Soldier describes anguish in revealing murder allegations

Pfc. Justin Watt, 23, of Tucson told authorities about an attack March 12 in which members of his platoon allegedly raped a 14-year-old girl in Mahmoudiya and killed her and her family.

On a night in June, Pfc. Justin Watt lay in his cot in Iraq, anguishing over whether to tell Army investigators that he suspected soldiers from his own platoon had raped a 14-year-old girl and then killed her and her family.
He decided to call his father back home. "If you knew something bad about your brothers," Watt asked him, "would you come forward?"

The satellite phone link between Iraq and South Carolina was clear, and Rick Watt remembers that his son sounded distraught.

An Army veteran, the elder Watt asked for details, but Justin Watt would offer none. Finally, Rick Watt told his son that whatever had happened would have to be monstrous. "Heinous," he said, "is the only reason for giving up a brother."

Hours later, Justin Watt, 23, of Tucson, told authorities what he had learned from talking with another soldier from their platoon in the 101st Airborne Division. That soldier is one of four now accused of the killings March 12 in Mahmoudiya, Iraq.

In the months since, the four soldiers have been charged in a military court in Iraq with rape and murder. Another soldier is accused of failing to report the crime. And Steven Green, a platoon member discharged from the Army since the crimes, faces rape and murder charges in federal court in connection with the case.

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