http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20090508/twl-us-soldier-guilty-of-raping-iraqi-gi-41f21e0.html


Former Private 1st Class Steven Green also killed Abeer Qassim al-Janabi's father, mother and six-year-old sister.

The federal court jury that delivered guilty verdicts on all 16 counts against former Green will decide his fate in the trial's death penalty phase that begins on Monday.

The 24-year-old was tried in federal court in Paducah, Kentucky, as a civilian on murder, rape and obstruction of justice charges because his arrest came after he was discharged from the US Army later in 2006 for a "personality disorder."

The jury heard prosecution testimony by Green's former comrades in which they detailed the brutal assault, one of several incidents involving US soldiers that enraged Iraqis and strained relations between the two countries.

Green was described as the trigger-man in the group of five men, who donned black "ninja" outfits before carrying out the crimes.

The incident unfolded after the soldiers drank whiskey, played cards, and plotted the attack in Mahmudiya, 20 miles south of Baghdad.

Green, from Midland, Texas, was described by prosecutors as being predisposed to killing Iraqis.

Defence lawyers acknowledged he participated in the killings but argued he was suffering combat stress after the death of close colleagues and did not know friend from foe.

Three of the other soldiers pleaded guilty in the attack and the fourth was convicted, all in military courts-martial. They received sentences ranging from five to 100 years, although they could be paroled much sooner.

According to testimony, Green shot the girl's family in a bedroom while two soldiers raped her. Green then took his turn raping the girl, covered her head with a pillow and shot her three times. The soldiers then set fire to her body to try to cover up the crime.
Green later bragged about the assault, saying what he had done was "awesome".

@topic,

This is why I believe in death penalty. This guy should be subjected to it 10 times over.

What say you RichyBlack?

Disgusting! I agree to the death penalty.

Americans should leave Iraq/ Afghanistan. They should go home and worry about the economy, there is no winning the war on terrorism, because they are not ready to fight.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_D._Green

Green grew up in Seabrook, Texas and moved to Midland, Texas when he was 14. According to school officials, he dropped out of high school in 2002 after completing the 10th grade and moved to Denver City, Texas, where he earned his high school equivalency in 2003. Days after a January 2005 arrest for alcohol possession, Green enlisted in the US Army. In doing so, he was granted a moral character waiver for prior drug and alcohol related offenses that might have otherwise disqualified him. Green graduated from Infantry Training Brigade and was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Kentucky. According to a military spokesperson and a criminal complaint filed in connection with the charges, Green was honorably discharged from the military "due to antisocial personality disorder but before the military was aware of the incident."[1] Green was stationed in Iraq from September 2005 to April 2006 and discharged in May 2006

when we argue that reduced standards in recruiting are responsible for incidents like this, others will be blathering about how the average recruit has graduated high school, etc

On June 30, 2006, the FBI arrested Green, who was held without bond and transferred to Louisville, Kentucky. On July 3, 2006, United States Federal Court prosecutors formally charged him with raping and killing Abeer Qassim Hamza, a 14-year-old girl, and with killing her five-year-old sister Hadeel, her father, Qassim Hamza Rasheed, and her mother, Fakhriya Taha Muhasen in Mahmoudiyah, on March 12, 2006. On July 10, the U.S. Army charged four other active duty soldiers with the same crime. A sixth soldier, Sgt. Anthony Yribe, was charged with failing to report the attack, but not with having participated in the rape and the murders.

Green and four other soldiers, Sgt. Paul E. Cortéz, Spc. James P. Barker, Pfc. Jesse V. Spielman, and Pfc. Brian L. Howard, had planned raping Abeer Qassim Hamza. Pfc. Howard was ordered to monitor radio traffic while the others entered the Hamza family's house. Green ordered the father, mother, and younger daughter to a bedroom and shot them, saying: "I just killed them; all are dead." Green, and at least one other soldier, raped Abeer Qassim Hamza, after which Green shot her in the head two or three times. Five soldiers, including Green, were formally charged with raping the girl and murdering her parents and little sister. Cortéz, Barker, Spielman, and Howard accepted plea bargains.[3]

