8 Soldiers to Be Court - Martialed (rape 14 yo

[wakeme2008]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Soldiers-Charged.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

October 18, 2006
Troops to Face Courts - Martial on Charges
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 2:59 p.m. ET

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (AP) -- Eight soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division will be court-martialed on murder charges stemming from their service in Iraq, including two who face a death sentence for allegedly raping a 14-year-old girl and killing her and her family, the military ordered Wednesday.

The Fort Campbell soldiers facing the death penalty are Sgt. Paul E. Cortez and Pfc. Jesse V. Spielman. Both are accused of raping Abeer Qassim al-Janabi in her family's home in Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, then killing her along with her parents and younger sister.

,,more at link...

[MaineDem]

1. I hate to think of our soldiers doing this but...

I hope they get the book thrown at them! (If convicted, of course.)

At least they're finally identifying the poor child as just that - a 14-year old child.

[wakeme2008]

3. Right they have her age right

finally.....

[glitch]

12. Still weaselly though. Her "younger" sister was a 7-yr-old. nt

[oblivious]

22. I thought she was only five. And they put a bullet through her head.

That's presented as a mere aside in the case. A minor detail.

[glitch]

23. I'd read 7 but I'd believe 5. Minor details to the weaselly ones. nt

[Earth_First]

24. Good god! 7 year of age?!

I cannot even begin to pinpoint my rage and infuriation of soldiers who represent the United States of America raping a 14-year-old let alone a 7-year-old! Whatever the case may be, it is still rape of a child, and I hope that these soldiers, if found guilty in a court of their peers, are prosecuted to the fullest extent of UCMJ possible; which in this case appears to be death.

There is absolutely NO excuse WHATSOEVER for the crimes that these two soldiers are accused of. None.

By chance glitch, do you happen to have a link to the article you mentioned above? Thanks.

[oblivious]

25. No, they killed the 5-year-old and both raped and killed the 14-year-old

In Cold Blood: Iraqi Tells of Massacre at Farmhouse
From the Los Angeles Times

..."Never in my mind could I have imagined such a gruesome sight," Abu Firas Janabi said of the day in March when his cousin, Fakhriya Taha Muhsen; her husband, Kasim Hamza Rasheed; and their two daughters were slain and their farmhouse set ablaze.

"Kasim's corpse was in the corner of the room, and his head was smashed into pieces," he said. The 5-year-old daughter, Hadel, was beside her father, and Janabi said he could see that Fakhriya's arms had been broken.

In another room, he found 15-year-old Abeer, naked and burned, with her head smashed in "by a concrete block or a piece of iron."

"There were burns from the bottom of her stomach to the end of her body, except for her feet," he said.

http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/fairenough/latimes246.html

[glitch]

27. Thanks oblivious. nt

[atreides1]

2. If they are found guilty

I'll volunteer to push the plunger, or pull the lever, if the Army still uses hanging?

[wicket]

4. May those who committed this atrocity rot and burn in hell

:grr: :grr: :grr:

[thereismore]

5. Good God.

[Drum]

6. Shame!

x(

[KansDem]

7. 94 Americans executed in WWII for rape and murder...

In addition to Pvt. Eddie Slovik, who was executed for desertion--the first execution for that crime since the Civil War (iirc).

At least that's the way I read this...

At his <Pvt. Eddie Slovik> execution, a member of the firing squad said to him, "Try to take it easy, Eddie. Try to make it easy on yourself---and on us."

"Don't worry about me," Slovik replied. "I'm okay. They're not shooting me for deserting the United Stated Army---thousands of guys have done that. They're shooting me for bread I stole when I was 12 years old."

He was buried in France, in a secret cemetery with 94 American soldiers executed for the crimes of rape and murder.

Determined to right what she was certain was a horrible wrong, Antoinette vainly petitioned seven presidents to have her dead husband pardoned. It seemed so unfair that so many others convicted of the same crime were not executed. Why only one soldier, why her husband alone? She worked relentlessly to clear his record and to claim his body until her own death in 1979.

Detroit News

Pvt. Slovik was executed about 5 months after signing his declaration to desert and fight no more. Gen. Eisenhower wanted to use him as an example to deter other soldiers from doing the same thing.

The US military takes rape and murder very seriously. I'll be interested to see what happens in this trial.

[The Stranger]

13. It may be different when the victims are not Europeans.

If they enforce the UCMJ like they have the Geneva Conventions, it doesn't count if the tortured, raped or murdered are Arabs/Muslims.

[gratuitous]

8. I'm sure the military will get to the bottom of this!

Wait; no, I'm not so sure that will happen. Let's say, for the sake of argument, that we had been invaded by Iraq, and an entire family turned up dead under suspicious circumstances, allegedly at the hands of Iraqi military folks. Would we be satisfied if our occupying overlords told us that the accused offenders had been taken back to Basra or Tikrit or some other obscure town far, far away, where the Iraqi military was going to try them? How can this court martial look like justice to the Iraqis?

