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more info from the New York Times :
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/04/us/04arrest.html
July 4, 2006
Ex-G.I. Accused of Murders and Rape in Iraq
By DAVID S. CLOUD and KIRK SEMPLE
WASHINGTON, July 3 — A recently discharged Army private has been arrested on charges of raping an Iraqi woman and killing her and three family members four months ago in their house in the Iraqi town of Mahmudiya, federal prosecutors said Monday.

The former soldier, Steven D. Green, 21, had recently been discharged from the Army for a "personality disorder," the prosecutors said. They said Mr. Green and other soldiers had discussed the rape in advance, and carried out the crimes after drinking alcohol, leaving a checkpoint and changing from their uniforms into black clothing.

A criminal complaint made public by the prosecutors on Monday charged that Mr. Green shot the three family members, including a child, with an AK-47 assault rifle found in the house before he and another soldier raped the woman. Citing interviews with unnamed participants, the document alleges that Mr. Green, his face covered with a brown T-shirt, then "walked over to the woman and shot her several times." It says the soldiers returned to the checkpoint with blood on their clothes and agreed that the episode was "never to be discussed again."

Mr. Green, who appeared in federal court on Monday in Charlotte, N.C., was arrested there on Friday, the prosecutors said. The documents they made public provided the first official account of the rape and killings, whose broad outlines emerged last week after American military officials in Baghdad said they were investigating the incident. The military originally thought Iraqi insurgents were responsible after several Iraqis approached an American checkpoint and said a family had been killed in their home, the charging documents said.

The rape victim was identified in the American court documents as a 25-year-old woman, but there have been conflicting accounts of her age. In Iraq, the mayor of Mahmudiya said Monday that the rape victim had been only 15 years old.

The mayor, Mouayid Fadhil, said that those killed included the rape victim's parents and her 7-year-old sister, and that the attackers also tried to set the rape victim's body on fire, apparently in an effort to cover up evidence. American officials said they could not confirm that the house had been set on fire by soldiers. But the complaint refers to crime scene photographs, including one showing a "burned body."

The case is one of five recent incidents in which American military personnel have come under investigation for killing unarmed Iraqis, and it is the first in which an alleged participant has been charged in civilian courts, which prosecutors said was necessitated by Mr. Green's discharge.

A White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, said: "We understand that charges have been brought against the individual. The president has full confidence in the military to investigate alleged crimes and to punish anyone convicted of abhorrent behavior that dishonors the proud traditions of our military. He will not comment on ongoing investigations so as not to prejudice the outcome; however, he believes that 99.9 percent of our men and women in uniform are performing their jobs honorably and skillfully and they deserve our full appreciation and gratitude."

The charges were brought against Mr. Green after public disclosure of the investigation last week led prosecutors to fear he might attempt to flee, said Marisa Ford, an assistant United States attorney in Louisville, Ky., where the charges were brought.

The prosecutors said Mr. Green was likely to be transferred next week to Louisville, which is four hours away from Fort Campbell, Ky., where his unit, the 101st Airborne Division, has its headquarters.

Cecilia Osequera, a public defender who represented Mr. Green at his court appearance Monday, declined to comment.

The case is in federal court because the crime was committed abroad. The Army is considering whether it could reactivate Mr. Green in order to allow the military to prosecute him, rather than leaving the case to civilian authorities, an Army official said. If convicted in either military or civilian court, Mr. Green could face the death penalty, prosecutors and Army officials said.

American military officials have said they first learned about the rape and killings last month, after Mr. Green left the Army. He had received an honorable discharge after only 11 months in the service because of what the charging documents described only as a "personality disorder." His departure was unrelated to the incident, the Army official said, adding that he had no more information about Mr. Green's disorder.

Army officials and prosecutors said that, before his arrest, Mr. Green may have been planning to attend a funeral service Saturday at Arlington National Cemetery for Specialist David J. Babineau, one of three soldiers who were ambushed at a checkpoint in Yusufiya in June. Two other soldiers who survived the ambush were taken prisoner by insurgents and later killed and mutilated.

Though Mr. Green and the three ambush victims reportedly came from the same unit, the 502nd Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne, so far, the Army official said there was no evidence that the Americans had been abducted in retaliation for the rape and murder of the Iraqis.

Other participants in the crimes are likely to be charged by military prosecutors and face court-martial, a prosecutor involved said.

At least three other soldiers suspected of involvement in the rape and murder of the Iraqis are being held in a military base in Iraq, but several soldiers interviewed by prosecutors, identified in charging documents only as "sources of information," said that Mr. Green was responsible for the killings and that he and an another unidentified soldier, referred to as a "known participant" committed the rape.

The incident came to light last month after soldiers in the regiment were undergoing "a combat stress debriefing" related to the ambush of three Americans, the charging documents said. After entering the house, the compliant alleged that Mr. Green herded family members into a back bedroom and closed the door. After shots were heard, he emerged, telling the other soldiers, "I just killed them. All are dead," according to one unidentified soldier.

Participants in the attacks later told another soldier who had remained behind at the checkpoint to "dispose of the AK-47 in a canal across the street," the document says.

The Iraqi mayor, Mr. Fadhil, said the body of the rape victim, Abeer Qasem Hamzeh, had multiple bullet wounds and burn marks. Abeer's sister, Hadeel, was shot in the head, the mayor said, reading from a hospital report, her father, Qasem Hamzeh Rasheed, who was in his mid-40's, suffered head trauma; and her mother, Fakhariya Taja Muhassain, was shot multiple times.

Three sons were at school at the time of the March 12 attack, the mayor added.

An American military official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record, said investigators still had no firm ages for the family members and said the rape victim had been classified by Iraqis in Mahmudiya as an "adult." But in Iraq, girls who have reached child-bearing age are often referred to as adults.

American military officials announced their investigation into the attack last week and said they were pursuing allegations that soldiers from the 502nd Infantry Regiment were involved.

A committee of Iraqi officials opened its own investigation into the case on Saturday after conversations with the American military, Mr. Fadhil said. The committee includes Mr. Fadhil, a judge from Mahmudiya, the director of the town's hospital, the local police chief, a member of the Mahmudiya town council and a representative from the Iraqi Army, the mayor said.

An Army spokesman, Maj. Todd Breasseale, said the American authorities welcomed the development. "We would encourage any civilian judiciary or any civilian legislative arm to explore their own investigation," he said in a telephone interview. "That's what a free and open government system does. We wouldn't even think to hinder it."

David S. Cloud reported from Washington for this article, Kirk Semple from Baghdad. Mona Mahmoud contributed reporting from Baghdad.