Most of you know about Steven Green, the soldier accused of raping a 15-year-old girl and then murdering both her and her family last March. Green hails from Midland, Texas, the same town the Bush family used to call home.Even progressives seem to have accepted the official version of the event. Unfortunately, something larger, even more disturbing seems to be going on here.
Green was dismissed due to an unspecified "personality disorder," diagnosed after the crime came to light. Or so we have been told. But evidence suggests that military officials knew all about the massacre the night that it occurred.
We also have good reason to suspect that someone made the decision to scapegoat Green. Initial reports in the American press, as well as detailed reports in the foreign media, reveal that Green had plenty of accomplices. Why have no other names floated to the surface? Why do all fingers point to one guy?
I find this eyewitness account persuasive:
On an afternoon in March 2006, a force of 10 to 15 American troops raided the home of Qasim Hamzah Rashid al-Janabi, who was born in 1970 and who worked as a guard at a state-owned potato storehouse. Al-Janabi lived with his wife, Fakhriyah Taha Muhsin, and their four children - 'Abir (born 1991), Hadil (born 1999), Muhammad (1998), and Ahmad (1996).(Emphasis added.) Abir, also spelled Abeer, was the rape victim. By all accounts, she was a pretty girl. Her youthful beauty was the family's undoing.
The FBI says that the murder party consisted of but four men (including Green), and that the incident came to light only after one of the other perpetrators spoke of it during psychological therapy. (I guess patients don't have confidentiality rights in the military.)
I do not dismiss the higher figure, and I refuse to believe that one man -- one private -- could order soldiers into such an action. Who led the unit? This matter must involve someone of higher rank. At the end of this piece, I will suggest one reason why someone higher-up may have wanted this act of barbarism to occur.
(To read the rest, click "Permalink" below)Even if we posit a highly unlikely scenario in which the commanding officer had no advance knowledge of an attack of this kind, the person in charge still must take responsibility for the actions of his unit. Why does this officer's name remain unknown?
The Americans took Qasim, his wife, and their daughter Hadil and put them in one room of their house. The boys Ahmad and Muhammad were at school since the time the Americans invaded the home was about 2pm. The Americans shot Qasim, his wife, and their daughter in that room. They pumped four bullets into Qasim's head and five bullets in to Fakhriyah's abdomen and lower abdomen. Hadil (7 years old) was shot in the head and shoulder.The following account comes from a neighbor who saw the aftermath:
After that, the Americans took 'Abir into the next room and surrounded her in one corner of the house. There they stripped her, and then the 10 Americans took turns raping her. They then struck her on the head with a sharp instrument - according to the forensic medical report - knocking her unconscious - and smothered her with a cushion until she was dead. Then they set fire to her body.
"Then I went into 'Abir's room. Fire was coming out of her. Her head and her chest were on fire. She had been put in a pitiful position; they had lifted her white gown to her neck and torn her bra. Blood was flowing from between her legs even though she had died a quarter of an hour earlier, and in spite of the intensity of the fire in the room. She had died, may God rest her soul. I knew her from the first instant. I knew she had been raped since she had been turned on her face and the lower part of her body was raised while her hands and feet had been tied. By God, I couldn't control myself and broke into tears over her, but I quickly extinguished the fire burning from her head and chest. The fire had burned up her breasts, the hair on her head, and the flesh on her face. I covered her privates with a piece of cloth, God rest her soul. And at that moment, I thought to myself that if I go out talking and threatening, that they would arrest me, so I took control of myself and resolved to leave the house calmly so that I could be a witness to tell the story of this tragedy.Hiding emotion under such conditions must have taken a superhuman act of will. The "piece of cloth" is a detail which coincides with the crime scene photo, as described by various news reports.
Here's the part of the story most Americans do not yet know: The authorities soon put a (rather threadbare) cover-up into place.
