GI Enters Pleas In Iraq Rape-Murders

U.S. Soldier Pleads Guilty To Lesser Charges In Deadly Attack On Iraqi Teen And Her Family

(AP)  A Fort Campbell soldier accused of acting as a lookout while his colleagues attacked and killed a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and her family pleaded guilty to some lesser offenses Monday as his court-martial began on rape and murder charges.

Pfc. Jesse Spielman pleaded to conspiracy to obstruct justice, arson, wrongfully touching a corpse and drinking.

He still faces trial on the more serious charges in the March 2006 attack on Abeer Qassim al-Janabi and her family. Under military law, a soldier present when a crime occurs can be found guilty if prosecutors can establish that the soldier had prior knowledge.

Three other soldiers have pleaded guilty for their roles in the crimes and received sentences as long as 100 years. Another soldier was discharged from the military before he was charged and could face the death penalty if found guilty in federal court in Kentucky.

Defense attorney Craig Carlson said Spielman's plea to the lesser charges was part of an agreement with prosecutors that involved crimes that Spielman had already confessed to committing during interviews with military investigators.

A military judge later in the day began seating a jury for his court-martial on the rape and murder charges.

Defense attorneys have argued that Spielman had no prior knowledge of the attack. On Monday, they requested immunity for members of the Army's combat stress team, which was attached to Spielman's unit.

Carlson argued that questionable practices and undocumented distribution of medication to soldiers could have left them in a mental state in which they were unable to recognize the nature of the crime. The Department of Justice declined to grant immunity in June, but defense attorneys say the information is critical to their arguments.

The defense also filed a motion to exclude nine photos taken of the victims the day after they were killed.

Col. Stephen Henley, the military judge, said he would allow all but one of the photographs taken by soldiers who responded to the home after hearing reports from Iraqi police the family had been slain.

"While the photographs are bloody, they appear to accurately reflect the crime scene," Henley said.

Prosecutors had argued the photos provide crucial information about the crime.

"These photos painfully demonstrate that she is dead," said Maj. William Fischbach of photos of the 14-year-old girl. He said the position of her body in the photos suggested she had been raped.

"Taken together, these crime scene photos are the government's only evidence that a murder happened," Fischbach said.

Two soldiers have told investigators that Spielman, 22, of Chambersburg, Pa., knew of the plan to rape the girl in Mahmoudiya, a village 20 miles south of Baghdad, and was present when they set the details over swigs of whiskey.

During their courts-martial, Spc. James P. Barker and Sgt. Paul E. Cortez testified they took turns raping the girl while then-Pfc. Steven D. Green shot and killed her mother, father and younger sister. They said Green, who is accused of being the ringleader, shot Abeer in the head after raping her. The girl's body was then set on fire with kerosene to destroy the evidence, according to testimony and military documents.

Green has pleaded not guilty in federal court to charges including murder and sexual assault. No trial date has been set.

Barker said Spielman came to the home knowing of the plan. Pfc. Bryan L. Howard, who stayed at the checkpoint to monitor radios, testified during a hearing in March that he overheard Spielman and the others discuss the rape beforehand. Howard pleaded guilty to being an accessory to the rape and murder and was sentenced to 27 months.

Cortez and Barker pleaded guilty to rape and murder; Barker was sentenced to 90 years and Cortez to 100 years.

[trkshdlght]

wtraynow, you are right
the soldiers there serve for OUR country, increase the profits of OUR companies. No doubt the profits of biggest oil companies(Opet, Shell, BP) have doubled since the war.
Meanwhile, THEIR country becomes a nightmare, and OUR heroic soldiers are responsible for 655.000 official deaths.
Unemployment is %72
%70 of the iraqi people dont have water
1/3 of children dont go to school
8 million people (1/3) need emergency help.

keep on soldiers. until noone is left to breath. After all, it is OUR mission, isnt it?

