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Iraq Rape and Murders May Have Caused Soldiers' Kidnappings, Beheadings

By Jeralyn, Section War In Iraq
Posted on Wed Jul 05, 2006 at 04:56:51 AM EST
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The investigation into former soldier Steven Green, charged with raping a teenage Iraqi girl and murdering her family, is taking a new turn:

Military officials initially had believed that the three soldiers attacked in the town of Yousifiya were selected because they were in a vulnerable position when separated from the rest of their unit. But as information about the alleged rape-killing has emerged, so have new theories about the kidnapping-murders.

"Was it a target of opportunity or was it a warning: don't do this to our women?" said the military official.

Were the June kidnappings, murders and beheadings of U.S. soldiers in Yousifiya revenge for the March rape and killings in Mahmoudiya? It makes sense to me. The towns are very near each other. But what I don't understand is why only Green was charged. Another soldier, referred to as KP1, also allegedly raped the girl.

According to accounts provided to investigators by other soldiers, Green and took several other soldiers with him to a nearby house intending to rape the woman. Green, according to an affidavit submitted by FBI Special Agent Gregor J. Ahlers in support of the arrest warrant, killed the woman's parents and young sister, raped the woman along with another soldier, then shot her in the head and set her body on fire.

There were four soldiers who went to the residence, knowing that the plan was for the girl to be raped. They are referred to in the affidavit as SO12, SO13, Green and KP1. You can read the affidavit for Green's arrest here. Page 6 lays out the events and players.

Amid the more disgusting details, provided by S012 and SO13 who have cooperated with authorities: They go to the house, SO13 stays in front on guard, the other three go in the house. K1 smacks the girl down in the living room, Green goes in the bedroom, shoots and kills her three family members. SO13, hearing the shots, comes in the house. Green comes back out to the living room where Green and KP1 rape the girl, after which, Green shoots her and kills her. SO12 tells SO13 to get rid of the AK-47 Green used to kill them all.

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    Iraq Rape and Murders May Have Caused Soldiers' Kidnappings, Beheadings | 25 comments (25 topical)
    Re: Iraq Rape and Murders May Have Caused Soldiers (1.00 / 1) (#17)
    by squeaky on Wed Jul 05, 2006 at 05:32:58 PM EST
    There is NO WAY that Iraqi insurgents would have missed a chance to pass themselves off as "protectors of Iraqi women" if they knew they beheaded the soldiers for that reason.
    We have a specialist of Iraqi culture in our midsts. Perhaps s/he can go over there and help our troops to read the tea leaves. The insurgents are just like the Mafia, great point. You expertise is sorely wasted here. With you advising our troops we can win in a matter of weeks. Can't wait to hear more about the psychology of the insurgents direct from the field. See ya, and don't forget to write.

    Re: Iraq Rape and Murders May Have Caused Soldiers (none / 0) (#1)
    by Rick B on Wed Jul 05, 2006 at 02:04:00 AM EST
    Green had been in the Army eleven months by the time he was discharged for an unspecified personality disorder. The discharge occurred after the rape/murder. He was a problem for the command at platoon and company levels, and they got rid of him. Quietly, so as to not disturb the higher commanders. To discharge him it had to go through battalion S1 (Personnel.) The three soldiers at the traffic control point were set up. Someone attacked the group and ran. Part of the group left to chase them, leaving the three troops at the traffic control point. One was killed, two were captured, tortured, beheaded and left to be found. These three soldiers were ~in the same platoon~ as Green had been. For purposes of payback, being in the same platoon as the rapist/murderers is the same as being in the extended family, so they were responsible to the extended family four Green killed. The rape/murder very probably led to Green's discharge, and was almost certainly known to everyone in his platoon, his company commander and first sergeant, the battalion commander and XO, and the Battalion Personnel section. This is at a minimum. The hullabaloo caused by the capture of the two soldiers brought the entire U.S Army in the Iraq command out in force, and included - what was it? - some 6,000 soldiers searching for them over the weekend until the bodies were found? That tore to top off the cover up within the 502d bn. It was exposed in the debriefings after the deaths of the three soldiers. I can understand your genteel use of the term "~may have caused~ the soldier's kidnappings, beheadings." but for this to all happen in the same single platoon is just to unlikely to be a reasonable coincidence. Especially when connected to the discharge of the prime suspect for some unspecified "personality disorder" after he has only been in the Army for a total of eleven months. Gimme a break. Every bit of this stuff is connected. That discharge itself is very unlikely to have occurred to anyone. That it happened to the person identified as the prime suspect in a rape/murder shortly after the crime happened is too unreasonable to be a coincidence. By the way, notice that Green was a high school dropout with a GED. Prior to the invasion of Iraq, he would not even have been allowed into the Army. The standards had to be lowered a lot just to get him in, and look what happened as a result. High school graduates are a lot less likely to be this kind of discipline problem. But the Army wasn't making the enlistment quotas, remember? I'd really like to know Green's training and discipline record prior to March. This is what is meant when people say that our ground forces are "broken" but the repeated tours and lowered standards caused by the war in Irag. That rape/murder should be blamed directly on Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld for invading with too few troops and then for not expanding the troops available when they decided not to get out as Iraq got hotter. The primary blame will always be on Green, but the political leaders set the conditions up so that it had to happen somewhere - and probably has happened elsewhere. I would like to see Green recalled to active duty and court martialed under articles 118 (Murder) and 120 (Rape), both of which carry the death penalty, particularly if the crime was premeditated as these were. I would not be a good person to have on the Board, however. Looks like he will be tried as a civilian, though. I'm not sure why the civilian courts have jurisdiction.

