Who let the humans out?

[Driving Rain]

http://communities.canada.com/nationalp ... s-out.aspx


Charles Adler:

Warning: Some of the content of the this post is graphic and may offend some readers.
While everyone on the planet knows Michael Vick, how many of you can honestly tell me you have ever heard of Paul Cortez? He is a U.S. soldier who was the central figure of a court martial. We have learned that Sgt. Paul Cortez broke down in tears in a Kentucky military court room as he testified that he and others planned the rape of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl, murdered along with her family. The twenty-four-year-old pleaded guilty to raping the girl and killing her and her family in an Iraqi village just a short drive from Baghdad in March of last year. He testified to pouring kerosene on the girl's body and lighting her on fire in an attempt to cover up the crime. He and his fellow soldiers planned the attack over liquor and a game of cards.

Now some quotes from the testimony that you have never heard about until now.

"While we were playing cards Barker and Green started talking about having sex with an Iraqi female.

"Barker and Green had already known what, um, house they wanted to go to ... knew only one male was in the house, and knew it would be an easy target."

As reported by Reuters, once at the house, Cortez's colleague in arms took the girl's mother, father and little sister into a bedroom, Cortez said, while he and another soldier took the teenager to the living room.

"She kept squirming and trying to keep her legs closed and saying stuff in Arabic." Just in case anyone cares, the girl's name
was Abeer Qassim al-Janabi.

And now back to the testimony from Private Cortez. "During the time me and Barker were raping Abeer, I heard five or six gunshots that came from the bedroom. After Barker was done, Green came out of the bedroom and said that he had killed them all, that all of them were dead," Cortez said.

"Green then placed himself between Abeer's legs to rape her," Cortez said, sniffing audibly. When Green was finished, he "stood up and shot Abeer in the head two or three times." The entire crime took about five minutes to carry out, he added.

Cortez said the girl knew her parents and sister had been shot while she was being raped. He said she screamed and cried throughout the assault.

Want proof that Paul Cortez will never become a household name like Michael Vick? This court martial took place six months ago. It never got front-page headlines or lead story spots on t.v. or news
radio or talk radio or morning FM radio.

But why should that surprise anybody? After all Sgt. Cortez and his
buds never raped or tortured or killed a family of dogs.

[grimey]

Want proof that Paul Cortez will never become a household name like Michael Vick? This court martial took place six months ago. It never got front-page headlines or lead story spots on t.v. or news
radio or talk radio or morning FM radio.

Because nobody wears a "Sgt. Paul Cortez" jersey and watches him every Sunday on TV. The trials got ample press coverage. Hundreds of murderers never become household names, and why should they, so that we can popularize it?

Cortez was also sentenced to 100 years, eligible for parole in 10, and was given a dishonorable discharge.

[Siddley Hawker]

As far as I'm concerned Cortez should have been shot after his conviction, but that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.

I'm still waiting for Charles Adler's comment on this..

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/a ... ge_id=1811

..or this..
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1019/p04s01-woeu.html

..or maybe even this.
http://www.sullivan-county.com/id4/honor_kill.htm

[Driving Rain]

[quote="Siddley Hawker"]As far as I'm concerned Cortez should have been shot after his conviction, but that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.

I'm still waiting for Charles Adler's comment on this..

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/a ... ge_id=1811

That's also a deeply disturbing story SH. I did a little digging and found out much to my surprise that under the US puppet government Iraqi women are treated with more contempt than they were under Saddam.
Interestingly 43% of the university students under Saddam's rule were women. That percentage has now fallen to less than 10% under US puppet rule.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... 48,00.html

When U.S. forces overthrew Saddam Hussein 4 years ago, the Bush Administration proclaimed that women's rights would be a centerpiece of its project to make Iraq a democratic model for the rest of the Arab world. But for many Iraqi women, the tyranny of Saddam's regime has been replaced by chronic violence and growing religious conservatism that have stifled their hopes for wider freedoms — and, for many, put their lives in even greater peril. For women like Shaima, the most terrifying development has been the rash of honor killings committed by Iraqi men against sisters, wives, daughters or mothers whom they suspect of straying from traditional rules of chastity and fidelity. Although such killings are hard to quantify and occurred during Saddam's regime as well, Iraqi professionals believe that women are now being murdered by their kin at an unprecedented rate. On the basis of case reports provided by police, court officials and doctors at Baghdad's forensics institute, the number of victims of honor killings in Iraq since the U.S. invasion in March 2003 may total in the hundreds.

The rise in honor killings comes amid ongoing violence, including four car bombs last week that killed at least 28 Iraqis. The instability that has plagued Iraq since the war's end 15 months ago has curtailed the spread of liberties that U.S. officials once promised would have taken root by now. Violent crime remains rampant. And while interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi last week vowed to "annihilate" the armed insurgents, few Iraqis expect relief from the dangers that have become part of daily life.

Women are at the greatest risk. Many have become virtual prisoners inside their houses, seeking a safe haven amid rising rates of rape, kidnapping and carjacking. At the same time, as the power of Iraq's Muslim clerics has grown, the everyday freedoms that Iraqi women enjoyed under Saddam's secular Baathist regime have eroded. Women who once felt free to dress in Western clothing and shop alone now must wear a hijab, the traditional Muslim head scarf, when venturing outside. Many government offices require female employees to wear a veil at work. "Since the war, women feel they cannot go anywhere without it," says Jacqueline Zia, 30, who runs a hair salon in Baghdad. The perils of being out after dark have forced Zia to eliminate the salon's evening hours, which for years provided women with a social outing away from their husbands.

[Siddley Hawker]

Pretty decent article, but it does come across as nostalgia for the good old days under Saddam.

[hazatude]

Hang both of them.