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for rape and murder of Iraqi girl and her family. I heard the US had lowered their standards for draft induction to drum up inductees, which allows for sleezeballs (my word) to join our armed forces. This makes me wonder if he was part of the scuzz that got in. And the animal abusers...

FORT CAMPBELL, Kentucky (AP) -- A U.S. soldier was sentenced to 100 years in prison Thursday for the gang rape and murder of an Iraqi girl and the killing of her family last year.

Sgt. Paul E. Cortez, 24, also was given a dishonorable discharge. He will be eligible for parole in 10 years under the terms of his plea agreement.
Cortez, of Barstow, California, pleaded guilty this week to four counts of felony murder, rape and conspiracy to rape in a case considered among the worst atrocities by U.S. military personnel in Iraq.

In his plea agreement, he said he conspired with three other soldiers from the Fort Campbell-based 101st Airborne Division to rape 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi. The girl, her parents and a younger sister were all killed.

Earlier Thursday, tears rolled down Cortez's face as he apologized for the rape and murders. He said he could not explain why he took part.
"I still don't have an answer," Cortez told the judge. "I don't know why. I wish I hadn't. The lives of four innocent people were taken. I want to apologize for all of the pain and suffering I have caused the al-Janabi family."

The military judge hearing the case, Col. Stephen R. Henley, issued a sentence of life in prison without parole, the maximum for the charges. Under military law, the defendant is given the lesser sentence unless he violates terms of the plea agreement, which requires Cortez to testify against others charged in the case.

Psychologist Charles Figley testified that Cortez and the other soldiers likely suffered stress brought on by fatigue and trauma.

Full story..

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/02/22/ussold ... index.html

he's the one that lit a fire and threw a puppy off a roof in Iraq.

I saw on Nightline a couple weeks ago that gang-members were
enlisting and continuing with their gang related activity, colors...etc.

http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,1 ... 56,00.html

FBI Probes Military Gangs
Chicago Tribune | May 03, 2006
The FBI has assigned an agent to monitor any connections between U.S. Soldiers and a Chicago-based gang alliance, federal agents said.

Of particular concern are reports that the Folk Nation, consisting of more than a dozen gangs in the Chicago area, is placing young members in the military in an effort to gather information about weapons and tactics, said FBI Special Agent Andrea Simmons, who is based in El Paso, Texas.

"Our understanding is that they find members without a criminal history so that they can join, and once they get out, they will have a new set of skills that they can apply to criminal enterprises," Simmons said. "This could be a concern for any law enforcement agency that has to deal with gangs on a daily basis."

Chicago gang symbols can be found amid other graffiti, mostly in latrines on U.S. military bases such as Camp Fallujah in Iraq's Anbar Province.

Yet military investigators say the Soldiers who left those symbols had no gang affiliation and little knowledge of how gangs operate.

"In nearly every one of the cases that we have looked into, it is a young man or woman who thought that the symbol looked cool," said Christopher Grey, spokesman for the Army's Criminal Investigation Command. "We have found some people even get gang tattoos not really knowing what they are, or at least that they have not had any gang affiliation the past."

Still, Army investigators have opened 10 cases in the last year in which evidence of gang activity was found, he said.

Some of those cases have since been closed, but no further details were released by the military.

"We're looking at a million-plus people in the Army," he said. "Any suggestion that this is rampant, we just don't see that."

Grey acknowledged that there are gang members in the military, but he said their presence has not become a problem.

The FBI, however, has two agents looking into gang affiliations in Texas in anticipation of a major realignment of military bases that is about to shift as many as 20,000 Soldiers to Ft. Bliss near El Paso, Simmons said.

One of those agents has been assigned to look at affiliations with Folk Nation, she said.

Police departments around Ft. Hood, near Austin, about 600 miles away, have reported some gang-related incidents, and the FBI will monitor whether there is an increase in such crimes near Ft. Bliss over the next two years, Simmons said.

A number of Soldiers transferred to Ft. Bliss are expected to come from Ft. Hood, Simmons said.

Military recruiters are trained to spot gang tattoos and affiliated clothing, said Maj. Nathan Banks, stationed at the Pentagon.

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