Mahmoudiya Hearing continues Ping!
That's no excuse for raping and murdering a 14 year old girl and also murdering her mother and sister.
One of the nursing aides at works husband is back from Iraq. She says he is having a hard time just leaving the house to look for work. Crowds bother him and he is always worried about whats going on around him.
But what I do know is that many have fought in terrible wars and managed not to murder or rape anyone.
A replay of "Casualties of War".
Mahmoudiya pinglist--if you want on or off, please let me know via freepmail.
Apologies to any who might have been double-pinged, since TexKat has a few of the same names on her list.
I'm sure Ryan Lenz will cover the defense with equal vigor, and point out the descrepencies in the timeline and affidavits like he continually brings this up in every article:
"The case has bolstered allegations of misconduct by soldiers, including illegal killings, beatings and inhuman treatment. The allegations have increased the mistrust and resentment among Iraqis of U.S. troops and increased calls for their withdrawal".
/s
Seattle Times News Services
According to Bierce, Barker wrote in his sworn testimony that he and three other soldiers had been playing rummy and drinking Iraqi moonshine mixed with an energy drink on the day of the alleged attack.
According to two of the alleged confessions in the affidavit, they were drinking the NIGHT of the 11th. One soldier's affidavit testimony said (Barker I believe), that they changed into dark clothes to "not be seen"
The four then donned black masks and entered the 14-year-old girl's home in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, a few hundred yards from where the soldiers were staffing a vehicle checkpoint, Bierce said.
According to the affidavit, only Green covered his face, with a brown shirt. I'm still perplexed why some changed clothes to "not be seen" and others wore their uniforms.
Sgt. Paul Cortez, 23, and Barker took turns sexually assaulting the teen, Abeer Qassim al-Janabi, according to Barker's statement. (snip) Green then raped the girl while Cortez held her down, Barker's statement said.
Now there are three rapist instead of two as listed in the affidavit.
During the hearing, Special Agent Michael Hood, a polygraph administrator, testified that Spielman passed the lie-detector test when he said he did not kill or have sex with anyone in the house.
So Howard was elsewhere "keeping watch", Spielman says he did not rape or kill anyone, and Barker told his commanding officer that "no coalition forces killed the family or raped the young girl".
Yet we end up with this testimony from Bierce about what Barker told him. It does not add up, and it will be very telling how the soldiers testify & plead. If they are guilty, I hope they plead such and get this over with.
Rape and murder is rape and murder and there is no excuse good enough to justify it.