Questions about the Affidavit against Pvt. Green (Iraqi Rape/Murder case)

First off, the information in the Affidavit and the MSM regarding this incident in Muhmudiyah does not look good for Steven Green or his alleged conspirators. If he or they are guilty of this crime, then I pray that the Military comes down on them like a ton bricks. The description of what happened is beyond disgusting and evil.

Having said that, I will continue to give the benefit of the doubt to Steven Green and the others, until they confess in a military court or are found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

So in the interim, I will try to do my best, like on the Haditha case, to poke holes in allegations, and to publicize the work of others doing the same thing.

In regards to the affidavit (AD) used to charge Steven Green, I have a couple of questions/observations. You can click on the URL above to see the affidavit.

In Item #5 in the AD, the CID investigation states that 3 men approached checkpoint 1 (TCP#1) on 3/12/2006 at 5:30 PM and reported that a family had been killed in their house and that it was believed to have been done by Anti Iraq forces or "others".

In Item #12, SOI5 (source of information) says that on 3/11/2006 an Iraqi approached him and told him the house had been burned. The Iraqi said four were dead and one had been raped. An HOUR later, Iraqi army personnel and four US soldiers, including SOI5, went to the scene and presumably took the photos.

So did the event happen on 3/11 or 3/12? If SOI5 is correct, then the bodies would have been in the morgue by 3/12 and a 3/11 report would have been discovered by the CID.

Item #6 says that during a combat stress debriefing on 6/20/06 it was determined that these members of the 4th Infantry division commited this crime. Yet all the previous reports say that two guys were debriefed, neither an eyewitness. One said that he overheard guys talking about it, and another said that he heard that the guys burned their clothes. And it was not until 6/24/06 that the invistigation from CIS started. Therefore Item 6 is factually wrong to say it was "determined" on 6/20/06 that our men did this.

In Item #8, SOI1 says SOI2 and KP1 (known participant) changed clothes before heading to the house. Then he says that SOI2, SOI3, SG and KP1 all burned their clothes when they got back. First, SOI3 supposedly stayed guard at the door fo the house, so why would he burn his clothes? And if he was in uniform, would he really burn his uniform at a checkpoint and stand there in his skivvies? 2nd, was SOI1 really dumb enough to man the checkpoint by himself while these guys went raping and pillaging, especially since one of the M4s they took belonged to SOI1?

In Item #10, SOI2 states "Green went into the bedroom to keep the rest of the family there" and that "KP1 threw a woman to the floor". After Green killed the family, SOI2 states that he witnessed "Green and KP1 rape the woamn that SOI3 had thrown to the floor". So who threw the rape victim to the floor?? SOI3 was supposedly standing guard outside the house.

In Item #11, SOI3 says that SOI2 ordered him to toss the AK-47 used by Green into the canal. SOI2 does not mention (items #9 and #10) that he asked SOI3 to get rid of AK-47.

Item #13 is the photo evidence. If this photo evidence was taken 3/11/06 by the Iraqi and US soldiers that went to investigate per item #12 (SOI5's version) then something is terribly amiss about the timing of this story.

U.S. military releases names of other soldiers facing charges

(Baghdad, Iraq-AP, July 10, 2006 12:21 PM) _ Two sergeants are among five American soldiers facing charges in the alleged rape-murder of an Iraqi teenager and the killing of three family members, the U.S. military said Monday.

The military announced Sunday that four soldiers were accused of rape and murder and a fifth with dereliction of duty for failing to prevent or stop it. No names were released.

On Monday, the military identified the others as Sgt. Paul E. Cortez, Sgt. Anthony W. Yribe, Spc. James P. Barker, Pfc. Jesse V. Spielman, and Pfc. Bryan L. Howard.

Yribe was charged for his failure to report the attack but is not alleged to have been a direct participant, the military said. The others face more serious charges as participants.

The five will face an Article 32 hearing, the military equivalent of a grand jury proceeding, to determine if they should stand trial.

They are charged with conspiring with former Pfc. Steven D. Green, who was arrested last month in North Carolina. Green has pleaded not guilty to one count of rape and four counts of murder and is being held without bond.

Al-Qaeda says new leader 'beheaded' kidnapped US soldiers

Key quote: "We give the good news ... to the Islamic nation that we have carried God's verdict by slaughtering the two captured crusaders. With God Almighty's blessing, Abu Hamza al-Muhajir carried out the verdict of the Islamic court for the soldiers' killing." - MUJAHIDEEN SHURA COUNCIL STATEMENT

Story in full: TWO United States soldiers missing in Iraq for three days after being kidnapped at a checkpoint have been found dead, their bodies showing signs of "barbaric" torture, it was announced yesterday.