[redqueen]

10. Only if they're convicted and executed.

Any other outcome, and it will be looked upon with suspicion.

What about the witnesses who kept their mouths shut until they thought they were personally in danger? I haven't read the article... but I wonder what happened to all of them.

[gratuitous]

11. I think you're right

And what does that say to the defendants? The only "acceptable" outcome of this trial will be your execution; your actual guilt or innocence may vary, but in order for the military to maintain its credibility, you guys are going to have to hang.

Which is precisely why this trial shouldn't be up to the military.

[arcane1]

14. indeed; if an Iraqi raped and killed an invading US soldier...

we would probably bomb the entire village where it happened

[saigon68]

18. Yes it would be Lidice all over

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




IT WAS HITLER'S MY LAI


Lidice (Liditz in German) is a village in former Czechoslovakia (now in the Czech Republic) which was completely destroyed by the Nazis during World War II. About 340 men, women and children from the village were murdered by the Nazis.

In 1942, Reinhard Heydrich was the Reichsprotektor of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia which had been occupied by Germany in 1939. On the morning of May 27, 1942, he was being driven from his country villa to his office in Prague. When he reached the Holešovice area of Prague, his car was attacked by two Czechoslovak resistance fighters, Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš. These men, who had been trained in Britain, had parachuted into Czechoslovakia in December, 1941, as part of Operation Anthropoid. On June 4, 1942, Heydrich died in Bulovka hospital in Prague from an infection. Hitler, enraged, ordered Kurt Daluege, Heydrich's replacement, to wade through blood to find Heydrich's killers. The Germans began a massive retaliation campaign against the civilian Czech population.




The entire population was rounded up, and all men over fifteen years of age were put in a barn. They were shot the next day. Another nineteen men, who were working in a mine, along with seven women, were sent to Prague, where they were also shot.

[enigma000]

20. Another British war crime

They don't teach these things in schools.

[Spider Jerusalem]

28. What does Lidice have to do with Britain, exactly?

Oh, that's right...nothing.

[enigma000]

29. The assassins were trained in Britain

When he reached the Holešovice area of Prague, his car was attacked by two Czechoslovak resistance fighters, Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš. These men, who had been trained in Britain, had parachuted into Czechoslovakia in December, 1941, as part of Operation Anthropoid.

The British are responsible for the aftermath.

[Spider Jerusalem]

31. That's an AMAZINGLY STUPID thing to say.

The GERMANS are responsible for the aftermath, not the British. So the British trained Czech resistance; good for them. Only some sort of imbecile would try to argue that the Czechs would have been better off meekly submitting to Nazi tyranny, and that the British shouldn't have aided resistance movements in Nazi-occupied territory.

[MetaTrope]

21. Isn't that what Fallujah was?

:shrug:

[bullimiami]

9. winning the hearts and minds.

stay the course.

[TX-RAT]

15. How about a link with no registration?

[uppityperson]

16. Reuters link here.

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-10-19T021003Z_01_N18371511_RTRUKOC_0_UK-CRIME-IRAQ-SOLDIERS.xml

If it doesn't work, do a news search for "abeer hamza" and you'll come up with a bunch of links.

[maddezmom]

17. US to court-martial 11 soldiers accused of murder in Iraq

CHICAGO (AFP) - Eleven US soldiers and Marines will be court-martialed on charges of murdering Iraqis in separate incidents, including four accused of killing a raped girl and her family, the military said.

Four other soldiers are charged with murdering three Iraqi prisoners they had seized in a raid and threatening to kill a fellow soldier if he reported what happened.

Two of the four soldiers accused in the rape and murder of the 14-year-old girl and her family could face the death penalty, the US army said in a statement. The six other soldiers face a maximum penalty of life in jail without the chance for parole.

Separately three US Marines charged with murdering an Iraqi civilian are to stand trial but will not face the death penalty if found guilty, a military court ruled Wednesday.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061019/wl_mideast_afp/usiraqattacksprosecute_061019081831

[saigon68]

19. SUPPORT THE TROOPS !!!!!

well, maybe a few of them at least.

What we have here is a failure to communicate

ie: "Don't rape that child"

[wageslave71]

26. They should be extradited

and stand trial in Iraq. Then, the Iraqi people could hold their own govt. accountable for the verdicts/sentences.

[0007]

30. Coming soon!

[flyarm]

32. oh the poor child is "now" 14 yrs old..when the media pounded on calling

her a woman,..for how long?????????????

i hate our media..i hate what is being done
in my name and i really hate this administration that is putting our troops in this situation..

there is no excuse to me..but if they weren't there,
in an illegal war..they would not be facing the death penalty or court martials!

and those children would be alive,as would their parents!

and 650,000 other innocent Iraqi's!

fly