I was all over the Haditha threads, but this one, I lurk on them but rarely post.
Well .. it's a well-known fact that young Muslim or Arabic women who have sex outside of marriage are brutally killed and sometimes burned; especially so if the relationship is with an infidel.
Knowing that .. this charge of killing this young woman and burning her are just foreign to me. And .. I just cannot reconcile that our young people could do this.
However .. I do know the stress of war can SOMETIMES cause people to make irrational decisions in the blink of an eye; decisions they would normally never make otherwise.
This is speculation on my part .. but I keep wondering if the young woman was carrying on with one of the soldiers .. her family found out about it and killed her [one of those "honor" killings] - and when her young soldier found out what they had done to the love of his life - he went temporarily out of his mind and exacted revenge for her death. I don't know why, but this scenario keeps running around in my head.
The preferral of court-marital charges is merely an accusation, according to today's statement. "Those accused are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt," officials stated.
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
Defense wants to silence everyone, including the president
Tuesday, July 11, 2006; Posted: 2:16 p.m. EDT (18:16 GMT) "This case has received prominent and often sensational coverage in virtually all print, electronic and Internet news media in the world," said the motion filed Tuesday in federal court in Louisville, Kentucky.
Public defenders Scott Wendelsdorf and Patrick Bouldin filed the papers on behalf of former Pfc. Steven D. Green.
The court papers cited a Thursday interview of Bush on CNN's "Larry King Live," in which the president referred to the alleged incident as a "despicable crime" and offered an opinion that Green was "staining the image, the honorable image of the United States military."
In addition, the motion said Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was quoted in the Los Angeles Times as saying the alleged incident was "totally unacceptable."
"Clearly, the publicity and public passions surrounding this case present the 'clear and imminent danger to the fair administration of justice,' " the motion said.
It requested that the gag order cover Bush, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, as well as their employees. It also would apply to participants in the trial, attorneys, members of civilian or military law enforcement, and investigators...More