Army Probes Complaints of Corpse Photos

[Domitan]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050927/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/corpse_photos

WASHINGTON - The Army is investigating complaints that soldiers posted photographs of Iraqi corpses on an Internet site in exchange for access to pornographic images on the site, officials said Tuesday.

An Islamic civil rights group said it wrote to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld objecting to the practice, which it said may violate international laws of war, and urging the Pentagon to bring it to an end.

"This disgusting trade in human misery is an insult to all those who have served in our nation's military," Arsalan Iftikhar, legal director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in his letter to Rumsfeld.

Bryan Whitman, a spokesman for Rumsfeld, said the Pentagon had recently become aware of Internet postings and is looking into it.

"Obviously, it is an unacceptable practice," Whitman said.
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Many of the photos depict dismembered Iraqi corpses and body parts. Some also were submitted by soldiers in Afghanistan.

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Gee. How did those Iraqis get dismembered?

[rodeodance]

14. good question.

[VegasWolf]

2. Picture swapping. Show me yours and I'll show you mine. Sick fuckers

capitalizing off the deaths of Iraqi civilians.

:puke:

[mike_c]

6. they trade them for access to porn, for god's sake....

I'm not prudish about porn by any means, but there's something particularly disturbing about that bit, IMO. Trading images of suffering and violent death-- especially violence that they themselves participated in-- for sexual imagery just seems especially wrong.

[Jack_DeLeon]

15. Professional photogs sell thier pictures for money that they can buy...

anything with.

Is it any different if when one of those photogs sells thier pictures of human suffering for lots of money and they goes out and buys nice things for themselves?

IMO the only difference is that these soliders are only selling thier pictures for a smaller membership fee for whatever website.

[radwriter0555]

22. Hey! You can trade FREEDOM for PORN! Well, the bush style freedom

which includes death, dismemberment, murder...

Gosh, life under bush is just great! Death is too, if ya like PORN!

[foflappy]

3. better screeing

of recruits or better yet better conditions for them in the military...stress can lead to messed up behavior :(

[Shallah Kali]

4. Annenberg Journalism Review article on this

Porn site offers soldiers free access in exchange for photos of dead Iraqis
http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/050920glaser/

The Nation on Yahoo:
The Porn of War
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/thenation/20050922/cm_thenation/20051010the_porn_of_war_1

This is psychopathic and one of the costs of war the war mongers gloss over when rallying support. War doesn't just mutilate and kill one's body but it also can shatter the mind as well. How the hell will these men live a normal life when they get home? Also it scares me to know how many people are getting kicks from this necrophillia shit.

[The_Casual_Observer]

5. What possible good can ever come from an illegal "preemptive"

war? No good, just shit like this.

[Domitan]

7. kick

[Jack_DeLeon]

8. Personally I dont see what the problem is...

I dont see what is wrong with taking or sharing pictures of anything with the exception of maybe child porn.

[Domitan]

9. Really?

Don't you find it ghoulish to see the American soldiers swapping pics of Iraqi/Afghan corpses for porn pics? Check out www.americablog.org for extensive coverage on this.

[Jack_DeLeon]

12. Aint nothing wrong with porn...

everybody could use some from time to time.

As for the pictures of dead people its only nature for people from time to time to have a fasciation with death.

Back when I was in highschool me and my friends would rent those faces of death videos and whatnot.

The only thing different between now and the past is the internet it allows the free flow of information. Pictures are just bits of information. IMO a picture of a dead person is no more different than pictures of anything else.

[Domitan]

16. You're missing the point

Read this
http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/09/us-soldiers-allegedly-trading-pictures.html

I'm not talking about you or me looking at porn or pics of dead people...but what about those soldiers posing with the dead and putting them in such ghoulish and disrespectable light? Excellent way for the US troops to win the hearts and minds of the Middle East!

[Solly Mack]

31. Geneva governs the treatment of the dead (Article 15, 1st Geneva)

as do the laws of land warfare

You're not allowed to treat the dead in an inhumane and disrespectful manner.(and that does include prohibiting pictures for sport)

Even the dead deserve respect for their humanity


not to mention it's disgusting, revolting, inhumane, distasteful and just plain sick

[0007]

10. 'Tis the only way the Pentagon boy can get off these days, 'eh?

