Four Marines Accused of Philippines Rape (Arrest Warrant Issued)

Fri Jan 13, 4:19 AM ET

OLONGAPO, Philippines - A Philippine judge on Friday issued arrest warrants for four U.S. Marines charged with rape, putting pressure on the United States to hand them over to Philippine authorities.

The four servicemen have been held in U.S. Embassy custody in Manila, and the U.S. government was still considering Manila's request for their transfer, filed in November.

U.S. officials have said they have the right to keep the Marines in their custody, according to terms of the bilateral Visiting Forces Agreement, which allows large-scale U.S. military exercises in the Philippines.

U.S. Embassy spokesman Matthew Lussenhop told The Associated Press he didn't expect the arrest warrants to have an immediate effect on Washington's decision to hand over the suspects.

After they stuffed her into the vehicle, sped off away from where she was with her friend, gang raped her, then threw her out, in front of witnesses, of a speeding van as it charged off, leaving her without her clothes on the street.

If she had not been from a prominent Philippine family, no one would have ever known this happened. They just grabbed the wrong young woman.

I really hope they don't get patted on the back and sent home. This was an evil, despicable act, and it's a miracle she survived it.

Here's a link to the story:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/01/13/ap/world/mainD8F3N1FG2.shtml

or is this only when 'on duty"?

I have heard of a lot of cases in which the gummint just sweeps them up and away and doesn't let the locals get a chance to try them.

otherwise they have to drop all the charges. Apparently it is part of the agreement between the US/Philippines. That is why there is such a rush on the prosecutor side to get this to trial started.

The guys accused were reportedly quickly taken to the US Embassy over there the night this allegedly happened and have been there ever since..locals not being very happy with this, they wanted them in a local officials' custody, not the US.

This has been developing for a while..but not on MSM, of course. Seeing as how the guys face either a life sentence or the death sentence (depending on what article you read) if found guilty, you would think it would be NEWS but the MSM has been more preoccupied with Aruba and missing cruise ship passengers.

Here's some previous articles (can't find my previous DU posts from a few months ago). Needless to say, I have found the most info about the case in **foreign** press, not US news. If you Google some words (Marines, rape, and Philippines) you will find a bunch more info dating back some more.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060103/ap_on_re_as/philippines_us_marines

http://www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=73963

http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=203274&cat=Asia

To pick off the tree of the low hanging fruit

recall.

on edit: Not the same guys of course...

are we occupeying that nation too?