An internet statement by al-Qaeda in Iraq claimed its new leader, Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, had personally "slit the throats" of, or beheaded, Thomas Lowell Tucker, 25, and Kristian Menchaca, 23, both privates.

The US military launched a major search involving 8,000 troops after vowing not to leave the soldiers "out there".

But yesterday, Major-General William Caldwell, a US military spokesman, said: "Coalition forces have recovered what we believe are the remains of the soldiers." He said a joint US- Iraqi force found the bodies on Monday night dumped at an electrical plant, but their recovery was delayed by having to defuse bombs planted nearby.

Major-General Abdul Aziz Mohammed, an Iraqi defence ministry official, said the bodies showed signs of "barbaric torture", but did not elaborate.

An internet statement from the Mujahideen Shura Council, which groups seven insurgent organisations, including al-Qaeda, in Iraq, said: "We give the good news ... to the Islamic nation that we have carried God's verdict by slaughtering the two captured crusaders. With God Almighty's blessing, Abu Hamza al-Muhajir carried out the verdict of the Islamic court for the soldiers' killing."

The use of the word "slaughter" suggested the soldiers had been beheaded by Muhajir. The Arabic word nahr is used for the slaughtering of sheep by cutting the throat and has been used to refer to beheadings.

If true, it would be the first act of violence by Muhajir, an Egyptian, since he was named as al-Qaeda in Iraq's leader on 12 June. He succeeded Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a US airstrike on 7 June. Attributing the killings to Muhajir might be an attempt to build up the image of the new leader.

A spokesman for the Tucker family said yesterday that they were expecting the worst.

Pte Tucker's relatives declined to comment, but released the text of a phone message he recently left, telling his mother to be proud of him. "I'm defending my country," Pte Tucker said. "Tell Sis and my nephews hello for me. I'm OK. I'm on my way."

A member of the US army's casualty assistance office met Pte Menchaca's mother, Maria Vasquez, yesterday and said it could take two or three days for DNA tests to be completed.

Her niece, Felipa Gomez, said the family had been watching television news reports of the Iraqi military announcement. "She's hanging in there" and still holding on to hope that her son would somehow make it back alive, Ms Gomez said.

Sgt Jesus Rolnmedina, who spoke to her, said the bodies "had a lot of trauma".

Pte Menchaca's uncle, Ken MacKenzie, lashed out at the US government, saying it did not do enough to bring the men home safe. "Because the US government did not have a plan in place, my nephew has paid for it with his life," he said.

Mr MacKenzie said the government should have offered a $100 million (£54 million) reward and offered to exchange Mujahideen detainees for the soldiers' lives. It had seized enough money from Saddam Hussein to afford it, he said.

The US soldiers went missing at dusk on Friday after an ambush at a checkpoint in Yusufiya, a town south of Baghdad some Iraqis call the "Triangle of Death", which is an al-Qaeda stronghold. Another soldier was killed.

The deaths dealt a blow to the US military after it killed Zarqawi on 7 June near Baquba, north-east of Baghdad. However, the US authorities yesterday said it had killed another leading al-Qaeda in Iraq figure.

A man described as the group's "religious emir" was killed in an airstrike on Monday, hours before the two soldiers went missing and in the area where their bodies were found.

Sheik Mansour al-Mashhadani, an Iraqi aged between 35 and 37, and two foreign fighters, including a cell leader identified as Abu Tariq, were killed as they were trying to escape in a vehicle near Youssifiyah.

Gen Caldwell said that Mashhadani played a key religious and recruiting role in the organisation and was tied to the senior leadership, including Muhajir.

He "reportedly served as a right-hand man of Zarqawi's, and also served as a liaison between al-Qaeda in Iraq and the various tribes in the Youssifiyah area," Gen Caldwell said.

Citing intelligence sources, the general also said Mashhadani was responsible for shooting down a coalition aircraft in the spring.

The US military captured Mashhadani in July 2004, but they let him go because he was not deemed to be an important terrorism figure at the time.

Gen Caldwell said Mashhadani joined al-Qaeda in Iraq after his release in autumn 2004. He displayed photos said to show Mashhadani with a moustache before his death and with a battered face and one eye closed after he was killed.

Another picture identified him as a masked figure sitting with Zarqawi.

A document seized from an al-Qaeda hideout and released byMouwafak al-Rubaie, a national security adviser, last week that portrayed the insurgency in Iraq as being in "bleak" shape was also directly linked to Mashhadani, Gen Caldwell said.

