There are many different events I could start with as my first article, but there’s only one that comes to mind as to where I feel the need to start, partially because it was the first story that I came across which has emotionally stayed with me since reading about it, and also because in it lies many of the issues we are dealing with as one society. This horrific story and the failure of the establishment that followed it, provides us a glimpse at the reality of the ‘saviour of the world’ that is the United States of America. This article will remember the tragic and shocking end to a 14-year-old girls’ life, Abeer Qassim Hamza al – Janabi, her 34 year old mother Fakhriyah Taha Muhasen, her 45 year old father Qassim Hamza Raheem and her 6 year old sister, Hadeel Qassim Hamza al – Janabi.
On March 12 2006, five soldiers from the American army planned to kill an Iraqi family and rape a 14 year old girl, Abeer. They then decided to go to Abeers home, armed with guns, proceeded to separate the family from Abeer within the home, in a sworn statement by Private Barker he testified to taken turns with Private Cortez in raping Abeer, a 14 year old girl, meanwhile Private Green in the other room, broke the Mothers arms, most likely as she was struggling whilst she and her family are listening to American soldiers rape their 14 year old daughter, could we even imagine? Green then killed the Mother, Father and Daughter, walked back into the other room where Abeer was being raped, stated he had killed all of them, then proceeded to rape Abeer himself, then shot her in the head several times. They then proceeded to set her on fire, more than likely to destroy the evidence.
Three months later, let me repeat, three months later, a colleague of the soldiers who was not involved in the rape and murders, Private Watt, after hearing about the event from Sergeant Anthony Yribe, who was in the same unit as the five soldiers, decided to come forward. Sergeant Yribe stated he was not going to come forward, so ultimately it was the conscience of one-man, Private Watt that made this story known, if he didn’t come forward then this story would not have come to light as many stories haven’t. Private Watt, then turned to his superiors outside of his own chain of command, why did he go outside of his own chain of command, because of the fear that if he raised it with the superiors who were loyal to the rapists and murderers, then he may die in an unfortunate accident, they then threated to charge him with false statements and perjury, Watt was even told many years later at an event, that when the perpetrators found out that Watt was the one that reported the incident, they plotted to kill him, this was after the initial investigators left Watt in the same base with the individuals who committed such a heinous crime, it was only due to a friend who was a Sergeant who informed the initial investigators that Watt needed to be escorted out of the base or else he will be killed.
Following the hearing, Green was found guilty of rape and multiple counts of murder, due to jurors failing to agree on the death penalty, he served life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, he died following complications of an attempted suicide.
Specialist Barker avoided the death penalty due to providing evidence, and pleaded guilty to rape and murder, serving 90 years in prison, but is considered parole after serving 10 years. The American justice system will allow Barker out of prison after mercilessly raping a 14-year-old girl and murdering her family. Furthermore, the USA army did not completely disregard his ranks within the army, they only demoted him too Private, as if this crime was not enough to completely remove him from all ranks within the army.
Cortez pleaded guilty to rape, conspiracy to rape and four counts of murder to avoid a possible death sentence, once again he was sentenced to 100 years in prison with the possibility of parole after 10 years, once again he too was demoted too Private.
Jesse V. Spielman was convicted of rape, conspiracy to rape and four counts of murder. He was sentenced to 110 years with the possibility of parole after 10 years, he too was demoted too Private.
Bryan L. Howard, who walked to the home of Abeer knowing what the intentions were, who stood outside the home whilst his colleagues murdered a family and took turns to rape a 14-year-old girl, Abeer, and was not going to give up his friends to protect them, well he received 27 months in prison and demoted too Private. This sentence is just as shocking as the rest, you planned with your friends to violate a 14-year-old girl, murder her family, and the justice system in the USA deems you only deserve 27 months in prison, if that is not injustice I do not know what is.
Anthony W. Yribe who was a Sergeant who knew of the crime, was charged with obstructing the investigation and making a false statement. I just wanted to repeat that last part, not only did he not come forward with the rape and murder that had occurred, but he also lied when told to make a statement regarding the rape of a 14-year-old girl, Abeer, to protect grown men. Due to him providing evidence against his colleagues, the justice system dropped all charges against Yribe. This part confuses me, Barker provided evidence of the rape and murders and both he and Cortez pleaded guilty, if Yribe gave false statements previously then what use was him providing evidence, if it was of no use for him to provide evidence then how could he get away without serving a sentence.
What words can we use to describe the crime, not many, I don’t believe there are words in any language to describe it, so I’m not going to try. However, there are many things we can learn if we take notice. Firstly, the overwhelming failure of the so-called War on Terror that is still raging today, different numbers have been reported regarding Iraqi civilian deaths, majority of them ranging between 300,000 – 400,000 innocent human beings.
Secondly, the only success in the eyes of the USA is the killing of Saddam, because they did not find the so called weapons of mass destruction, nor did they implement a democracy which was promised, today if you update yourself on what is going on in Iraq 20 years later, there is still violence, there are still killings and the only difference is it is now the other party that are committing the murders, the people are still rebelling against those that are in charge, so when George Bush dropped the banner on the naval ship which stated ‘Mission Accomplished’, then the only mission must have been to kill Saddam and put Iraq into complete disarray because that’s the only thing they succeeded in doing.
Lastly, why is it that Watt knew not to approach his own chain of command, and why is that he felt that he may ‘accidentally’ die if he reported it? As mentioned before the answer is obvious, because it is an unwritten rule within the army, that whatever crimes are committed by the army itself against the people of the country it is occupying, it can be met with death by your own people for speaking the truth, so the real question is, during this war on terror by the ‘saviours’ of the world, how many Abeers’ are there whose tragic end did not meet any sort of justice.
I mentioned earlier that in this story lies so many issues that we are dealing with as a society, just to remind us of a few, the oppression of the weak, lies told to protect those that are guilty and lies told to meet one’s own desires, the justice systems protection of those that are guilty, the double standards of the superpowers and their military agendas, but the one lesson we should most definitely take from this story, is that it only takes one persons courage, one person willing to sacrifice it all, one person to stand in the line of fire for the right reasons to inspire many others to stand up and speak out against injustices that they may recognise.
It really is all our duties to be that person.
Remember the name: Abeer Qassim Hamza al – Janabi.