US Army Afghan ‘kill team’ posed for pics
p2pnet view Crime:- Germany’s Der Spiegel on the weekend published pictures from a reported 4,000 videos and photos taken by members of a US army “kill team” in Kandahar province last year.
“Two of the photos show soldiers in the unit lifting the body of an Afghan civilian by the hair and posing thus for the camera”, says WL Central. The third, it says, “shows two Afghans apparently or possibly killed while handcuffed together back to back. The photographs are not yet available onsite at Der Spiegel; David Dayen at firedoglake links to them here, here, and here.”
Says the Guardian >>>
Commanders in Afghanistan are bracing themselves for possible riots and public fury triggered by the publication of “trophy” photographs of US soldiers posing with the dead bodies of defenceless Afghan civilians they killed.
Senior officials at Nato’s International Security Assistance Force in Kabul have compared the pictures published by the German news weekly Der Spiegel to the images of US soldiers abusing prisoners in Abu Ghraib in Iraq which sparked waves of anti-US protests around the world.
They fear that the pictures could be even more damaging as they show the aftermath of the deliberate murders of Afghan civilians by a rogue US Stryker tank unit that operated in the southern province of Kandahar last year.
Some of the activities of the self-styled “kill team” are already public, with 12 men currently on trial in Seattle for their role in the killing of three civilians.
Five of the soldiers are on trial for pre-meditated murder, after they staged killings to make it look like they were defending themselves from Taliban attacks.
Other charges include the mutilation of corpses, the possession of images of human casualties and drug abuse.
All of the soldiers have denied the charges. They face the death penalty or life in prison if convicted.
The WL Central post links to a Reuters story which states >>>
The guilty plea and sentencing of Army Specialist Jeremy Morlock, 23, of Wasilla, Alaska, marked a turning point in the most serious prosecution of alleged U.S. military atrocities during 10 years of war in Afghanistan.
Under questioning by the judge, Morlock recounted his role in the deaths of three unarmed Afghan villagers whose slayings by grenade blasts and rifle fire were staged to appear as legitimate combat casualties.
“I knew what I was doing was wrong, sir,” he said, adding that, contrary to his lawyers’ suggestions, his judgment was not impaired by drugs. He admitted smoking hashish three or four times a week during his deployment in Afghanistan.
According to WL Central, in a statement released by colonel Thomas Collins Sunday night, the US Army said:
“Today Der Spiegel published photographs depicting actions repugnant to us as human beings and contrary to the standards and values of the United States Army. We apologize for the distress these photos cause … The actions portrayed in these photographs remain under investigation and are now the subject of ongoing U.S. court-martial proceedings, in which the accused are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.” [Reconstructed from two media sources]
Adds WL Central:
“Granted, the statement calls the apparent mockery of a dead body ‘repugnant’ to members of the US Army. But the only straight apology it offers is for the photographs themselves and the impact they may have.
“That apology is all the more odd since the US Army did not release these photos and a US military court has attempted to suppress them.
“We are left to ponder the mindset that considers publication of evidence of a crime more worrisome than the crime itself.”
WL Central – US military blames photos of war crimes for causing “distress”, March 24, 2011
Guardian – US Army ‘kill team’ in Afghanistan posed for photos of murdered civilians, March 21, 2011
Reuters – U.S. soldier gets 24 years for murdering Afghans, March 24, 2011
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
World War III will be a global information war with no division between civilian & military participation ~ Marshall McLuhan
Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. Subscribe to p2pnet.net | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/feed
Net access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details.
March 25th, 2011 at 9:37 am
This is horrible! How can things like this happen?
March 25th, 2011 at 9:39 am
Can’t say I’m surprised. It’s a well-known fact by now that the US army is comprised entirely of mass-murdering psychopathic war criminals.
March 25th, 2011 at 1:25 pm
RW said: “It’s a well-known fact by now that the US army is comprised entirely of mass-murdering psychopathic war criminals.”
Obviously you will believe what you want to believe, but your comment is completely absurd. There a few bad apples in every bushel. I am convince this only represent a small minority. It doesn’t take that many to make all the other look bad.
March 25th, 2011 at 1:46 pm
This is why we need wikileaks. We need to know what the US gov and the US army is doing in our names.
This is our country for god sake and the lives of innocent civilian are at stake!
March 25th, 2011 at 1:47 pm
Obviously you will believe what you want to believe. I only state the truth.
March 25th, 2011 at 3:06 pm
Why should the army apologize for this? It wasn’t sanctioned or ordered by them, are they responsible for every single crime someone commits while in uniform? I don’t recall anyone demanding an apology from Dennis Rader’s employer when he got caught for serial killing.
Why would the army release the photos? If your relative got hit by a bus, would you want picture’s of their dead corpse splattered all over the street floating around on the internet? I know I wouldn’t.
The army is dealing appropriately with these soldier’s who disgraced their uniform, evidenced by the recent conviction of Morlock and ongoing prosecutions of the others. It’s fun for people who don’t like the US or the military in general to try to twist this into some kind of conspiracy or wrongdoing by the institution itself, but really in this case it was just a group of soldiers who decided to do a horrible thing and are now being punished accordingly.
March 25th, 2011 at 3:56 pm
It’s AMAZING how some people can’t defend the storm-troopers and the military quick enough.
I’ve got news for you, ALL military men are capable of this. Military service ATTRACTS psychopaths. Just like Kissinger said, military men are all “dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy.” And let me tell you, the people in the military fit that description perfectly.
Some people see things like this and put their hands over their eyes and ears and pretend that it doesn’t happen routinely. If they acknowledge that they’ve been cheer-leading the brutal conquest of a foreign land in the name of looting resources, their whole model of reality will come crashing down, including their fragile ego.
