July 6, 2006
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.
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.
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. The following account comes from a neighbor who saw the aftermath:"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.
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