US troops upload photos of dead Iraqis for porn
By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles
Published: 29 September 2005
The US military said yesterday it was opening an investigation into
reports that soldiers based in Iraq were posting gruesome photographs
of dead Iraqis, including explicit shots of severed body parts and
internal organs, on a Florida-based website in exchange for access to
the site's pay-only archive of pornography.
The photographs have outraged Arab and Muslim advocacy groups in the US
and prompted human rights organisations to question whether they are
not also a violation of the Geneva Conventions. They also constitute
another potential public relations disaster for the United States as it
continues to state publicly that it has the best interests of ordinary
Iraqis at heart.
Some of the graphic website images are accompanied by openly racist
comments from the soldiers who posted them. "What every Iraqi should
look like," is the commentary next to a picture of a corpse whose
brains and entrails are spilling out. In another image, six men wearing
US Marine uniforms are smiling for the camera as they point to a burned
body at their feet. The caption: "Cooked Iraqi."
Elsewhere, site visitors are invited to guess which body part is being
depicted. The website owner, Chris Wilson, has been quite open about
what he is doing. He said his site, which normally features photographs
of the wives and girlfriends of his customers in pornographic poses,
has proved very popular with the military. About a year ago, in
response to complaints that soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan were
having trouble getting their credit cards processed and gaining access
to the site, he agreed to offer free subscriptions in return for the
graphic images. Those images, unlike the porn, are openly accessible to
anyone.
Mr Wilson's site is registered in the Netherlands, putting it outside
the purview of the US legal system. He has pointed out that he is not a
member of the military and so is not subject to their rules.
The US military said yesterday it was opening an investigation into
reports that soldiers based in Iraq were posting gruesome photographs
of dead Iraqis, including explicit shots of severed body parts and
internal organs, on a Florida-based website in exchange for access to
the site's pay-only archive of pornography.
The photographs have outraged Arab and Muslim advocacy groups in the US
and prompted human rights organisations to question whether they are
not also a violation of the Geneva Conventions. They also constitute
another potential public relations disaster for the United States as it
continues to state publicly that it has the best interests of ordinary
Iraqis at heart.
Some of the graphic website images are accompanied by openly racist
comments from the soldiers who posted them. "What every Iraqi should
look like," is the commentary next to a picture of a corpse whose
brains and entrails are spilling out. In another image, six men wearing
US Marine uniforms are smiling for the camera as they point to a burned
body at their feet. The caption: "Cooked Iraqi."
Elsewhere, site visitors are invited to guess which body part is being
depicted. The website owner, Chris Wilson, has been quite open about
what he is doing. He said his site, which normally features photographs
of the wives and girlfriends of his customers in pornographic poses,
has proved very popular with the military. About a year ago, in
response to complaints that soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan were
having trouble getting their credit cards processed and gaining access
to the site, he agreed to offer free subscriptions in return for the
graphic images. Those images, unlike the porn, are openly accessible to
anyone.
Mr Wilson's site is registered in the Netherlands, putting it outside
the purview of the US legal system. He has pointed out that he is not a
member of the military and so is not subject to their rules.
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