Steven Green, and Four Others

Four soldiers charged over rape murders.

FOUR US soldiers were yesterday charged with the rape and murder of a young Iraqi woman, then killing her parents and five-year-old sister to eliminate witnesses.

They join Steven Green, who was arrested last week for the same offences. He is being prosecuted in a civilian court because he had earlier received an honourable discharge from the Army, suffering from a “personality disorder”.

The sexual nature of the allegations have caused outrage across Iraq, a country where many have become otherwise inured to daily horror.

Rape is a taboo subject among Iraqi Muslims, and surviving members of Abeer Qassim Hamza’s family are said to been so ashamed by what happened that they buried her in an unmarked grave.

US military officials initially blamed insurgents for the deaths of the four Iraqi civilians, whose bodies were discovered in a burnt-out house near Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, in March.

But according to a ten-page federal affidavit filed last week, Mr Green and other soldiers from the 502nd Infantry Regiment allegedly carried out the attacks on March 12, before covering up their crimes for several weeks. A fifth soldier was arrested on Saturday and charged with failing to report the incident.

The document said that the soldiers discussed raping the young woman after seeing her at a checkpoint. On the day of the attack Mr Green and other soldiers drank alcohol and changed out of their uniforms to avoid detection before going to the woman’s house. Mr Green allegedly covered his face with a brown T-shirt.

Once there, he is alleged to have taken the woman’s parents, as well as her sister, into a bedroom and shot them. “Green came to the bedroom door and told everyone: ‘I just killed them. All are dead’.”

Afterwards, he is alleged to have shot Ms Hamza in the head several times before taking her body outside and trying to set it on fire. A group of soldiers, including Mr Green, allegedly returned to the checkpoint with blood on their clothes, telling comrades: “This is never to be discussed again.”

The affidavit is based on interviews conducted by the FBI and military investigators with unidentified soldiers assigned to Mr Green’s platoon. The incident is said to have come to light last month while soldiers were receiving stress counselling after two other members of the same platoon were captured at a checkpoint and beheaded by insurgents.

Their mutilated bodies were found on June 19, but military officials do not believe those murders were revenge for the alleged rape-slaying.

Mr Green was arrested in North Carolina while travelling home from the funeral of one of the dead soldiers in Arlington, Virginia. He has pleaded not guilty.

FBI documents say that the rape victim was 25. Locals say she was 14. If she was a child, the soldiers are more likely to face the death penalty if convicted. Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq’s Prime Minister, has voiced anger over the incident, which is one of a growing list of alleged atrocities committed by US troops. He wants a review over whether they should be exempt from prosecution under Iraqi law.

Since a military investigation began in March into an alleged massacre by Marines of 24 civilians including women and children at Haditha, four other cases of serious crime have emerged and 16 soldiers have been charged with murder.

The US military and the White House said that these were isolated cases and that “99.9 per cent” of American servicemen were “doing an honourable job”.

The findings of a report into whether the Marines covered up the Haditha massacre will be released this week. It is expected to say there were “multiple failures” of leadership in pre-deployment training, in the tone set by commanders, and in how information was reported up the chain of command.

AMERICA’S SHAME
# 2003 Abu Ghraib Iraqi prisoners forced to engage in simulated sex acts, beaten and photographed in graphic poses

# November 19, 2005 Haditha: US soldiers kill 24 Iraqi civilians

# February 15, 2006 Ramadi: unarmed Iraqi is shot dead outside his home. A soldier is charged with manslaughter and another with obstructing course of justice

# April 26, 2006 Hamdaniya: disabled Iraqi war veteran killed. Seven Marines and a sailor charged with murder, larceny and conspiracy

# May 9, 2006 Three Iraqi prisoners are shot in Salaheddin Province; four US soldiers subsequently charged with murder, attempted murder and conspiracy

from hippie blog.

Peter Morris

I have no idea who this Peter Morris person is, but he's in the running for jerk of the week on the feminist web. He's got an article in the Guardian online called "Fatherhood Ruined my Marriage - Twice". It's already been taken down on Pandagon and Lawyers, Guns and Money, but he deserves a place here.

Here are some choice quotations (it's all dreadful):

"most women haven't a clue what the birth of a child does to a man's life."

"When my wife told me she was pregnant, my first thought was: "Hurrah - a boy."

"The birth wasn't an experience I savoured or shared with any enthusiasm ... I wasn't used to the sight of a red-faced woman screaming and swearing and threatening dire reprisals towards me for having the effrontery to make her pregnant. It was uncomfortable and embarrassing for us both, and we never spoke of the birth again."

"From being the focus of my wife's life, I quickly learned that I was down the pecking order. When I came home from work, all the talk was about the baby."

"I spent more time in the office and less time pandering to the unwelcome intruder who was ruling the roost at home. "

"my wife was getting most of her emotional needs satisfied through the maternal bond."