Reportedly, Fakhariya Taja Muhassain worried that her daughter, Abeer, had attracted the unwanted attention of U.S. soldiers at the checkpoint near their home. She asked her neighbor, Omar Janabi, if she could sleep in his daughter's room at his house. Janabi agreed, but the Hamza family were murdered the next day.[4] Janabi, who said he discovered the Hamza family bodies, found the husband, the wife, and the younger, five-year-old daughter in one room, all shot dead. In another room of the Hamza house, Janabi found Abeer Qassim Hamza's burned body.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Spielman

Prelude to Crime

The Qasim family lived in an isolated farm house situated approximately 200 meters[6] away from a traffic checkpoint manned by US soldiers. The soldiers, who noticed Abeer as she worked in the field next to the house,[7] formed a 6-man unit responsible for the traffic checkpoint. According to the neighbors, the accused soldiers had previously entered the farmhouse several times, ostensibly to search it, and had made advances towards Abeer in the days before the actual killing took place. Abeer's brother Mohammed, aged 13, who survived the attack along with his younger brother because they were in school at the time, said he witnessed one of the soldiers stroke Abeer's face during one of their visits to the house, a gesture that had terrified the girl.[8]

Abeer's mother was concerned enough about the soldier's advances to request that Abeer be allowed to spend her nights at the neighbor's house. Abeer’s father did not think a significant danger was imminent, saying "it was no problem and that she was just a small girl."[7] Nevertheless, Abeer started to sleep at her neighbor’s house at nights, which proved to be an ineffective deterrent as the attack took place in broad daylight the day after Abeer spent her first night with neighbors.

[edit]

FBI Affidavit

According to the affidavit written by the FBI in support of an arrest warrant for Steven Green, the accused had discussed raping the girl in the days preceding the event. On the day in question, five soldiers of the six-man unit responsible for the checkpoint left their posts for the Qasim farmhouse. Four of the soldiers are alleged to have directly participated in the attack, while a fifth (PFC Howard) acted as lookout. A sixth soldier SGT Anthony W. Yribe, is charged with failing to report the attack but is not alleged to have been a direct participant. The charge was later dropped in exchange for an "other than honorable" discharge. [1] [2]

The affidavit goes on to state that the soldiers entered the house and ordered Abeer’s father, mother and sister into another room where Steven Green summarily shot all in the head, emerging to say, "I just killed them, all are dead." As the rest of the family was shot in the other room, Abeer was held down to the floor by another soldier. After killing the other family members, Green and at least one other soldier raped Abeer, and then Green shot and killed her.

Based on reports, after the rape the lower part of Abeer’s body, from her stomach down to her feet, was set on fire. The fire eventually spread to the rest of the room and the smoke alerted neighbors who ran to tell Abu Firas Janabi, Abeer’s uncle, that the farmhouse was on fire and that dead bodies could be seen inside the burning building. Janabi and his wife rushed to the farmhouse and doused some of the flames to get inside. Upon witnessing the scene inside, Janabi went to a checkpoint guarded by Iraqi soldiers to report the crime.

The Iraqi soldiers immediately went to examine the scene and thereafter went to a checkpoint manned by U.S. soldiers to report the incident. This was a different checkpoint than the one manned by the accused. After approximately an hour, some soldiers from the checkpoint went to the farmhouse.

These soldiers were accompanied by at least one of the accused.

Retaliation

On July 11, the Mujahideen Shura Council (now a part of the group, Islamic State of Iraq) released a graphic video showing the bodies of PFC Thomas Lowell Tucker and PFC Kristian Menchaca, soldiers from the same unit as the accused, who were allegedly kidnapped, tortured and beheaded. This was accompanied by a statement saying that the group carried out the killings as "revenge for our sister who was dishonored by a soldier of the same brigade." [9]

It also said that upon learning of the rape/murder, the group "kept their anger to themselves and didn't spread the news, but were determined to avenge their sister's honor." A statement issued along with the video stated that "God Almighty enabled them to capture two soldiers of the same brigade as this dirty crusader." Other militant groups made various claims or statements announcing revenge campaigns after the killings were reported on July 4, when the US investigation into the incident began. [10][11] Steven Green and the other soldiers who participated in the incident had told the Iraqi army soldiers who arrived on scene immediately after the incident that it had been perpetrated by Sunni insurgents, who conveyed this information to Abir's uncle who viewed the bodies, and this prevented the event from being widely reported amidst the widespread violence occurring in Iraq at that time. [12][13] On 4 July, Jaysh al-Mujahidin claimed downing a US Apache "in retaliation for the child, Abir, whom US soldiers raped in Al-Mahmudiyah, south of Baghdad." [14] On 12 July, the Islamic Army in Iraq claimed responsibility for a suicide car bomb near the entrance to the Green Zone in Baghdad, in support of the "Abir operations" targeting the "evil den in the Green prison". [15]

Steven Green was arrested in North Carolina while travelling home from the funeral of one of the soldiers in Arlington, Virginia.

sad, and frightening. it has always been said that war is ultimately about rape, theft and murder.

