An American Killing Field: Bring the troops home.

Excellent Video

Dr. Dahlia Wasfi was born to a Jewish mother and an Iraqi father. She recently put her medical career on hold to visit with family members in Iraq, and recently returned from a three-month stay in Basrah and Baghdad. Dr.Wasfi described her experience in Iraq and discussed the life of Iraq is under occupation on April 27, 2006 in Washington, DC.

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Culprits and victims.

Ninety Years

A soldier was sentenced Thursday to 90 years in prison with the possibility of parole for conspiring to rape a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and kill her and her family. Spc. James P. Barker, one of four Fort Campbell soldiers accused in the March 12 rape and killings, pleaded guilty Wednesday and agreed to testify against the others to avoid the death penalty.

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Earlier Thursday, Barker wept during his closing statement, accepted responsibility for the rape and killings and said violence he encountered left him "angry and mean" when it came to Iraqis.

"I want the people of Iraq to know that I did not go there to do the terrible things that I did," Barker said, his voice quivering as he began to weep. "I do not ask anyone to forgive me today."

After Barker's sentencing, military prosecutors declined to comment because three other soldiers have yet to be tried in the case. Defense attorneys planned a news conference. Barker confessed Wednesday to the crimes as part of a plea agreement to avoid a possible death penalty that requires him to testify against the others. In his closing statement, Barker said Iraq made him angry and violent.

"To live there, to survive there, I became angry and mean. The mean part of me made me strong on patrols. It made me brave in fire fights," Barker said. "I loved my friends, my fellow soldiers and my leaders, but I began to hate everyone else in Iraq."

A bit of background about the crime:

The four men raped the teenage girl then killed her, her parents and her seven-year-old sister in the family's home in Mahmoudiya, a village about 20 miles south of Baghdad. The other three men are Pte Jesse Spielman, Pte Bryan Howard and Sgt Paul Cortez, all members of the 502nd Infantry, 101st Airborne Division. They are charged with rape and premeditated murder. They are also charged with arson after prosecutors alleged they doused the body of the rape victim with kerosene and set it on fire.

Eighteen months:

U.S. Marine who admitted a role in the killing of an Iraqi grandfather in Hamdania was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Wednesday under the terms of a plea deal. The Marine, John Jodka, the second defendant sentenced in the April 26 murder of Hashim Ibrahim Awad, last month pleaded guilty of charges of assault and conspiracy to obstruct justice.

So there you go. Some soldiers are being made examples of (as they should - except 18 months seems light to me...) and the brass sits pretty.

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Rumsfeld stands accused of war crimes (guilty!!!) and documents are being leaked that likely prove Bush authorized torture:

The CIA has acknowledged for the first time the existence of two classified documents, including one signed by the US President, George Bush, that it used as guidelines in the interrogation and imprisonment of terrorist suspects. The CIA referred to the documents in a letter sent to American Civil Liberties Union lawyers by the agency's associate general counsel, John McPherson. The contents of the documents were not revealed, but one of them is "a directive signed by President Bush granting the CIA the authority to set up detention facilities outside the US and outlining interrogation methods that may be used against detainees", the rights group said. The union says that the second document is a Justice Department legal analysis "specifying interrogation methods that the CIA may use against top al-Qaeda members"

Al Jazeera's English Launch

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