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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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February 23rd,
2007 - Soldier Gets 100 Years in Prison in Rape of Iraqi Girl |
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Soldier Gets 100 Years in Prison
in Rape of Iraqi Girl, Killing of her and her Family By Rose French Associated Press February 23, 2007 Fort Campbell, Ky. – A U.S.
soldier sentenced to 100 years in prison for the gang rape and murder of an
Iraqi girl and killing of her family said he was sorry but that he couldn't
explain why he did it. Sgt. Paul E. Cortez, 24,
wept as he apologized at his sentencing hearing Thursday for raping
14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi and taking part in killing her and her
family. “I still don't have an
answer,” Cortez told the judge. “I don't know why. I wish I hadn't. The lives
of four innocent people were taken. I want to apologize for all of the pain
and suffering I have caused the al-Janabi family.” Cortez, of Barstow, Calif.,
pleaded guilty this week to four counts of felony murder, rape and conspiracy
to rape in a case considered among the worst atrocities by U.S. military
personnel in Iraq. In his plea agreement, he
said he conspired with three other soldiers from the Fort Campbell-based
101st Airborne Division to rape the girl. The military judge hearing
the case, Col. Stephen R. Henley, issued a sentence of life in prison without
parole, the maximum for the charges. Under military law, the defendant is
given the lesser sentence unless he violates terms of the plea agreement,
which require Cortez to testify against others charged in the case. Psychologist Charles Figley
testified that Cortez and the other soldiers likely suffered stress brought
on by fatigue and trauma. “It eats you up,” Figley
said. “It's a horrible thing. This is not unique. We've seen this in other
wars.” Five soldiers who served
with Cortez in Iraq testified that his actions were out of character and
described the hardships of war they experienced, including sleep deprivation
and the lack of running water. “I just never would have
seen it coming,” said Staff Sgt. Tim Briggs, who has known Cortez for five
years and served with him in Iraq. Prosecutors said the stress
was no excuse for the actions of Cortez and the other soldiers from the 101st
Airborne Division, based at Fort Campbell. On Wednesday, Cortez
described raping the girl in her family's home in Mahmoudiya last March,
along with Spc. James Barker, 24. Barker pleaded guilty in November to rape
and murder and was sentenced to 90 years in military prison. Barker has said in a sworn
statement that the soldiers drank whiskey and played cards while plotting the
assault. Cortez said this week that
former private Steven D. Green raped the girl before he did. Then Green shot
her father, mother and sister before shooting the teen in the head, Cortez
said. He also testified that the
soldiers tried to burn the girl's body. They burned their own clothes and
threw the murder weapon, an AK-47, into a canal in an effort to dispose of
the evidence. Cortez was found not guilty
of more serious charges of premeditated murder and conspiracy to premeditated
murder. Pfcs. Jesse Spielman, 22,
and Bryan Howard, 19, await courts-martial. Green, who is accused of being
the ringleader but was discharged from the military before being charged,
will be prosecuted in a federal court in Kentucky. External link: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20070223-0242-iraq-rapeslaying.html U.S. soldier sentenced to
100 years for Iraq rape, killing Al Jazeera February 23, 2007 “I still don’t have an
answer,” Sgt. Paul E. Cortez, 24, who was sentenced to 100 years in jail
Thursday for the gang rape and murder of the 14-year old Iraqi girl named
Abeer Qassim al-Janabi and the killing of her family last year, told the
judge. “I don’t know why. I wish I
hadn’t. The lives of four innocent people were taken. I want to apologize for
all of the pain and suffering I have caused the al-Janabi family.” Cortez, who was previously
given a dishonorable discharge, had earlier pleaded guilty to four counts of
felony murder, rape and conspiracy to rape in the Mahmoudiya incident that
took place in March 2006. At the court, Cortez, who
will, according to the U.S. Army, will be eligible for parole in 10 years
under the terms of his plea agreement, broke down as he confessed to raping
the girl. He admitted that he
conspired with his colleagues to rape the 14-year-old, and killing her as
well as her parents and younger sister. Cortez said that former
private Steven D. Green raped the girl before he did. He said that Green had shot
Abeer’s father, mother and sister before shooting her in the head. Spc. James Barker, 24, had
pleaded guilty last November to rape and murder charges in Abeer’s case and
was sentenced to 90 years in military prison.
Cortez admits raping, murdering Abeer Yesterday, U.S. judge
accepted Cortez’s plea to the gang rape of the 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the
killing of her and her family in Mahmudiya. Cortez admitted four
murders, rape and conspiracy to rape. His plea means he will avoid the death
sentence. According to the plea deal,
Cortez admitted conspiring with three other soldiers, Private First Class
Jesse Spielman, Specialist Barker and Steven Green, a now discharged soldier,
to rape Abeer Qassim al-Janabi. Pte Spielman and another
man, Bryan Howard, are awaiting court martial on charges related to the
crime. Cortez admitted that the
plan to rape the girl was hatched as he and his colleagues played cards. He
said the girl was an easy target because there was only one male in her
house. "During the time me and
Barker were raping Abeer, I heard five or six gunshots that came from the
bedroom…After Barker was done, Green came out of the bedroom and said that he
had killed them all, that all of them were dead." “Green then placed himself
between Abeer’s legs to rape her. When Green was finished, he stood up and
shot Abeer in the head two or three times.” The horrible crime lasted
about five minutes, and the girl knew her parents and sister had been shot
while she was being raped, the hearing heard. The heinous crimes committed
against innocent Iraqi civilians by U.S. occupation forces since the 2003
invasion have tarnished the image of the American military. But the
rape-murder case could be particularly damaging to the U.S.’s image in Iraq’s
conservative Muslim society. Second rape case in Iraq Four Iraqi soldiers are
accused of raping a 50-year-old Sunni woman and the attempted rape of her two
daughters in the second accusation of sexual assault leveled against Iraqi
forces this week, an Iraqi official said. Brig. Gen. Nijm Abdullah
said the incident took place about 10 days ago in the northern city of Tal
Afar. A lieutenant and three enlisted men admitted raping the women when they
were confronted by her. Abdullah said a fifth soldier
suspected something was wrong, burst into the woman’s house and forced the
others at gunpoint to stop the assault. “They have been referred to
the judicial authorities so they can receive their just punishment,” said
Abdullah. The rape case is the second
to be reported in Iraq this week. On Monday, a 20-year-old Sunni woman said
she was raped by three Iraqi policemen in a police station after she was
arrested in western Baghdad. Shia Prime Minister Nuri
al-Maliki dismissed the women’s complaint and honored the accused soldiers
after an investigation that only lasted a few hours. Maliki also accused Sunni
politicians of exploiting the incident to undermine the ongoing U.S.-Iraqi
operation to curb Baghdad’s violence. But the woman’s complaint
opened sectarian splits in the Iraqi government, with Sunni politicians
accusing the Shia-led government of a cover-up. AJP and agencies External link: http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=13000 |