Sunday, May 24, 2009
Abeer Qassim Hamza, age 2
Despite the brutality of his crime and lack of remorse, former Army private Steven D. Green avoided receiving the death penalty for raping and murdering a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and killing members of her family in 2006. The first soldier to be convicted in a civilian court for his war-related crimes, Green was sentenced to life in prison without parole after a jury in Paducah, KY, deadlocked over the issue of having him executed. News of the jury decision sparked angry complaints from leaders in Iraq, who said that Green’s sentence did not fit the ruthlessness of his crime.
On March 12, 2006, Green and three fellow soldiers left their post after getting drunk and, wearing only their long black underwear they called “ninja suits,” broke into an Iraqi home. Three of the four soldiers, including Green, raped Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi. Then Green shot the girl and three other members of her family at point-blank range and set fire to the house to cover their tracks. The attack was so brutal that American commanders initially thought it was the work of insurgents, and it was only after a soldier not involved in the crime notified his superiors of the attack that Green and his co-conspirators were arrested.
Green’s accomplices were convicted in military courts, all receiving sentences of 90 years or longer. But because Green had already been discharged from the Army, he was tried in a civilian court. In an interview with the Washington Post in 2006, Green said he had gone to Iraq “because I wanted to kill people.”
He added: “Over here, killing people is like squashing an ant. I mean, you kill somebody and it’s like ‘All right, let’s go get some pizza.’”
-Noel Brinkerhoff
When a Soldier Murders: Steven Green Gets Life (by Jim Frederick, Time)
Iraq Tribes Are Upset by Sentence Given to G.I. (By Marc Santora and Suadad Al-Salhy, New York Times)
The Death of Abeer in Iraq: One Former Soldier Is Sentenced—What of Those in Command? (by Gail McGowan Mellor, The Women’s Media Center)
Background - Mahmudiya, March 12th, 2006 (The War Profiteers - War Crimes, Kidnappings & Torture)
Comments