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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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July 4th,
2007 - Ex-Soldier May Face Death Penalty |
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Ex-Soldier May Face Death Penalty Texan accused of killing Iraqi family By Andrew Wolfson The Louisville Courier-Journal July 4, 2007 Federal prosecutors filed
notice yesterday that they will seek the death penalty for a former Fort
Campbell soldier if he is convicted in the slaying of an Iraqi family last
year. It is the first time that a
former U.S. soldier would face the death penalty for alleged war crimes in
Iraq. In a motion filed in U.S.
District Court in Paducah, the government said capital punishment is
justified by the "heinous, cruel and depraved" nature of the
offenses allegedly committed by Pvt. Steven D. Green, including the rape of a
14-year-old girl, Abeer Qassim al-Janabi. They also cited the fact
that other family members were murdered to eliminate them as witnesses.
Investigators said the girl's body was set on fire to try to cover up the
crime. But the lawyer for one of
Green's four co-defendants said the government's motion is outrageous, given
his "very serious mental health problems" and the military's
failure to treat him before the crimes. Green, who is from Midland,
Texas, has pleaded not guilty to rape and four counts of murder. A trial date
will be set on Aug. 29 by U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Russell. Green, a member of Fort
Campbell's 101st Airborne Division, was diagnosed as a homicidal threat by a
military mental health team three months before the March 2006 murders,
according to The Associated Press. It reported in January that Green told an
Army Combat Stress Team that he was desperate to avenge comrades' deaths and
driven to kill Iraqi citizens. The Army gave him several
small doses of a mood-regulating drug and told him to get some sleep, but
returned him to duty the next day in the volatile southern Baghdad suburbs
known as the "Triangle of Death," The AP found. "The Army knew full
well he had an extreme hatred of Iraqis from seeing fellow soldiers executed
in front of him," said David Sheldon, a Washington-lawyer for Spc. James
P. Barker, a co-defendant who pleaded guilty in November to rape and murder
in the case. Green was dismissed from the
Army for a "severe personality disorder" in May 2006, shortly
before the allegations against him surfaced. Assistant U.S. Attorney
Marisa Ford and Justice Department attorney Brian Skaret, who are prosecuting
Green, said they couldn't comment on the evidence. Ford said Attorney General
Alberto Gonzales decided to seek the death penalty against Green. She said
the attorney general makes that call in all potential federal capital cases. Patrick Bouldin, one of
Green's public defenders, said they are "obviously disappointed that
Attorney General Gonzales is seeking to execute a former soldier for events
that allegedly occurred while PFC Green was serving in an Iraqi war
zone." No one answered the phone
yesterday at the Iraqi embassy in Washington, but Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki last year called for an independent inquiry into the deaths, which
he described as a cold-blooded crime. Brian Sierra, a Justice
Department spokesman, confirmed that Green - who is being held without bond
at an undisclosed location in Kentucky and will be tried in Paducah - is the
first soldier to face the death penalty, if convicted, for alleged war
atrocities in Iraq. And experts on military law,
including Washington lawyer Michael Nardotti Jr., a former Army judge
advocate general, say Green is the first former soldier ever prosecuted in a
civilian court for a war crime. He is being charged under
the Military Extra-Territorial Jurisdiction Act, which was enacted by
Congress in part to allow the prosecution of military contractors working in
Iraq and Afghanistan, who cannot be charged under the Uniform Military
Justice Act. The act also allows former
military to be prosecuted in federal court, said Nardotti, who noted that
some participants in the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War escaped
prosecution because they had already left the military and could not be
court-martialed. The deaths of the Iraqi girl
and her family were first blamed on insurgents when their bodies were
discovered in a burned house near Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad. But according to an FBI
agent's affidavit, Green and three other 101st Airborne Division soldiers had
talked about raping the girl when they saw her while working at a checkpoint. They went to her house,
where Green took the other family members into a bedroom and shot them, the
affidavit said. It says they then took turns raping the girl before Green
allegedly shot her in the head with an AK-47 rifle that was later thrown into
a canal. The other defendants were
prosecuted in the military system. Sgt. Paul E. Cortez, 24,
pleaded guilty in February to rape and murder and was sentenced to 100 years
in prison. He will be eligible for parole in 10 years under the terms of his
plea agreement. Pfc. Bryan Howard, 19,
pleaded guilty in March to being an accessory to the rape and murder and was
sentenced to 27 months in prison. Pfc. Jesse V. Spielman, who
also is charged in the attack, was scheduled to be tried in April, but his
case was continued. Barker, the fourth
defendant, pleaded guilty in November to rape and murder and was sentenced to
90 years in military prison. He agreed to testify against the other
defendants. When the military judge
presiding at Barker's trial at Fort Campbell asked him why he did it, he
replied: "I hated Iraqis, your
honor. They can smile at you, then shoot you in your face without even
thinking about it." External link: http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070704/NEWS01/707041187 |