"After three hours the [American] occupation troops surrounded the house and told the people of the area that the family had been killed by terrorists because they were Shi'ah. Nobody in town believed that story because Abu 'Abir was known as one of the best people of the city, one of the noblest, and no Shi'i, but a Sunni monotheist. Everyone doubted their story and so after the sunset prayers the occupation troops took the four bodies away to the American base.If Steve Green was the only guilty party -- if we must place all blame on a classic "lone nut" -- then who authorized the official lie? How can we believe the claim that the crime remained unknown until after Green was diagnosed, when an official falsehood went out within hours of the massacre? Are we really supposed to believe that four privates could initiate such a strike and put a cover-up in place?
The American media has carried hints that the Iraqi resistance (we are allowed to use that term now) killed American soldiers in retaliatory strikes. The neighbor's account would seem to verify this notion:
The neighbor went on: "Then we decided that we must not be silent so we asked the mujahideen to respond as quickly as possible. They responded with 30 attacks on the occupation in two days, bringing down more than 40 American soldiers.So. A number of troops -- perhaps as many as 15 -- planned a horrifying rape and mass murder, which officialdom tried to cover up with a transparent lie. The all-too-predictable result: Vengeance attacks on 40 other Americans. (That number seems high. Of course, it includes non-fatal casualties.) Green's unit has Iraqi and American blood on its hands.
Apparently, Green's unit targeted poor Abir about a week before the atrocity:
"I personally wasn't surprised that Umm 'Abir ['Abir's mother] came to me on 9 March 2006 and asked that 'Abir be allowed to spend the night with my daughters. She was afraid because of the way the occupation troops looked at her when she went out to feed the cows..."Who are Green's co-conspirators?
Another mystery: What happened to Abir's body, which could divulge important DNA evidence? According to the account given above, the bodies were taken away to an American base. However, NPR has said that the military is "working with the family" to get the body. (Or so reports a DU poster, whose word I see no reason to doubt.) Have you seen any reports of a funeral?The semen in that poor girl's corpse would identify her assailants. The perpetrators understood that fact -- thus, the attempt to burn the evidence. The conflicting accounts of the body's whereabouts will lead many to suspect a cover-up.
More mystery: Initial reports said that Green and the others changed into civilian clothes before the attack. Why? Obviously, they did not intend to pass as American tourists. Obviously, authorites would not give a cover story for an atrocity commit by four Americans disguised as civilians. Obviously, the soldiers hoped to pass as Iraqis -- as mujahideen.
Was this whole operation a bungled psy-op? Were the soldiers instructed to commit an atrocity while posing as insurgents? That theory may be speculative -- but to me, it makes more sense than does the official story.
Think about it. A group of Ameican soldiers leave base -- supposedly without their commanding officer's knowledge. They are dressed as insurgents. They commit a despicable act. They return. Other military men immediately come to the scene and ascribe the crime to the insurgency. The cover story falls apart because the Americans foolishly got the victims' religion wrong.
If you don't like the psy-op theory, feel free to come up with another one that covers all of these facts.
By the way, the above picture comes from an Army News Service article which appeared last December. The caption: "Pfc. Steven Green, B Co. 1-502 prepares to blast a lock off the gate of an abandoned home during a search of homes in Mullah Fayed on Dec. 2." The original article seems to have been changed; you can read about it here.
20 comments:
joe, this is a truly horrifying story that will hopefully do the my lai trick that the abu ghraib exposure could not quite seem to muster in fully discrediting this illegal occupation.
the timing is interesting. would it be worth a look at the reactions of maliki since the time of the incident? he's been making numerous announcements that seemed to blindside the bushies, and i just wonder if this event steeled his nerve against his 'bosses'. which would, in itself, a very good thing, not to justify the the horrible motivator.
i also wonder what sorts of discussions might be going on between him and rice and rummy about this. i can just hear him screaming at them: don't you get it? there were witnesses. it's all over our news. our people will not forget this, so you can't sweep it under a carpet. and look what it contributed to the resistance! you've lost your own soldiers over this!
