Former Soldier Steven Green Arrested For Rape, Murder In Iraq

Update2: Unfortunately, it appears the Army may have featured Steve Green in a photo op. It went along with this article.

December 9, 2005

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.

Update: The formal complaint lists the woman as approximately 25; however, a five year old child is also said to have been shot by Green. It appears as if he wasn't the lone rapist.

After some drinking, four soldiers went to the home - changing out of their uniforms and donning dark clothing beforehand. Green was guarding the family in the bedroom and appears to have emerged after killing them. He then proceeded to rape the woman in question before shooting her in the head. This is all according to the formal complaint.

It appears as though he may have been discharged for some type of personality disorder. He could be reinstated and charged under the UCMJ. The report suggests three others were with him; however, he may have killed the family alone. The Iraqi girl is reported as being only 15. Reports suggest her body was burned. more here

A former Army soldier has been charged with raping an Iraqi and killing her and three members of her family.

Steven D. Green, 21, made a first appearance in federal court in Charlotte this morning, and is being held in the Mecklenburg County jail.

Green, 21, is accused of going to a home in Mahmudiyah, Iraq with three other soliders on March 12, shooting three people inside, including a child, and then raping a young woman before also killing her.

Allah has a round up of additional reports here.

Comments

[Draegn]

If these allegations are found to be true and the defendents are found guilty, I would like for them extradited and turned over to the Iraqi authorities. To stand trial in Iraq and be punished under Iraqi law. I believe that this would help to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people.

[SinCerely]

To stand trial in Iraq and be punished under Iraqi law. I believe that this would help to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people.

Posted by: Draegn | Monday, July 03, 2006 at 05:07 PM

SO beheading or death by firing squad is OK with you? Sorry, no freaking way. This soldier deserves the same kind of trial and rights as he would have here in the states. The hell with winning hearts and minds of the people or Iraq. We are not afforded the right to charge an Iraqi under our laws. This soldier is still property of the United States Armed Forces. His charges and trial as with any member should be under the US military.

[Theway2k]

I am as true a Conservative as there is. I may even be further to the Right than other Conservatives. I also have my doubts that what happened in Haditha was improper.

Unfortunately it is beginning to appear this horrible crime was perpetuated and accomplished by Americans wearing American military Uniforms. If that is so then they should be punished. Their crimes were committed in a foreign land, they should be remanded to face the consequences of their actions according the laws that were broken in a foreign land.

[draegn]

SO beheading or death by firing squad is OK with you? Sorry, no freaking way. This soldier deserves the same kind of trial and rights as he would have here in the states. The hell with winning hearts and minds of the people or Iraq. We are not afforded the right to charge an Iraqi under our laws. This soldier is still property of the United States Armed Forces. His charges and trial as with any member should be under the US military.

Posted by: SinCerely | Monday, July 03, 2006 at 05:43 PM

Beheaded, shot, hung, electrocuted, or given a lethal injection. Dead is dead. It does not matter how he is executed. If found guilty let him suffer the fate he deserves. As for military justice, there is no such thing as double jepardy. The military could find him guilty, then turn him over to a civilian court to be tried again.

Do you honestly think that there will not be at least one Iraqi who protests that this guy should be turned over to the Iraqi government?

IMO this story will give reason to the insurgents to try to get another Jessica Lynch, so that they can do to her, what this guy supposedly did.

[kate]

i've come to dismiss most of these cases against the allied forces as hogwash after viewing the facts. however, it does raise a red flag that the army discharged this guy because of a personality disorder. given the huge number of people in the military, of course there are a couple of bad seeds in the group (just as anywhere else). i do find it odd that they were drinking while on duty at the traffic control point. while i know of a marine helicopter pilot who drank in iraq, the army guys i know didn't. not just because it was against the rules, but there was no source for it. - and, they supposedly had a change of dark clothes with them (if you were premeditating a crime to that point, would you risk drinking and botching it?). plus, they had been to the house before? why? was it a whore house, a black market house for booze? or was it a suspected terror household? (that's a bit strange). he shot the woman in the head 2 or 3 times with a ak47? (that's over the top even for a psycho, unless it's some sort of scorned lover scenario). gawd, i hope they didn't do it.

[SinCerely]

Do you honestly think that there will not be at least one Iraqi who protests that this guy should be turned over to the Iraqi government?

IMO this story will give reason to the insurgents to try to get another Jessica Lynch, so that they can do to her, what this guy supposedly did.

