Steven Dale Green
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| “ | I came over here because I wanted to kill people. The truth is, it wasn't all I thought it was cracked up to be. I mean, I thought killing somebody would be this life-changing experience. And then I did it, and I was like, 'All right, whatever.' I shot a guy who wouldn't stop when we were out at a traffic checkpoint and it was like nothing. Over here, killing people is like squashing an ant. I mean, you kill somebody and it's like 'All right, let's go get some pizza.' | „ |
| ~ Steven Dale Green in an interview with The Washington Post. |
Steven Dale Green (May 2, 1985 - February 15, 2014) was an American soldier who served as a Private First Class during the Iraq War. In 2009 a civilian court convicted him of acting as the ringleader in the 2006 gang-rape of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the murder of her family and sentenced him to life imprisonment. He committed suicide in prison in 2014.
Biography edit
Green enlisted in the U.S. Army in 2005 to avoid prosecution for alcohol-related offences. He was assigned to the 502nd Infantry Regiment and stationed in Iraq from September 2005 - April 2006. In an interview with The Washington Post he talked about his lack of empathy with Iraqis and admitted to not caring when he killed them.
Green, James P. Barker, Paul E. Cortez, Jesse V. Spielman, Bryan L. Howard and a sixth, unidentified soldier staffed a checkpoint in the village of Yusufiyah. This checkpoint was located approximately 200 metres from the home of the al-Janabi family. The al-Janabi's 14-year-old daughter Abeer Qassim Hamza was subjected to repeated sexual harassment by the soldiers, who would spy on her from the checkpoint as she did her chores and, when caught doing so by her mother Fakhriya Taha Muhasen, would make sexual comments about her. Green regularly led them in searching the family home in order to give them an opportunity to harass Abeer, on one occasion terrifying her by running his index finger down her cheek. In the days preceding the murders Green had discussed the idea of raping Abeer with the other soldiers.
On March 12, 2006, Green, Barker, Cortez, Spielman and Howard were playing cards and illegally drinking alcohol while discussing plans to rape Abeer and "kill some Iraqis". Green was very insistent that they should kill Iraqis and kept bringing up the idea. Eventually, having seen Abeer passing the checkpoint earlier, Green, Barker, Cortez and Spielman decided to go through with their plans and left the checkpoint to go to her home. Howard and the unnamed sixth man, who was unaware of the other five's previous discussion, stayed behind.
When they arrived at the al-Janabi home, Green and Spielman forced Abeer's parents, Fakhriya Taha Muhasen and Qassim Hamza Raheem, and her six-year-old sister Hadeel into another room while Barker and Cortez raped Abeer. Her mother, hearing her daughter being raped, attempted to force her way back into the room only for Green to break her arm and shoot all three of them dead with his AK-47. Green then entered the other room and announced "I just killed them, all are dead". He then raped Abeer and shot her multiple times in the head. The four soldiers set Abeer's body on fire, with the fire soon spreading to the rest of the house, and disposed of their bloody clothes and Green's AK-47 in a canal before leaving to celebrate their actions with chicken wings and beer. Abeer's two brothers, Mohammed and Ahmed, were at school during the massacre and survived the events of March 12.
The massacre was soon discovered by neighbours, who noticed the house was on fire, and investigated by Iraqi soldiers. Green and his accomplices told the soldiers that Islamic insurgents had attacked the home, and Howard corroborated their story. The massacre was officially declared the work of Sunni extremists and was not investigated further. Meanwhile, Green bragged about the crime to several of his fellow soldiers, including Sergeant Anthony Yribe, but none of them reported him and he continued to serve until he was honourably discharged in May 2006 after being diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder.
Three months after the massacre, the Mujahideen Shura Council abducted, tortured and murdered three soldiers from the same brigade as the killers. Their official reason was given as revenge for an Iraqi girl who was "dishonoured by a soldier of the same brigade" (it is believed that local residents had somehow deduced the true perpetrators of the killing). Shortly after this attack, Private First Class Justin Watt, a soldier from the same unit, spoke with Sergeant Yribe, who told him that the accusation was likely referring to the soldiers from the Yusufiyah checkpoint, who he suspected had murdered an Iraqi family and blamed it on insurgents. Watt then confronted Bryan Howard, who admitted that Green, Barker, Cortez and Spielman had raped and murdered Abeer al-Janabi and her family. Watt reported the crime to his superior Sergeant John Diem, who passed it on to higher authorities, and Barker, Cortez, Spielman, Howard and Yribe were arrested by military police. As Green had been discharged by this time, he was under the jurisdiction of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which arrested him in North Carolina.
Green was tried for rape and murder by a Federal court in Kentucky, while his accomplices were court-martialled. Anthony Yribe testified that Green had admitted the crime to him in return for charges of dereliction of duty being dropped. Green was found guilty on May 7, 2009, and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. An appeal arguing that the law giving the Federal government the authority to try him was unconstitutional was rejected in 2011, and in February 2014 Green hanged himself in his prison cell.