Army soldier admits to rape and murder of Iraqi girl

[Vaughn]

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (July 3) - A former Army soldier was charged with the alcohol-fueled rape and killing of a young Iraqi woman and the murder of her family, a crime the attackers apparently tried to cover up by burning the victims' bodies.
Steven D. Green, a 21-year-old former private first class discharged this spring for a "personality disorder," made an initial appearance on rape and murder charges in a federal courtroom Monday morning, three days after he was arrested by FBI agents in western North Carolina.

Green was ordered held without bond while waiting to be taken to Louisville, Kentucky, where he faces four counts of murder and one of rape stemming from the March incident. Each of the murder charges carries a possible death sentence.

According to an affidavit unsealed during his court appearance, Green was part of a group of four soldiers from the Fort Campbell, Kentucky-based 101st Airborne Division who invaded a home near the traffic checkpoint they manned in Mahmoudiya, Iraq, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of Baghdad. Once inside, the affidavit said, Green and another soldier raped a young Iraqi woman who lived there.

Two other soldiers from the division's 502nd Infantry Regiment who were present and interviewed by investigators said Green fired shots from an AK-47 submachine gun that killed the woman, as well as three members of her family: a man, woman and a young girl.

The FBI affidavit estimated the rape victim's age as 25, but a neighbor in Mahmoudiya said Monday she was 14. (snip)



(snip)

Investigators in Iraq have said they believe the soldiers planned the rape for up to a week. According to the affidavit, written by Louisville-based FBI agent Gregor Ahlers, Green and fellow soldiers discussed the attack while drinking on the night of March 11, then changed clothes in an effort to disguise themselves before going to the woman's home and carrying out the assault.

Upon arriving at the residence, Green took the woman's relatives into a bedroom, according to one soldier interviewed by investigators. The sound of gunshots from inside the room followed, and Green emerged to say, "I just killed them, all are dead," the affidavit said.

"Immediately after this, (the soldier) witnessed (another soldier) and Green rape the woman ... . After the rape, (the soldier) witnessed Green shoot the woman in the head two to three times.

Another soldier present during the attack told a similar story and said he was instructed afterward to dump the murder weapon in a nearby canal, which he did.

Investigators also interviewed a fifth soldier, who was left behind to man the radio at the traffic checkpoint. That soldier said Green and three others returned from the woman's house "with blood on their clothes, which they burned. Immediately after this, they each told (the soldier) that this is never to be discussed again."

[blondi553]

i think his hometown is where i used to live..........there r some sick people in this world!!!!!!!!!!!!!! grrrrr

[madmaxine]

I'm sick over this, and I hope the death penalty & life in Leavenworth get handed down to the soldiers in question. The crimes themselves are horrendous, and this is what the U.S. has been dreading- Bill Maher (HBO) & Michael Ware (Time Magazine Chief Baghdad correspondent) were discussing this scenario right before the time the rape & murders occured.

[Yekhefah]

Rape and murder are an inevitable part of war. Dehumanization of the enemy is a necessary tactic in the training of soldiers, and rape is one of the most effective tools of an occupying force. I don't see why anyone is surprised by this. Anywhere that there is war, there will be rape and murder.

[madmaxine]

Yes, I do realize things like this are bound to happen. It was a case of "when." In fact, there was a U.S. soldier murdered by his own unit mates because he was going to rat out a couple soliders who allegedly raped & killed a Iraqi girl during the first days of the US invasion. (Playboy magazine did a great article on this case in the August 2004 issue.) I'm not sure what became of that particular case.
But just because it can happen in a war zone doesn't make it OK, and the Geneva Convention & military code of justice hold our soldiers to a higher standard.

[aussiepunkshocker]

Links related to what Yekhefa said.



Rape during recent wars:
More than 20,000 Muslim girls and women were raped during the religiously-motivated atrocities in the former Yugoslavia in Bosnia. This was mainly during an organized Serbian program of cultural genocide. One goal was to make the women pregnant, and raising their children as Serbs. 10 Another was to terrorize women so that they would flee from their land.
It has been estimated that Iraqi soldiers raped at least 5,000 Kuwaiti women during Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. 11
During the civil war in Rwanda: "One United Nations report estimated that as many as 500,000 women and girls suffered brutal forms of sexual violence , including gang-rape and sexual mutilation, after which many of them were killed." 11
"In Algeria, the women of entire villages have been raped and killed. The government estimates that about 1,600 girls and young women have been kidnapped to become sexual slaves by roving bands from armed Islamic groups." 11
One source referred to rape of Tamil women in Sri Lanka and of women in Somalia, Haiti, Kashmir and Peru. 12,13,14
Another source referred to rape "in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Cyprus, Haiti, Liberia, Somalia and Uganda." 3
A resolution of the United Methodist Church mentioned rape in the Republic of Georgia. 15

[MishaBliss]

^^^^^^^^^^^^
On a human level.... it's still fucking disgusting

[Miss. Kristina Lee]

theres sickos in all walks of life and all shapes of employment. either way im all for an eye for an eye punishments.

[Gia2608]

This story makes me really sick too. They murdered a five year old child! I am not a fan of the death penalty either (except in extreme cases) but I hope they get all get the gas chamber. And this is the image that Middle Eastern children are going to have of the US, in 20 years you can be sure that flying Airplanes into important buildings will be a tame act of retalition compared to what will happen. I'm moving to Spain though so I won't be around to watch!

[Mastridonicus]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/fiv...383678547.html

5 more.

[kikin]

Yek, there's a big difference between guerilla fighters in Rwanda, Bosnia, and Algeria and the trained professional soldiers of a super power. We expect more professionalism and civilized behavior from the latter.

Just because rape and murder take place during conflicts in third world countries does not mitigate the truly cowardly and criminal acts alleged in this case. If they are proven to be true, then we will have a big problem in convincing the Arab world of our intention to "liberate" them from tyranny.

Moreover, according to international law governing the Rules of Occupation, an occupying state has the burden and responsibility for the safety of the people in an occupied zone. Not every figure behind every wall is an insurgent. It may be an innocent child or woman who has nothing to do with the conflict.

History has proven that guerrilla warfare is difficult to win. Look what happened to the Soviets in Afganistan in the 80's, or the French in Algeria and Morocco in the 70's. After Saddam was toppled, the proper course of action should have been to install a new head of state from the Ba'ath government and keep the army and police and other civil servants in place to provide services to the population. Then hold elections within six or seven months. Instead, all Iraqi government employees were summarily fired and former Iraqi army officers were hunted down and killed. So there were many riots because the society imploded and there was no security provided by the coalition forces in the early days of the occupation.

The lack of foresight and vision which deteriorated the situation directly after the fall of Saddam has done a lot of damage to the Iraq operation, perhaps irreversibly. Everything we have witnessed since then is a direct result of that initial failure, including the insurgency, the hatred for coalition forces, the Abu-Ghraib fiasco, the Gitmo embarassment, and these recent allegations of rape, murder, and perhaps even war crimes (in Haditha).

[Yekhefah]

I agree. And I didn't say rape and murder were okay, just inevitable.

It's not just a third-world thing, either. There was definitely rape and murder in Europe during both World Wars, too. It is an inevitable part of warfare.