Photos Show Us Soldiers In Afghanistan Posing With Dead Civilians

[dalsingh101]

Photos show US soldiers in Afghanistan posing with dead civilians

'Trophy' pictures show US soldiers posing with corpses of Afghan civilians they are accused of killing for sport

A US soldier poses with the corpse of an Afghan boy – one of three photographs published by German magazine Der Spiegel. Photograph: AP

The face of Jeremy Morlock, a young US soldier, grins at the camera, his hand holding up the head of the dead and bloodied youth he and his colleagues have just killed in an act military prosecutors say was premeditated murder.

Moments before the picture was taken in January last year, the unsuspecting victim had been waved over by a group of US soldiers who had driven to his village in Kandahar province in one of their armoured Stryker tanks.

According to testimony collected by Der Spiegel magazine the boy had, as a matter of routine, lifted up his shirt to reveal that he was not hiding a suicide bomb vest.

That was the moment Morlock, according to a pre-arranged plan, threw a grenade at the boy that exploded while other members of the rogue group who called themselves the "kill team" opened fire.

They would later tell military investigators that the boy, a farmer's son, had threatened them with the grenade.

The pictures include a similar photograph of a different soldier posing with the same victim and a photograph of two other civilians killed by the unit.

There was no sign on Monday of the anticipated public outrage. But with Afghanistan on holiday for the Persian new year celebrations, and media outlets initially unable to get hold of the images, anger may yet build.

The US ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, recently confided to officials that he feared it might trigger the same kind of scandal as that at Abu Ghraib in Iraq, where images of prisoners being abused by US soldiers sparked anti-American protests.

For weeks the US government has been working to pre-empt any outrage, with top officials, including the US vice president Joe Biden, in talks with Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president.

Despite being a setback in the propaganda war between the western coalition and its insurgent enemies, Nato will be relieved that for the time being only a tiny sample of a total collection of roughly 4,000 images and video clips have found their way into the public domain.

The publication of the photos will also mark the ultimate disgrace of the group of young US soldiers, who are currently facing military justice for killing innocent civilians for sport and mutilating their bodies by cutting off fingers and ripping out teeth to keep as trophies.

Morlock has turned on his former colleagues, agreeing to testify against them in return for a reduced jail sentence. Some of the activities of the group are already public, with 12 men currently on trial in Seattle for their role in the killing of three civilians. Morlock has told investigators that Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs was the ringleader. In videotaped evidence, he has said Gibbs would pick out a possible target with a comment such as: "You guys wanna wax this guy or what?"

Gibbs, if found guilty, could receive a life sentence.

Hans-Ulrich Stoldt, a spokesman for Der Spiegel, said the magazine had other, more graphic photos.

"We published three but not others, and we even pixilated those we did print so that the victims could not be identified," Stoldt said. "We needed to document [the accusations] in some form, and were as restrained as possible."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/21/afghanistan-trophy-photos-us-soldier

[HSD1]

http://uk.gawker.com/5649672/young-american-soldier-confesses-to-murdering-unarmed-afghan-civilians

Tip of iceberg if half the stuff I've heard is true.

[dalsingh101]

Plus why have they taken his pent off?

Dirty bastards.

[tonyhp32]

This does bring back memories of all those photos of the late 80s and early 90s of Punjab Police and CRPF ba*tards with the dead bodies of Kharkoos. Hopefully the US authorities will take action against these soldiers after establishing the facts.

As for the trousers being down, I remember reading somewhere that when a person is shot and down, they invariably attempt to locate the wound which leads them to take off their shirt or if lower down their trousers. Can't seem to find anything online to confirm that.

Although in this case it could be an attempt to show that they had checked the body for concealed weapons.

Edited March 22, 2011 by tonyhp32

[SURYADEV]

True tony

in this case it would have been to 'confirm' the boy was carrying some concealed items, or at least was checked for them after being taken out.

[Parchand]

disgraceful

[dalsingh101]

Look, if someone was just a regular sullay without the whole world dominating bit, and this happened to his family or best friend - would you really be surprised if he turned around and joined Al Qaeda or the Taliban after? Would you really blame him?

[HSD1]

Look, if someone was just a regular sullay without the whole world dominating bit, and this happened to his family or best friend - would you really be surprised if he turned around and joined Al Qaeda or the Taliban after? Would you really blame him?

I couldnt care less what paki boys feel or want to do with their lives.

