So they freed girl accused of stabbing a communist official to death. Is that good? Of course it is. Does it show that the CCP has changed? I don't think so. In a rush? For a quick synopsis, just read the red highlighted lines. If anything, the internet provided officials with the fact that there was a groundswell of adverse opinion in the girl's favor. Rather than risk protests, riots and other unpleasant uprisings, they took the easy way out. They freed her. But were they above board and taking the high road with the entire case? IMHO, no. Not only did they try to stifle public opinion by preventing reporting on the issue (Lightning Strikes Precautions shutting down television? LOL... Please); but initially they tried to do what is now a very common public security police tactic, use emotional or psychiatric accusations to summarily (that is, without benefit of trial or fact finding) lock people up. There are thousands of innocent Chinese, deemed "troublemakers" by local authorities, who become trapped in PRC psychiatric wards for complaining about corruption. Since the official which caused the problem was already dead, the power's that be calculated that the easiest and cheapest thing to do was to just let the girl go, and not only would they appear to be just (and win public opinion) but the issue would then die. However, tellingly, they let the other two assailants walk. I bet that after this blows over, they'll have their party membership reinstated and they'll be given jobs as corrupt officials in another part of the country where people won't know them (as has happened in the past). To be fair, the PRC does prosecute corrupt officials, but only after things have gotten so bad and after many people have been hurt. So IMHO, this wasn't really about justice, but solely about political expediency, after sensing the heat from the public eye, and the direction of public opinion. Here's the same thing, but reported by Xinhua, the government run news of the PRC, over the course of several days: Why did the news from Xinhua suddenly seem to dry up? The initial reports were detailed, and the trailing reports then become info averse. On the other hand, public opinion can be as deadly as lightning.
‘It was awesome’ U.S. soldier said after raping Iraqi girl and killing her family Tagged with: Iraqi girl raped life in prison shot by U.S. soldier Steven Green Steven Green, soldier, rapist and killer WASHINGTON—A U.S. soldier who raped a 14-year-old Iraqi girl, shot her in the face then lit her body on fire will face life in prison. He also killed the rest of her family including a six-year-old girl, then bragged the experience was awesome. He was part of a gang rape. Three other soldiers have been convicted on the charge already and sentenced to life. A federal jury that convicted Steven D. Green, a former Ft. Campbell, Ky., soldier of charges arising out of the rape of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the murder of the girl and her family said it was unable to reach a unanimous verdict on whether the defendant should be sentenced to death. Because the jury did not unanimously reach a decision on the death penalty, U.S. District Judge Thomas B. Russell will sentence Green to life without parole, Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division and Acting U.S. Attorney Candace G. Hill of the Western District of Kentucky announced. Judge Russell is scheduled to formally sentence Green on September 4, 2009. Green, 24, was convicted by the federal jury on May 7, 2009, in Louisville, Ky., on all charged counts, including premeditated murder, aggravated sexual abuse, felony murder, conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit aggravated sexual abuse, use of firearms during the commission of violent crimes and obstruction of justice. Green was indicted by a federal grand jury on Nov. 2, 2006. Green was charged with the crimes following an incident that occurred on March 12, 2006, in and around Mahmoudiyah, Iraq. According to evidence presented at trial, while manning a military checkpoint, Green and other fellow soldiers discussed raping and killing Iraqis. Trial evidence showed that Green and others then took off their uniforms, put on black clothing, left their post and forced their way into the nearby home of the Al-Janabi family. Evidence presented at trial proved that Green then took the mother, father and six-year-old into a bedroom where he shot and killed them. In the living room, Green and the other soldiers raped the 14-year-old and then Green repeatedly shot her in the face and set her body on fire. Green then tried to blow up the house, according to trial evidence, after which the soldiers returned to their checkpoint. After committing the rape and murders, trial testimony revealed that Green bragged to others that the experience was “awesome.” Green was discharged from the U.S. Army in May 2006 and was prosecuted in U.S. District Court under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (MEJA), a statute that gives U.S. courts jurisdiction to prosecute crimes committed outside the United States by, among others, persons who served with the armed forces but who are no longer subject to military prosecution. Green’s co-conspirators were prosecuted by military authorities under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Green, formerly