Video shows mutilated US soldiers

From correspondents in Paris

July 11, 2006

This article from : Agence France-Presse

THE Iraqi branch of al-Qaeda has put on the Internet a video showing the mutilated bodies of two US soldiers kidnapped in June and executed to "avenge" an Iraqi woman raped near Mahmudiyah south of Baghdad.

"Here is a film on the remains of the bodies of the two American soldiers kidnapped near Yussufiyah (south of Baghdad). We are showing it to avenge our sister who was raped by a soldier belonging to the same division as these two soldiers," said a preamble by the Mujahedeen Al-Shura Council, an al-Qaeda dominated alliance of armed Sunni groups in Iraq.

When guerillas learned of the rape, "they repressed their sighs to avoid news of the affair spreading but they swore to avenge their sister", the council said on its usual website.

"Praise God, they captured two soldiers from the same division as this vile crusader. Here are the remains ... to rejoice the hearts of the faithful," the statement said.

The nearly five-minute film shows the horribly mutilated bodies of the two soldiers, who had had their throats cut.

The head of one of them was held high by an armed man, like a trophy. The head of the other was being stamped on by another armed man.

The film is accompanied by extracts of old speeches by the head of the al-Qaeda terror group, Osama bin Laden, and the ex-head of its Iraqi wing Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, who was killed June 7 by the US Army.

The Iraqi branch of al-Qaeda said on June 20 that it had executed the two US soldiers whose bodies were found south of Baghdad.

http://www.couriermail.news.com.au/story/0,20797,19752490-5003402,00.html

Houston-Area Soldier Accused Of Rape, Murder

POSTED: 5:42 pm CDT July 10, 2006 UPDATED: 5:53 pm CDT July 10, 2006

HUFFMAN, Texas -- A Houston-area soldier could face the death penalty if he is convicted of raping and murdering an Iraqi teenage girl and killing her relatives, KPRC Local 2 reported Monday.

Pfc. Bryan Howard of Huffman and three other soldiers are charged with rape and murder while a fourth soldier is accused of not reporting the crimes.

They were charged over the weekend, accused of conspiring with former Pfc. Steven Green to commit the attacks.

Green was charged with rape and four counts of murder during an appearance in a federal courtroom in Charlotte last week. He pleaded not guilty.

The military had first blamed insurgents when the four bodies were found in March inside a burned house near Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad.

But last week federal prosecutors revealed the outcome of a joint military and FBI investigation: They now believe U.S. soldiers who manned a checkpoint a short distance from the home plotted the attack and tried to cover it up.

Howard's parents told KPRC Local 2 that they believe in their son's innocence and are in shock over the allegations.

The military said the men are innocent until proven guilty. U.S. officials are conducting an investigation to see if a trial should be held.

The soldiers accused in the rape and killings are from the same platoon as two soldiers whose mutilated bodies were found June 19, three days after they were abducted by insurgents near Youssifiyah, southwest of Baghdad. Military officials say they believe guilt over the mutilations may have spurred a confession by one of the soldiers during a combat-stress debriefing late last month.

Houston-area soldier charged in rape of Iraqi girl

08:16 AM CDT on Tuesday, July 11, 2006
By Mike Zientek / KHOU

A Houston-area soldier has been charged, along with four other servicemen for the rape and murder of an Iraqi girl.

Bryan Howard has been charged in connection with the rape and murder of an Iraqi girl.
Investigators say the victim’s family was also killed by the soldiers at a home located in Mahmoudiya, Iraq.

The 19-year-old soldier is from Huffman.

The small community of Huffman isn’t the type of place you’d expect to have connections to an international scandal, but with the arrest of army Private Bryan Howard that’s exactly what’s happened.

“Conspiracy to commit rape and premeditated murder. Conspiracy to obstruct justice. Violation of a lawful general order. Premeditated murder. Rape, arson, house break-in, indecent acts and obstruction of justice,” said U.S. Army Maj. Gen. William Caldwell of the charges.

The military announced it has charged Howard and four other soldiers in connection with the rape and murder of an Iraqi girl and the murders of three of her family members in the town of Mahmoudiya.

On Howard’s My Space Web site is a picture taken while he was in the Hargrave High School junior ROTC program.

“That’s not Brian at all. Because yeah, he jokes around and stuff but he’s not out to hurt anybody,” said his friend Brenden Wilkinson.

Wilkinson was a freshman in ROTC when Howard was a senior.

“He never got into any trouble. He was one of our best leaders we had in there. Someone you looked up to. Yeah, I looked up to him a lot,” said Wilkinson.

