Posted on 08/07/2006 12:41:28 PM PDT by MizSterious
He's the head of the hospital that received them. He was quoted contemporaneously. He was apparently in charge of the autopsies. I'd be calling him to testify.
The testimony of the Iraqi army medic does not say he performed an autopsy.
You know what I think of the alleged confessions already, so I won't repeat it here.
If anything, the testimony of the last two days would seem to indicate that a courts-martial will take place.
No one is arguing there wasn't an event. We thoroughly exhausted that one on the last thread.
Yes, so far it does. But once again, we get one sentence from the defense in the AP's two major stories on the subject but inundated with what the Iraqi medic said and what Investigator Benjamin Bierce said.
It would be exceedingly refreshing, and unlikely, for the AP quote the defense lawyers extensively. But perhaps they will in the next few days.
Courtesy PING
The girl was sprawled naked in the house, her torso and head burned by flames, and she had a single bullet wound under her left eye, he said.
He said he found Abeer's 5-year-old sister, Hadeel, in an adjacent room dead from a bullet wound in the head. The children's father, Qassim, and mother, Fikhriya, suffered similar deaths, he said. The mother's abdomen and chest were riddled with bullets, he added.
''I was feeling very bad,'' he said. ''I was sick for almost two weeks.''
He told the hearing that because Mahmoudiya's hospital did not have enough space to store the bodies, they were kept in an air-conditioned ambulance overnight, then buried the following day.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/iraq/cst-nws-iraqrape07.html
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Now we have "first guy on the scene" #1, Abu al-Janabi from July 6th LA Times.
He was the first to enter the charred farmhouse where the bodies of his relatives lay strewn about the floor, shot and bludgeoned to death.
(snip) Entering the home
He and his wife had to douse some of the flames before they could enter the home.
"Kassim's corpse was in the corner of the room and his head was smashed into pieces," he said. The 5-year-old daughter, Hadeel, was beside her father, and Janabi said he could see that both of Fakhriya's arms had been broken.
In another room, he found 15-year-old Abeer, naked and burned, with her head smashed in "by a concrete block or a piece of iron."
"There were burns from the bottom of her stomach to the end of her body, except for her feet," he said.
Together, they went to a checkpoint manned by Iraqi soldiers to tell them what had happened. Then they went back to the house and watched as the bodies were placed in nylon bags and taken to a nearby Iraqi base.
http://159.54.227.3/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060706/NEWS/607060375
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Now here is "first guy on the scene" #2, Omar Janabi via the Washington Post July 3:
Janabi was one of the first people to arrive at the house after the attack, he said Saturday, speaking to a Washington Post special correspondent at the home of local tribal leaders. He said he found Abeer sprawled dead in a corner, her hair and a pillow next to her consumed by fire, and HER DRESS PUSHED UP TO HER NECK.
(snip) Janabi said U.S. soldiers controlled the scene of the killings for several hours MARCH 11, telling neighbors that insurgents were responsible. The bodies of the victims were taken to Mahmudiyah hospital by March 12, according to Janabi and an official at the hospital, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
On March 13, a man identifying himself as a relative claimed the bodies for burial, the hospital official said. An hour after the man left with the bodies, U.S. soldiers came to the hospital and asked about the bodies, the hospital official said.
http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060703/REPOSITORY/607030356/1013/48HOURS
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Then we have "first guy at the scene" #3, from the the AP via Kuwait Times, Ahmed Taha, an uncle.
"We found them dead in the house. We also found the house blackened and smoke coming from it," Ahmed said, holding a shovel and sitting near a mud puddle with a cow grazing behind him.
FBI documents have estimated the rape victim was about 25, but Ahmed Taha said his niece was 15. He said Iraqi police were informed and came with US troops to take the bodies to the nearby AMERICAN base. The family retrieved the bodies at the BASE the next morning. "Nobody knew who killed them," he told an AP Televsion News cameraman. "Some said it was insurgents, and in fact, we ruled out the American troops" until the US investigation was announced on Friday.
http://www.kuwaittimes.net/Navariednews.asp?dismode=article&artid=998587717
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And one more "first guy at the scene", just for sh*ts and grins, Mahdi Obeid Saleh, a cousin, via Time Magazine's ever reliable reporting.
If there was an element of strategic calculation behind the public remarks of U.S. officials, there was genuine emotion too. In private meetings with Abeer's relatives, military officers apologized repeatedly, and a one-star general hugged her two orphaned brothers. "The general seemed emotionally distressed. He was not pretending," concluded Mahdi Obeid Saleh, Abeer's cousin, who says he rushed to the crime scene and doused the flames on her burning body. Both Saleh and Army investigators initially thought the attack was the work of insurgents. "This is what happens when you harbor terrorists," a military translator lectured Saleh on the day of the slayings.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1211562-1,00.html
Sounds to me that there were more than a few hands in this mess, and the locals cannot get the story straight.
I've documented previously what was wrong with the timelines.
See posts 13 and 16 as well.
"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."
Why would Iraqi soldiers report to Barker that a family was murdered, when 4 of our guys went with the Iraqi soldiers and photographed the murder victims?
"Barker claims Green picked up the AK-47 and shot her once, paused, then shot her several more times, Bierce said. "
The Iraqi medic testified yesterday that Abber Al-Janabi had a single gunshot wound under the left eye.
Sounds like Barker's alleged confession to Bierce is pretty shaky.
Last 3 paragraphs say it all. I will not trust any of the investigations done by the military. They don't care about the truth, only appeasing their civilian masters, who are appeasing terrorists. I am furious. Maybe things happened, but why no exam of the body by US authorities?
One would think the Iraqis would determine avenging the honor of their daughter more important than Islam's foolish rules... Body never exhumed. I don't buy it.
How do we even know they were "murdered"? If they were, what about the autopsies? There weren't any. It is disgusting how the military is handling these cases.
Thank you very much pissant!
We know they were murdered because two Marines gave sworn statements saying they were.
Bierce is the guy the defense lawyers are targeting for having been sloppy, and "creative".
You need to get Barker up there speaking for himself.
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