"I tried the having an affair approach,"

"but that ended in double disaster with divorce from my wife and the new mistress soon pregnant."

"Most men have extreme difficulty in handling the move from husband or lover to father, and I still think a better balance is healthier all round. It shouldn't always be child first."

He says that he was "immature" when his child was born - understatment of the century. How does psychopathic sound?

Newsflash: it wasn't fatherhood that ruined your marriage you stupid jerk, it was YOU!

If it's for real, it's an insult to men and fathers and the Guardian should have known better than to let it past. This guy needs serious help with his personality disorder and they let him speak for all fathers!

EDit: It's been called to my attention that the above comment is an insult to people with personality disorders. I agree and apologise. He needs treatment for his extreme jerkdom, but I have a feeling it's too late.

Hat tip: The Happy Feminist

Personal Jerk: Carl

Carl was a friend for a brief period, but since he's now fucked off everyone in my social circle at uni one way or another, he's now the man we love to hate.

Carl has pretentions of social conscience, he'll name drop Nestle products and various other high profile things and go on about listening to Bob Dylan and imagine he's so cool, he's so aware, he's so anti-establishment, man. All whilst being one of the most conservative people possible.
Carl tries to get into the pants of every female he meets, he did it with me, he did it with my friend Laura (and totally messed her about, too).
What's more, he, astonishingly, imagines he will succeed! He is in no way attractive, and yet he believes himself to be some kind of Don Juan. He's unattractive to the point where this belief is nothing short of delusional! He has no qualms about making you feel totally uncomfortable whilst he checks you out, or tries some clumsy, off-putting 'move' out on you.
He feels totally qualified to inform both me and Laura that we're mistaken in thinking we do not want children, and one day we'll change our minds. Obviously, despite his total lack of success with the female sex, he still manages to be a fucking expert on female minds.
He subscribes wholeheartedly to traditional gender roles, and all whilst being so damn radical.

He's a jerk of the highest order.

Rush Limbaugh

Would you like to be sexually harrassed by this guy? He thinks you would. In fact, he thinks you'd like to be harrassed by any man who takes it into his head to harrass you. Here are some examples of the scintillating cultural analysis, oh no, sorry, I meant to say stinking verbal vomit from his show.


"Some of these babes, I'm telling you, like the sexual harassment crowd. They're out there protesting what they actually wish would happen to them sometimes."


"Oh, gosh, that hurts, my friends. It reminds me of my first wife. Ah! Gee! It is just painful to hear this, and then she [Hillary Clinton] starts yelling everywhere -- Dawn, you can smile. She's in there shaking her head. She's -- she's here in a den of sexists, folks, and she puts up such a game front. Chauvinists, I should say. We're not sexists, we're chauvinists -- we're male chauvinist pigs, and we're happy to be because we think that's what men were destined to be. We think that's what women want."


"I’m not talking -- I know how many of you want to be sexually harassed -- that’s not what I’m asking. But if somebody wants to hire you to look good for whoever is the first to walk in the door every day, why not, if that’s your asset?"


"Now, I have a real-world question for those of you women in the audience. Just something I’d like to know. How many of you in the secrecy and privacy of your own dreams and hopes would love to be hired as eye candy?"


Are you feeling harrassed yet? Are you enjoying it? No?

Imagine being hired as eye candy for Rush .... that thought's better than a cold shower any day.

Obviously Rush is a seriously professional jerk and prides himself on it, but it's not a little scary that an idiot like this can get famous just by spouting shit. Can you imagine what would happen if a female DJ started saying similar stuff about men? I wonder how long she'd be on the air.

As the women at Feministing.com put it "Ah, you gotta love Rush. Well, in that “I want to stab you in the eye” kind of way."

Via Feministing.com.


p.s can't you just imagine our internet troll friends building little shrines to Rush in their houses?

Beryl Bainbridge

I'll let her speak for herself:

"I am not a feminist in the slightest. I was brought up to believe that women were much superior to men, only you kept it very quiet. I remember an occasion at some feminist meeting, years ago with Fay Weldon, and I happened to bring up rape and all the women got rather hostile. My theory is that as long as there is no violence – no holding a knife to you – it can't be classified as rape. A husband can't rape a wife; I don't think it is possible. As long as you're not a virgin I don't understand what all the fuss is about. When I was younger you just didn't mention abuse, whether it was by strangers or your husband. You just got on with it and it didn't half help you to deal with men."

Quoted in the Observer's New Woman Magazine.

I'm not surprised that the women at the meeting got pissed off with her, sheesh! Obviously Beryl is here working with a different definition of rape than the one normally accepted. We would usually argue that what matters is the consent of the victim, wheareas for her, consent is irrelevant and it's only violence that makes it rape, unless of course it's your husband, in which case, there can be no rape whatever he does to you, I presume. Yes, let's all go back to the good old days when women didn't mention abuse. Why does she refer to it as "abuse" in this sentence when she's just said it isn't abuse in the one previously? Talk about self-contradiction. Also, Beryl seems to think that once a woman has been penetrated once, her vagina is then forever primed and ready for sex at any moment and she therefore cannot be raped. And despite all of this women are much superior to men! What the fuck is this woman on?

