Posted on 07/09/2006 11:58:43 AM PDT by SandRat
WASHINGTON, July 9, 2006 – Charges have been preferred against four U.S. soldiers accused of rape and murder in connection with the deaths of four Iraqi civilians in March. A fifth soldier has been accused of dereliction of duty for failing to report the offenses, U.S. officials announced today. The five soldiers were charged yesterday in connection with their alleged participation in the rape and murder of a young Iraqi woman and the murders of three members of her family. The fifth soldier was charged with dereliction of duty for his failure to report the rape and murder of these Iraqi civilians, but is not alleged to have been a direct participant in the rape and killings, officials said in a statement.
All are charged with conspiring with former Army Pfc. Steven D. Green to commit these crimes. Green, 21, a former 101st Airborne Division soldier, was arrested June 30 in connection with the incident, according to a July 3 announcement by the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Western District of Kentucky.
Green was deployed from September 2005 to April 2006 and was discharged from the Army May 16. Army officials declined to disclose the circumstances of his discharge, citing privacy protections under the Health Information Privacy Protection Act.
The preferral of court-marital charges is merely an accusation, according to today's statement. "Those accused are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt," officials stated.
The next step in the legal process will be an investigation pursuant to Article 32 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Article 32 investigations are similar to grand jury hearings in civilian courts.
(From a Multinational Corps Iraq news release.)
I hope they didnt do it. And the media needs to remember that they ARE innocent until proven otherwise.
Remember the point of the Abu Ghraib circle-jerk was to blame Bush for the abuse via the expanded interrogation guidelines issued at the beginning of the WOT.
The point now (as in Vietnam) will be to portray all American servicemen and women as beasts: look at the Op Ed in the WaPo today alleging the 'complicity' of military medical personnel in 'torture'-- a not so subtle warning that medical personnel in the miltary will be blackballed after discharge by leftists in the medical profession because of their 'participation in torture and an immoral war'.
I was all over the Haditha threads, but this one, I lurk on them but rarely post.
Now that they've been read charges they must appear before the court for the start of the process with in 45 days. That's in the UCMJ.
if the charges can not be supported under the rules of evidence, all charges will be dismissed.
Would that possible evidence be the digging up the woman's body in Iraq and preforming an autopsy? That evidence?
Well .. it's a well-known fact that young Muslim or Arabic women who have sex outside of marriage are brutally killed and sometimes burned; especially so if the relationship is with an infidel.
Knowing that .. this charge of killing this young woman and burning her are just foreign to me. And .. I just cannot reconcile that our young people could do this.
However .. I do know the stress of war can SOMETIMES cause people to make irrational decisions in the blink of an eye; decisions they would normally never make otherwise.
This is speculation on my part .. but I keep wondering if the young woman was carrying on with one of the soldiers .. her family found out about it and killed her [one of those "honor" killings] - and when her young soldier found out what they had done to the love of his life - he went temporarily out of his mind and exacted revenge for her death. I don't know why, but this scenario keeps running around in my head.
In a manner reminiscent of jinjis kahn.
Potentially, becuase much of the alledged crime seen was severly contaminated by "good-intentioned citizens," reasonable doubt will weigh heavy on the hearing board members.
You could be completely right but I suspect that the first part is true and the end result was AQ using this romance as a pretext to do a crime and frame the US.
Is that about it on my thinking?
Yep, but he will have to appear in Military Court to give testimony. The Mil court will most likely be over before his and the dismissal of charges by the Courts Martial could aid his civilian case which will grind much longer.
They could set free by a technicality? If that's how this plays out, their reputations will forever be in question.
It's just more of the democrat whining about "bring the troops home now" garbage .. and the terrorists are only too willing to assists the democrats in forcing us out of Iraq early so they can take over.
Well .. you may be right about that .. but since sexual crimes are not spoken of .. a lot of these people who may have known or witnessed anything, may not be willing to speak up for fear of ending up the same way.
Btt
Yep! Read the books Slander and Treason by AC and you'll understand fully.
Possibly 14 years old.
Looks like muslims have a choice to make. Exhume her body and let it be examined or not. If they choose the later the charges must be dropped. Isn't that what we call a hebeas corpus?
Thank God for that because the media already has them guilty. Without her body, they don't have a case against them. It would be a he said...they said.
My thinking now is, if they don't allow her body to be examined, they are hiding something.
The preferral of court-marital charges is merely an accusation, according to today's statement. "Those accused are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt," officials stated.