Posted by: draegn | Monday, July 03, 2006 at 07:54 PM

Even in the states, military justice supersede's civilian law for the enlisted.

Perhaps this soldier did what he did in retrubution for what was done to Jessica? I don't believe that to be the case. But to think the Insurgents need reason for thier behavior makes me want to puke. How many insurgents were hung from bridges and set fire to,skinned alive, by US forces? Don't try and think like an insurgent, I doubt that is humanly possiable.

[Natalya]

The Washington Post's veteran Baghdad correspondent Ellen Knickmeyer revealed earlier Monday that the woman allegedly raped, killed and then burned by U.S. troops in Iraq in March was only 15 years old, and her name was Abeer Qasim Hamza.

Soldiers had apparently made advances toward the attractive teen in the days before she was killed in Mahmudiyah. Her mother felt the soldiers might come to seize her during the night, and she planned to let her sleep at a neighbor's house.

But attackers came to the girl's house the next day. After the rape, the attackers allegedly shot four family members -- Knickmeyer identifies one of them as Abeer's sister, age 7 -- and tried to set Abeer's body on fire, according to, among others, the mayor of Mahmudiyah and a hospital administrator.

[Mike H.]

I don't particularly give a damn what his rational was, if he is found guilty as charged he should be turned over to the Iraqis and if their sentence is the rope then he gets it. No military person is above the law and a premeditated act of murder and rape is enough to get him death. You kill people on the field of combat not when you're trying to get laid. And rape is not part of his job description. This goes for all four.
I'm a 'Nam vet.

[Nin]

Yes, please, turn him over to the Iraqis and let them do whatever they damn well please with him. He deserves nothing less than a painful, horrible death.

[@]

"he may have been discharged for some type of personality disorder"

Why did they enlist him in the first place ?? Poeple like that shouldnot be in the army.
@

[rwilymz]

"Why did they enlist him in the first place ??"

He wanted to be an army of one.

"Poeple like that shouldnot be in the army.

People of all kinds shold not be doing what they do.

People who do not understand military subjects should not be yakking about them online ... yet here you are.

People who do not understand accounting and finance should not be passing laws on accounting and finance ... yet Congress does it every day.

People who do not understand baseball should not be allowed in the ballpark ... yet the Cardinals play to a mostly full-house every home game.

There you have it.

[danni]

This case screams for the death penalty!!! Anybody else see his photo on TV? He's got that wild eyed psychotic hallucinating to beat the band look. Truly a freak.

[rwilymz]

"This case screams for the death penalty!!!"

The case doesn't scream at all. People do.

"Anybody else see his photo on TV? He's got that wild eyed psychotic hallucinating to beat the band look. Truly a freak."

So ... let's execute people for looking weird?

Three-fourths of our politicians would be hung from the nearest lamppost under those conditions.

... on the other hand ...

[K]

I fail to see any cause for argument here.

All agree that a rapist and murderer should be held accountable. All agree the accused was in our military and the UCMJ applies. Some doubt he is guilty. Some do not.

And everyone knows we will soon learn more about what actually happened. At this point it looks as if one man will certainly be tried. And some others either knew about it or abetted. They must also face the UCMJ.

The time to throw fits is when there is evidence of coverups or injustice. This does not seem to be in evidence. And not while evidence is coming to light and criminal procedures seem to be working.

Why, would we turn the guy over first to Iraq? Well if the area was being administered by Iraq we could. If it was formally administered by our military then there is no Iraq government involved.

And in either case, whatever the formal authority at the time, our soldiers are still subject to the UCMJ. If he beats that the Iraq government can request extradition. And perhaps get it.

Why get into these tit-for-tats. Whatever happened to Jessica Lynch, or possible retributions against our females, or incidents in other places or times, will not excuse this crime (as it currently seems to be playing out.)

[@]

"Why did they enlist him in the first place ??"

He wanted to be an army of one.

"Poeple like that shouldnot be in the army.

People of all kinds shold not be doing what they do.

So with these words you agree rwilymz, that mental cases are beeing allowed in the army.

I suggest they try to raise their standards, i donot think it is a fair deal that someone who is at risk of whatever mental thing should be allowed in, the risque of it developing is always there but within that line of job even more. Sad for all sides and the consequences.

