US soldier admits Iraq girl rape


A US Army soldier has pleaded guilty to raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and helping murder her and her family.
James Barker agreed to the plea deal at the start of his court-martial in the US to avoid the death penalty, his civilian lawyer said.

A criminal investigation began in June into the killing of the family of four in their home in Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad, in March 2006.

Specialist Barker is one of four US soldiers charged with murder.

They are alleged to have helped a former private - who has since been discharged from the army - to plan, carry out and cover up the attack.

Two of the soldiers could face the death penalty if found guilty.

All four soldiers belong to the 2nd Brigade of the elite 101st Airborne Division.

Separate trial

Specialist Barker had agreed to co-operate with prosecutors and will testify against the others, his civilian lawyer, David Sheldon, said.


The others charged with rape and murder were Pte Jesse Spielman, Sgt Paul Cortez, and Pte Bryan Howard.
In addition, former soldier Steven Green has been charged in a civilian court and is awaiting trial in a Kentucky jail.

He was discharged from the army for a personality disorder earlier this year, and in July pleaded not guilty to charged of murder and sexual assault.

Later on Wednesday, a military court in California is due to hand down a sentence to a private who admitted to involvement in the death of an Iraqi civilian near the town of Hamdaniya last April.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/m ... 152118.stm

Wow. Another piece of shit american.

Didn't this kind of shit get servicemen summarily executed in olden days? If THAT didn't send a strong message about war crimes, I don't know what would.

*Edited for spelling/grammar issues*

There are fucked up individuals in the military just as there are in the civilian world. I would venture to say there are even more. No surprises here.

I think it sucks that the media highlights the crimes or negative exploits of our troops yet pays little attention to their noble and brave acts. All you hear about is Abu Gharib, Haditha, troops injured/dying and this.
That's not to say that we should be told the whole story, but it seems we are only being fed the negative.

yeah, the media really underplayed that whole jessica lynch thing.

Wow, one propaganda piece. How many times did the Jessica Lynch make the front page of the New York Times versus Abu Gharib? Or for that matter anything else positive that our troops have done?

which qualifies as news insofar as it actually affects the world?

and, yes, one very egregious propaganda piece, yet you want the media to produce even more?

No, that wasn't what I was saying. Re-read.

yeah, you said we shouldn't be told the whole story, basically, unless you left out a word or two? Perhaps I'm not the one who needs to re-read.

You are correct - I left out the "n't" on should.

You're joking, right

No, I'm not.

Why should I presume you are not joking? You come on here and are wrong about virtually everything else. The media has gone out of it's way to suck the dicks of our men in uniform. They criticize Bush, criticized Rumsfeld, criticized the politicians, criticized the Generals, but they bend over backwards to put soldiers on pedestals. Fuck, networks like CNN and MSNBC are always running recruitment propaganda for our US military during commercial breaks. You don't want incidents like Abu Graib, Guantanamo, and this to be news stories because they damage America's image. But they are truth. And you are wrong again.

I don't want to hear your explanation for this. You keep saying more ridiculous, presumptuous, generalized, and inflammatory bullshit without having to offer evidence. You don't even read the New York Times. Instead you take some corny right-wing blog for their word. That's right, you can't think for yourself. You rhetoric suggests it. It's a robotic regurgitation of what was on Sean Hannity's radio show or wherever. At least I can admit websites like crooksandliars and the huffingtonpost are lefty handjobs. I'm not going get in a debate with you either, because your writing abilities are dreadful and your posts are nearly unreadable. Sorry if this is overly harsh, but I'm sick of coming on here and reading this crap. I'm sure I speak for most of us.

If your first instinct in reading the news story I posted is to think about media bias in reporting of the Iraq war, there is something clearly wrong with your attitude.

That is news-worthy by any definition of the word. Raises questions about Military recruitment, the ability of the military to evaluate the fitness of soldiers to work, command structures, accountability etc.

Besides the story is from the BBC, hardly reknowned for political bias.

Well, if the consensus is that you would rather sit around and agree with everyone rather than get a different perspective, then my time here is done.
As a parting shot - you are the poster child for the collegiate who thinks he is enlightened when, in reality, you have little world experience and thus a worldview that is long in theory and short in anything of value.
Enjoy your one-sided discussion and shutting off voices you disagree with.

Oh, the irony.

When I was in high school, there was this kid we were friends with, and practically every day we'd be talking about sports, and he would say something that was word for word ripped from the previous night's SportsCenter. You see where I'm going with this.

It would be nice to hear YOUR voice, and not something that sounds like unreprocessed drivel from a TV or radio pundit.

I do not understand the human race at all. This is fucked up.

Look, do you know what news is? Sure, a high percentage of daily shit goes according to plan, but that's not a news story. No reporter is going to go around and cover the day to day boring stuff; for instance, the opening of a restaurant. In fact, the biggest complaint I hear from guys who have been over there is that it was mostly boring as hell.

You might say that the media doesn't cover enough school or hospital openings in Iraq, but they do--it's just these stories are not so wildly consumed, because they don't piss off the media consumers. This rape/murder story really pisses people off, like it would if it were a group of heavy metal stoners who did this to a family two towns over.

The media has a job to do, and what enables them is the sale of advertising. They have to create a product that people will consume in order for them to shove messages about margarine down your throat. When something peculiar happens in Iraq, it's the media's job to cover it, because that is what they sell. Unfortunately, that which is peculiar is more often bad than good.