stationed at Ft. Campbell and deployed to Iraq while serving with the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army, was arrested by the FBI on June 30, 2006, on federal charges of murder and rape based on MEJA. The case was investigated by the FBI and the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Marisa Ford and Jim Lesousky of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Kentucky and Trial Attorney Brian Skaret of the Criminal Division’s Domestic Security Section. From : http://www.vancouverite.com/feature...ter-raping-iraqi-girl-and-killing-her-family/ Well said Ralphy The US should take the lead from China and uphold social justice and hang their soldiers in Iraq which are involved in a phony war ! Wonder why the citizens in the US seems to be apathetic to this. There wasn't any protest at all even though they are such firm believers in Justice. Compared this to China, the outrage to demand justice seems pathetic from the American public. A democratic system is suppose to deliver justice. Suppose is a very interesting concept. LOL. Great post Ralph
U.S. slams British press over report of abuse photos Thu May 28, 2009 5:20pm EDT http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE54R50K20090528 By Andrew Gray and Ross Colvin WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s administration strongly denied a British report on Thursday that images of apparent rape and sexual abuse of Iraqi prisoners are among photographs that it is trying to prevent being made public. In unusually forceful terms, the Pentagon attacked the report in the Daily Telegraph newspaper while the White House went so far as to cast doubt on the accuracy of the British press in general. The Telegraph quoted retired U.S. Army Major General Antonio Taguba as saying the pictures showed “torture, abuse, rape and every indecency.” Taguba conducted an investigation in 2004 into abuse at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the Telegraph had shown “an inability to get the facts right.” “That news organization has completely mischaracterized the images,” he told reporters. “None of the photos in question depict the images that are described in that article.” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs went further. “I think if you do an even moderate Google search you’re not going to find many of these newspapers and truth within, say, 25 words of each other,” he said. “Let’s just say if I wanted to read a write-up today of how Manchester United fared last night in the Champions League Cup, I might open up a British newspaper. If I was looking for something that bordered on truthful news, I’m not entirely sure it’d be the first stack of clips I picked up,” Gibbs said. The Obama administration has been on the defensive over its refusal to release the pictures, which were gathered as part of U.S. military investigations into prisoner abuse. The administration at first agreed to release the pictures, which the American Civil Liberties Union is seeking to obtain through legal action, but then reversed course, citing a likely backlash that would put U.S. troops abroad at greater risk. ABUSE ALLEGATIONS The Telegraph said at least one picture showed an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee. Others were said to depict sexual assaults with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube. The Pentagon’s Whitman said he did not know if the Telegraph had quoted Taguba accurately. Whitman said he was not aware that any such photographs had been uncovered as part of the investigation into Abu Ghraib or abuses at other prisons. In an interview with the New Yorker magazine published in 2007, Taguba was quoted as saying that he saw a video of a male American soldier in uniform sodomizing a female detainee. Photographs of abuse at the prison outside Baghdad were published in 2004 and caused deep resentment in the Muslim world, damaging the image of the United States as it fought against insurgents in Iraq. Whitman said the Telegraph had also wrongly reported earlier this month that some of the images whose release Obama wants to block had previously been aired on Australian television. “I would caution you whenever you see a subsequent story on photos in this particular publication,” he told reporters. “They now have, at least on two occasions, demonstrated an inability to get the facts right.” Taguba, who retired in January 2007, included allegations of rape and sexual abuse in his report. He was quoted in the Telegraph as saying he supported Obama’s decision not to release the pictures. “I am not sure what purpose their release would serve other than a legal one,” he said. “The sequence would be to imperil our troops, the only protectors of our foreign policy, when we most need them, and British troops who are trying to build security in Afghanistan.” He added: “The mere depiction of these pictures is horrendous enough, take my word for it.” (Additional reporting by Luke Baker in London; editing by Chris Wilson) I thought the commies were bad ! How can the leader of all the democratic states of the world, the USA also suppress information from the public ? Now we know why pictures of the killing fields as unleash by the USA upon Iraq are hardly available. It have always been suppress.