    Re: Iraq Rape and Murders May Have Caused Soldiers (none / 0) (#3)
    by Punchy on Wed Jul 05, 2006 at 07:07:43 AM EST
    Looks like he will be tried as a civilian, though. I'm not sure why the civilian courts have jurisdiction. I would love to have a lawyer explain this to me. The crime was obviously committed while a solider. All the witnesses are military. All the evidence collected was by the military. So why is he tried in a civilian court? This all stinks of a huge coverup. Get him out of the military as fast as possible, so as not to taint the 502 when the truth comes out. Try him in civilian courts so as to distance themselves from the military...I've officially given up believing/trusting anything our active military leaders tell us anymore.

    Re: Iraq Rape and Murders May Have Caused Soldiers (none / 0) (#4)
    by cmpnwtr on Wed Jul 05, 2006 at 08:17:36 AM EST
    The story by AP this morning is he was diagnosed with anti-social personality disorder. That's short for "no conscience." As a mental health clinician it bothers me they would put a gun in a person's hands and a license to kill without checking first if they were of that diagnosis. The prisons are full of anti-social personality disorders. It's the usual diagnosis for serial killers.

    Re: Iraq Rape and Murders May Have Caused Soldiers (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Jul 05, 2006 at 08:31:50 AM EST
    With this whole incident, the DOD and the U.S. Army seems to spin the media, including NPR and CBS. The DOD report wants to make the victim a woman of 25 years of age. But the neighbors say she was a school girl only 15. Who do I believe? The neighbors of course who knew the girl and her family. Rumsfeld and the Army brass want this to blow over, want to minimize the atrocity. The neighbors, according to the Washington Post, say that the victim confided in her mother that the American soldiers were harassing her at a check point each morning that she went to school. She was afraid that they would attack her, and they did in her own home. Yet Rumsfeld and the Army want to hush hush that she was only a child. This just goes to show what Bush has wrought with his preemptive war. He is the ultimate war criminal Roberto in Utah

    Re: Iraq Rape and Murders May Have Caused Soldiers (none / 0) (#6)
    by Che's Lounge on Wed Jul 05, 2006 at 08:35:41 AM EST
    The neighbors, according to the Washington Post, say that the victim confided in her mother that the American soldiers were harassing her at a check point each morning that she went to school Yeah but it was a freshly painted school. Why do you people always focus on the bad news?

    Re: Iraq Rape and Murders May Have Caused Soldiers (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Jul 05, 2006 at 08:50:07 AM EST
    Seeing a couple of comments about the possibility of an initial cover-up of the horrible incident in Mahmoudiya, I would note the following issues seem to be raised by a careful reading of the FBI Affidavit supporting the warrant for Steven Green's arrest: (1) para. 13 of the Affidavit indicates that "fifteen crime scene photos" had been provided to the Affiant by the Army's CID, and further indicates that bodies appeared in the photos. (2) since the actual rape and murder occurred during the evening of March 11, 2006 (paras. 8, 9 and 12) bodies would clearly have been removed from the scene of the crime before the "combat stress debriefing" of "on/about 06/20/2006" when the crime was "discovered (para. 6). If the crime scene photos predate the 6/20/06 debriefing, why were they taken, and if as part of an investigation, what did it conclude? Is anyone following up with a FOIA Request to get all relevant CID files? (3) the references in the FBI Affidavit as to the initial US awareness of the incide