Baghdad
Five U.S. soldiers were drinking and playing cards last March when they decided to rape a 14-year-old Iraqi girl, a military investigator said this week. An investigator said Spc. James Barker confessed that he and Sgt. Paul Cortez took turns raping the girl while Pvt. Stephen Green killed her parents and 5-year-old sister. Then Green, too, raped the girl, before shooting her dead. Two other soldiers, Pfc. Jesse Spielman and Pfc. Bryan Howard, allegedly stood guard. Green, who was honorably discharged in April after being diagnosed with anti-social personality disorder, is in custody in Kentucky and has pleaded not guilty to charges of rape and murder. The military hearing in Baghdad this week will decide whether to charge the other four.
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