,” said attorney John Henry Browne, in an appearance on 97.3 KIRO FM Seattle’s Morning News.

Browne said that the Army has requested that he and all civilian members of Staff Sgt. Robert Bales’ defense team undergo the check to obtain security clearances for reviewing any classified evidence.

Retired Army Major Mike Lyons said these types of checks are routine.

“The attorney has to understand he’s got to play by the rules of the military,” said Lyons. “If he has access to what’s military classified information, he’s going to have to go and do that process.”

But Browne said it is troubling that to protect his client’s legal rights, he and his associates would be subject to intrusive vetting by the government.

Browne said the document he’s being asked to fill out is 121 pages long.

“The beginning of the document tells you it will take at least a day, or more than a day, to fill out,” said Browne. “They want information going back your whole life basically.”

Browne said he’d be fine with signing a non-disclosure agreement with the government.

“I’d be happy to sign that sort of a document,” said Browne, “saying that if I am provided with secret or top secret information I will not disseminate it in any way.”

Browne said he’s very concerned about civil liberties in this country, and “sometimes things really boil down to what’s right and what’s wrong.”

“This is an example of how much we have lost civil liberties, the prosecution gets to `clear’ the defense lawyer,” he wrote. “Can we ask the prosecutors personal questions, check with their neighbors, and ask about mental health, alcohol or drug problems?”

Browne noted he’d need extra space on the form to write about all seven of his marriages.

“Most offensive are personal facts about mental health, alcohol and drug use, voluntary counseling and in and out patient treatment EVER,” he wrote. “For God’s sake I did live in and through the `60s, `70s and `80s!!!!”

Browne, who played bass for a rock band in college, said he had nothing to hide, “My skeletons are not in the closet, they are on the front lawn!” But objects to the check on principal.

“They say they WILL contact neighbors now and in the past as well as friends (they want details) and family members,” he wrote. “One of my family members is seriously mentally ill, why do I have to violate her privacy?”

Dan Conway, a civilian lawyer and former Marine who has handled several prominent military cases, said he understood some of Browne’s objections to undergoing a background check. He said he typically trusts his military co-counsel to review classified evidence to determine whether it’s worth pushing the government to declassify it. As a last resort, he said, he will go through the background check and obtain a clearance.

“The biggest concern is this: You don’t want to have to censor yourself with the media because the government has unnecessarily exposed you to classified information,” Conway said. “If I can do anything to avoid looking like I’ve disclosed classified information, which can be a crime, I’m going to do that.”

Bales also has assigned military lawyers who already have security clearances.

But another civilian attorney who specializes in military cases, Colby Vokey, said he believed Browne had a duty to undergo the background check, even though it’s a “royal pain.” Vokey said he wouldn’t feel comfortable relying on military co-counsel to evaluate classified evidence.

“I think he has a duty to review anything that’s relevant,” Vokey said. “If you’re the lead counsel in a case with national security implications, like Bales, you’ve got a duty to get that clearance.”

Bales, 38, a father of two from Lake Tapps, Wash., is accused of walking off the base where he was deployed in southern Afghanistan with a 9 mm pistol and M-4 rifle outfitted with a grenade launcher. Officials say he walked to two local villages, where he killed four men, four women, two boys and seven girls, and then burned some of their bodies.

Browne said he will think the whole thing over, over the weekend but said, “I think as a matter of principal I’m probably not going to participate in this process.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.