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US 'kill team' in Afghanistan posed for photos of murdered civili


Flashermac

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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.

 

[color:red]All of the soldiers have denied the charges. They face the death penalty or life in prison if convicted.[/color] :applause:

 

The case has already created shock around the world, particularly with the revelations that the men cut "trophies" from the bodies of the people they killed.

 

An investigation by Der Spiegel has unearthed approximately 4,000 photos and videos taken by the men.

 

The magazine, which is planning to publish only three images, said that in addition to the crimes the men were on trial for there are "also entire collections of pictures of other victims that some of the defendants were keeping".

 

The US military has strived to keep the pictures out of the public domain fearing it could inflame feelings at a time when anti-Americanism in Afghanistan is already running high.

 

In a statement, the army said it apologised for the distress caused by photographs "depicting actions repugnant to us as human beings and contrary to the standards and values of the United States".

 

The lengthy Spiegel article that accompanies the photographs contains new details about the sadistic behaviour of the men.

 

In one incident in May last year, the article says, during a patrol, the team apprehended a mullah who was standing by the road and took him into a ditch where they made him kneel down.

 

The group's leader, Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs, then allegedly threw a grenade at the man while an order was given for him to be shot.

 

Afterwards, Gibbs is described cutting off one of the man's little fingers and removing a tooth.

 

The patrol team later claimed to their superiors that the mullah had tried to threaten them with a grenade and that they had no choice but to shoot.

 

On Sunday night many organisations employing foreign staff, including the United Nations, ordered their staff into a "lockdown", banning all movements around Kabul and requiring people to remain in their compounds.

 

In addition to the threat from the publication of the photographs, security has been heightened amid fears the Taliban may try to attack Persian new year celebrations.

 

There could also be attacks because Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, is due to make a speech declaring which areas of the country should be transferred from international to Afghan control in the coming months.

 

One security manager for the US company DynCorp sent an email to clients warning that publication of the photos was likely "to incite the local population" as the "severity of the incidents to be revealed are graphic and extreme".

 

 

 

WTF is wrong with these idiots? Have the dropped the enlistment standards down to cretin level? :banghead:

 

 

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US Army apology for photos of soldiers with Afghan body

 

 

 

The US Army has apologised for graphic photographs of US soldiers grinning over the corpses of Afghan civilians they had allegedly killed.

 

The photos published by Germany's Der Spiegel magazine were said to be among many seized by US Army investigators.

 

[color:red]An Army statement said the photographs were "repugnant" but were already being used as evidence in a court martial.[/color]

 

Afghan civilian deaths at the hands of foreign forces is a highly sensitive issue in Afghanistan.

 

These photographs are purported to have been taken by a "rogue" US Army unit in Afghanistan in 2010.

 

Such images are only going to exacerbate tensions between the Afghan government and the people on the one hand and the US-led coalition on the other, says the BBC's Paul Wood in Kabul.

 

US court martial

 

It is unclear exactly when the photographs published were taken but Der Spiegel says they are among 4,000 pictures and pieces of video they have obtained.

 

Some of the images show two soldiers kneeling over a body. They each hold the face of the dead man up to the camera by grabbing his hair and turning his head. One of the American soldiers is grinning.

 

The US Army said these photographs depict "actions repugnant to us as human beings and contrary to the standards and values of the United States Army".

 

"The actions portrayed in these photographs remain under investigation and are now the subject of ongoing US court-martial proceedings, in which the accused are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty," it added.

 

Soldiers who are convicted will be held accountable as appropriate, the army says.

 

Der Spiegel magazine says it has identified one of the soldiers in the photographs as Cpl Jeremy Morlock. He is one of five soldiers accused of the premeditated murder of three Afghan civilians earlier this year.

 

Cpl Morlock agreed to plead guilty in late February and get a shorter prison term if he testified against the other accused soldiers.

 

They deny the charges. Another seven soldiers from the same unit have been charged with conspiracy to cover up the alleged murders.

 

Cpl Morlock's court martial is due to resume on Wednesday.

 

The five accused of murder allegedly threw grenades and opened fire on civilians in unprovoked assaults, while the other seven are accused of dismembering the victims and collecting body parts.

 

Afghan anger

 

These photographs purportedly depict the alleged actions of a few "renegade" soldiers, but Afghan sensitivities about civilian deaths are running high after a series of incidents in which coalition forces have been blamed for accidentally killing civilians in bombing raids.

 

"This could inflame the situation. This is the last thing we expected at this time. Our position is very clear, stop killing civilians and this killing is not acceptable to the president, to the country and to the people of Afghanistan," an official from Afghanistan's National Security Council which deals with the US Army, who wished to remain unnamed, told the BBC's Bilal Sarwary.

 

A record number of civilians were killed in Afghanistan last year. More than 2,700 civilians were killed in 2010 - up 15% on the year before.

 

A UN report on civilian deaths said that the Taliban were responsible for 75% of all deaths. The proportion killed by Afghan and Nato forces fell, accounting for 16% of civilian deaths.

 

Correspondents say that the deaths of Afghans by foreign hands provokes greater outrage than killings by the Taliban.

 

 

 

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During World War II, some United States military personnel mutilated dead Japanese service personnel in the Pacific theater of operations. The mutilation of Japanese service personnel included the taking of body parts as “war souvenirs†and “war trophiesâ€. Teeth were the most commonly taken objects, but skulls and other body parts were sometimes also collected. This behaviour was officially prohibited by the U.S. Military, but the prohibitions against it were not always enforced by officers in the field.

 

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I know of a GI who got himself a court martial and some prison time for cutting the ears off of a dead VC. (The idiot was Special Forces too.) The Army frowns on such things, but there is always some bunghole who thinks he is "different".

 

 

 

I don't think I have ever read about any actions taken against the VC or NVA for their war crimes.

 

Yet my local retail store now is filled with elecronics, clothing and shoes manufactured in Vietnam.

 

 

What's good for the goose should be good for the gander.

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I would think a lot of people here would be very proud and impressed with this part of the OP report.....

 

 

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.

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