the bit about green's personality disorder is most troubling, of course. also interesting, though; a personality disorder constitutes a different category, or axis, than say depression or ptsd, which are axis 1 diagnoses. personality disorders comprise axis 2, and they stand apart because they are considered intractible, pervasive, and present from early life.
someone clearly made the decision to discharge green, claim it was psycological, and pin it on this diagnosis. and claim the rape story came out during a session. making a pfc the fall guy is not surprising. since he's been discharged, might he still be tried in a court martial? claiming it was psychological is as old as, well, as old as murder.
but some psychologist is in on this whole scam. some professional - with a license - agreed to go along with the story, and came up with this diagnosis.
which is a little odd, because it says the military did not detect it when they screened him. and given that such disorders are, by definition, always present in adulthood, then how did they miss it?
also, personality disorder is a broad category itself. it is NOT a singular diagnosis like depression, which belongs to the category of mood disorders (that also includes bipolar). there are ten defined personality disorders, though it is possible green was tagged with 'personality disorder, not otherwise specified,' which is nothing more than a trash bin. i have NEVER seen that diagnosis referenced in my professional life, EVER. in fact, professionals are extremely resistant to diagnosing a personality disorder because it is so radioactive. insurance companies won't pay for care, and there are no successful treatments, so it's like giving someone a handful of hopelessness. moreover, it's extremely hard to find practitioners who will even take on these patients for treatment because some of them can be almost scary, like 'fatal attraction' and hannibal lecter scary.
so giving someone this diagnosis would inherently would present instant hardships for the patient. an interesting punishment, if you think about it.
lots of messy messy stuff in the diagnosis issue alone. and then there's this claim that the story didn't come out until green expressed it in therapy, which raises all sorts of confidentiality questions. those doctor/patient rules may be different in the military, but i wouldn't think that much.
as for your psy-ops hypothesis, joe.... the whole story does stink to high heaven, i'll give you that. but - and i cannot tell you how it pains me to say this - i honestly think this event occurred as it was reported in the link you provided: a bunch of men gone mad from war, and tempted to heinous crimes by forbidden beauty.
if you think of my lai, and remember the magnitude of those atrocities, the rape of abir (oh my; sadly poetic, begging a voice, is it not?) rings altogether too true to the real, monstrous capacities of men at war.
and think about it; had this been a psy-ops, they would not have made any mistakes. the neighbors would not have known they were army. and i really cannot imagine what an army private would be doing in a psy-ops job.
no, with all due respect, i fear this is another my lai. but i agree that green could well be the designated scapegoat. it may be that he was discharged - with a noxious, punishing diagnosis - because he was the one participant who actually had enough conscience about it that he sought professional help.
the fact that they're claiming his therapy sessions triggered the investigation makes one quite suspicious. because his complaints were so, well...crazy, they had to get rid of him. sort of like the russian psychiatrists who sent all those inconvenient truth tellers off to the gulag.
joe, i've mentioned to you my concerns about the role psychologists are playing in this war, particularly the torture. i'll soon be able to post something more about that, hopefully in a week or so. this story now makes it all the more pressing.
meanwhile, glad you're highlighting this, as it needs to be; it's explosive, almost as much for the cover-up as the heinous act itself.
such was the horror of my lai.
The mind cannot help but go to my lai, can it? My mind brought up that associated even before it referenced Abu Ghraib and I wasn't even born yet at the time my lai took place.
The My Lai comparison is natural and inevitable. But. In My Lai, the soldiers did not dress as the enemy. There was (if I recall correctly, as perhaps I do not) no attempt to use the incident as a way of turning the locals against the insurgents. When the truth started to come out, there was no pretense that the incident involved no-one with a rank above Private.
I've been giving some thought to the notion that an army private would not be called upon to perform a psyop like this. I would counter that it takes a very special (and by special, I mean twisted) individual to do something like this. Screening would have netted the right individual. After that, it would just be a matter of telling him that he had a get out of jail free card, and telling where to go and what to do.
