Posted on 07/05/2006 8:25:55 PM PDT by Anti-Bubba182
— A former Army private accused of raping an Iraqi woman and killing her and three family members was a high-school dropout from a broken home who enlisted to get some direction in his life, yet was sent home early because of an "anti-social personality disorder."
Steven D. Green could get the death penalty if convicted in the horrific crime that has strained the U.S. military's already troubled relations with the Iraqi people and sent shockwaves around the world.
Yet the few details known of the 21-year-old's life are as unremarkable as the tired expression he wore in news photos showing him being led into a court this week wearing baggy shorts, flip-flops and a Johnny Cash T-shirt.
Steven Dale Green grew up in the west Texas oil town of Midland, which claims both President Bush and his wife, Laura, as natives. His parents divorced when he was 4, and his mother remarried four years later.
Midland school officials said Green attended classes from 1990 to 2002 but only made it through 10th grade, suggesting he might have been held back at least once. They would not specify.
His upbringing was not without complications. Green's mother pleaded no contest in 2000 to a drunken driving charge and was jailed for six months.
After dropping out, Green moved about 80 miles north to Denver City, the former oil town along the New Mexico state line that is listed as his official hometown. He got his high school equivalency degree in 2003.
According to a report in the Midland Reporter-Telegram, Green was arrested for misdemeanor possession of alcohol on Jan. 31, 2005. Days later, just a few months shy of his 20th birthday, he enlisted in the Army.
He was deployed to Iraq from September 2005 to April 2006 as an infantry soldier in B Company, 1st Battalion of the 502nd Infantry Regiment, which is part of the 101st Airborne Division, based at Fort Campbell, Ky.
It was there that he was sent to patrol the so-called "Triangle of Death," an area southwest of Baghdad known for its frequent roadside bombings. Military officials say more than 40 percent of the nearly 1,000 soldiers in the region have been treated for mental or emotional anxiety. Green was apparently one of them.
He was given a discharge on May 16 for what military officials in Iraq told The Associated Press was an "anti-social personality disorder." The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.
A psychiatric condition, anti-social personality disorder is defined as chronic behavior that manipulates, exploits, or violates the rights of others. Someone with the disorder may break the law repeatedly, lie, get in fights and show a lack of remorse.
Military officials said the accusations of Green's involvment in the rape and killings came to light more than a month later during a session to counsel soldiers about the June 16 abductions of two fellow soldiers who were killed, and reportedly mutilated, by insurgents.
According to a federal affidavit, Green and other soldiers targeted the young girl after spotting her at a traffic checkpoint near Mahmoudiya. On the day of the March attack, the document said, Green took three members of the family _ an adult male and female, and a girl estimated to be 5 years old _ into a bedroom, after which shots were heard from inside. The girl's body was found burned; the other bodies were found in a house that had been burned, the document said.
Greg Simolke, Green's uncle, told The Washington Post that his nephew had visited relatives in North Carolina last week on his way from a funeral at Arlington National Cemetery for one of the two members of his platoon who was abducted and killed in Iraq. He said Green seemed to have found "direction in his life."
"He thought it was a good thing to be serving his country," Simolke said. "When he was here for this visit, he seemed like the same old Steve. I don't understand what happens in a war, so I don't know how these things happen."
Under Army regulations, a soldier can be discharged only if a personality disorder "is so severe that the soldier's ability to function effectively in the military environment is significantly impaired." The diagnosis must be made by a psychiatrist or doctoral-level clinical psychologist who is authorized to conduct mental health evaluations for the military.
Loren Thompson, a military analyst at the Washington-based Lexington Institute, said it is standard practice to discharge soldiers whose profiles suggest they are incapable of maintaining military discipline.
"Despite all the stories about the military having trouble recruiting, it is considered anathema to retain somebody like that," said Thompson. "It isn't Army policy to retain somebody who isn't dependable. I'm certain this person slipped through the cracks. ... The whole point of boot camp is to find people who can't hold up under stress and get them out before they get in the field."
Scott L. Silliman, a military law expert at Duke University and retired Air Force colonel, said Green's diagnosis does not make it easier for his attorneys to plead insanity.
"That may be something that a federal court, in punishing upon conviction, might consider extenuating," Silliman said. "But is it in any way a legal excuse for what he's been charged with? No."
Sounds like it might be best to wait on the trial to find out what really happened.
Are you sure this article is not describing Willum Jeffyson Klintoon?
This affidavit makes for interesting reading.
http://www.armytimes.com/content/editorial/pdf/at.green_rape_complaint070306.pdf
Please read the affidavit I linked. They have 5 sworn testimonies.
SOI1 was a conspirator and lookout
SOI2, SOI3 were involved
SOI4 knew about it afterwards
SOI5 and SOI2 were on the team sent to investigate the next day.
Green is being accused by other soldiers involved and not by the media or some dubious Iraqi source as in the case of Haditha.
At first blush, Green sounds like a lying low-life punk.
Although I doubt he cares, he was no doubt directly responsible for the torture and death of two find young warriors, all for revenge... Revenge for what he did to that family.
I really hope I'm wrong, but if I'm right I wonder if it keeps him awake nights.
Don't kid yourself, they would do that anyway.
While I think rape and murder are sickening, I'm fed up with these stories being reported ad nauseum. Taken to the next step, every rape and murder on the planet should be covered by every "news" media on the planet for at least one year... along with global warming.
What I want to know is why hasn't KP1 been charged with rape, and why aren't all of them being charged with anything in the UCMJ. If they are, why are we just talking about Green? Reading the affidavit, it sounds like he found some like minded folks.
ping
Four are being held in Iraq.
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