CNN/AP: Investigator: Troops drank, golfed before Iraqi killings, rape

[DeepModem Mom]

Investigator: Troops drank, golfed before Iraqi killings, rape
Monday, August 7, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- U.S. soldiers accused of raping and murdering an Iraqi female drank alcohol and hit golf balls before the attack, and one of them grilled chicken wings afterward, an investigator told a U.S. military hearing Monday, citing a soldier's sworn statement.

Criminal investigator Benjamin Bierce told the hearing that he interviewed one of the accused, Spc. James P. Barker, on June 30, and recorded graphic and brutal sexual details of the alleged March 12 assault.

Bierce was testifying on the second day of the hearing to determine whether five U.S. soldiers must stand trial in the rape-slaying of Abeer Qassim al-Janabi and the killing of her parents and 5-year-old sister in the town of Mahmoudiya, one of the most violent areas in Iraq.

The rape and murders are among the worst in a series of cases of alleged misconduct by American service members that have tarnished the American military. U.S. soldiers' conduct has come under the spotlight over a string of similar cases.

Barker's sworn and signed statement was submitted in evidence during the hearing. Parts were revealed during Bierce's testimony....

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/08/07/iraq.mahmoudiya.ap/index.html

[karlrschneider]

1. "Watch this drive"

...

[zann725]

40. "Chicken" wings afterward. No comment on disgusting, subliminal analogy.

n/t

[MaineDem]

2. This is appalling! n/t

[Kali]

3. recruitment goals

somebody really effed up letting this guy in. That or his training "took" too well.

Let the Iraqis meet out the punishment.

[Ian David]

6. Yeah, but at least he's not gay, right?

But, after a few years in prison, he may as well be.

[acmavm]

19. They're taking all kinds of people with emotional and mental

problems that they would never have taken before.

Have to, can't have a draft or the people would really get restive.

[Anakin Skywalker]

27. no!

*nevermind* lame joke. DELETED.

[Name removed]

29. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[lebkuchen]

36. Isn't that what Rummy meant when he told Clinton they were "prepared?"

Last week Rummy said our military had never been so prepared. After months and even more months of troop deployments to The Front, Rummy got the "streamlined" military he wanted--the kind of military that rapes, murders and creates mayhem first, then covers up the evidence and evades questions later.

Real "manly," General Mattis~. Them's your boys!

[saigon68]

38. You bet Thugs and Murderers in uniform

Or as the Troop Jock-Sniffers say "Just a few Frat Pranks"

Pronging a 14 year old while your buddies hold her down

And then putting a 5.56 mm through her head, causing her brain to explode out the back

Ya that's a Frat Prank all right.

[Anakin Skywalker]

26. Don't Know If Anybody Mentioned

it already but in one of the news articles I read on this (I think it was posted on CNN), it was mentioned that this Green guy was discharged for having an "anti-social" personality. So yes, somebody effed up for not being able to flag this either at recruitment or along the way (providing he developed the rogue trait after joining).

[tabasco]

4. Prosecutors better slam these details home.

When the defense claims the crimes were the result of combat stress.

They are just murderers who took advantage of their power position to commit a crime.

Crimes like this are a disgrace to everyone who wore the uniform.

Lock 'em up and throw away the key. Preferably in a really bad prison.

[Ian David]

5. Soldier: "I'm gonna rape and kill her. Now, watch this drive..."

They learn from the top down.

[wakeme2008]

7. They also CHANGED CLOTHES before going out to Rape and Kill

they knew what they were doing... :grr:

[KansDem]

9. Hmm, I wonder what the well-dressed rapist/murderer is wearing these days?

:sarcasm:

[brentspeak]

13. Hold on, wait a minute, rewind: they haven't even gone on trial yet

But you're claiming, for whatever reason, that they "raped and killed".

[frylock]

23. yes, we've been down that road. innocent till proven guilty..

unfortunately, the mounting pile of evidence indicates that the events as described indeed took place. You can reserve all the judgement you like. It doesn't look good for these Marines for now.

Special Agent Benjamin Bierce recalled how Barker described to him how he went into the living room of a house and held the hands of the teenage girl while Sergeant Paul Cortez either raped her or attempted to rape her.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060807/ts_nm/iraq_mahmudiya_dc

[brentspeak]

25. Thankfully, legal justice isn't decided by reports of "mounting evidence"

Or, at least, it's not supposed to.