On vehicles outside the Howard house are the familiar symbols of parents with children serving overseas.

Howard’s father was too upset to talk on camera, but did confirm he’d received a call from the attorney representing his son.

The first arrest in this case happened last week when former Private Stephen Green was taken into custody in Kentucky.

There have been differing reports over the age of the girl who was raped and killed. Her age has been listed as anywhere from 14 to 25 years old.

http://www.kvue.com/news/state/stories/071106kvuesoldierrape-eh.68bc85.html

Here are some of the eyewitness accounts:

Abu Firas Janabi via LA Times, July 6:

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.

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."

The couple had found the two young boys in the family crying as they stood outside the farmhouse, where they could see the bodies inside. The boys had been at school when the killings occurred but were home by the time Janabi and his wife arrived.

Together, they went to a checkpoint guarded 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.

Janabi said Abeer was not in school and, like other peasant girls, seldom left the house.

Janabi and his wife were home March 12 when a neighbor ran to tell him that the farmhouse of his cousin and her husband was on fire and that he could see slain family members inside the burning building.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-rape6jul06,0,3149499.story?coll=la-home-headlines

-----------------------------------------------------

From Ahmed Taha via the AP on June 6:

In Mahmoudiya, Abeer's uncle said the family thought insurgents had been responsible until the U.S. military announced an investigation last week. "Nobody knew who killed them," Ahmed Taha told AP Television News. "Some said it was insurgents, and in fact, we ruled out the American troops."

After the U.S. announcement, some neighbors told him of seeing U.S. soldiers in the area at the time of the attack but said they had been too afraid to come forward at the time.

Taha said he arrived at the scene about four hours after the killings and found the charred body of his 15-year-old niece, along with those of her mother, Fikhriya Taha, her father, Qassim Hamza, and her younger sister, Hadeel Qassim Hamza. Taha said the mother and father had been shot four times and showed signs of having been beaten.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whose brief tenure has been marked by several high-profile allegations of abuse by U.S. forces, called for an Iraqi investigation - or at least a joint inquiry - into the March 12 rape and murder of Abeer Qassim Hamza, and the killing of her mother, father and sister at their home south of Baghdad.

http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060706/REPOSITORY/607060366/1013/48HOURS

-----------------------------------------------

From Omar Janabi via the Wash. Post July 3:

..the girl had attracted the unwelcome attention of U.S. soldiers manning a checkpoint that the girl had to pass through almost daily in their village in the south-central city of Mahmudiyah, her mother told the neighbor (janabi).

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.

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.

Death certificates viewed yesterday at the Mahmudiyah hospital identified the victims as Fakhriyah Taha Muhsin, 34, killed by gunshots to her head; Qasim Hamza Raheem, 45, whose head was "smashed" by bullets; Hadeel Qasim Hamza, 7, Abeer's younger sister, shot to death; and Abeer, shot in the head. Abeer's body also showed burns, the death certificate noted.

http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060703/REPOSITORY/607030356/1013/48HOURS

---------------------------------------

Other interesting tidbits from the Mayor of Mahmudiya via Reuters, July 3:

"They were found killed and burnt on the morning of March 12," Fadhil said, just after he met a U.S. military officer at his municipal office in the small town south of Baghdad.

Hospital director Dawood al-Taie said his morgue received four burned bodies that day and showed death certificates made out on March 13 for the four named as the victims by the mayor.

"Gunshot to the head and chest. Face unrecognisable due to burns," read the certificate for Abeer Qasim Hamza, who the mayor said was 16 when she died and had been raped.

Taie (coroner) said he had no record that evidence of rape was found.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/MAC343659.htm

And from the ever reliable Time magazine, July 9th:

Family members describe Abeer Qasim Hamza al-Janabi as tall for her age, skinny, but not eye-catchingly beautiful. As one of her uncles put it, "She was an ordinary girl."

Kinda comnflicts with the WaPosts version: "Whatever her age, she was described as pretty by the townspeople, according to the Post."

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.

I guess Omar Janabi and his wife had help dousing the flames on the girls body, but forgot to mention it, and instead he did decided to tell the WaPost that no one else would come to help. Hmmmmm

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1211562-1,00.html

An interview with the LA Times "reporter":

AMY GOODMAN: We go now to Baghdad to speak with Raheem Salman, an Iraqi journalist with the Los Angeles Times. He interviewed the cousin of the family, who said he was the first person to enter the house after the attack. We welcome to you Democracy Now!, Raheem Salman.

RAHEEM SALMAN: Thank you very much.

