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| Iraq |
| US soldier admits rape/murder of 14-year old girl |
| 2007-02-22 |
| A second US soldier's plea of guilty to the gang rape of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the killing of her and her family has been accepted by a judge. Sgt Paul Cortez admitted four murders, rape and conspiracy to rape. His plea means he will avoid the death penalty. Personal opinion is that as long as the United States retain the death penalty, there'd be no better time or place to use it than when soldiers conspire to rape and multiple-murder innocents. Aren't soldiers supposed to be held to a higher standard of behaviour? The case is one of several in which US troops are accused of killing Iraqis. According to the plea agreement, Cortez admitted conspiring with three other soldiers, Private First Class Jesse Spielman, Specialist Barker and Steven Green, a now discharged soldier, to rape Abeer Qassim al-Janabi. He said: "During the time me and Barker were raping Abeer, I heard five or six gunshots that came from the bedroom. "After Barker was done, Green came out of the bedroom and said that he had killed them all, that all of them were dead." Cortez added: "Green then placed himself between Abeer's legs to rape her. When Green was finished, he stood up and shot Abeer in the head two or three times." The entire crime took about five minutes and the girl knew her parents and sister had been shot while she was being raped, the hearing heard. I note that the article doesn't mention the religions of the perpetrators, however "Paul" is a typical Judeo-Christian name. |
| Posted by:Aris Katsaris |
| #16 Every time I stop by, someone has to bring up the anme of that bitch. If you need one that bad, go to your local SPCA. |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2007-02-22 21:53 |
| #15 If they let Gentle back on, then we know that a thousand flowers might bloom again here at Rantburg! |
| Posted by: Flump Grinemp8767 2007-02-22 21:23 |
| #14 I'm a little misty, here. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2007-02-22 21:19 |
| #13 Old Home Week. |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2007-02-22 21:17 |
| #12 If Aris is back, maybe everyone has been pardoned. |
| Posted by: Mike Sylwester 2007-02-22 21:16 |
| #11 His last name is Cortez. Want to make something of that? |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2007-02-22 17:59 |
| #10 Courts-martial just don't involve death penalty practice much anymore -- I bet most prosecutors wouldn't even be entirely sure how to go about it (different rules, etc.). There are exactly six men on "military" death row. IMHO, it's mainly because the military tends to eliminate these sorts earlier, either at the recruitment point, through separations, or conviction of lesser crimes, before soldiers go and do something like this. But, people slip through the cracks. I had one case where everyone dropped the ball. The recruiter, the command, the host nation authorities who wouldn't allow us to grab him for desertion. While we were bickering with the local police, the scumbag murdered an old man with a golf club. At that point, of course, the host nation got interested, and it turned out the guy was a major head case, who never should have gotten past the recruiter. Point is, going for the death penalty is not at all a simple matter, and is rarely done. |
| Posted by: exJAG 2007-02-22 17:56 |
| #9 They should be hung. :( Welcome back Aris, tell us more about how Judeo-Christian westerns are evil. |
| Posted by: Anon4021 2007-02-22 15:25 |
| #8 Aris is back. Oh, joy. The reason that they won't be sentenced to death, Aris, is because they pled guilty. Or, rather, they pled guilty to avoid the death penalty. You can't accept a man's plea and then sentence him to death anyway; that sort of removes the incentive. I agree that in this instance, it's a pity. The prosecutor doesn't have to take the plea; he could go to trial. Wonder why he didn't. |
| Posted by: Angie Schultz 2007-02-22 12:02 |
| #7 So what did Aris expect? Let me know when Al-Queda or the Mahdi Army starts doing courtmartials. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-02-22 11:32 |
| #6 Aris is back! Also, looks like the Iraqis are getting into the act. Iraqis Charged with Rape As to the US soldiers - what's wrong with the firing squad? If their plea was to avoid the death sentence, then life at the maximum security/minimum fun facility at ...Florence, (?)Colorado... The "Supermax" that is driving some prisoners crazy.... |
| Posted by: Bobby 2007-02-22 11:11 |
| #5 CyberSarge, I agree with you wholeheartedly about turning them over to the Iraqi courts, but to do that would be a de facto death penalty - no matter what prison sentence they got, they wouldn't survive it, and that would just give the moonbats one more thing to moan about. Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2007-02-22 10:55 |
| #4 First off I would be strongly be in favor of placing a bullet in the skull of all involved, failing that I would allow the transfer of all to the Iraqi civil courts. The latter would quell most of the anti-U.S. feelings because you canÂ’t argue with justice. Also I would have a press release about every other day explaining that four individuals out of 150,000 does not constitute a trend. This will do much to damage relations with the small-minded and short-sighted. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2007-02-22 10:51 |
| #3 This breaks my heart. No excuse whatsoever for these men. Adult decisions deserve adult consequence. |
| Posted by: newc 2007-02-22 10:46 |
| #2 Yes, there still is a death penalty, but the senior judges have all but removed it from practice, just like in the civilian world [without the consent of the governed]. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2007-02-22 09:29 |
| #1 For the love of God, shoot these men. |
| Posted by: Excalibur 2007-02-22 09:19 |