After Bales' arrest, military tried to delete him from the Web
By David Goldstein and Matthew Schofield, McClatchy Newspapers (via Stars & Stripes) March 21, 2012

[....] So why did the Pentagon try to scrub Bales from the Internet in the first place?

The military said its intention in removing the material wasn’t to lessen the Army’s embarrassment over the horrific attack — nine of the victims were children — but to protect the privacy of Bales’ family.

“Protecting a military family has to be a priority,” said a military official, who like several interviewed for this story spoke only on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the case.

“I think the feeding frenzy we saw after his name was released was evidence that we were right to try. … Of course the pages are cached; we know that. But we owe it to the wife and kids to do what we can.”

A second Pentagon official acknowledged that one of the reasons for the delay in releasing Bales’ name was to remove references to his Army service from the Internet.

But when Army Maj. Nidal Hasan was arrested in the deadly shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009, the Pentagon released his name immediately.

Several former military officers said they were perplexed that the Army would try to remove information that already had been public. One called it “unusual.”

Experts agreed that the effort was futile [....]

"Afghanistan massacre: What we've learned in the past week",
This Just In blog @ CNN.com, March 29, 2012; a good roundup if you haven't kept up, with links and videos.