Now go back to watching the talking heads on Canwest and FNC fantasy-land and act like everything is PERFECT.
March 25th, 2011 at 4:03 pm
@Otis
It seems like you are making excuses for top military commanders. Obviously you don’t know anything about how military structure works or top brass who runs it. If you did then you would know these soldiers are being used as scapegoats while they have been programmed to do such atrocities.
The military is a totally different animal than general society. I suggest you start your studies with General Eisenhower http://www.h-net.org/~hst306/documents/indust.html and expand them from there. Make sure to study behind the scenes actions and practices of top military brass for last 200 years. Oh rats, make it last 6000 years to be fully accurate.
You will notice a certain trend in all of them and certain society they all belong to. What is that society?
March 25th, 2011 at 11:21 pm
As much as I enjoy arguing with people who think reading one speech or quote from a famous historical person somehow excuses their total lack of real world experience on an issue and allows them to speak as if they are experts, I think I shall pass!
Neener neener!
(Just trying to get you some more revenue generating traffic jon)
March 26th, 2011 at 1:59 am
@ Otis. Traffic has nothing to do with revenue. It’s a flat rate. But thanks.
Cheers!
March 26th, 2011 at 5:00 am
@Otis
I love civies like you who don’t know anything about military structure and automatically defend anyone in authority. Maybe you can defend me since I’m a lifer, done 30+ years in various Coalition Military establishments. 10 of which were as Special Investigator with [omitted due to contract] investigating every sort of crime an enlisted man or woman can do. There are literally square miles of warehouse buildings full of evidence and files each year of crimes that military commit, most of which the public will never see. That’s 1000′s of lives ruined per day.
Most despicable crimes you see on TV, news and on internet in one year are only a fraction of what I used to see in one day, every day. Running the whole show are people that are way beyond psychopaths and are the main cause of problems everywhere.
Most battle hardened Special Forces have tried to be in my boots for a day and ended up puking at some of the incidents I had to deal with. Most didn’t last an hour. How long do you think you’d last? What would you do if you knew your leadership is part of a society bent on murder, terror, mutilations, rape, torture and the most disgusting practices known to man?
Welcome to my world Boy. Any time you want to compare notes I’ll take you on a ride you’ll never forget. Remember that best criminals never do a day in jail, they are still out there praying on an unsuspecting public. When the super rich have been raised like Caligula, with golden spoon in their mouth, literally Billions to sleep on, slaves and concubines a plenty, there’s not much that gives them pleasure more than to hunt a man who can fight back. Instead of playing War on a chess board the real thing is much better and the top entertainment. Empathy, remorse? They have none.
You can go to almost any top military leader’s house and you will find child or some sort of slave.
March 26th, 2011 at 6:31 pm
” Maybe you can defend me since I’m a lifer, done 30+ years in various Coalition Military establishments. 10 of which were as Special Investigator with [omitted due to contract] investigating every sort of crime an enlisted man or woman can do. There are literally square miles of warehouse buildings full of evidence and files each year of crimes that military commit, most of which the public will never see. That’s 1000’s of lives ruined per day. ”
I’m Batman.
( Well this IS the internet, and I can be whoever I want and it MUST be the truth .. right ?? )
March 26th, 2011 at 6:31 pm
BTW the [ omitted due to contract ] thing was a nice touch.
March 26th, 2011 at 6:40 pm
@Dredd:
Just a reminder:
Being anonymous does not automatically disqualify the message.
Personally, I find nothing in the Reader’s Write comment in question that dubious. I’ve had similar info passed on to me by a number of people in both the Canadian and US military that would corroborate such a story.
March 27th, 2011 at 4:06 am
Anybody who tries to say that this type of behavior is typical of the armed forces is the epitome of ignorant.
Yes, it occasionally happens, but it’s unacceptable and that’s why these men are in Courts Martial now.
March 27th, 2011 at 10:17 am
” Just a reminder:
Being anonymous does not automatically disqualify the message. ”
I know, that’s the beauty of the ‘Argument from authority’ logical fallacy.
Argument from authority (also known as appeal to authority) is a fallacy of defective induction, where it is argued that a statement is correct because the statement is made by a person or source that is commonly regarded as authoritative. The most general structure of this argument is:
1. Source A says that p is true.
2. Source A is authoritative.
3. Therefore, p is true.
This is a fallacy because the truth or falsity of a claim is not related to the authority of the claimant, and because the premises can be true, and the conclusion false (an authoritative claim can turn out to be false).
My point ?
This is the internet.
Anyone can be anyone.
The poster, knowing this, uses this fact to add legitimacy to his ‘argument’ ( term used loosely, more like bald faced
accusation ) rather than provide facts or evidence.
I cannot accept the legitimacy of a so called ‘special contract’ investigator as fact without proof, therefore his
argument carries no more weight than any other joe-blow blabbing derp on the internet.
P. …
” Anybody who tries to say that this type of behavior is typical of the armed forces is the epitome of ignorant.
Yes, it occasionally happens, but it’s unacceptable and that’s why these men are in Courts Martial now. ”
….seems much more reasonable to me than ‘secret squirrel’ who works for [ if i told you i'll have to kill you ].
Pretending to be a ‘Black Hat’ detracts, rather than adds legitimacy.
PROOF adds legitmacy.
April 15th, 2011 at 12:26 pm
This is a slap in the face to all those who try to remain human in the face of daily brutality, brutal murder is brutal murder and should not be confused with doing your duty that can sometimes mean that your forced to take a life but if doing so brings any kind of enjoyment then its time to get out before all human life becomes too cheap to have any care for.