What do you expect? The guys at the top have us raping an entire nation and killing thousands of people based on a lie they created. No one is shocked anymore... those with decency are just hoping America can conquer the Beast and regain control of this nation.
The psy-ops thing is tricky. It’s just such a mess, and they don’t let messes like this happen, much less disintegrate like this has. A real psy-ops job would have been quick and slick, methodical and professional. They would not have left any question about their intended identities, and they would have likely also made sure there was a survivor to tell the horrible story as they wanted it told, not as it’s gone down.
If this were an isolated incident, it might be easier to consider your argument. But, at least according to the link you provided, American soldiers are committing something like this on a regular basis, raping and terrorizing the natives. This one just got so out of hand, probably because there were so many soldiers; mass hysteria.
The comparison to My Lai is not perfect, and wasn’t intended to be. The comparison only requires the overarching principle that war is hell and breeds these incidents as part of its natural destructive process.
Also, were the soldier a nut case capable of doing such a thing, he would NOT – I repeat, NOT – take himself to therapy.
The whole therapy thing is a problem. Why did he go in the first place? Having bad dreams? that would merit a PTSD diagnosis. Lashing out or attacking fellow soldiers? That would more likely get a bipolar diagnosis, at least along with the personality disorder if not instead of. And if they wanted to make him crazy, there are plenty of diagnoses with psychotic symptoms that would have filled that bill more solidly. This particular diagnosis, that he went to therapy at all, and that the incident was supposedly revealed during his therapy ...all these things point, from my perspective, more to an ad hoc decision to get rid of the guy with the nightmares and bad conscience. Evidently, had he not surfaces with these problems, they may have been able to keep it under wraps within the unit. Except for the neighbor.
And the fact that there is evidence from that neighbor that the pretty girl was being watched by Americans, not just one soldier. A psy-ops job would not include that element, which is so psychological with respect to these soldiers and with respect to triggering their heinous actions.
If psy-ops did this to incite internal ethnic hatred, why would they need to set up this private as a fall guy? If psy-ops wanted to incite something, they’d just come in like Rambo, do the deed, and clear out. A clean hit. They would NOT involve an entire Army platoon.
Besides, if you consider your concerns about psy-ops involvement, might I assume it’s because you smell the stench of highly unethical higher command directives here? If so, then there is such, in abundance. Obviously damage control set in instantly, and with intensity. That immediately shot right up the chain of command as far as it needed to go at each stage. It's now at ceiling in reality, but with the PFC for public consumption.
Like I said, I have no doubt Rice and Rummy are getting an earful plus some from Maliki. And Pace is having to spin it for the public. You’ve got your higher command directives here; no need to call in psy-ops.
At least IMHO.
What's with the kneejerk Confederate Flag?
Aside from that, good article.
P.S.
About the My Lai comparison. Did our soldiers in Iraq dress as the enemy? Or simply in civies? I'm not so sure that their dress on the street is that different between Sunni and Sh'ia.
I'm also not sure if Calley and Medina tried to use the incident to turn locals against the Commies, and not even sure how they would have pulled that off. Remember, other differences are that their crimes were interrupted by Hugh Thompson's helicopter crew, and their platoon was otherwise greatly isolated from the rest of their men.
This incident in Iraq was not interrupted. Had Calley and Medina not been interrupted, they might have tried to make the claim that the atrocities were committed by the North VietNamese.
But notice; this pathetic cover story is not working in Iraq. At all; in fact, it's working to unite these factions against not the insurgents but our soldiers, and the insurgents have specifically taken revenge on them.
And again, because this Iraq story was instantly contained and My Lai was not so much, Calley and Medina could not try to blame anyone of lower rank (though they may well have tried in the time before they were tried, which was a long time; I'm not sure). Because the Iraq incident was less isolated from the rest of the platoon and its commanders (unlike in My Lai), and there was no Hugh Thompson to the rescue, the powers that be have been able to take some time to construct a response.
