Testimony from military investigators in the trial of 4 US soldiers on trial in a military court for the rape and murder of a 14 year old Iraqi girl.
At the hearing into whether four U.S. soldiers should be court-martialled for rape and murder, a special agent described what took place in Mahmudiya in March, based on an interview he had with one of the men, Specialist James Barker...
Special Agent Benjamin Bierce recalled that Barker described to him how they put a couple and their six-year-old daughter into a bedroom of their home, but kept the teenage girl in the living room, where Barker held her hands while Sergeant Paul Cortez raped her or tried to rape her...
Barker also told the special agent he heard shots from the bedroom and shortly afterwards Private Steven Green emerged from the room, put down an AK-47 assault rifle and raped the girl while Cortez held her down.
Barker told Bierce that Green then picked up the weapon and shot her once, paused, and shot her several more times.
Absolutely sickening. And it gets worse:
Special Agent Gary Griesmyer recounted Cortez' account of the day. "While they were playing cards and drinking Iraqi whiskey, the idea came to go out to an Iraqi house, rape a woman and murder her family," he testified.Cortez said Barker told the young girl to "shut up" after she was raped, Griesmyer said.
Bierce said Barker told him he poured kerosene from a lamp on to the girl. It was not clear who set her on fire.
Kick the gays out. Keep the psychos and the white supremacists. I don't think this is good policy.
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Sounds like a few people need to be put up against a wall and shot.
Booze makes anybody stupid. Not that characters like these four need any help in that department.
I agree with Troy, if found guilty on the charges the maximum penalty allowed by law should be applied.
The Army is thinking about a theme park.
What, no rape rooms? Unless I can tie up my little brother and apply electrodes to sensitive areas, It just doesn't sound real ...
Keep the white supremacists? You're referring to another incident, and not to this particular group of accused, right?
Yes, I'm referring to the fact that the pentagon knows of hundreds of white supremacists in the military, and has a long history of such people literally stealing military technology and giving it to the KKK, but does nothing to discharge them. But by god, get those gays out of here!
Ted, is relevance utterly beyond your grasp? Or are you jealous you can't go rape little brown sister then barbecue her?
Alan, I think you misread Ted's post. He was pretty obviously being sarcastic.
Yes I was being sarcastic Ed.
It is naive to think that the military would prefer gays to supremacists; it's not about particular effectiveness at fighting terrorism as much as about testosterone and aggression. The military understands supremacists and thinks they can be rehabilitated and they ain't too bright so that's a plus for the mission.
The military is a blunt instrument that prides itself in ability to deliver violence, not really taking too much about being politically correct or introspective unless someone forces them to consider those aspects of representing US citizenry. Particularly in the field once engaged.
One interesting article that I saw fly across my screen yesterday was that now we've discovered that Vietnam war was a very dirty war and that there were hundreds of massacres involving large groups of civilians. Read these links for snuff thrills.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003182584_2vietnam08…
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1874235.cms
And why would this bit of random trivia float up now you may ask? Because when you do something stupid it's acceptable to trivialize it by pointing yonder and saying, "Yes, but it's not as stupid as that over there. We're getting better you know."
Earlier on, this was exemplified by comparing the US dead: We've have fewer dead now than in Vietnam and even less if you adjust for population growth in the US since the 70s. The press and the gutless terrorist lovers among you need to stop whining about the inconsequence of trailer trash being run through a colander already! I'm paraphrasing, but that was the jist of conservative blogs and mercenary experts on the tube.
But this particular rape atrocity is a godsend for the Pentagon. Unlike command directed activities like Abu Ghraib, or command protected like Haditha, in this case, the malfeasance doesn't go up the chain to Rummy. It was all on ill advised self-initiative looking for lulz by people that didn't belong in the armed forces. Sure, these psychos could have been better supervised and led, and the whole "you're representing us, so blow-back may occur to your mom when she's shopping at Publix" story should have been explained to them but the value of non-American life is pretty small to go to that effort for. It's terribly insensitive to say that, but turn the TV on and you don't need me saying it to know it to be true.
My opposition to the death penalty for domestic criminal cases has its limits. Traitors and war criminals (the latter including terrorists) commit aggression against the state and are therefore at war with it. In the bounds of the state, we can afford to spare the lives of criminals because they are no threat to civilization. War criminals, in the state of nature, are at war with the political community and must be eliminated. In the battle we're in, justice can no longer afford mercy. Hang the bastards.
This case angers me so much that I wouldn't mind seeing a little literal eye-for-eye for those bastards. A simple shooting or hanging is too good for them.
"Sounds like a few people need to be put up against a wall and shot."
No, the army doesn't do that anymore.
Assuming they're found guilty, they'll be hanged. The UCMJ definitely has the death penalty.
email is human readable - aloud.
There's an article about Steven Green in the most recent copy of Newsweek. He sounds like a real winner. One quote to a friend before going over to Iraq was something like "I can't wait to kill 'em all."