EVANSVILLE, Ind. (AP) -- The second of five 101st Airborne Division soldiers accused of raping and killing a 14-year-old Iraqi girl along with executing three of her family members last year in Iraq has reached a plea agreement with prosecutors, his attorney said Thursday.
Sgt. Paul E. Cortez, 24, of Barstow, Calif., is expected to plead guilty to rape and premeditated murder during a hearing next month at Fort Campbell, attorney William Cassara said.
''Sgt. Cortez is going to go in and accept the responsibility for his part in what occurred,'' Cassara said. ''Our version of events is that he knew what was going to take place and participated as an observer.''
Cassara would not discuss specific details of the agreement, but said Cortez will no longer face the death penalty. As a matter of protocol, military prosecutors won't discuss the case.
The March 12 death of 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi, her parents and younger sister were considered among the worst in a series of alleged atrocities by U.S. military personnel in Iraq.
Spc. James P. Barker, 24, of Fresno, Calif., pleaded guilty to rape and murder in November as part of an agreement to testify against the others. He was sentenced to 90 years in military prison.
Michelle Malkin, May 2006:
I do not know the truth about Haditha. Neither do Murtha and the media outlets calling the alleged massacre a massacre before all the facts are in. It would be helpful if they could handle these grave charges without serving as al Jazeera satellite offices. GOP Sen. John Warner, who like Murtha also served in the Marines, struck the right tone over the weekend -- refusing, unlike Murtha, to render a verdict against the Marines before trial and avoiding Bush Derangement Syndrome, but also taking the allegations very seriously.
[...]
Finally, there is this incontrovertible fact: There are countless numbers of anti-war zealots on the American Left rooting for failure. They believe the worst about the troops. They've blindly embraced frauds who've lied about their military service and lied about wartime atrocities. They've allied themselves with socialist kooks and coddled murderous dictators. They are looking for any excuse to pull out, abandon military operations and reconstruction, and impeach the president.
They insist on giving suspected foreign terrorists more benefit of the doubt than our own men and women in uniform. And that, I know, I am not willing to do.
I will wait. I will pray. And I will remind you that while the murder of civilians is and remains an anomaly in American military history, it is the jihadists' way of life.
Who, exactly, is suffering from Derangement Syndrome?
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