And I hope he suffers each and every day...........

[CatWoman]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20070222/iraq-rape-slaying

Soldier Gets 100 Years for Rape, Killing

Sgt. Paul E. Cortez, 24, also was given a dishonorable discharge. He will be eligible for parole in 10 years under the terms of his plea agreement.

Cortez, of Barstow, Calif., pleaded guilty this week to four counts of felony murder, rape and conspiracy to rape in a case considered among the worst atrocities by U.S. military personnel in Iraq.

In his plea agreement, he said he conspired with three other soldiers from the Fort Campbell-based 101st Airborne Division to rape 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi. The girl, her parents and a younger sister were all killed.

Earlier Thursday, tears rolled down Cortez's face as he apologized for the rape and murders. He said he could not explain why he took part.

"I still don't have an answer," Cortez told the judge. "I don't know why. I wish I hadn't. The lives of four innocent people were taken. I want to apologize for all of the pain and suffering I have caused the al-Janabi family."

[bryant69]

1. I still don't have an answer?

Did he run an insanity defense?

That statement makes no sense unless he's a psychopath, which, I suppose, is entirely possible.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[CatWoman]

2. I have an answer

because he's a sick fuck, who didn't expect to get caught.

[NI4NI]

7. BINGO, Catwoman!

You hit the nail square on the head, he's ONLY sorry because he got caught!

[plcdude]

13. War

gives individuals power over situations and other people. Power can corrupt and often does the individual who uses it. When you are there holding an enormous amount of power over others you have choices to make. He failed to make the right, good, and honorable choice and chose to allow the power of war, which in a vast majority of cases is the power to destroy, to serve him. We have got to train our soldiers to not lose their humanity for the fleeting moments of absolute power. Here we have another glimpse of hell that is war. He will live with that burden for the rest of his life and so it should be.

[Turbineguy]

23. War brings out the worst in people

and brings out the worst people.

[shadowknows69]

32. Not all who go to war turn into animals

mankind is a resilient species. Capable of as much love as it is rage and can survive horrors both mental and physical. It is the true test of a man, or woman, when they are forced to stare into the darkness, whether they let it take them or not.

[CatWoman]

37. BINGO!!!

[TahitiNut]

29. "psychopath" isn't a valid insanity defense.

That's termed a 'personality disorder' - descriptive of nearly any person who knowingly engages is such behavior. An "insanity defense" involves the question of 'knowing' - whether the person was capable of distinguishing between "right and wrong" or "reality and illusion" and was at all conscious of their behavior.

It could be somewhat validly claimed that the process of military indoctrination is one of blurring the lines between "right and wrong" - or of (temporarily?) modifying the individual's personality to become 'slightly' psychopathic.

Consider, however ... if, under equivalent rules of engagement, a pilot of a B-52 dropped a bomb on that very same household, would ANYONE ever hold the pilot to anything remotely as accountable? The 'standards' become obscenely malleable in a "war" - a form of deliberate insanity.

[H2O Man]

47. In fact,

evidence that someone is a psychopath is something the prosecution introduces, particularly in the penalty phase.

[mike_c]

3. I am loathe to wish suffering on anyone, but people who murder the innocent...

...for their own sport are hard to forgive. Damned hard.

[Missy M]

4. I think the answer might be .....

he did it so he could rape the innocent, young girl. He is despicable and the thought that he is eligible for parole in 10 years is disgusting.

[Fovea]

9. Any bets on whether he lives

to even come up for parole?

I think he will be about as safe in prison as he ought to be.

[WinkyDink]

12. And in the same fashion.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

26. Depends on which prison

I've "heard" (no direct experience, thanks) that Leavenworth is fairly safe, though none-too-enjoyable. The guards supposedly don't let a lot of nonsense go on there.

Is there any news on where these individuals are heading?

[Fovea]

44. my across the street neighbor

is a prison admin at Leavenworth.

It is not a picnic, but it isn't abu ghraib, either.
Still, lots of the bad boys in federal pen have little sisters.

I doubt he will have a rich social life.

[Omphaloskepsis]

5. I hope this shit head dies a painfull death...

I am more concerned about the loss of life he caused. But being a stupid fuck will result in revenge killings against his friends.

[Jacobin]

6. He'll be out in ten years, you know....

Presumably since he only killed a family of brown people and raped a brown girl.

Is there any wonder that Iraqis are using force to evict our troops?

