"She had been burnt from the waist up"

[Rose Siding]

From the BBC today-

Grim testimony at troops' hearing
...
Iraqi witnesses are giving evidence in a closed session because of the risk that they could be targeted by insurgents for appearing to help the American military in its prosecution.

The BBC's Jane Peel, on the military base in Baghdad where the hearing is takig place, says the Iraqi medic described arriving on the scene of the deaths.

He told the hearing that in the living room of the family's home was the body of a 14-year-old girl. He said she had been burnt from the waist up.

Elsewhere in the house, he discovered three other bodies: a woman who appeared to have been shot in the chest, a man shot in the head and a little girl with a bullet wound in her face.

The medic told prosecutors he was ill for weeks after witnessing the crime scene.

A cautionary note: Encourage one another not to look away. There will be no justice if we look away.

LAT, yesterday

The files are part of a once-secret archive, assembled by a Pentagon task force in the early 1970s, that shows that confirmed atrocities by U.S. forces in Vietnam were more extensive than was previously known.

The documents detail 320 alleged incidents that were substantiated by Army investigators — not including the most notorious U.S. atrocity, the 1968 My Lai massacre....

Ultimately, 57 of them were court-martialed and just 23 convicted, the records show.

Fourteen received prison sentences ranging from six months to 20 years, but most won significant reductions on appeal. The stiffest sentence went to a military intelligence interrogator convicted of committing indecent acts on a 13-year-old girl in an interrogation hut in 1967.

He served seven months of a 20-year term, the records show.

There was little interest in prosecuting Vietnam war crimes..."Everyone wanted Vietnam to go away"

[helderheid]

1. horrific

[xchrom]

2. k&r

[Little Star]

3. K&R

[Rose Siding]

4. Here's AP coverage of Sunday's hearing. There were 2 other witnesses-

Iraqi medic describes finding burned body of girl in U.S. troops' rape-slaying hearing
...
The medic, whose name was withheld for security reasons, told the hearing that he was the first responder to enter the house and found the girl sprawled naked in the house, her torso and head burned by flames. She had a single bullet wound under her left eye, he said.

He testified that he found Abeer's 5-year-old sister, Hadeel, in an adjacent room. She was shot in the head and the bullet had blown out the back of her head, he said. The children's father, Qassim, and their mother, Fikhriya – had suffered similar deaths: the mother's abdomen and chest were riddled with bullets, he said.
...
The proceeding that opened Sunday is referred to as an Article 32 hearing, and is the military equivalent of a grand jury session.

The medic was among three Iraqi witnesses to testify Sunday. Reporters were not allowed to hear the first two witnesses but were allowed back in the hearing room when the medic took the stand.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/iraq/20060806-0739-iraq-rapeslaying.html

[saracat]

5. If they were allegedly already dead, how were they killed?

And by whom, and for what reason? Does the soldier deny he raped the girl?

[Rose Siding]

7. 4 Americans are charged. This testimony was from an Iraqi medic.

-he's describing the scene. Also, Green's been charged stateside.

snip>
Sergeant Paul Cortez, Specialist James Barker, Private Jesse Spielman and Private Bryan Howard are charged with conspiring to rape the girl in the attack on 12 March after shooting dead her parents and five-year-old sister.

[indepat]

6. How many decades will Americans be wishing Iraq would go away, wishing

Iraq had never happened?