And this is it: to blame are four grunts (not a dozen), one with a psych disorder who was already discharged.
But why not the other three? And why three and not the full dozen? My bet is that these four were the only ones who balked at all, so they were targeted. And Green was the only one who really could not take it, went to the shrink, spilled his guts, and so they had to get rid of him and punish him. And now, they have him in custody.
The other three are undoubtedly being tested to see what their stories are; they may or may not be charged, depending on how well they stand up to the pressure.
The rest of this dirty dozen? They're the ones with the personality disorder! They're the ones who, like our Chimp in Chief and his Dick and the rest of the sinister crew, have no conscience and cannot admit their flaws and feel entitled to their evils, blaming everyone else, whom they demonize and abuse.
That would be the combo of anti-social and narcissistic personality disorders, I believe.
But, just idly opining here.
Fascinating additional irony -- Steve Green was featured in a photo in an Army public affairs publication in an article entitled, "Coalition Forces Keep Iraqi Streets Safe". The photo showed Green with his weapon pointed at an "abandoned" Iraqi house. The picture has already disappeared down the memory hole and the article will probably soon follow, but fortunately a Kos diarist and Livejournal blogger have preserved it. I have also posted about it on DU.
Hamden from DU
The comments section shouldn't be overtaken by the posters, but I gotta say a few additional words. It's a powerful argument that other rapes have occurred, but this crime is being treated spearately -- it carries a unique horror. The details simply do not add up. Maybe they will, once the FBI report (at the root of the initial news reports) comes to light.
But right now, I want to know why officials immediately had in place a fake story. Why didn't the soldiers have to answer questions about where they were and what they were doing? Can that many soldiers actually sneak away at night and not have to explain where they were? Right now, things don't really make sense.
I wouldn't presume that all black ops are done professionally. Sometimes amateurs try their hands at things they aren't ready to do.
We also should not forget the issue of the body. The only reason to take the body to base (as opposed to letting the family bury it) is to have complete control over the DNA evidence. The Americans established this control only AFTER it became obvious that the cover story would not hold.
They would want to do that only if they knew from the start that the girl was raped by Americans.
And if they DID know that, then we can dismiss the story that the military remained unaware until one of the soldiers broke down during counselling.
See? The story is hinkey.
I think it went down like this:
A small group of soliders, Green included, were assigned to patrol the general area where the family lived. They start to notice the girl, while the mother and probably other neighbors are watching them notice the girl.
The not-so-bright but vicious ringleader, Green, starts to obsess with his buddies about his sexual fanatsies, rationalizing away the planned rape by reinforcing feelings of rage and entitlement. You know, like, "she's so fine and it would be soooo easy, fellas...come on..nobody'll know...we f***ing DESERVE it." So the plans are made.
On a quite night soon afterwards when they thought they would be most likely avoid detection, they dressed in dark clothing and proceeded to do their vile, almost unspeakable deeds, with ALL participating in the rape.
Here it where I think it gets hinkey. It was Green who pulled the trigger afterwards, something the others perhaps HAD NOT seen coming. They were "only" planning on a rape. It finally occurs to them that Green is a murdering psychopath, and they panicked, figuring that they only way to save their sorry, cowardly asses is to 'fess up immediately to a superior officer. They do so, and the yet unnamed officer quickly consults with his chain of command, yes - all the way up, and they devise a flimsy cover story which just may have worked, that is, if these idiots hadn't gotten the family's religion wrong. (They all look alike, right?) Who devised the plan and approved it? Who exactly carried it out and where is the girl's body? We don't know. Yet.
So, WE THE PEOPLE get this sanitized version of events, that attempts to portray at least one of these um..alleged rapists in a positive light, saying that a solider "broke down" during counseling. Broke down my ass. I'm sure he or ALL of them broke down, allright, just not for the reasons being implied by the military. They "broke down" to try and mitigate the damage and avoid blame, much like most violent criminals do. I'm equally as interested to see what happens to the rest of these cowards, now that the focus of blame is only on Private Green.
