Soldiers Accused Of Raping 14yo In Iraq

P

PDJ

On a break
Joined
May 2, 2003
Messages
4,132
Location
brum
From yahoo.com

Military court told soldiers took turns to rape

1 hour, 45 minutes ago

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A U.S. military court heard graphic testimony on Monday on how U.S. soldiers took turns to hold down and rape a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and murdered her and her family.

At the hearing into whether four U.S. soldiers should be court-martialled, a special agent described what took place in Mahmudiya based on an interview he conducted with Specialist James Barker, one of the accused.

The case, the fifth involving serious crimes being investigated by the U.S. military in
Iraq, has outraged Iraqis and led Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to call for a review of foreign troops' immunity from prosecution under Iraqi law.

Special Agent Benjamin Bierce recalled how Barker described to him how he went into the living room of a house and held the hands of the teenage girl while Sergeant Paul Cortez either raped her or attempted to rape her.

Barker then switched positions with Cortez and attempted to rape the girl but said he was not sure if he had done so, Bierce told the hearing.

He also said he was also told shots were heard from the bedroom and shortly afterwards Private Steven Green emerged from the room, put down his AK-47 assault rifle then raped the girl while Cortez held her down.

Bierce said Barker told him that Green then picked up the weapon and shot her once, paused, and then shot her several more times.

Military prosecutors are expected to set out their case against Private First Class Jesse Spielman, Barker, Cortez and Private First Class Bryan Howard, who face charges of rape and murder among others.

If court-martialled and found guilty, they could face the death penalty.

Green faces the same charges in a U.S. federal court in Kentucky, home of the 502nd Infantry Regiment, his former unit. Green, who has pleaded not guilty, was discharged from the army for a "personality disorder."

A fifth soldier, Sergeant Anthony Yribe, is charged with dereliction of duty and making a false statement and will also appear at the hearing at a U.S. base next to Baghdad airport.
 
If the US military doesn't want any more of this unit's soldiers kidnapped, tortured and mutilated to death in revenge, it'd better come up quickly with the right verdict in this case. The US Govt. has changed its stance as to why it invaded Iraq more times than John Prescott's eaten pies, but I don't think that one of its many reasons was a remit for strong, trained, armed men to gang-rape and kill innocent young girls and murder their families. Get this one out of the way quickly, USA, and make sure that justice is done.
 
Agree 100% with what Kri has said. I can't believe that any decent human being could do something like that - they need locking up for life.
 
I don't believe in the death penalty. Lock them up for life instead. Life meaning life for once.
 
The death penalty is what they'd get if the Iraqi family's community had anything to do with it, but the chances are that if found guilty, all but one will serve forever in a military prison, which I believe is far less of a picnic than a Federal one? But since the crime was committed when the one dismissed was IN the military, would he not be sentenced to a military prison (if found guilty), rather than a Federal one? If he raped/killed while on military service for the USA, why should he be tried by a non-military system? Don't get that.
 
According to Radio Five this evening they then burnt her body to conceal evidence.

They are happily, in my opinion anyway, likely to face the death penalty.
 
Death penalty is wrong even in a case like this. Not only is it morally wrong but I honestly do not think it is a harsh enough punishment.....too quick.

Lock them up in a cell big enough to to just about fit a bed and toilet, lock the door and feed them through it and never let them step out. Life is life....but make their life hell.
 
What is so perverted about this particular multiple rape and murder of a child, for that's what she was, is that it was not done by some psycho stranger, but by men who were sent into her country to 'protect' the citizens as much as fight baddies. I can't imagine the scene in her house or her last moments of horror, but I'd be pleased enough with them locked away for all time.
 
Originally posted by Galileo@Aug 7 2006, 09:45 PM
Death penalty is wrong even in a case like this. Not only is it morally wrong but I honestly do not think it is a harsh enough punishment.....too quick.

Lock them up in a cell big enough to to just about fit a bed and toilet, lock the door and feed them through it and never let them step out. Life is life....but make their life hell.
Click to expand...
Yes but the "bleedin'" liberals will turn up in a few months time and say that it is inhumane cooping them up like that.

The only fair solution is to broadcast on Baghdad radio that the accused will be released in the centre of the city as free men on a future, specified date and let the locals sort it out.
 
Back
Top