[saigon68]

28. They were raping a child no big deal

</sarcasm>

[xultar]

8. CNN refuses to call her a girl. A woman. Yes. Female. Yes. Girl. No.

fuckers :grr:

[KansDem]

10. The Associated Press style manual calls females to age 18 "girls"

They don't even write according to their own rules! Anything to cover for the Bushistas.

[Fierce]

15. Heh. The day AP follows its own manual...

...is the day Rove goes tap-dancing naked on Pennsylvania Ave.

[KansDem]

20. Hey, I'd almost pay to see that!

Almost...

[saigon68]

11. A 14 year old Child raped and murdered by THUGS

"FREEDOM IS ON THE MARCH" for this family

</sarcasm>

[MaineDem]

12. I heard them call her a "14 year old girl" this morning

Guess it depends on who's doing the writing and reporting.

[Amonester]

14. Oh... "That damn "Lib-ruhL Media!" - Ann Cult-herr fans...

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[DeepModem Mom]

16. It's an AP story picked up by CNN, so I'm assuming AP did the writing. nt

[nmliberal]

18. I heard that, too

It was the first time I had heard her referred to as a 14-year old GIRL.

[xultar]

21. True. I heard that too then went to their website via the link

and saw different.

[susanna]

34. That was the very first thing I noticed.

And it made me sick. The overwhleming hypocrisy of what happens here vs. what happens there was made crystal clear in this pathetic attempt at journalism. Here, if someone called a 14-year old raped and murdered girl just a "female" they'd be ripped to shreds...and we all know it.

[BigDDem]

17. Changing "hearts and minds"

[BeHereNow]

22. They've changed my heart and mind- about the death penalty

As the details emerge about this war crime
I can come to no conclusion other than
these men can not be sent to hell soon enough
for my taste.

They should be turned over to the Iraqi
justice system; I don't think there is much
question as to how the Iraqis would handle them.

I certainly don't want them turned loose to
roam the streets in America.

BHN

[Pachamama]

35. I know what you mean about changing your mind about the death penalty,

although I guess my feeling is that we should turn them over to the Iraqis and set them free in the middle of an intersection in Baghdad....that would be the people's justice.

I also noticed in the newspaper here in Oregon over the last few days two AP pieces that are supposed to garner sympathy for the perps. The first one was a story about the football coach of Steven Green who talked about what a great kid he was and how he felt sorry for him and couldn't believe that the young man who came to his house and ate homecooked meals and thanked his wife for them would do such a heinous act and that he wishes him well. The second one was one in today's paper talking about how the stress and violence and loss of military comrades was too much psychologically on these young soldiers that who knows what they could do as a result. How about we all ask that football coach if some men came into his house and raped his young daughter, put him and his wife and another child in another room while they raped the other daughter and then shot her and set her body on fire and then killed the rest of them in cold blood, if that person(s) is just misunderstood and deserves a chance?

I think every Iraqi who knows about this and probably other heinous acts by American soldiers that have gone unreported are all taking up arms against us....

We will never ever recover as a nation from this on our image.....The image of a WWII soldier giving comfort and rescue to children in war torn Europe has been replaced by these brutal rapist murderers.

Barbarians at the Gates of hell....

[BeHereNow]

41. Not just Iraqis, every one in the Arab world...

will be taking up arms against us, the UK and the Israeli people.

Unfortunately I think you are correct about this crime being the tip
of the iceberg. These guys got caught, but like the exterminator will
tell you, "If you see one cockroach in your kitchen, there are several
hundreds in your wall that you don't see."

The ME has a severe cockroach problem and I'd bet they
are working on an extermination plan.

Our troops are fish in a barrel and the fact is,
the neocons don't care.
I pray for their safety, because not all of them
are murdering war criminals, many of them are
just kids who wanted a college education and
saw no other way to obtain one.

God damn the neocon kkkabal to hell.

BHN

[donkeyotay]

24. Troubling that they released him onto the streets

And the vagueness of the time line is troubling, too. According to the OP, Barker was interviewed on June 30th and told details of the crime which took place on March 12.