Thanx for this bro. These news just saddens my heart as God knows how many of such has evaded the news.

Tayo-D:

@topic,

This is why I believe in death penalty. This guy should be subjected to it 10 times over.

What say you RichyBlack?

Inasmuch as I completely detest the actions of this monster in soldier's uniform, my fundamental belief in the sanctity of human life makes me unable to support his execution.

The death penalty is hinged on hatred and a macabre urge to punish with finality. There is nothing more to it.

I pose this question to all supporters of the death penalty:

How many of you will support the execution of a close friend's 18-year old son who killed his (only sibling) 16-year old sister? (He punched her in the face and kicked her in the stomach; she collapsed and died). How many of you will go to the bereaved friend and tell him "justice must be served, your son must also be killed".

@Tayo-D, are sure you will support this? Would you cheerfully tell your close friend that he will also lose his only living child? What would you do?


I look forward to your response.

@RichyBlack,

There is nothing 'gengen' about the issue you posted. This is why the law distinguishes between first and second degree manslaughter as well as cold-blooded murder. No one in their right mind will have the other sbling executed. This is not only on compassionate grounds for the parents, but because it was not a pre-meditated, cold-blooded killing.

You know America does not even send you to jail if you kill someone by accident with your car. These are very differnet situations altogether that require different responses. The law says no cruel and unusual punishment. It will be cruel and unusual to execute the living sibling, but it will not be cruel and unusual to execute this soldier ten times over.

Tayo-D:

@RichyBlack,

There is nothing 'gengen' about the issue you posted.  This is why the law distinguishes between first and second degree manslaughter as well as cold-blooded murder.  No one in their right mind will have the other sbling executed.  This is not only on compassionate grounds for the parents, but because it was not a pre-meditated, cold-blooded killing. 

You know America does not even send you to jail if you kill someone by accident with your car. These are very differnet situations altogether that require different responses.  The law says no cruel and unusual punishment.  It will be cruel and unusual to execute the living sibling, but it will not be cruel and unusual to execute this soldier ten times over.

An adult punched a child (<18) in the face and kicked her in the stomach deliberately and you don't see that as murder? Of course, the jury (usually a bunch simple-minded White folks) will not execute him.

Let's add a little twist, shall we? The boy is 18, black and the only child of his drug-addict parents; the girl is white. The black boy has some criminal records and also a drug addict. The boy was high on crack and got into a fight with the girl, punched her in the face and kicked her in the stomach. She collapsed and died.

I want to bet that that all those who showed compassion when the son of their friend turned out to be a murderer will fight to hang the same-aged black boy for killing their sweet daughter. Even the jury will want to see the boy dead.

The selective application of the death penalty, and the fact that minorities are more likely to be executed than Whites and that crimes against White victims are more likely to lead to the death penalty than crimes against minority victims, is enough to do away with this old symbol of hate!

It's war, and this is what soldiers do when no one's looking. Man, what's this?There are far worse atrocities to be recounted. But at least they're on trial for their lives now. When Iraqis, and other victims, react to what they observe, they're branded terrorists. Yes to the death penalty, if it is deserved. Unregenerate evil should itself meet with evil, and be terminated. Compassion's shifting from the victim to the perpertrator; don't kill little Luke for raping and murdering a dozen little girls. Let the Ted Bundys of this world keep breathing fresh oxygen while you worry about their hair and if they're eating well in prison.
If they deserve it, death penalt the bastards.

Take a look through this True Crime Library, and then talk again about letting insanely evil people walk away with their lives after dispossesing others of their own.

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/classics/index.html

There are rules even in war and this guy broke them. In doing so, not only did he take innocent lives, but he bought shame on his army regiment and on his country. Not only did his action have direct consequences on the innocents he violated but atrocities like these also cause repercussions around the world.

He deserves to be executed. If he isn't, the US needs to take a long, hard look at itself and work out why the rest of the world hates it so much.