[rodeodance]

karen hughes has a big job ahead of her!!!

[MnFats]

11. fucking death merchants. Get that new FBI outfit after THIS crowd

every time you think it can't get worse, it gets worse...

[Jack_DeLeon]

13. Yes it would be much better if this were just covered up...

people should be allowed to see "bad" things that happen around the world from time to time.

[ElectroPrincess]

17. Right ...

Puts new meaning to the term "crack open a cold one"?

It will take bold steps "by the people" like those of us on the Net to actually educate the sheeple that they are being lied to everyday by the USA cable news media outlets.

UNLIKE the Vietnam war where even week old video was aired in *most* of it's gory details, we are subjected to BIMBOS, "Fox and Friends" and tools like "Wolf Blitzer in the Shit-stain Room" OR "Tim Russert figuratively bludgeons someone's dead mother."

Damn, don't count on the National Corporate Media NOT to fight us every step of the way. :(

[Shallah Kali]

19. This isn't educating people, it is about people getting kicks over this

I have no problem with the truth being shown like history documentaries often do. What I object to people getting thrills and gloating over fragments of what once was a living breathing human being. I am frankly horrified to see people enjoying this. I am horrified at their not just lack of horror but ENJOYMENT. HOw can people be truely human if they think this is fun? What is next body parts for suvineers? Dear God....

[Judi Lynn]

21. They're revelling in it. It's beyond unwholesome. It's filthy.

Anyone who's interested in getting more realism, should encourage his lying sociopath of a pResident to simply allow the photographs of American soldiers' coffins returning to the U.S. to be shown.

There's a little realism.

You're healthy and well balanced to feel it's horrid. It's unclean morally.

[Shallah Kali]

23. exactly. They pose like hunters with a big 10 point buck

smiling and grinning like they did something really neat-o, now lets go toast the hunt with a beer. They are not bearing witness. They are not respectfully depicting the horrors of war. They are like little proto-serial killers showing off the interesting things they have done involving firecrackers and frogs when mommy and daddy wheren't around.

[Domitan]

18. No felony charges

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001181973

Bryan Whitman, a spokesman for Rumsfeld, told the Associated Press that the Pentagon had recently become aware of Internet postings and is looking into it.

"Obviously, it is an unacceptable practice," Whitman said.

An Army spokesman, Paul Boyce, later told AP that the preliminary criminal inquiry determined, based on available evidence, that felony charges could not be pursued. But the matter, including the possibility of disciplinary action, was being handled in coordination with other military services, he said.

[NYC]

20. Violation of Geneva Convention?

I think so.

[WildClarySage]

24. This helps explain the admin's sudden interest in stopping

ordinary, consensual porn.

[Pacifist Patriot]

27. Hmmm.....

[tuvor]

25. Recommended. Only one more needed for Greatest. Plus another link to NYT

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/28/international/middleeast/28site.html?pagewanted=print

[bushisanidiot]

26. Yes, "they" hate us for our "freedom"

blech..

[Pacifist Patriot]

28. Iraqi corpses okay. American coffins prohibited. I get it.

Appropriate expletives fail me.

[RebelOne]

29. Check out pages 63 to 67 at this Web site.

These sickos have even put funny captions on the photos of dismembered Iraqis.

http://www.undermars.com/gallery63.html

[Domitan]

30. Hopefully, those who dismiss this will start to get it

It's not mere porn or fascination with death, but ghoulish exploitation that profoundly besmirches likely beyond repair the reputation of the US military and more.

[Shallah Kali]

32. Americablog has copies of the photos

here. Click on the links to see the photos without the worst bits erased. Note the England/Graner grins and thumbs up on many of the photos. Think how outraged you would be if people were trading photos of a dead female US soldier with her leg blown off by a land mine and privates exposed for sick-Os to get their kicks from. This isn't about truth telling. These photos are trophys to get off from.

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/09/us-soldiers-allegedly-trading-pictures.html