Witness Backtracks in Iraq Rape-Slaying

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Witness Backtracks in Iraq Rape-Slaying

Thursday August 2, 2007 3:31 PM

By RYAN LENZ

Associated Press Writer

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) - Military prosecutors scrambled
Thursday to overcome a soldier's recanting of his story that a
comrade accused of conspiring to rape and kill an Iraqi girl and
her family took part in the attack.

Spc. James Barker, who has admitted his own role in the assault,
testified Wednesday that he had allowed investigators to draft
sworn statements for him that implicated Pfc. Jesse Spielman in
the crime.

Prosecutors resumed Spielman's court-martial Thursday with little
evidence from the assault beyond soldiers' statements and crime
scene photographs.

-snip-

As part of his plea deal last year, Barker signed a document
saying, among other things, that Spielman was part of the
conspiracy to attack the family and that he knew of plans to
rape the 14-year-old girl. Barker's signature on the document
saved him from a possible death sentence.

Barker testified Wednesday that several portions of the document
were untrue, including references to Spielman's role in the
conspiracy to attack the family and his knowledge of plans to
rape the girl.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,,-6822891,00.html

[Kagemusha]

1. Well that's a prosecutor's nightmare.

Wonder which is the lie now. I don't assume prosecutors are evil off the bat. The witness may simply have perjured himself to save a comrade. It happens.

[Tempest]

2. I wonder if he knows the legal jeopardy he just placed himself in

You can bet the prosecutor will file perjury charges and go for the maximum sentence.

[atreides1]

4. I for one hope they do

As a former soldier and a former member of the 101st Airborne these men make me ashamed, I hope that the prosecutors file perjury charges and drop the plea deal and put this lying sack of pus where he belongs.

[AngryAmish]

5. If you were not in Airborne would you also be ashamed?

Or does your level of shame, for something you did not do, lie independent of any organization you used to work for?

[atreides1]

6. My shame has a little to do with being a member of the unit

I'm ashamed because of what was done, I'm also ashamed that the NCO's in this unit failed to do their job and allowed this to happen, I'm ashamed that my government attempted to make light of the seriousness of this incident as well as others involving the US military, and I am especially ashamed of those even here who have constantly tried to give the US military a free pass, regardless of what has been done!!!!!

I served with the 101st but I also served with the 11th Signal Brigade in Arizona, with peacekeepers in the Sinai, and with the 4th and 25th Infantry Divisions.

My own personal opinion is that every single one of these "things" should have been turned over to the Iraqi government for trial, at least it would be over by now!!!!

[AngryAmish]

7. If your shame has nothing to do with beng in that unit, then why mention it?

Do you feel being an alumnus of said unit gives you a special capacity for shame the rest of us lack?

[yardwork]

8. Lay off the veteran.

What is your point, exactly?

[brentspeak]

9. Can you find someone else to bait?

[catnhatnh]

10. Of course it's special...

which part of "my unit" don't you get??? I'm 4th ID but repaired helicopters in Colorado during Vietnam-and you can bet your house I identify with their casualties AND actions in Iraq. I am a Democrat and a Boy Scout and a Catholic and feel both pride and shame based on others of the same affilliation. That is the normal reaction to membership in a group.

[yava]

11. AngryAmish, don't put atreides1 on trial

He is generous to share his experience and brave to speak agaist his army's policies.
It seems to me that the real problem is that according to the media and some thinkers, prophet Mohamed authorised sex with 14 years olds and these guys figured well, in Mohamed country, lets do it. Then the family came into the room and they had to be eliminated. The raped girl just did not understand that she was practicing free sex for her muslem adult age so she kept crying and so on, so she had to be eliminated too, by flames to avoid bullet prints.
I agree with atreides1, I can't imagine all US soldiers thinking like this.
Anyway, sad, sad this war of the willing.

[NaturalHigh]

14. What's your point?

Do you have something against veterans or just that particular unit?

[AngryAmish]

15. Neither

I just have a problem with people feeling shame for something they had nothing to do with. For example, I am ostensibly a Catholic but I feel no shame for the Inquisition. I think all folks of all religions can condemn the Inquisition yet me being a Catholic lends no special aura of authority to my feelings.

[leftynyc]

17. What is your problem??

You're behaving like quite the asshole.

[spag68]

12. What about the officers

and I'm sure they were, who wrote this script.

[uppityperson]

3. Why would the prosecutor do this? I'm waiting to hear about Green.

"Steven D. Green, who was discharged from the Army before being charged, faces a possible death sentence when he is tried in federal court in Kentucky. He has pleaded not guilty to charges that include murder and sexual assault.

During their courts-martial, Barker and Cortez testified they took turns raping the girl while Green shot and killed her mother, father and younger sister. Green shot the girl in the head after raping her, they said. The girl's body was set on fire with kerosene to destroy the evidence, according to previous testimony. "

[MetaTrope]

13. Gotta love plea bargains for raping and murdering 14-year-old girls

Still waiting for the ringleader, Steven Dale Green, to go to trial.

[gratuitous]

16. The "alleged" ringleader, that is

Yeah, I know. But once something like this happens, it's like walking through the door of the funhouse into the hall of mirrors. Everyone pointing at everyone else, and to the outside observer (you and me), it's impossible to tell who did what. Sworn statements, recantations, conflicting testimony, muddled timelines, and you quickly reach a point where you're not sure of anything. Except, of course, that a girl was raped to death while her family watched, then the whole place got set on fire by a bunch of folks we sent over there.

I'm all for holding the perpetrators accountable. And I'm in favor of holding the country, its leaders and its people accountable for sending them over there in the first place.

[TrogL]

18. Yeah, well, that's what you get for using the Reid Technqiue