I suspect she thinks she's being ever so anti-PC cool and edgy by saying this sort of thing, but no, she just being a prime jerk.

If I was in charge of everything, Beryl would have to pay a penalty for this comment. The sentence: 3 months community service working in a rape crisis centre.

Via The F Word.

The would be rapist

I once had a friend who was very nearly raped. She was, unfortunately for her, and due to massive insecurity I think, incapable of standing up to men. She had no respect for herself, which they figured out, and so they had no respect for her either. (She even had a male friend who regularly felt her breasts, with no argument from her whatsoever, though it obvious it made her uncomfortable.)

On a night out, she met some guy who hassled her all night to go back to his, at the end of the evening, all her friends had disappeared and not wanting to wait for a taxi on her own, she agreed to go back to this guy's flat so she could phone a taxi, she told him that 'nothing would happen'.
She didn't ring a taxi straight away, she got coerced into hanging around with this guy for a while, lying on his bed. On getting up to put on her shoes, he 'playfully' wrestled her to the bed, where he proceeded to tear open her tights, and only stopped once she told him she'd make so he'd never have kids if he carried on.
She went home pretty quickly after that and, terrified, cried all night.
When she told me about this, I told her to point this guy out if ever she saw him.
We were out one night in a club in Preston. Some boy came up and was talking to her, and since this was nothing unusual I didn't notice for a while she was trying to mouth to me that this was the guy. He'd actually come up to 'apologise', joking getting on his knees and 'begging' for forgiveness. He'd apparently told his mother what had happened (?!) and she had 'had a go at him'. My friend was obviously uncomfortable, and possibly a bit scared, but went along with it, and allowed him to get hold of her hands and laughed along with him.
Once he'd finished this display of audacity, and perhaps seeing the way I was looking at him, felt the need to excuse himself to me also, I didn't let him finish. I told him to fuck off in a way that stated very clearly if he didn't, he'd be picking his teeth up off the floor, and though at first his mouth literally fell open, and obviously unused to such hostility (and lack of fear) from a female, tried again, he soon got the message and bravely scurried off with his friend to the other side of the club.
This guy was obviously a jerk of the highest order, and made the most angry I have ever been. Not only was he a pervert and a danger to all women, he also thought he could fob women off into thinking he was acceptable through either compliance to men or fear of them. Not only did it enrage me he had treated my friend that way, and that he had gotten away with it, but that he honestly though I would let him get away with it too.
I couldn't believe that this guy had tried to rape her, and he was apologising as though all he'd done was spill her drink. I only hope that by shocking him rigid being so hostile I made him think twice about trying to rape anyone else in case he got one like me, but probably all it made him do was choose his targets very carefully in future, and stick to girls afraid to stand up for themselves.

The 'Smile' Dickheads

Surely every female has had one of these, you know the "Smile more", "Smile, love" or even (and most irritatingly) "Smile love, it might never happen." (To which the best reply would seem to be, 'I've had to look at you, so it already did.')

I'm not sure why exactly I'm supposed to walking around grinning inanely, other than that it obviously interferes with the fantasies of the men around that I'm a nympho sexbot wanting any man that fancies it, and I look less fuckable with my teeth inside my head where they belong.
At any rate, it pisses me off no end that complete strangers feel entitled to inform me of how my face should be, as though they owned it, or it were public property, which of course according to them it is.

Assorted General Jerks

As a follow up to TP's post on the Nightclub Jerk, I'd like to present a selection of general jerks I've met and loathed.

Moorgate Moron
The guy who came up to me in the street, pointed at me and said 'don't you forget me' while his friends laughed at his wit. No, I don't get it either.

B Bar Bozoes
A group of men in a bar in Cambridge who insisted on yelling insults at me for no other reason than that I was female and -shock horror!- not with a man! When I suggested loudly that they shut the fuck up, Biggest Bozo showed extra class by threatening me under his breath, and then muttering 'you're lucky, you are' when I demanded they repeat the threat out loud, so the whole bar could hear him and his mates threaten a lone female.

B Bar Bozo Backup Bunch
After Bozo Squad The First had left, a new collection of nitwits arrived to take their place. Highlights include interrupting the conversation I was having with my pal, demanding I smile for them, dictating how my behaviour should be on a Saturday night and being offended when I told them where they could shove it.

Colney Hatch Criminal
The jerkiest jerk of them all, imho, has to be this guy, who thought it his God-given right to grab my backside when I was on my way to work in the early hours and mumble the endearment 'alright darlin'?' in my ear. He backed off after I jabbed my elbows in his sides and pushed him into the road. At least he could take a hint, I guess.