[dalsingh101]

My point is that the west have done more to bolster/feed Islamic extremism through foolhardy actions than they like to admit.

It is an issue, because eventually Sikhs are likely to get caught up in the resurgent Jihadi Islam.

Edited March 23, 2011 by dalsingh101

[tonyhp32]

The list of excuses for why Muslims become jihadis is very long. If it wasn't for the US in Iraq, then it's the US in Saudi. If not that, then US support for Israel... all the way back to the Crusades! There isn't much the west can do but showing a will to fight and not be cowed down by the jihadis is important. You are right that such images will create more jihadis but it will also make some would be jihadis shyt in their pants! They will be under no illusion that if they get captured they will get a nice cell, a copy of the koran and a western leach of a lawyer to represent their 'human rights'.

With Muslims the lathi works more than any other technique. The proof is there from the times of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and the Misls. They didn't believe in winning hearts and minds. They believed in breaking the head of any Muslim who attempted subvert the Khalsa Raj. How many rebellions did the Khalsa Durbar face? Just one which was ironically supported by the British and which had as it's head an Ossama Bin Laden type figure who was a Wahabi who had been on the Haj. That revolt was short lived and confined to the jangli areas of NWFP.

[dalsingh101]

Besides the jihadi issue there is blatant liberty taking going on Muslims lands by Europeans. Oil and the way many western European whites seem to think they can do what they like and have a 'control complex' over resources and ideology plays it's part. I know you seriously struggle to differentiate between one Muslim and another on a good day, but doing dumb shit that essentially helps feed the Wahabbis isn't a well thought out strategy. This doesn't even need further explanation. And it very rarely is about Islamist ideology or anything similar for these whites, it's more about money, control and resources. Only a thick plank wouldn't be able to see through that...bringing me nicely to....

Tony I understand that you and your peeps, commonly being certain people's 'attack bitches' of choice, will probably see such scenarios as some sort of career opportunity. Knock yourselves out I say, just don't be surprised if people reject the attempt to portray yourselves as some noble Sikhs fulfilling their religious duties when you do other races dirty work for them.

Edited March 23, 2011 by dalsingh101

[HSD1]

My point is that the west have done more to bolster/feed Islamic extremism through foolhardy actions than they like to admit.

It is an issue, because eventually Sikhs are likely to get caught up in the resurgent Jihadi Islam.

Sikhs are victims of muslims because we let ourselves become open to abuse. If sikhs grew up and stopped believing the world is some pc paradise then they might have a chance of fighting what is trying to keep them down.

As for this bolstering islamic extremism, the truth is that they feed off each other. Each incident like this is met by some taliban nutjob cutting off a little girl's nose because she wants to go to school or wont cover her face. Both sides are the utmost arseholes and both sides hurt the innocent and weak. No one's denying what happened in this is bad or that the west is good and the muslims are bad. But the muslims make this worse for themselves as well.

Besides the jihadi issue there is blatant liberty taking going on Muslims lands by Europeans. Oil and the way many western European whites seem to think they can do what they like and have a 'control complex' over resources and ideology plays it's part. I know you seriously struggle to differentiate between one Muslim and another on a good day, but doing dumb shit that essentially helps feed the Wahabbis isn't a well thought out strategy. This doesn't even need further explanation. And it very rarely is about Islamist ideology or anything similar for these whites, it's more about money, control and resources. Only a thick plank wouldn't be able to see through that...bringing me nicely to....

The west isnt getting anything out of afghanistan. It's just a chance to kill taliban on their own turf. As for the proactive and interfering nature of whites, lets face it, muslims have their own history of doing the exact same thing for the exact same reasons. If tomorrow the roles were reversed, with muslims having the ability to wage war at will like the west, do you think that the muslims wouldnt attack other parts of the world that had nothing to do with the war on terror? As hindustan gets more power they too are sticking their noses everywhere. The Chinese are planning to build naval bases in Burma, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan to extend their naval presence right onto hindustan's doorstep. People in china dont see this as a bad thing or interfering, they genuinely believe they are helping the people in those countries from being overrun by the west or india. The whole world is like this, not just the west, and its not like the Khalsa can do anything about things like this anyway seeing as we can count our military strength as slightly above zero. Until that changes the rest of the world will kill and interfere in poor innocent peoples' lives with impunity.

[dalsingh101]

The west isnt getting anything out of afghanistan. It's just a chance to kill taliban on their own turf.