I've been hearing reports all day on the radio which say that they were CHARGED. No how, no way has any news reporter said that "charged" means they will be investigated. People will think they have been found guilty. The MSM disgusts me once again.
What I have seen is descrepencies in the published reports, and things in the story that don't quite add up. However, this IS the media we're dealing with, so some of it might be attributed to that. Still, I'm waiting to see what is revealed in court.
In this case I would think the opposite would be true. It would be their way of screaming for more bloody Jihad against our soldiers. You know, the infidel oppressive murdering Americans are raping all our women and little girls.
I don't know about Iraq, but in Afghanistan and Pakistan, sometimes gang-rape is a punishment for women for a variety of alleged offense. Irony.
That's what I'll do. They will never get a fair shake with our military hating media.
I had not thought of this one. I so want this not to be true, I have to guard myself but bottom line - my heart breaks for this young girl.
If these soldiers are indeed guilty, it takes absolutely nothing away from my awe, love, respect, and support for the rest of our troops.
The press are scum.
The press are terrorist loving, American military hating scum.
Reported: Two witnesses (soldiers) confessed to planning, being accomplices to; and then covering up a rape and four murders.
During counseling after the deaths of the three soldiers that Central Command learned about the allegations that Americans, not insurgents, were responsible for the quadruple killing in Mahmoudiya, the military says.
On those last two pages, they looked like they said the same thing.
Is Green the one they said was a psyopath?(spel?)
Yes, I've read those stories.
Yes, anti-social personality disorder.
Not bright to make such statement in trying to intimidate the court and threaten to visit vigilanti-justice on the innocent.
The more I hear from these witnesses, the more I doubt the story. If I were an American soldier in Iraq, I'd never be taken alive. I'd rather take a bullet then and there than be tortured like those two soldiers were.
Thanks for pointing this OUT!!!!! for all to see when this thread is opened up....
I hope that you don't think that the monsters that tortured and killed Thomas Tucker and Kfistian Menchaca gives a hoot about a democratic court of justice.
Nope I don't, but the soldiers buddies might.
This is exactly what I was predicting when I posted the article from the L.A. times last week discussing a possible "link" between the muilations of the two soldiers and this rape case.
My sentiment was that if there was a link, then the savages that captured and butchered these two U.S. soldiers would have originally issued a statement saying that it was in fact revenge for the rape. The obvious reason being, how could these savages pass up an excellent "P.R." opportunity to somehow "justify" their brutality by saying that it was revenge for the rape. However, no such statements were made by the group that publicly claimed responsiblity for abducting the two.
And now, thanks to the Times article and the repeated MSM mentions of possible links, wadda ya know, the locals and insurgents have picked up on this, and are using it now as a reason to further engage in their mindless atrocities. Oh, so NOW they're saying the two were killed that way as revenge. Not to sound racist, but in many cases iraqi's are known to be quite unreliable witnesses and opportunistic liars.
Not to mention the anti war crazies are gonna also have a field day with this as if they haven't already.
Thanks L.A. times and MSM, y'all did the troops and the U.S. a great "favor." Sleep well at night
The allegation is that the murder victims included a 14-year-old girl (also the alleged rape victim), her six-year-old sister and both of her parents. Not quite the usual scenario for an honor killing.
These cases aren't going to stand on forensic evidence. It'll be based on the testimony of the participants (which is how it came to light in the first place).
Ten bucks most of these guys have already cut deals with the prosecutors.
The question is whether they would be subject to an Iraqi trial. I currently have a call into a friend who is both a JAG officer and a deputy prosecutor to get an answer.
bump
(Baghdad, Iraq-AP, July 10, 2006 12:21 PM) _ Two sergeants are among five American soldiers facing charges in the alleged rape-murder of an Iraqi teenager and the killing of three family members, the U.S. military said Monday.
The military announced Sunday that four soldiers were accused of rape and murder and a fifth with dereliction of duty for failing to prevent or stop it. No names were released.
On Monday, the military identified the others as Sgt. Paul E. Cortez, Sgt. Anthony W. Yribe, Spc. James P. Barker, Pfc. Jesse V. Spielman, and Pfc. Bryan L. Howard.
Yribe was charged for his failure to report the attack but is not alleged to have been a direct participant, the military said. The others face more serious charges as participants.
The five will face an Article 32 hearing, the military equivalent of a grand jury proceeding, to determine if they should stand trial.
They are charged with conspiring with former Pfc. Steven D. Green, who was arrested last month in North Carolina. Green has pleaded not guilty to one count of rape and four counts of murder and is being held without bond.
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