Yes, and Green was assigned a quick diagnosis to make it seem as if a recruit like him really just couldn't have slipped under their ever so "vigilant" supervision. The only problem is, that the appropriate diagnosis is no longer even available, so we have to settle on either: Personality D/O NOS, which like the Doc, I've never ever seen applied, ESPECIALLY not in such a high-profile case such as this; or
"Antiosocial Personality D/O," which is quite the diagnostic understatement. I think Malignant Narcissism comes a lot closer. Sound like anybody we know?
Kim in PA
It was not PFC Green who spilled his guts to a shrink. He was already separated from the Army on June 23 when two other members of the platoon spoke up during (most likely group) stress counseling.
Why didn't the soldiers have to answer questions about where they were and what they were doing? Can that many soldiers actually sneak away at night and not have to explain where they were? Right now, things don't really make sense.
The four soldiers who participated in the atrocity were on checkpoint duty at the time, and left one man behind to guard the checkpoint.
Heh heh. I agree; we shouldn’t take over the comments. But, here we are…..
You’re right; this incident carries a unique horror, which I think may have to do with the associated murders, the horrific bumbling of the immediate attempts to cover up the evidence by burning the body, and the fact that the soldiers were leering for at least days prior to the incident. And we cannot overlook the importance of this courageous and wise neighbor who knew enough to get inside as soon as possible to see the crime scene, and then to keep her cool with the soldiers. These are not trivial factors in presenting different circumstances from the lone grunt who jumps a poor girl at the corner, and then shoots her brother when he tries to protect her.
and that witness is so important. without someone with that foresite and calm resolve - which is rare - these sorts of incidents are easily swept under the carpet, thus allowing the soldiers to believe that they're in the clear.
It’s not so clear that there was an “immediate” fake story. To the extent that they claimed it was insurgents stirring up trouble, that is not a ‘story;’ it’s only a line. The rest of the ‘story,’ including Green and his diagnosis, came later.
I would submit that the 'line' about terrorist insurgents was what the guilty grunts had planned on saying, but the rest of it - the therapy and Green and his diagnosis and discharge - that came from higher up.
If you think about it, the Army is not claiming that this was the work of insurgents anymore. I wish I could believe they might have been conducting an investigation in these past three months, but the fact that it was only last Friday before they actually requested the girl's body to be exhumed suggests no, they have not bothered, instead settling on the story.
This event took place in March, after all; and I’ll remind you, at least from that link you posted, it took place around 2 in the afternoon, not at night. And the extent to which a group of soldiers can mill about at any given time likely depends on who’s in command. The grunts may have all been assigned to cruise the area, and evidently this home was very close to the soldier’s base or camp or whatever.
I will give you, though, that sometimes amateurs try their hands at things they aren’t ready to do (I’d offer my blogging as clear evidence of that one!).
As for the body, you’re right that they would want complete control of it, but not necessarily to destroy DNA. But that would be the case whether the entire story and cover-up were planned as a psy-ops or gang rape or not, so it doesn’t provide evidence of psy-ops one way or the other.
The soldiers were evidently in the house an hour, and so may have discussed then what story they would use. It’s not a wild guess that anyone in that incident would have thought to take the bodies. And DNA is not the only reason; they could have wanted them for autopsy, which would not require that they know about the rape. It’s also easy to imagine that perhaps one or some in command back at the base wanted to do the right thing, gather evidence for a real investigation, and ordered the bodies to be autopsied. But then someone higher up took over, perhaps after the rape became obvious from the autopsy, and all went silent.
The pathetic scope of bungling and coverup says to me that there was likely disagreement along the way up that chain of command, and no one wanted to take control and then be left with the responsibility if it was ever exposed. without any leadership to keep the players in line, you get what you got here, a complete mess.
