On May 7th, former US soldier Steven D. Green was found guilty on all counts for his role in the Iraq War Crimes of March 12, 2006, when Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi was gang-raped and murdered, her five-year-old sister was murdered and both of her parents were murdered.
On May 21st, the federal jury deadlocked on the death penalty and instead kicking in sentence to life in prison. September 4th, Green is scheduled to stand before US District Judge Thomas B. Russell for sentencing.
Yeah, yeah -- you say -- we heard that here last week.
You did.
But did you hear about Abeer's family? Did you hear about the court house last week?
Thursday, Green appeared in court so that the family of Abeer could give their statements before they had to return to Iraq (they are not planning on returing in September).
Among the very few reporting on what happened in court Thursday was Renee Murphy (WHAS11, link has text and video):
I mean, they came face to face with the killer. Once again, the only thing different about this time was that they were able to speak with him and they had an exchange of dialogue and the family is here from Iraq and they got to ask Steven Green all the questions they wanted answered. They looked each other in the eye. Green appeared calm and casual in court. The victims' family, though, outraged, emotional and distraught.
[. . .]
Today the victim's family was able to give an impact statement at the federal court house the young sons of the victims asked Green why he killed their father. an aunt told the court that "wounds are still eating at our heart" and probably the most compelling statements were from the girls' grandmother who sobbed from the stand and demanded an explanation from Green.
[. . .]
The answers that Green gave were not good enough for some of the family members. at one point today, the grandmother of the young girls who were killed left the podium and started walking towards Green as he sat at the defendant's table shouting "Why!" She was forcibly then escorted to the back of the court room by US Marshalls. She then fell to the ground and buried her face in her hands and began to cry again.
Hailee Lampert (WKLY, text and video) also reported on the events:
Ann, this was the most emotional, intense court hearing I have ever been to. At one point, the victim's grandmother got so upset she had to be restrained by multiple law enforcement agents who actually began escorting her out of the court room until she literally collapsed on the floor beside the bench where I was sitting. She was literally within arm's reach of me. And she was beside herself. She was that striken with grief.
[. . .]
Then the 14-year-old's grandmother took the stand echoing similar sentiments. Remember for her it was the first time being in the same room as the man convicted of killing her son and his family. Again the prosecutor pointed out Steven Green in the court room and after giving her testimony the elderly woman got up and began approching Green saying she just wanted to get a look at her. But as she began moving closer, law enforcement stepped in and physically held her back until she fell down crying on the ground beside the bench where I was sitting. Now at that point, the judge did allow her to stay in the court once she had calmed down a little but the uncle took the stand as well.
The most emotional? And yet the press largely ignored Thursday's events.
These are the crimes of war, these are the things done in Iraq. There's no looking away from them if you have any sense of self-respect. There's no denying what happened. People -- US soldiers have been convicted now.
These were War Crimes and the refusal on the part of the press to cover this story was outrageous.
The American people cannot turn away from these War Crimes anymore than they can hope the torture photos are just forgotten tomorrow. These realities must be faced and addressed.
In terms of Abeer, Iraqis have expressed their outrage over the verdict, their feelings that Green got off because he was an American and that he should have faced trial in Iraq.
On Thursday, the family had a chance to tell the court about their loss and they had a chance to see the man who killed four members of their family, the man who led the gang-rape of Abeer.
The family didn't turn away.
It's doubtful the American people would have . . . if they'd known about it.
The ones who turned away were the press.
The domestic press in the US.
Tony Frates of Salt Lake City didn't turn away. He weighed in at the Salt Lake Tribune noting,
"In essence, we are terrorists. These military members should never have been in Iraq in the first place. I am embarrassed to be a U.S. citizen. I feel anguish for a family that was assaulted, raped and systematically assassinated by U.S. servicemen who scarcely deserve to be called human."
"In essence, we are terrorists."
It's something to think about, especially on a matter that regularly appeared to never trouble the media.