Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying

On March 12, 2006 a 14-year-old Iraqi girl named Abeer Qasim Hamza al-Janabi was brutally gang raped and murdered in the village of Mahmoudiya. Members of her family, including her 5-year-old sister were also murdered. Five American soldiers stand accused of these heinous crimes. The preliminary hearing for four of the accused soldiers is currently taking place in Iraq.

CNN reported on the graphic testimony earlier today in an article on its website. However, something was curiously absent from the coverage. Below is a screen shot from CNN’s report:

Notice the caption under the picture: "Steven Green is alleged to have shot and killed the woman’s relatives, raped the victim, then fatally shot her." Since when have you heard of a 14-year-old being referred to as a "woman"? In fact, this article never once refers to Abeer as a "girl", instead referring to her as "an Iraqi" or a "woman". Only toward the end of the article do we learn that:

Identity cards and death certificates obtained by Reuters news agency suggest the rape-murder victim was 14 years old.

And further down still:

The identity cards and death certificates of the victims, obtained by Reuters, show that the alleged rape victim was Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi, with the birthdate August 19, 1991. The mayor of Mahmoudiya confirmed her identity and birthdate to CNN.

The U.S. military had previously referred to the alleged rape victim as a "young Iraqi woman." A Justice Department affidavit in the case against Green says investigators estimated her age at about 25, while the U.S. military said she was 20.

Thank you CNN for some excellent reporting!

CNN also filed a second story on the hearing this evening. This time someone at CNN figured out that a 14-year-old is not a woman. Here’s a screen shot from the second article from CNN:

This time Abeer is referred to as a "girl" all throughout the article. In fact the contrast between the first and the second articles could not be greater. (Someone still forgot to update the caption under the photo).

It appears that by the second story editors at CNN may have decided to give up trying to spin this story. This crime is so heinous that no amount of lipstick will pretty up the facts.

Try as it might, CNN failed to capture the ambience at the hearing. Reuters reports on the seriousness of the proceedings:

Defense Attorney Captain Jimmie Culp was blowing chewing gum bubbles while Yribe, sitting to his left, began sucking on a red lollipop during the testimony.

Apparently testimony about the brutal rape and murder of a child is best enjoyed with bubble gum and lollipops.

Hearts and minds. No doubt CNN was thinking about hearts and minds when it massaged the facts just a bit in the first story of the day. Considering the levity at the hearing and the willingness of the media to shape the story, I wonder if the Iraqis think that they will ever get any justice from the Americans.

At approximately 6pm in the evening Iraq time on Wednesday, the thug who called himself Abu Musab al-Zarqawi left this world assisted by two American-made 500 pound bombs that fell from the sky. The American military has rid Iraq of a murderer of women and children and a coward who will be missed by almost no one. President Bush and the United States Military should be hailed for assuring that there is one less evil man on Earth today. This death shows that the American military is at its best when it is backed by moral authority and clarity of mission.

This coward, however, caused significant death and destruction before he was sent off to face the Infinite Justice that now awaits him. Below is a partial list from the BBC of the horrors that were unleashed by this monster:

• 28 Oct 2002: US diplomat Laurence Foley killed in Jordan
• 19 Aug 2003: Bombing of UN office in Baghdad, 23 dead
• 29 Aug 2003: Bombing of Najaf shrine killing Shia cleric Muhammad Baqr Hakim, 85 dead
• 2 March 2004: Co-ordinated attack on Shia mosques during Ashoura ceremony, 181 dead
• 11 May 2004: Nick Berg beheaded, first of at least nine foreign hostages killed in 2004
• 14 Sept 2004: Car bomb targeting police recruits in Baghdad, 47 dead
• 19 Dec 2004: Car bombs in Najaf and Karbala, 60 dead
• 19 Aug 2005: Rocket attack in Jordan on Israel and US navy
• 9 Nov 2005: Triple attack on hotels in Amman, 60 dead

Today is not a day to rejoice. Instead, it is a day to remember the many innocent lives that were extinguished by his rampage of killing. Many innocent Iraqi mothers and children whose names we in the West do not know have died by his command. Of all the murdered, I want to highlight two today as a way of remembering all the slaughtered.

When Zarqawi bombed the UN office in Baghdad, he took the life of Sergio Vieiro de Mello. Mr. de Mello was a humanitarian who spent nearly his entire adult life working to help the most unfortunate among us. When this man was killed the world lost a tireless supporter of Human Rights. His loss is also a personal one for me. As one of his first missions for the United Nations, Mr. de Mello served in Bangladesh in 1971 working with refugees during its war of independence.

Zarqawi, the animal, personally beheaded Nick Berg in an act of unspeakable cruelty. He also videotaped the murder in order to show how tough he was. Instead, the video stands in graphic testament to this man’s cowardice. Only a coward sees bravery in killing a bound and helpless human being.

Today this terrorist is dead. He is not martyred - he is simply ended.

He may not have an American Express card but he does have a police badge. Apart from his wonderful facial expression, he enjoys beating up journalists and old men, likes wearing cool sunglasses, and has a taste for berets.

He is also what people in the Third World think of when you say "terrorist". As long as Governments in the third world continue to terrorize their citizens the environment that creates violence will not cease. Power unchecked by reason and unleashed upon defenseless citizens must stop. If you want to know where terrorists get their start, look closely at this picture. This is commonplace violence in the Third World. This kind of violence is also the tip of the iceberg: things get really ugly with government sanctioned torture, murders and disappearances. The environment is ripe for anyone to exploit and unleash further violence in the name of defending the people.

The United States cannot hope to win the war on terrorism as long as it tolerates "allies" who continue to terrorize their people. We are applying band aids to a cancer when we should be using chemotherapy.