Okay, but the whole sticking their nose in when the Russians were dealing with them using Hinds isn't something to ignore. Plus the whole CIA training of the forerunners of the taliban. In any case, pointing this out still doesn't diminish the argument that they ARE rampaging around in sullah land because of oil and a control freak predilection.

As for the proactive and interfering nature of whites, lets face it, muslims have their own history of doing the exact same thing for the exact same reasons.

Yes that's true. I've always said they are opposite sides of the same coin. What kills me is when some Sikhs start arselicking one side over the other. No names mentioned.

Until that changes the rest of the world will kill and interfere in poor innocent peoples' lives with impunity.

Hypothetically speaking, if we ever did get out of this rut and grew in strength, do we really want to go around becoming the new international moral police or is it wiser to have a strong model state, like dasmesh pita did in Anandpur and focus the Sikh military on more direct threats to ourselves rather than starting ideological wars we don't really need to?

[HSD1]

Okay, but the whole sticking their nose in when the Russians were dealing with them using Hinds isn't something to ignore. Plus the whole CIA training of the forerunners of the taliban.

Even though they have a machiavellian streak the whites can be very childish. This whole 'lets go help the poor oppressed people' is something they trot out far too often to cover them attacking their enemies by proxy. I wasnt even born until the end of the soviet war in afghanistan but from what I've read it seems that america was so excited that they had got Russia stuck in its own Vietnam they were willing to do anything. You can see this excitement come across in their culture of the time, like in Red Dawn or Rambo 3. Even now the yanks do things that most people would never do http://www.theatlanticwire.com/business/2011/03/lockheed-martin-frozen-chicken/35628/ . Seeing as Thailand has a chinese community, who could be infiltrated by China used to gather knowledge of how these planes work, it was a very dangerous stunt. But the americans seemed to think like kids in a playground.

In any case, pointing this out still doesn't diminish the argument that they ARE rampaging around in sullah land because of oil and a control freak predilection.

Is it? That may be true in some cases but we have to accept that the muslims cant put up a fight if they have to. When 9/11 happened one of the papers had an artists impression of a 'taliban mountain'. This was a mountain hideout that had tunnels dug to a depth to protect soldiers from bombers, radio equipment, artillery batteries that covered the towns around the mountain etc. When the americans invaded, this turned out to be bullshit. They had bigged up the taliban and the taliban crumbled. From 2001 to 2004 the afghan front was quiet. Bush wasnt content, went off to Iraq, leaving the british to cover the southern afghanistan area. They pissed off the locals and gave the fledgling taliban a propaganda victory as it proved that the americans were just like the british invaders of the last century and a half. It all kicked off and america went from looking for its next meal to suffering severe indigestion. Now they dont even want to get too stuck into Libya, leaving it to the europeans instead.

Hypothetically speaking, if we ever did get out of this rut and grew in strength, do we really want to go around becoming the new international moral police or is it wiser to have a strong model state, like dasmesh pita did in Anandpur and focus the Sikh military on more direct threats to ourselves rather than starting ideological wars we don't really need to?

I was thinking really, really long term. First we need a strong state with a military strong, clever and wily enough to defend the state and project power into countries likely to give us grief. But if we get that right and create a strong nation there will come a time when we cant sit there and see things going on abroad and not do anything. That doesnt mean war, but political and monetary/equipment aid. War costs money, and if doesnt benefit the domestic population it usually aint worth it. We can help others sort out their problems, but we cant do it all for them. Just like we cant expect help from outsiders when we arent able to band together and strike our problems from every angle conceivable. I guess time will tell what will happen.

[dalsingh101]

Update:

US 'kill team' soldier who murdered unarmed Afghans escapes life sentence

Jeremy Morlock receives 24 years in prison following plea deal to give evidence against fellow soldiers

A US soldier who pleaded guilty to the murders of three Afghan civilians has been sentenced to 24 years in prison after saying "the plan was to kill people" in a conspiracy with four fellow soldiers.

The military judge said he initially intended to sentence Jeremy Morlock to life in prison with possibility of parole but was bound by the plea deal.

Morlock, the first of five soldiers from the 5th Stryker Brigade to be court-martialed in the case, will receive 352 days off of his sentence for time served and could be eligible for parole in about seven years, his attorney, Frank Spinner, said. He will be dishonourably discharged as part of his sentence.