[OneBlueSky]

22. yeah, I noticed that . . . how on earth do you get a 100-year sentence with parole in ten? . . .

oh, I forgot . . . these weren't real people -- just Iraqis . . . :sarcasm:

[DKRC]

31. It's in the plea agreement

In his plea agreement, he said he conspired with three other soldiers from the Fort Campbell-based 101st Airborne Division to rape 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi. The girl, her parents and a younger sister were all killed.

<snip>

The military judge hearing the case, Col. Stephen R. Henley, issued a sentence of life in prison without parole, the maximum for the charges. Under military law, the defendant is given the lesser sentence unless he violates terms of the plea agreement, which requires Cortez to testify against others charged in the case.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/22/iraq/main2506877.shtml

-------------------


All 4 of them need to go to prison for this.

[malaise]

33. Bingo n/t

[Double T]

8. Answer: 'barbaric gang mentallity'...........

for which there is NO EXCUSE.

[varkam]

10. I think he's still a human being...

so in light of that I find it hard to wish suffering on him. He committed heinous acts of violence, and I am glad that he was caught and will be punished. It seems as though he is expressing remorse for his actions, so I just hope that he'll be able to figure out the "answer" and be able to change that aspect of himself. He'll have plenty of time to do it.

[Missy M]

16. If he is, then he should have acted like a human being!!

[RaleighNCDUer]

27. I hate to break this to you, but he did act like a human being.

He acted like human beings have acted for millenia when granted unlimited power over the helpless.

As a species, we deserve our coming self-inflicted extinction.

[varkam]

40. All of us make mistakes

At some time or another. Most of those mistakes are small, and some are large. His mistake is such that I don't have the words to express the gravity of it. I do not wish to excuse his actions by calling it a "mistake", but simply to say that now he wishes it were not so and, consequently, will suffer for it.

In one sense, I am glad that he will suffer but I hope that it is the kind of suffering that is productive and produces genuine change as suffering, unlike many other emotions, is one that can be extremely beneficial.

Should he of acted differently? Of course he should have. Unfortunately he cannot go back and change that, and nothing that he do will bring those people back to life or undo the harm that he has caused. I still maintain, however, that does not excuse violence against him.

[Tansy_Gold]

17. If he is human, he will suffer. If he is not, no wishing will

change his mental state.

I wish, instead, that he will serve as a lesson both to himself and to others, and that somehow, someway, something good will come from all this evil.

I think we have seen the difference between this young man, who got caught in the horror of war, improperly trained, terrified 24/7 out of his wits, who commited a horrible act and followed it with a lie but who ultimately KNOWS he did something wrong -- a sociopath like booosh and/or cheney. How we measure his remorse, how we measure the wrongness of his wrong is immaterial; he feel something, and something is more than the nothing (or, worse, the glee) our sociopathic leaders experience when observing the carnage they have wrought.

Some of us here, back in late 2002 and early 2003, knew this would happen to some extent or other, because of the nature of the war booosh had got us into. As I read the accounts -- and I confess I am able to read only a few of them -- only one name comes to mind.

I wonder whatever happened to FalconAir?


Tansy Gold

[varkam]

42. Indeed.

Only he can know whether or not his remorse is genuine. There are likely many factors that led into his decision to do what he did, many of them even he cannot articulate. I feel compassion because I would like to believe that his suffering is genuine. I do not wish to alleviate his suffering, as mentioned before, suffering is something that can produce genuine change - which he desperately needs.

[MamaBear]

36. He performed PREMEDITATED acts of violence.

Therein lies the difference.

No parole for this guy, or his buddies. Never. Ever.

[varkam]

43. Premeditation makes his crime worse.

I won't argue that point. I'm not seeking to paint him in a good light, or any light at all, but to simply realize that he is a human being. Additionally, he was a soldier in a war zone. That doesn't excuse what he and his comrades did, but does help to explain it. Understanding why an act occurred is not the same as condoning it. For my money, I don't think I can ever really understand why people do such brutal things to one another - perhaps Sgt. Cortez may never understand either - but I think it is wise to try to understand them as opposed to automatically demonizing the actors so that we may try to prevent further brutality. Lastly, I do not condone what he did, nor should anyone else. As a student of psychology, however, I am committed to the idea that people can change. Some more than others, granted, but everyone should be given the chance. Sgt. Cortez's chance will not come for a long time, but he should still be given it, nonetheless.

[WinkyDink]

11. One cannot "apologize" for these kinds of actions. I am SICK of this minor term's being

used by one and all.

One must express DEEP REMORSE and SHAME, and pledge to ATONE. He should vomit in self-disgust every day, every hour. He should scream in horror at what he has become. He should wail in grief over the murdered. He should cry with shame at his continued existence.

But "apologize"? That is for bumping into someone's grocery cart.