[trkshdlght]

wtraynow, you are right
the soldiers there serve for OUR country, increase the profits of OUR companies. No doubt the profits of biggest oil companies(Opet, Shell, BP) have doubled since the war.
Meanwhile, THEIR country becomes a nightmare, and OUR heroic soldiers are responsible for 655.000 official deaths.
Unemployment is %72
%70 of the iraqi people dont have water
1/3 of children dont go to school
8 million people (1/3) need emergency help.

keep on soldiers. until noone is left to breath. After all, it is OUR mission, isnt it?

[wtraynor]

My point was that the criminal acts of those soldiers undermine the public trust of the honorable majority of soldiers as well as they undermine our country as a whole and our standing in the global community. I do not personally agree with this war continuing, but I do not personally get to make that decision and neither do the soldiers who are serving over there. I do not have to agree with the war to respect and support the many men and women who have taken upon themselves the duty of serving OUR country. WE have OUR freedoms because of the many men and women who have answered this call to duty throughout our nation's history. I am very grateful to those men and women, and I am disgusted by those who undermine them. If you have a problem with what our military is doing over there then you should place the blame with the elected officials of our country who decide where to send them and what for, and you can take action by voting. Whatever you do though, you shouldn't blame the soldiers, those who put their lives on the line, not for themselves but for US.

[toldyouso21]

I feel that this public trust is especially important for our soldiers who are not only relying on the trust of our community as a country but very much so on the trust of those communities they are serving in abroad. Posted by wtraynor at 03:41 PM : Jul 31, 2007

What communities are our soldiers "serving abroad" What part of invasion and bombing and occupying do Americans not get? when do our evil acts become good acts? When does our starting a fire and causing a lot of carnage and death, evolve into us "just helping out" when we grab a hose and start to try to put the fire out after it is out of control.

WE CAUSED ALL OF THIS. WE LIED ABOUT WMD. WE INVADED. WE BOMBED, DETAINED, RAPED, KILLED, BEAT, LIED, OCCUPIED, AND EVEN PLACED PUPPETS IN POWER. THEN SOMEHOW IN THE GREAT AMERICAN PSYCHE A MENTAL TWIST OCCURRED AND INSTEAD OF BEING THE BAD GUYS--WE SEE OURSELVES AS THE GOOD GUYS AND OUR ACTS AS HONORABLE. How does this happen? Iraqis NEVER asked for this war or the consequences. Who could invade, bomb, kill and torture us in our own country and then pretend they were doing us a favor that we all should be grateful for?

We have to stop this madness. we are the perpretrators here. We are the evil. We started all of this in Iraq--every other evil there now, proceeds from our meddling and invasion. This blood will not wipe off and will not change, no matter how many times some of us claim it is just red kool aide and we are the good guys.

[toldyouso21]

It is horrible when crimes like this are committed, and it is even more horrible when they are committed by someone whose position (soldier, police officer, doctor, teacher, etcetera...) .
Posted by wtraynor at 03:41 PM : Jul 31, 2007

It is even more horrible when it is committed on a child, and her family, in during a war based on lies, in a country Americans should never have been in.

[wtraynor]

It is horrible when crimes like this are committed, and it is even more horrible when they are committed by someone whose position (soldier, police officer, doctor, teacher, etcetera...) inherently evokes the public's trust because those holding these positions are sworn and duty bound to uphold that trust. Incidents such as this one undermine that public trust and does a serious disservice to the majority of honorable men and women who hold like positions. These incidents become ****** in the armor of the perpetrator's honorable fellows because their positions rely on a certain level of public trust to most effectively carry out their duties. I feel that this public trust is especially important for our soldiers who are not only relying on the trust of our community as a country but very much so on the trust of those communities they are serving in abroad. Acts such as these undermine our country as a whole when they are committed by representatives of our nation in the world theater, and therefore I believe that each of these criminals should additionally face the charge of treason.

With monsters like this representing our country it's no wonder so many people across the world hate us. We just seem to keep giving them reason & with Dubya as our Fearless Leader things have only gotten worse & will continue to do so until he is out of office!

[jonesforch]

These boys would of done this regardless of the war...but they thought easier to get away with because of the country they are in.

[bombadil4]

Disgusting, but predictable as this insane and moronic "war" leads our government to troll deeper and deeper into the depths of our society, including into our prisons, to provide fresh meat for the killing grounds of Iraq.