The 22-year-old is a key figure in a war crimes investigation that has raised some of the most serious criminal allegations to come out of the war in Afghanistan. Army investigators accused him of taking a lead role in the killings of three unarmed Afghan men in Kandahar province in January, February and May 2010.

His sentencing came hours after he pleaded guilty on Wednesday to three counts of murder, and one count each of conspiracy, obstructing justice and illegal drug use at his court martial at the Lewis-McChord military base in Washington state.

Under his plea deal, he has agreed to testify against his codefendants.

Asked by the judge whether the plan was to shoot at people to scare them, or to shoot to kill, Morlock replied: "The plan was to kill people."

Speaking after the sentencing, Spinner read a statement prepared by Morlock in which the soldier apologised for the pain he had caused his victims' families and the people of Afghanistan and asked for forgiveness from his fellow soldiers.

The plea deal had been in place for nearly two months, so the sentence "wasn't really a surprise" to Morlock, Spinner told reporters.

Morlock told the judge that he and the other soldiers first began plotting to murder unarmed Afghans in late 2009, several weeks before the first killing took place. To make the killings appear justified, the soldiers planned to plant weapons near the bodies of the victims, he said.

Morlock said he had second thoughts about the murder plot while home on leave in March 2010, after the first two killings.

"It was really hard to come back," he told the judge, adding that he no longer wanted to "engage or be part of anything" like the killings that had already occurred.

Morlock said he did not voice his doubts to his fellow soldiers, however, and he went on to participate in the third killing in May.

Morlock also admitted to smoking hashish while stationed in Afghanistan, though he said he was not under the influence of the drug at the time of the killings. In addition, he admitted to being one of six soldiers who assaulted a fellow platoon member after that man reported the drug use.

Morlock, his voice shaking at times, told the judge he had asked himself "how I could become so insensitive and how I lost my moral compass".

"I don't know if I will ever be able to answer those questions," he said, adding that he believed he "wasn't fully prepared for the reality of war as it was being fought in Afghanistan".

Earlier this week, the German news magazine Der Spiegel published three graphic photos showing Morlock and other soldiers posing with dead Afghans. One image features Morlock grinning as he lifts the head of a corpse by its hair.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/24/us-soldier-kill-team-sentence

[kdsingh80]

American army is really stupid to let these pics out.The armies of other countries are smart enough to ensure that no type of such pics are disclosed in public

[dalsingh101]

Germans' released them I think, not Americans.

Besides the free flow of information/data is a characteristic of the 21st century.

I think even backwards India has it's own freedom of information type act now, no?

Digitalisation has resulted in very easy data capture and even easier data distribution via computer networks, so this type of stuff is here to say whilst the technology exists.

Can you imagine how much more documentable data we would have had on 1984 and after if this technology had been around then?

Edited March 25, 2011 by dalsingh101

[kdsingh80]

Can you imagine how much more documentable data we would have had on 1984 and after if this technology had been around then?

I don't think if this type of technology had been in 1984 then intensity of riots would have been so high.The only riots that happened in in India after this electronic age is 2002 Gujarat riots and the negative publicity it created for BJP and Modi was so much that they lost power in 2004.Since 2002 India has not witnessed any major Riots because Politicians are now afraid of being caught in front of Camera.Even Gujarat is peaceful from 2002

[Mithar]

I don't think if this type of technology had been in 1984 then intensity of riots would have been so high.The only riots that happened in in India after this electronic age is 2002 Gujarat riots and the negative publicity it created for BJP and Modi was so much that they lost power in 2004.Since 2002 India has not witnessed any major Riots because Politicians are now afraid of being caught in front of Camera.Even Gujarat is peaceful from 2002

Strangely, after the riots the state government of Modi became even more popular while it had the opposite effect on the center government of BJP.

[kdsingh80]

Strangely, after the riots the state government of Modi became even more popular while it had the opposite effect on the center government of BJP.

Gujarat riots started after Hindu who were coming from ayodhya attacked and killed though there is lot of doubt whether muslims really did that or it was conspiracy.Later on few hindu's were killed and thousands

were in camps due to riots.So in that type of environment it is a natural reaction for community to support their party .

Anyway after 2002 Modi converted himself into development fanatic.Gujarat made tremendous progress in industrialisation.He developed gujarat a lot and even distanced himself from fanatic hindu organisations

The way he invited Tata and succeceded in convincing them to build Nano plant was incredible.even now their are reports that Gujarat's muslim are more prosperous than muslims in various other states so in this situation it is natural for people to vote for Modi