[Mandate My Ass]

15. Absolutely

He says "lives were taken" not "I participated in heinously torturing a young girl, mutilating her corpse after brutally killing her family while holding her down and gang raping her. I will seek until the end of my days to make amends to that family." :puke:

[Mad_Dem_X]

19. Well said!

"One must express DEEP REMORSE and SHAME, and pledge to ATONE."

EXACTLY!

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

28. Somewhere between "apology" and "execution" ...

there's a new fad remedy called "rehab".

With a life sentence, eligible for parole in 10 years, he may be able to reduce the 10 years by good behavior and participation in "rehab".

[spanone]

14. Obscene justice. Eligible for parole in 10 years for this crime is unjustifiable.

[The Animator]

18. I don't have any trouble wishing him serious harm .

If this had happened in the U.S. all four of them would have gotten 100 years in the electric chair. Guys like these are the ones who need to get extrordinarily rendred. Prison is not enough, and death is not enough for sick fuckers like this.

[gratuitous]

20. "Lives . . . were taken"

Nice use of the passive voice there, Mr. Cortez. Almost as if you don't know at all how those four people met their demise. But we probably shouldn't be looking to this 24-year-old schmuck for any wisdom on why this happened anyway. The answer's a little bigger than him.

Cortez' testimony against his three accomplices had better be a lot tighter than his expression of remorse. And in a more just world than this one, he would have stood trial in an Iraqi court, being judged by Iraqis.

[Swamp Rat]

21. beat me to it

"The lives of four innocent people were taken." - Here's an opening into the mind of that sociopath.

[Zavulon]

24. Take your apology and shove it up your ass, you fucking piece of shit.

I want this fuck to suffer, too. A lot. I don't think I've ever wished for someone to be raped and killed in prison, but I'll he happy if it happens to this fucking turd. I just hope the rape is repeated over the course of years before he's killed slowly.

You know, it occurs to me - sometimes hate is actually justified. I've never met this guy, but I hate him as much as I've ever hated anyone.

[Katherine Brengle]

25. I think the sentence is more than deserved --

but I also think it's sad that we send young men and women into situations which they are not mentally equipped to handle. The mental stress of war is beyond any of us to fully comprehend.

This crime was... an atrocity.

I think the incidence of rape in war is something our society (and the world at large) really like to try to ignore.

Edited to add: I glossed over the "parole in 10" part on my first reading - that's not justice. This man should not be eligible for parole.

[shadowknows69]

30. I know i'll get flamed for advocating this but who cares

SOMEBODY RAPE THIS FUCKING ANIMAL HARD PLEASE. Preferably with a chainsaw.

[cali]

45. I'll flame you for it.

Advocating torture sucks. And it is NOT a liberal position. Put people away for life who harm other humans. Vengence is a road to hell.

[shadowknows69]

46. Luckily I don't believe in Hell

Hopefully my positive will still outweigh my negative at the end of the day. I make no apologies for my rage, unhealthy as it may be.

[shadowknows69]

34. These soldiers also killed american troops indirectly

I met guys who had to go into that same area after this incident and they definitely felt the "revenge" factor being played out. "Cleaning up a hornet's nest someone else had kicked" I believe was the phrase he used.

[Mandate My Ass]

35. And that's the only reason this heinous crime was exposed

because some Iraqis decided to get revenge on others from that regiment by torturing them and mutilating their bodies and then releasing film of it.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1818277,00.html

According to the Site Institute, which monitors extremist activity on the internet, the "extremely graphic footage" was preceded by an audio clip from a previous speech by Osama bin Laden, and a recording of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the assassinated leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, was heard over the scenes showing the corpses.

"We present this production, of the remains of the bodies of the two American soldiers kidnapped near Yusufiya, as revenge for our sister whose honour was violated by a soldier from the same regiment," the Mujahideen Shura Council said in a statement accompanying the video.

US investigators have maintained there is no evidence of a connection between the two cases. Privates First Class Kristian Menchaca and Thomas Tucker, kidnapped and killed last month, were from the same unit as five Americans now charged with the rape and murder of Abeer al-Janabi and the killing of her parents and sister at their home in March.


Their crocodile tears have nothing to do with the brutal murders of al-Janabi family.

[ShortnFiery]

38. UNSAT! "He will be eligible for parole in 10 years under the terms of his plea agreement."

:grr: No justice here. :(

[kestrel91316]

39. Why did he do it?

Because he's an ASSHOLE.

Some people are just assholes. I hope he suffers emotionally 'til the day he dies.

[wicket]

41. To paraphrase Johnny Cash:

May he rot and burn in hell.