September 28, 2005
Army Investigates Photos of Iraqi War Dead on Web
The Army has opened an investigation into whether American troops have sent gruesome photographs of Iraqi war dead to an Internet site where the soldiers were given free access to online pornography, Army officials said Tuesday, reports The New York Times.
"Some photographs on the Internet site show people in American military uniforms standing around what appear to be dead bodies. Other photos include graphic images of severed body parts and what appear to be internal organs spilling from bodies onto the ground.
The images are said to come from Afghanistan as well as Iraq. Their authenticity has not been determined.
... Digital cameras have been ubiquitous in the modern combat zone, and it was digital pictures and videos that provided the first public evidence of the extreme degree to which military police soldiers had abused Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison.
In the aftermath of Abu Ghraib and reports of other abuses by American troops, Pentagon and military officials acknowledged that such behavior could severely damage the American war effort in Iraq.
"I think it's really a disturbing phenomenon to see that our military personnel would be engaging in such inappropriate behavior, behavior that brings dishonor to the military," Ibrahim Hooper, the spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in a telephone interview."
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