Ex-GI Pleads Not Guilty to Rape, Killings in Iraq

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The case of a former Army private charged with slaying and raping an Iraqi woman and killing her family will be presented to a grand jury this month, a prosecutor said. Steven D. Green entered a plea of not guilty through his public defenders Thursday.

He also waived a detention hearing and a preliminary hearing, and agreed that his case would be prosecuted in the Western District of Kentucky.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Butler said the case would be presented before a grand jury sometime in mid-July, probably in Paducah.

Click here to read the charges against the former U.S. Army soldier (pdf).

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U.S. Magistrate Judge James Moyer set an arraignment date of Aug. 8 in Paducah for Green, who was arrested Friday by FBI agents in Marion, N.C.

Green answered Moyer's questions about his inability to pay for an attorney, saying he has about $6,000 in a checking account and owns a 1995 Lincoln Town Car.

"I don't have anything else," he told the judge.

According to a federal affidavit, Green and other soldiers targeted the Iraqi young woman after spotting her at a traffic checkpoint near Mahmoudiya. Green is being tried in federal rather than military court because he no longer is in the Army.

Military officials concluded Thursday that since Green had received his final discharge papers, he was no longer under the control of the Army and would not be subject to a court martial. No other soldiers have been charged in the case.

Green, who served 11 months with the 101st Airborne Division, based at Fort Campbell, Ky., received an honorable discharge and left the army in mid-May. He was discharged because of an "anti-social personality disorder," according to military officials and court documents.

A psychiatric condition, anti-social personality disorder is defined as chronic behavior that manipulates, exploits or violates the rights of others. Someone with the disorder may break the law repeatedly, lie, get in fights and show a lack of remorse.

President George W. Bush, speaking in a cable television interview on Thursday, said the Iraqis should understand that the allegations will be handled "in a very transparent upfront way."

"People will be held to account if these charges are true," Bush said.