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

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.

Ultra 'cool' nighclub jerk

My first Jerk List post is about my encounter with an anonymous jerk in Stealth, Nottingham.

Minding my own business, I left the ladies loos with my friend. Walking happily along we passed the usual congregation of people who like to surround loos where they can persue their coke habit (what other reason could there be for lingering there?).

As we passed an unidentified number of males I felt a hand reach out and grab my arse.

Unlucky for him, I already had my own hand on my arse! (I tend to walk around with my hands in my back pockets...) So instead of my lovely bum he grabbed and bony hand.

Not quite what you were hoping for JERK!

Being rather wine drunk by that time and absorbed in music critiquing conversation I did not clock these events until after I had scurried away.

Sadly I am not able to idetify anonymous male dickwad for later beating.

Pat Robertson.

Pat Robertson is a particularly nasty specimen. I will let his words explain everything...

• I know this is painful for the ladies to hear, but if you get married, you have accepted the headship of a man, your husband. Christ is the head of the household and the husband is the head of the wife, and that's the way it is, period.


• It's one thing to say, 'We have rights to jobs...we have rights to be left alone in out little corner of the world to do our thing.' It's an entirely different thing to say, well, 'We're not only going to go into the schools and we're going to take your children and your grandchildren and turn them into homosexuals.' Now that's wrong.


• Many of those people involved with Adolf Hitler were Satanists, many of them were homosexuals - the two things seem to go together."


• The key in terms of mental ability is chess. There's never been a woman Grand Master chess player. Once you get one, then I'll buy some of the feminism...


• As long as the husband is following the mandate of the Lord, the wife should submit to his leadership even though she may disagree with it. God's standard is true. Yet in many marriages, the wife is more able than her husband. Regretfully a woman with great abilities sometimes marries a man who does not have much ability. This wife must resist the temptation to dominate her husband. Her husband will sometimes make decisions that the wife feels are wrong. She must either gently persuade her husband or pray that God will change her husband's mind.

And possibly my favourite ever (which I have on a postcard!),
The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians.

So... misogyny, homophobia, racism and general all-round bigotry... Take your pick!

Jerry Falwell

It’s an old one, but a good one. I thought I’d kick off with a bang because this chap is a professional jerk par excellence, ever at the ready to say something stupid. If you don’t already know, Jerry Falwell is a Baptist televangelist, God bothering, “conservative activist” and the US media give him far too much attention. Here’s a taste of his masterful brand of critical thinking:

“I listen to feminists and all these radical gals - most of them are failures. They've blown it. Some of them have been married, but they married some Casper Milquetoast who asked permission to go to the bathroom. These women just need a man in the house. That's all they need. Most of the feminists need a man to tell them what time of day it is and to lead them home. And they blew it and they're mad at all men. Feminists hate men. They're sexist. They hate men - that's their problem.”

Yeah, Jerry. That’s just what feminists need, a man like you. I'm sure that having someone like you around the house would cure me of my feminist impulses on no time at all. Jerry and his ilk never realise that they are our "problem" and part of the reason why women had to create feminism in the first place.

He’s not too keen on the “homosexuals” either.

..... But interestingly, his daughter is a surgeon.