Photos Show U.S. Soldiers Posing With Afghan Corpses

[Stuart G]

Source: New York Times, AP

Photos Show US Soldiers Posing With Afghan CorpsesBy THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: October 1, 2010


. Filed at 6:08 p.m. ET

SEATTLE (AP) — Those who have seen the photos say they are grisly: soldiers beside newly killed bodies, decaying corpses and severed fingers.

The dozens of photos, described in interviews and in e-mails and military documents obtained by The Associated Press, were seized by Army investigators and are a crucial part of the case against five soldiers accused of killing three Afghan civilians earlier this year.

Troops allegedly shared the photos by e-mail and thumb drive like electronic trading cards. Now 60 to 70 of them are being kept tightly shielded from the public and even defense attorneys because of fears they could wind up in the news media and provoke anti-American violence.

"We're in a powder-keg situation here," said Eugene R. Fidell, president of the National Institute for Military Justice and a military law professor at Yale University.

Since the images are not classified, "I think they have to be released if they're going to be evidence in open court in a criminal prosecution," he said.

Maj. Kathleen Turner, a spokeswoman for Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Seattle, where the accused soldiers are stationed, acknowledged that the images were "highly sensitive, and that's why that protective order was put in place."


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/10/01/us/AP-US-Afghan-Probe-Photographs.html?hp

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Not good for our soldiers, and for our country's reputation..

[JuniperLea]

1. If there is no link...

Then where did you get this?

[Stuart G]

2. It is up there now...

[karynnj]

3. Obama needs to review this and strongly condemn the actions of those soldiers.

[ixion]

4. Is it war crimes yet?

Just askin'...

[DJ13]

9. Stop looking backwards!

:sarcasm:

[smiley]

5. this type of behavior is nothing new

when I was in high school almost 20 years ago, my girlfriends dad, who served in Vietnam as a huey pilot had photos of himself and his buddies standing next to decapitated enemy heads. Pretty gross, but I didn't think much of it then. Just chalked it up to wartime fun. Sickens me the more I think about it. It's a shame we continue to allow our soldiers to act in this behaviour.

On a side note - my ex-girlfriends dad continued to serve after vietnam and became the highest ranking former vietnam huey pilot still serving (in the National Guard).

[Mike Marble]

15. These weren't combat trophies, but murder victims.

[mike_c]

6. sunlight is the best disinfectant....

eom

[truth2power]

7. Our country no longer has a reputation (in any positive sense)...

I think about karma a lot. Just sayin'

[Solly Mack]

8. k/r

[flyarm]

10. "NOT GOOD FOR OUR SOLDIERS" ???????????? how about the dead people?

how about human beings killed and dead????? How good is it for them? Fingers removed??? Killed is killed..dead is dead..murder is murder.

wtf is wrong with people in this country.

How about the dead???????????????

reputation??????????? fuck reputation..we have none of that left..

How about the privacy and respect of dead people... being used in this way?????????

there is a special place in Hell for living people, who do shit like this..and it awaits these soldiers..or I should say..killers and murderers!

[Bigmack]

13. I agree... but need to add....

When... not if, but when.... the photos of those poor bastards our troops killed make it into the world press, the Al Qaeda recruiting offices will be jammed... every red-blooded whackjob in the world will have a propaganda victory.

The dead would be just as dead without the "trophies" taken. The mutilation is the icing on the cake of war crimes.

Warriors have done this shit since the beginning of time, and only the naive American public believes our people won't do it. We need to stop putting our people into the impossible missions and imperialist adventures that could bring this out in them.

We can't be an Empire any longer. Bring them home or prepare for more of the same.

[flyarm]

14. You think their recruiting offices aren't filled already?

it si only dumb Americans who don't know this shit..and we are dumb because we haven't taken t the damn streets and demanded to see everything and hold all war criminals accountable.

It is silly to think Al Queada and the entire world has not seen these visions..or read about them or had family memeber tell them all about them!

it is we who do not know.

[Liberal_in_LA]

11. oh no!

[OnyxCollie]

12. K&R. nt

[Pavulon]

16. Challenge. Post a pic like you described from every war... Oh so easy..

here is a dead German. I'm sure I could find plenty more. If they were legal killings its distasteful. If they were illegal, its evidence and they should be jailed.

[Mike Marble]

17. These are alleged murder victims, not dead soldiers.