US soldier described rape and murders, Iraq hearing told

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2006/August/focusoniraq_August47.xml§ion=focusoniraq&col=

BAGHDAD - A US military investigator said Monday that a soldier had confessed to him that he and two comrades sexually assaulted a 14-year-old Iraqi girl while one of their comrades killed her family.

Testifying at a hearing that will decide whether to charge five servicemen with rape and murder, Special Agent Benjamin Bierce said 23-year-old Specialist James Barker had given a detailed account of the alleged massacre.

According to Barker’s sworn written statement, which was given to the probe panel, on March 12 six soldiers had been drinking Iraqi whisky mixed with an energy drink and practising golf swings at a checkpoint south of Baghdad.

One of the men, 20-year-old Specialist Steven Green, said that he “wanted to go to a house and kill some Iraqis”, the statement said.

The five accused—Barker, Sergeant Paul Cortez, Private Bryan Howard, Private Jesse Spielman and Sergeant Anthony Yribe—agreed with Green’s plan, changed into black silk underwear and masks and set off, it said.

[uppityperson]

1. dupe, but different article. Thanks.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1837323

[NNN0LHI]

2. Did you read the last sentence of this one?

>>>After the murders, the troops returned to their checkpoint 200 metres away and “grilled chicken wings”, the statement said.<<<

[uppityperson]

3. Yes, and this line. I am glad Bierce is confessing.

Barker ”said in his statement he was having problems getting an erection and that he wasn’t sure if he penetrated her”, Bierce told the tribunal.

[WhiteTara]

4. "changed into black silk underwear and masks and set off

this was premeditated and they should all be sentenced and since ours is a death penalty country, they should then be hung in Iraq for the all the soldiers and people to see.

Sound harsh? I just watched Democracy Now and she broke (?) the story of the rape of the Congo. If women and women's bodies aren't honored, then all the world will die. Unless we can revere the life givers, women and the earth, we are doomed. And it looks like it is decision time for all of us. Choose to revere life (and I'm certainly not saying no abortion--that is another form of revering life) and work to heal our planet, or choose greed and competition and we all die.

[KoKo]

5. One might ask what other purposes the "black silk underwear and masks"

were used for before this assault. These aren't things most military would have just kicking around to wear for recreation.

I'll bet this wasn't the first time this happened given the descriptions of their behavior and maybe the other incidents were so shameful to the families that they refuse to come forward. It wasn't until they killed and
tried to burn the evidence that they were found out in this case. But what other horrors did Green commit with an accomplice or two before this?

[WhiteTara]

6. it did seem strange that they should just have

these things lying around. I mean black silk? I have thought for a long time that the torture and killings were the work of either the military or the contractors. I was more betting on the contractors; but we have ruined an entire generation of young men. Green termed killing a human "like squishing an ant". I am so sickened.