The arrival of the Iraqi Nat’l Guard is troublesome, but again, easy enough to imagine that the soldiers radioed them to the house once they had their story in place. Which, again, only amounted to the one line that this was the work of terrorists. And again, they got this wrong, saying the family was Shi’ah when they were Sunni. Impossible to imagine, at least for me, that these Iraqi’s were in on a psy-ops, or that psy-ops would have made that kind of error.
According to the neighbor’s story, it was three hours after she visited the crime scene before the soldiers surrounded the house, and then maybe an hour later (after evening prayers), the bodies were taken to the Army hospital. The next day, the bodies were returned to their people and buried. Last Friday, the Army requested that Abir’s body be exhumed.
Now, I’m more than willing to dismiss with you that the military was unaware of the incident until Green broke down in therapy. I also agree that the story is hinkey. VERY hinkey. But I honestly think, hinkey as it is, the most plausible explanation is that this crazy, hyperstressed gang of idiot grunts, and maybe even a couple of corporals and sergeants, were so wiped and horny and likely hyped on drugs that they planned to rape this woman, and the rest of the details just fell in place from that, simply from having to destroy evidence and off all witnesses, including her.
If they’d been planning to rape her, which the Army is not denying, then they were likely planning other pieces of the event, as well. Or at least one or two of them were. That’s all it takes. So, they did it, and they did it in broad daylight, which to me seems calculated to deflect from any suspicions if they did this thing in the dead of night. Besides, they had the rule of the roost anyway, they could barge into anyone's home anytime they wanted.
So they did it, killed the witnesses, raped the girl, killed her, tried to burn her body to destroy the semen, and then tried to make it look like terrorists did it. They called in the Iraqi Guard to help secure the place, and kept everyone away. Except this neighbor, thankfully.
Now, the fact that the bodies were taken to the Army hospital and not to the local hospital would have aroused suspicion. someone in this gang may have planned enought to try to destroy evidence in some way. Perhaps the coroner was in on it? Or perhaps that is where the whole thing began to unravel, because the coroner might have asked why these bodies were not take to the local hospital. Who knows?
See, it is not necessarily the case that no one higher up the command had any clue about what was going on until the therapist violated confidentiality. That’s their story, but why would we count that as true? I think that part is perfectly hinkey, as you say, and is the weakest link in the public spin on all this.
Instead, I think it’s more likely that higher ups were quickly informed, one rung at a time, of the incident, and that the person who performed the autopsies may or may not have been discerning enough to see this was all too fishy. Or there may have been others involved who were too uncomfortable participating in the crime, so they spoke up enough to force the command to address it all and fabricate their story, which is what we’re being fed now.
It’s still perfectly conceivable to me that this guy Green was the squeakiest wheel, and so had to be dealt with. Putting him out to pasture with the PD diagnosis instead of PTSD is very telling to me; there was punishment there, and a warning. Not just to him, but to everyone else involved.
So many guys involved in the actual crime, and you’re going to have some breakdown in the coverup, no matter how carefully they planned it. This was not a heist with a big payoff or even a carefully staged rumble to take over the 'hood. This was primarily a crime of passion, and they all got caught up in it, to varying degrees of leadership and sheepishness.
Maybe we should watch “The Accused” again to see just how fast a bunch of crazy guys can convince themselves that their victim wants to be raped, and how their herd rutting pheromones can just take over completely, forcing them to band together when the fires stop raging and they’re faced with the reality of what they have done. This shame in Iraq had more planning, but it’s the same madness.
And you still get your conspiracy at the top; no question that this has been covered up, big time, from day one. And is still being covered up. I’m just afraid that they’ll get away with making this kid pay, especially since I suspect that he may well have been the one with the biggest conscience in the entire affair.
Kim, you may want to read the witness account Joe linked to before your version gets too embedded in your mind. For example, the incident did not occur at night, but in broad daylight, and they did not kill the family after but before the rape.
