Steven Dale Green

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For other people with a similar name, see Stephen Green.

Former Army Soldier Steven D. Green at booking

Steven Dale Green (born May 2, 1985) is a former Private First Class in the United States Army who is charged with raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl named Abeer Qasim Hamza al-Janabi and murdering her and three of her family members in the village of Mahmudiyah while on active duty in Iraq.

1 Biographical details
2 Mahmoudiyah incident
3 Trial
4 Retaliation
5 References
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Biographical details

Green graduated from Infantry Training Brigade and was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Kentucky. According to a military spokesperson and a criminal complaint filed in connection with the charges, Green was honorably discharged from the military "due to an antisocial personality disorder but before the military was aware of the incident."^[1]

Green grew up in Midland, Texas. According to school officials, he dropped out of high school in 2002 after completing the 10th grade and moved to Denver City, Texas, where he earned his high school equivalency in 2003. Days after a January 2005 arrest for alcohol possession, Green enlisted in the US Army. In doing so, he was granted a moral character waiver for prior drug and alcohol related offenses that might have otherwise disqualified him. Green was stationed in Iraq from September 2005 to April 2006 and discharged in May of 2006.^[2]

[edit] Mahmoudiyah incident

Main article: Mahmudiyah incident

On June 30, 2006, Green was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He was detained without bond and ordered to be transferred to Louisville, Kentucky. On July 3, 2006, he was charged by United States Federal Court prosecutors with the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl named Abeer Qassim Hamza and the killing of her sister Hadeel (age 5), her father, Qassim Hamza Rasheed, and her mother, Fakhriya Taha Muhasen in Mahmoudiyah, Iraq, on March 12, 2006. On July 10th, four other soldiers on active duty were charged by the U.S. Military for the same crime. A sixth, SGT Anthrony Yribe, was charged with failing to report the attack but is not alleged to have been a direct participant.

According to the military, Green and four other soldiers SGT Paul E. Cortez, SPC James P. Barker, PFC Jesse V. Spielman and PFC Bryan L. Howard planned the girl's rape. PFC Howard was told to monitor a radio as the others entered the victims' house nearby. The affidavit states that Green ordered the father, mother and younger daughter into a bedroom. Shots were fired, after which Green emerged and reportedly said, "I just killed them, all are dead." Green and at least one other individual proceeded to sexually assault Abeer Qassim Hamza, after which Green fired two or three shots into her head, killing her. Five individuals, including Green, have been charged for participating in the incident in some way. Paul E. Cortez, James P. Barker, Jesse V. Spielman and Bryan L. Howard could face the death penalty, military spokesman Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell said at a news conference.^[3]

Fakhariya Taja Muhassain was reportedly worried that her daughter had attracted the attention of U.S. soldiers at the checkpoint near their home. The mother had asked her neighbor Omar Janabi if her daughter could sleep in his daughter's room, but the family was killed the next day.^[4]

Janabi, who claimed that he discovered the bodies, said that he found the husband, wife and younger daughter in one room, all shot to death. He found Abeer Qassim Hamza dead and partially unclothed in another room in which a fire had been set, burning her hair.

[edit] Trial

On July 6, 2006, he entered a plea of not guilty through his public defenders. U.S. Magistrate Judge James Moyer set an arraignment date of August 8 in Paducah, Kentucky.^[5]

On July 11, 2006, his lawyers requested a gag order. "This case has received prominent and often sensational coverage in virtually all print, electronic and Internet news media in the world," "Clearly, the publicity and public passions surrounding this case present the clear and imminent danger to the fair administration of justice," said the motion [1]. Prosecutors had until July 25, 2006 to file their response to the request.^[6]

On August 31, 2006, a federal judge rejected a gag order. U.S. District Judge Thomas Russell said there is "no reason to believe" that a former soldier's right to a fair trial would be in jeopardy. Furthermore he added: "It is beyond question that the charges against Mr. Green are serious ones, and that some of the acts alleged in the complaint are considered unacceptable in our society."^[7]

[edit] Retaliation

Green was assigned to the same platoon as Spc. David J. Babineau, who was shot to death at a roadside checkpoint on June 16, 2006, in Youssifiya, Iraq, and Kristian Menchaca and Thomas Lowell Tucker, who were allegedly captured, tortured and killed by insurgents. Military investigators are now looking into whether the insurgents abducted Menchaca and Tucker in retaliation for the killing of the Iraqi civilians.^[8] However, in the first video depicting the desecration of what is believed to be the bodies of both Kristian Menchaca and Thomas Lowell Tucker there is no mention of the incident at Mahmudiya at all. It is only in a second release of the video, two months later, that any mention of the Mahmudiya incident is made.^[9]