Is this what President George Bush means by nation building in post-Saddam Iraq?
Four U.S. soldiers accused of raping and killing a 14-year-old girl and slaying her sister and their parents will face courts-martial on murder charges, military officials say.
The commander of the 101st Airborne Division has referred murder charges against the soldiers for the alleged crimes that occurred in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, in March. Two of the soldiers could face the death penalty if convicted.
According to a written statement, Maj. Gen. Thomas Turner made the decision after reviewing a report of the investigation and receiving recommendations from the investigating officer, the appointing authority who directed the investigation and his staff judge advocate.
One of the soldiers, 23-year-old Army Spec. James P. Barker, told an Army criminal investigator that after the killings he poured kerosene on the girl’s bullet-ridden body, according to testimony in August at a military hearing. The girl’s father, mother and five-year-old sister were also killed, according to military officials.
Barker said in an interview that he held the girl down while she was raped by another soldier, Sgt. Paul Cortez, 23, according to Special Agent Benjamin Bierce of the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division.
Barker said he then attempted to rape the girl himself, before she was shot to death by former Pfc. Steven D. Green, Bierce said. Green is no longer in the military and faces charges in civilian court.
But, Barker added, he was not sure if he penetrated the girl, because he was having trouble getting an erection.
Bierce also testified that Barker admitted pouring kerosene from a lamp onto the girl’s body, although it was unclear from the testimony who set the girl on fire.
Bierce’s testimony came during a preliminary hearing in Baghdad for Barker, Cortez, and two other soldiers, Pfc. Jesse V. Spielman, 21, and Pfc. Bryan L. Howard, 19, who are also charged in connection with the killings in Mahmoudiya.
The hearing, similar to civilian grand jury proceedings, was held to determine whether there was enough evidence to proceed to courts-martial.
7 Comments
+ at 8:42 am
WHY IS THE CHENEY-BUSH REGIME OCCUPYING IRAQ?
“By some estimates there will be an average of two percent annual growth in global oil demand over the years ahead along with conservatively a three percent natural decline in production from existing reserves. That means by 2010 we will need on the order of an additional fifty million barrels a day. So where is the oil going to come from? Governments and the national oil companies are obviously controlling about 90 percent of the assets. Oil remains fundamentally a government business. While many regions of the world offer great oil opportunities, the Middle East with two thirds of the world’s oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies. Even though companies are anxious for greater access there, progress continues to be slow. It is true that technology, privatization and the opening up of a number of countries have created many new opportunities in areas around the world for various oil companies, but looking back to the early 1990’s, expectations were that significant amounts of the world’s new resources would come from such areas as the former Soviet Union and from China. Of course that didn’t turn out quite as expected. Instead it turned out to be deep water successes that yielded the bonanza of the 1990’s.”
–Dick Cheney in a speech to his oil industry peers at the London Institute of Petroleum in September of 1999
+ at 8:44 am
Castrate the bastards. I mean it. Cut off their weapons and then put em’ down.
+ at 9:06 am
This is an extremely disturbing story and one which makes me very angry. U.S. tax dollars — my tax dollars, are being spent to send soldiers to Iraq so they can rape and murder innocent people. I am truly sickened.
+ at 2:43 pm
Nice. Great. Wonderful.
So U.S. troops are screwing minor Iraqi girls and then murdering them and their parents and families so the evidence can die with them.
You know, the USA deserves whatever the Islamic world sends our way. I mean whatever they send our way.
+ at 9:50 pm
I really don’t care about the legal inticacies that may or may not let Baker off. Holding down a girl to be raped is every bit as heinous as the act of rape. If they’re guilty (as the confession would seem to indicate), then give them the firing squad or the noose or whatever the Army does to execute animals like these.
Vico- The difference between us and them is that these guys that legitimately perpetrate atrocities are going to pay and pay big-possibly with their lives. Islamic perpetrators get schools and streets named after them. They get celebrated as heroes. So, no we really don’t deserve “whatever the Islamic world throws at us.”
OT: How come I can’t highlight text to copy into comments? Is that some setting for this site?
+ at 12:27 pm
Hi LC Scotty,
WordPress uses regular html code. You can post italics and bold and hyperlinks http://fromtheleft.wordpress.com/, but highlighting may require a specific html code.
I hope this helps.
+ at 11:36 am
Hey Christopher,
What I’m driving at is on most blogs and websites, I can use the mouse to highlight text and then ctrl-c to copy it and then paste it into the comment. For example, if I wanted to repond to one specific passage in your post or a commenter’s comment, I should be able to grab the text with the mouse, but for some reason it does not work that way here. I’ve never seen a website that I couldn’t highlight text from so it’s quite curious in a tech-geek sort of way.
Cheers.