They do test or donot they rwilymz??
@

[kate]

i can answer that @, of course they test them. however, when you have hundreds of thousands of people, can one honestly think that a few bad or unstable ones can not slip through. that would be really naive thinking. tell me one profession where they are tested and the all employees are personality disorder free. look up personality disorders, look at how some of them are hard to identify, or how some pop up at different ages in one's life. something was working right here, the disorder did apparently reveal itself and the army got rid of the guy. to bad it didn't happen sooner if he is guilty. regardless, he deserves a fair trial and will be dealt with accordingly.

[Draegn]

This personality disorder? It will be interesting to know if he had it before the incident, or if it developed afterwards. If the former case then he should not have been allowed to enlist or have been sent to a less stressful assignment when it was detected. If the latter then it will not be hard for the prosecution to play upon feelings of guilt as the reason for it having developed after the event.

[lookin4info]

If the allegations are true, it's a horrible discusting crime. We should hand them over to the Iraqi's and let them deal with it. Should we put them in our jails so we have to pay for them for years to come? I don't want to pay to keep garbage like that alive and well fed.

[Steve Huff]

I didn't notice if anyone else caught this, but an AP story out this evening revealed that the diagnosis was "antisocial personality disorder." For purposes of simplicity, consider that synonymous with sociopathy or psychopathy. Someone in the Army diagnosed Private Green with this prior to any suggestion he'd been involved in this crime.

Steve

[rwilymz]

"So with these words you agree rwilymz, that mental cases are beeing allowed in the army"

Actually, Mr Brain, I was kinda suggesting that you should probably leave the discussions to the growed ups.

Irony might not be your long-suit...

[righty-tighty]

The Army's policy is to NOT let people with personality disorders, or mental health issues in the army. Or people with felonies, or any history of medical problems. For example, a female with an irregular cycle is disqualified if she tells her recruiter. People think standards are low for enlistment, but it all depends on what standards we are referring to.

My husband is a recruiter for the Army. It is pretty tough to find someone qualified. Only 25% of the nation is qualified to join the Army, and yet less than 1% of the population serves. Most guys that come into the office to join, can't pass the screening test due to our public school systems. But you still have crooked recruiters who will lie, cheat and steal to get a recruit because of the pressure to meet quota.

Truth is about recruiters, 95% of them didn't ask to pull this duty, and are hanging on by a thread just to make it through the assignment. Most guys who have recruited say it is a 3 year prison sentence, and you know a guy would do anything to get out of prison. And it is about to be even worse as they have a new cash bonus incentive for recruiters who over-produce. Someone needs to fix recruiting, because if Steven Green was a case of "don't ask, don't tell", we will certainly see more of this.

As with medical history, all you have to do is lie. You can check a police record (which is standard proceedure for every prospect), and give a screening for drugs, and a physical for fitness and wellness, but I think only certain MOS's require a mental evaluation. Someone may correct me on that.

A case in which a prospect lies to his/her recruiter, the liar is to blame. Unless, the prospect was coached to lie.

As for the legitimacy of this story, I think someone would have discovered an indiscrepancy by now if it were untrue. There are some jacked up people in the Army----just as there are jacked up physicians, and postal workers, and truck drivers, and most certainly lawyers and accountants. It is sick and unfortunate that this young girl and her family died at the hands of a violent sexual predator.

[Righty-Tighty]

Just to clarify, MOST recruiter's I've met are honest and hard-working. I've personally only heard of one validated incident in our town where a recruiter lied to try and put someone in, and that was a different branch. But you do hear rumors. The whole chain of command gets it if someone is caught putting in unqualified people. Not only is the recruiter himself in hot water, but so is his station commander and likely 1st Sgt. But the pressure from Battalion can speak otherwise---unless busted.

[C.E. Whiteoak]

If this man and the others are guilty, they are pieces of filth who need to be put on a rocket sled to hell as soon as possible. I don't care if it's by gas, by rope, by bullet, by machete or by a river full of hungry alligators. If they are guilty of rape and the murder of a family they do not belong among the living. If they are guilty, putting them "behind bars" for life would be nothing more than another one of sissified modern society's sissified jokes.

[Charlie]

This shows how a few bad apples can make our entire country look bad. We are a great nation and any progress we make in helping the Iraqi people is underscored by this type of behavior. Personally, I want to see the people involved in the rape-murder of this 15 year old girl and her family put away for good. War can effect the minds of people, but this type of behavior is evil plain and simple, and there is no excuse. It makes me sick to think about it.