Paul Cortez, James Barker, Jesse Spielman, Brian Howard and Steven Green giving freedom to Iraq

Sunday, 12th March 2006. Yusufiyah, Iraq.



American soldiers Paul Cortez, James Barker, Jesse Spielman, Brian Howard and Steven Green raped and killed 14 years old girl Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi.

Before that, they had murdered:

• Hadeel Qasim Hamza, 5 years old (her sister)
• Fakhriyah Taha Muhsin, 34 years old (her mother)
• Qasim Hamza Raheem, 45 years old (her father)

All soldiers belonged to the 502nd Infantry Regiment. They set the girl's corpse on fire to destroy evidence of the rape.

1. Steven Green was arrested but I have no information on his trial.
2. James Barker was sentenced 90 years in prison, but can go out after 20 on parole.
3. Paul Cortez was sentenced 100 years in prison, but can go out after 10 on parole.
4. Jesse Spielman was sentenced 110 years in prison, but can go out after 10 on parole.
5. Steven Green is waiting to be judged by a penal court (not military) in Kentucky.

Valerio Ercole and Antonello Migneco restoring hope in Somalia

Saturday, 10th April 1993. Camp Johar, Somalia.

Italian paratrooper Valerio Ercole (Airborne Brigade "Folgore") gives prisoner Ali Abukar Aden's genitalia electroshock while private Antonello Migneco holds him firlmly on the ground with his foot.

Facts occurred during mission IBIS, part of UN Operation "Restore Hope" (I & II). Ali Abukar Aden had been accused of theft and become impotent as result of torture.

Both Ercole and Migneco were found not guilty of any crime.

Pictures taken by former paratrooper Stefano Valsecchi were first published by the Italian news magazine "Panorama" on 13th June 1997, in the article "Somalia. Le nuove foto della vergogna" by M. Gregoretti.

Pictures also showed the rape of a Somali woman by Italian soldiers. The girl was penetrated with a grenade covered with jam.

No other soldiers went to court. Nobody was ever found guilty. No other pictures/stories made it to the public.