Dear Eric;
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.
The commanding general of the 101st Airborne had signed off on the plea agreement which gave the right to be considered for parole in exchange for testimony against the others. He pleaded guilty to four counts of felony murder, rape and conspiracy to rape.
The whole family was murdered so there was no one to pay compensation to unless some other relatives came forward. The compensation in general is a couple thousand dollars for the wrongful death of a civilian by the military. So if the relatives of the dead family collected anything it was maybe about $10,000.
Of course, this is only one case - that has been heard about. It does not cover all the other cases we have not heard about.
We would not have known about the case unless three soldiers of the same unit - at a nighttime check patrol had not been ambushed. One was killed at the scene the other two were taken tortured and killed. Videoes were released showing the dead soldiers and where to find their bodies and why they did what they did. This opened up the investigation and one of the soldiers who took part in the rape told about what happened.
To meet their recruiting goals the military - mainly the Army - has issued waivers to 100,000 recruits whose criminal background check would have denied them admittance to the military. Look for more cases simliar in nature from these warriors.
And also look at organized gang members and ultra-nationalistic Aryan militia members getting light infantry military training and access to high quality military weapons and equipment to help their causes along. Nothing like the military training street gangs and militia members on how to fight back and whre to get the equipment to fight back with. There already have been police reports about police being attacked with IED's.
Ron Getty
SF Libertarian