Rape and other war crimes are peachy fine! (steven green)

uppityperson

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Thu May-07-09 01:20 PM
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Rape and other war crimes are peachy fine! (steven green)

Edited on Thu May-07-09 01:38 PM by uppityperson

Closing statements were given yesterday in Steven Green's trial and the jury is still out deliberating. 4 others have been convicted and are serving time, but can be released in 7 yrs on parole, for testifying against Green. The ones who simply sent him home rather than holding him responsible have had nothing happen to them. War crimes are peachy fine?

This. Is. Wrong.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gail-mcgowan-mellor/steve-green-trial-a-barga_b_198727.html

Steven Green Trial: A Bargain to Let War Criminals Go?

As the jury deliberates in federal court in Paducah, Kentucky, the spotlight is on defendant ex-U.S. Army Private Steven Green, but that leaves the other four soldiers involved in his crime in the shadows. The four are serving time, with quite long sentences in three instances -- 110 years 100 years and 90 years Green's defense attorney however pointed out in closing arguments that federal prosecutors offered them help in getting out on parole in seven years if they testified against Green. An average sentence reduction of 90 years for cooperation is one sweet deal, especially in this case.

In prosecuting the hate-crime slaughter by U.S. soldiers of the al-Janabi family in Iraq, and the gang rape of the teenage daughter, the five men are in federal custody; by the evidence, there is no question that the crimes occurred nor that it was these men who perpetrated them. Should any of the four men already sentenced be so quickly freed in order to nail the fifth, Green -- especially if he has already confessed?

Green was the killer, no question. An obviously disturbed soldier who reportedly wore his pants torn to partly expose his genitals, he was so enraged by the deaths of ambushed U.S. soldiers that he kept shouting that he wanted to kill Iraqi civilians. He was called a "virus" by others in the platoon because his fury seemed contagious. Using an AK-47 and a shotgun, Green shot the father as he tried to shield his wife and youngest daughter, Hadeel; next he shot the mother as she too tried to cover Hadeel with her body; then he killed the cornered six-year-old with point-blank shots to her face. Going into the next room, he then joined in the gang-raping of 14-year-old Abeer before killing her.

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When all this was discovered, Yribe was dishonorably discharged -- that's all. Howard the guard got 27 months. Speilman who helped burn the dead teenager and the home, but unlike Cortez and Barker played no direct part in the rape -- and unlike Green had not taken part in the killing -- got the longest (110 year) sentence simply because the others had pled guilty and he contested. Green ended up in the civilian federal court system, and in 2009 got a jury trial in Paducah Kentucky which just wrapped up. The verdict is expected at any moment. And, if beneath the fog of the Green trial the sentences of Speilman, Barker or Cortez are reduced to seven years, they will be out on U.S. streets in 2013.