U.S. soldier pleads guilty in Iraq rape, murders

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N20371582.htm

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky, Feb 20 (Reuters) - A second U.S. soldier accused of raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl before murdering her and her family pleaded guilty to the charges on Tuesday at the start of his court-martial on a Kentucky military base.

Sgt. Paul Cortez, 24, pleaded guilty to murder and rape in the crime at Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad, in March 2006.

In all, four current and one former soldier were charged in the gang rape and murders, a crime that outraged Iraqis and ratcheted up tension in the war zone.

Spc. James Barker pleaded guilty in November and was sentenced to 90 years in a military prison.

Cortez, Barker and the suspected ringleader, Steven Green, were accused of taking turns raping the 14-year-old girl, then killing her, her father, mother and 6-year-old sister in the March 12, 2006, attack.

print. Remember when the rape victim's age was "unclear"?

She used to be a woman... then a young woman... but they never said she was a child. Now, no one is paying any attention anymore (except for us) so it's fine to call her what she was... a 14 year old child.