US soldiers investigated for rape, murder

June 30th, 2006 at 17:19 Björn Hallberg

Associated Press

Five U.S. Army soldiers are being investigated for allegedly raping a young woman, then killing her and three members of her family in Iraq, the U.S. military said Friday.

The soldiers also allegedly burned the body of the woman they are accused of raping.

No smoke without fire is what I say. Since most of the time, the US dismisses these cases out of hand (and they may still). Plus, rapes must be incredibly common considering, for instance, that at least 500 cases cropped up OFFICIALLY WITHIN the US armed forced in the last couple of years. But I can’t recall ever having seen a single corroborated and admitted rape story from Iraq. Is this because there are no cases? Unlikely. It’s more like the US trying to avoid perhaps the worst insult to the local culture yet. After all, killings, no matter how senseless, can always be written off as “necessary” or in the worst case scenario, “necessary evils.”

Apparently, for cases to even show up on the radar, they would have to be gang-rapes, coupled with the killing and burning of the victim and the killing of an entire family.

Addendum: AP Embed Gets Scoop on Latest Alleged U.S. Atrocity “Iraqi police had been told about the killings three months ago. The U.S. contended the killings were by insurgents, until two or three soldiers spoke up.”

Addendum: As it turns out, the “young woman” was a girl of 14. Nice try covering it up though in what is in many ways more shameful and telling than burning the body. Also, since the story broke, many have jumped on the predictable “bad apples” bandwagon. Right.

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