In my long meandering thoughts above, I address – however feebly – how I think a story unfolded. I don’t think the rape was planned from on high, but neither do I think a PFC could convince a dozen buddies to rape a girl. I honestly think Green may be the scapegoat, and was discharged because he had the greatest difficulties coping with the guilt of what happened. Could be wrong; could be there was a pathetic investigation that nailed him as the ringleader, so he was sent packing, but in a way that would not arouse suspicion. But that just doesn’t sit right. Just too hard to imagine a PFC managing that much command.
The story is patchwork; some of it – like blaming it on insurgents – they had to keep from the beginning (but must now abandon), some of it they made up as the need arose.
And anon, thanks for the info, but could you please link to a source? I’ve actually been wondering if it was Green’s therapy that they’re referring to. That may still be the case, but his may have been individual and not group, and his may have come up earlier than the others. The more recent ones, given how this story is playing in Iraq, probably became harder to ignore as time has worn on.
And this story is playing really hard over there. Again, like My Lai, this may well be the real beginning of a real end.
What a dreadful blessing that would be to come out of the rape of Abir. What a sinister, saintly sacrifice.
And anon, thanks for the info, but could you please link to a source? I’ve actually been wondering if it was Green’s therapy that they’re referring to.
Anon here.
A published source is the Washington Post:
"The plan worked, at least until soldiers began discussing the incident last month while they were going through stress counseling after two other members of their platoon were captured at a checkpoint and beheaded by insurgents. Army officials began investigating the day after hearing about the events in Mahmudiyah."
The date of June 23 for the "stress counseling" was mentioned in another Post article:
"But on June 23, three months after the incident, two soldiers of the 502nd came forward to say that soldiers of the unit were responsible, a U.S. military official said last week. The U.S. military began an investigation the next day, the official said."
color me humbled.
for all our speculating, there was ample information, as it turns out, available to piece together something closer to the truth than the stories we've constructed here.
anon graciously shared the two wapo pieces, and i also came across this one:
http://www.rawstory.com/showarticle.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fnews%2Fnationworld%2Fworld%2Fla-fg-rape6jul06%2C0%2C3149499.story%3Fcoll%3Dla-home-headlines
there is enough convergence in these to satisfy me, at least, that this really was a case of one crazy guy infecting a few others in a crime of sick passion.
kim actually came the closest to what really happened, and i apologize for my (unintentional) condescending response.
and i apologize to all for belaboring speculation when so much fact was out there.
an important lesson; hope all involved will hold me to it in the future.
and thanks.
Guys, I read the WaPo stories. I also have to admit that various reports give various details: Was it March 10, 11, 12 or 15? Was it evening or broad daylight? How old was Abir?
We need to see the FBI report at the root of the WP stories to have our bearings. Right now, March 10 seems the agreed upon date and 15 is the agreed upon age.
But although the newst WP story seems to use the same witness, there is still disagreement over the disposition of the body. Cover-up scuttles the "it all came out on June 23" story.
And the Raw Stroy article carries the interesting suggestion that the killers used a military dog. It also mentions the important point that the gunfire and screaming would have aroused the attention of American soldiers at the nearby checkpoint -- which suggests that those soldiers had been told to look the other way.
No offense taken, doc! - and you were not at all condescending. I also share your concerns about the role of psy-ops during this illegal occupation. The most evil manipulations of truth and justice are being perpetrated upon the American public, all in the name of the "greater good."
I did, in fact miss some critical details in my speculative analysis, such as the fact that the attacks occured at 2:00 pm and not at night. I may also have erred in the timeline, although I have this nagging suspicion that the higher command knew about this story long before some idiot grunt "broke down." And as Joseph pointed out, it's interesting that an immediate story was in place the moment these allegations came to light.
And you're right, there are a lot of facts out there, along with a great deal of speculation, including mine. It's tragic to me that we do this in an attempt to fill in the gaps that exist because our government operates in such secrecy.
I appreciate the opportunity for a constructive conversation about this atrocity. It may turn out to be as you said, a sinister, saintly sacrifice, indeed.
Um, the above post was from me,
Kim in PA
Here's a part of the answer posed by Cannonfire.
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