AMY GOODMAN: Tell us what the cousin, al-Janabi, told you about what he found when he came to Abeer's house?

RAHEEM SALMAN: Well, indeed, Abu Firas Janabi told me that he heard from a very close neighbor to the victim's family, that they were murdered, they were killed. He said he rushed -- he took his wife, using his private car. He said, “When I have arrived at the house, I found the two children, who were survived.” Fortunately, they were in their school, Ahmed was in the third class, primary school, and his brother was also in the first class only. He found them in front of the house, crying. And they saw -- I mean, Abu Firas and his wife saw that there was a white smoke coming out from the house.

First, they had a glance through the window to one of the rooms, toward the sitting room. They saw one corpse, but they, you know, they could not identify whose corpse was that. And then, they were looking through the windows, you know, it was difficult, the visibility was difficult for them. Later on, his wife discovered the three other corpses: the father, mother and their daughter. And separately, in another room. They tried to extinguish the fire of the corpses.

And then, after, you know, they knew that the incident has happened and they were killed, he went to a joint checkpoint, in which there are Iraqi and American soldiers, and told them about the incident. They came with him to the house. They took the corpses. And then he was told to report to the hospital of Mahmoudiya tomorrow morning, in order to receive the corpses. Yeah?

AMY GOODMAN: Now, Abeer, Raheem Salman, reportedly told her mother that the soldiers were making advances towards her, that they saw her at the checkpoint?

RAHEEM SALMAN: Could you repeat your question, please?

AMY GOODMAN: Is it true that Abeer, the -- what appears to be her age, 14 years old now, had already told her mother that she was afraid of the soldiers, that they were making advances to her at the checkpoint?

RAHEEM SALMAN: Uh-huh. Indeed I have been told by this relative that Abeer expressed her concern to her mother about ten days ago. The harassment started by the soldier for her ten days ago. That's why even her mother, you know, asked her to sleep in one of the neighbor's house. But later on, this relative told them, told the mother that he has a house, an empty house, near his house. This house is far from there, about one kilometer. He asked them to -- he asked the mother to bring her family here. But then, they said that “it's alright. We have so many neighbors.” And I don't think -- they don't think that something will happen. That's why they did not move from their house until the incident that took place.

AMY GOODMAN: Raheem Salman, how has the rape and the killings affected the community?

RAHEEM SALMAN: Well, indeed, to tell you frankly that it has a great impact upon the whole society, upon all Iraqis. This is one of the worst crimes, you know, to be committed against a girl in this age. Some people describe this murder and rape as horrible and gruesome and disgusting, indeed. Others describe it even as a brand of shame, even in the American Army's history. Others consider it as example of the atrocity of some of the soldiers. Among the lawmakers here in our parliament, some female lawmakers, you know, protested strongly under the dome of the parliament. They asked the parliament to call the prime minister and the minister of interior. They also asked for a real participation of the Iraqi side in the investigation, and not only the Americans. And you know, most of the elders in the Iraqi streets, they are also concerned that, you know, it will pass like abuses or some other crimes, and not -- the concerned people, they are not punished in the same level of their crime. So they are expecting that, you know, they will be punished, at least the ultimate penalty, and not a sham trial.

AMY GOODMAN: Raheem Salman, now these videos have been released linking the mutilation and killing of the two U.S. soldiers to the rape and slaying of Abeer and her family, the soldiers who were killed from the same unit as the men who allegedly committed this crime.

RAHEEM SALMAN: Yes. Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: The response?

RAHEEM SALMAN: Yes, that's correct. Sorry, could you repeat the last part?

AMY GOODMAN: Your response?

RAHEEM SALMAN: Oh, yes. Indeed, the people in Mahmoudiya and other places, they are talking or they are suspecting that the kidnapping of the two soldiers, it was happening because of the crime committed against this family and against this girl, you know, because both incidents took place in the same place, which is Mahmoudiya and Yousefiya. The soldiers are from the same military unit, where the soldiers of the checkpoints are, so people are connecting this incident to that.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you, Raheem Salman, for joining with us. Is it also true that the two boys, Abeer's brothers, who came and found the family killed, were then taken to U.S. military, have met with them?

RAHEEM SALMAN: Well, indeed the eyewitness told me that the commander told them that the Americans will take care of them. And the commander was too sad to see these people, and it was difficult for him to control his tears when he talked to them, was kissing them. And he said it’s his responsibility to take care of those two kids. It is the responsibility of the American Army.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, Raheem Salman, I want to thank you very much for being with us. Iraqi journalist with the Los Angeles Times, speaking to us from Baghdad.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.