According to the LA Times, July 4, 2006, the FBI said "Green was honorably discharged from the Army and returned to the U.S. before the Mahmoudiya allegations came to light . . . the discharge, which apparently was approved at least 2 months ago..." (that would make it prior to May 4th)

According to stevegilliard.blogspot, David S. Cloud wrote on July 6, 2006:

"The former soldier, Pfc. Steven D. Green, left the Army on May 13 under a regulation that allows the Army to honorably discharge a soldier if a psychiatric evaluation finds a personality disorder "so severe that the soldier's ability to function effectively in the military environment is significantly impaired," the Army documents said.

It had previously been known only that Mr. Green was honorably discharged because of a personality disorder.

In April, Mr. Green had been sent from Iraq back to Fort Campbell, Ky., where his unit, the 101st Airborne Division, has its headquarters, the documents said. Army officials said they could not comment further on the circumstances of his removal, citing privacy restrictions. But they said it was not connected to the March 12 rape and killings near Mahmudiya, and noted that Mr. Green's alleged role in the incident did not come to light until last month. <end>

So, here this guy is too sick to be in Iraq but he's fine for the streets of America. Crime committed March 12, he's sent home in April and discharged on May 13th. Hmmm. I wonder how they figured out he had a problem. Bonus factoid: According to crimelibrary.com, he was from Midland, Texas.

[saigon68]

30. Lots of these thugs end up murdering in the streets of amerika

It's the John Rambo syndrome

[BeHereNow]

31. I'd wager to say that Midland, Texas should look into

any unsolved rapes or murders prior to Green's deployment.
Sounds to me like he might have committed this type
of crime before.

If he is roaming the streets of a US city,
I certainly hope the residents there know it.
Who knows, maybe if they did they would lynch him;
that would be fine by me.
BHN

[saigon68]

37. A number of serial killers got their start in the armed forces

[norml]

32. Army details rape-slaying of Iraqi girl

Army details rape-slaying of Iraqi girl

By RYAN LENZ, Associated Press Writer
Mon Aug 7, 6:14 PM ET


BAGHDAD, Iraq - American soldiers took turns raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl, and one of them put a bullet through her head after killing her parents and 5-year-old sister, an Army investigator testified Monday.

The attack followed a session of whiskey drinking and card-playing during which five soldiers plotted the March 12 assault, criminal investigator Benjamin Bierce said.

He cited details from a sworn statement by Spc. James P. Barker in which the soldier told how he and his comrades practiced hitting golf balls before heading to the Iraqi teen's home 250 yards from their post at a traffic checkpoint.

After the slayings, the soldiers returned to their post, where Barker grilled chicken wings, Bierce testified.

The testimony came on the second day of a hearing to determine whether the soldiers should stand trial in the rape-slaying of Abeer Qassim al-Janabi and the killing of her father, Qassim Hamza, her mother, Fikhriya Taha, and her sister, Hadeel Qassim Hamza, in the town of Mahmoudiya.


snip


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060807/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_rape_slaying;_ylt=Akp_Mu_Y04yb5SHRfX_VNYOs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3b3JuZGZhBHNlYwM3MjE-

[saigon68]

39. Hope the chicken wings tasted good

The he wrote home to mommy

[UpInArms]

33. related: CBS: Whiskey And Golf Before Rape-Murder?

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/08/07/iraq/printable1872164.shtml

(AP) U.S. soldiers accused of raping and murdering a 14-year-old Iraqi girl drank alcohol and hit golf balls before the attack, an investigator said Monday at a U.S. military hearing to determine whether they should stand trial.

<snip>

Bierce testified that on the day of the attack, Barker, Cortez, Spielman and Green had been playing cards and drinking Iraqi whiskey mixed with an energy drink. Afterward, they practiced hitting golf balls, Bierce quoted Barker as saying in his statement.

<snip>

Barker wrote that Cortez pushed Abeer to the floor, lifted her dress and tore off her underwear while she struggled, Bierce said. Cortez appeared to rape her, according to Barker's statement, Bierce said.

Barker then tried to rape the girl, Bierce said. Suddenly, the group heard gunshots. According to Barker's statement, which was read by Bierce, Green came out of the bedroom, holding an AK-47 rifle, and declared: "They're all dead. I just killed them."

<snip>

Barker's statement says he grilled chicken wings when they got back to their checkpoint, Bierce testified. A few hours later, Barker wrote, Iraqi soldiers came to report they had found a family murdered.

...more...