Obama's Abu Ghraib

jimpeel

jimpeel

Well-Known Member
Not Bush's fault this time. It seems to me that there were calls for Bush's head over Abu Ghraib; and nobody died in that one.

Oh, yeah, the New York Times take on this story? <crickets> Five -- count 'em -- FIVE stories.

SOURCE

BREAKING: Obama’s Abu Ghraib: The Stuff Hits the Fan

posted at 1:00 pm on March 21, 2011 by Howard Portnoy

When the Abu Ghraib scandal broke in 2003, the mainstream media and liberal blogosphere couldn’t find enough column inches to express adequately their shock and revulsion. The New York Times alone published 56 stories on the hideous revelation that members of the U.S. Army Reserve had tortured prisoners of war and posed for “trophy pictures”—inexcusable acts that the Times placed squarely at the feet of then-president George W. Bush.

Nor could left-leaning sources conceal their delight when President-elect Barack Obama boldly proclaimed:

nder my administration the United States does not torture. We will abide by the Geneva Conventions. We will uphold our highest ideals.​


What a difference a president makes. Until you flash forward to today’s bombshell, dropped by the British newspaper The Guardian, noting that members of a self-styled U.S. Army “kill team” posed for photos not with tortured prisoners but with corpses. Of civilians. Whom they had killed.

The photos, Guardian reporter Jon Boone writes, were published in German news weekly Der Spiegel, noting that:

enior officials at NATO’s International Security Assistance Force in Kabul have compared the pictures … to the images of U.S. soldiers abusing prisoners in Abu Ghraib in Iraq which sparked waves of anti-U.S. protests around the world.​


Investigators at Der Spiegel unearthed approximately 4,000 photos and videos taken by the soldiers. The accompanying article in the magazine provides shocking details about the depraved, sadistic behavior of the men. In one alleged incident from last May, a mullah captured by the team is forced to kneel down in a ditch, where he is summarily executed. According to the article, the team later claimed to their superiors that the mullah had threatened them with a grenade and that they were acting in self-defense. This account still fails to explain why Gibbs reportedly severed one of the dead man’s fingers and removed one of his teeth, presumably as gruesome “souvenirs.”

The U.S. military has endeavored to keep the images out of the public eye, fearing it could touch off a new round of anti-American, anti-military sentiment in Afghanistan at a time when antipathy toward the U.S. is already running high. A spokesman for the military is quoted as having apologized for the images, which in his words depict “actions repugnant to the U.S. as human beings and contrary to the standards and values of the United States.”

So far, the White House has released no statement regarding the images or accounts. Neither, surprisingly, has the New York Times.

Cross-posted at the Examiner. Follow me on Twitter or join me at Facebook. You can reach me at [email protected] or by posting a comment below.
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wow. now you're believing a clearly lefty media outlet and using their assertions to indict obama. if this is real, perhaps you should wait for obama's response before passing judgment. nah, you get off on passing judgment, real or imagined.
 
I'm more interested in hearing the soldiers story before passing judgement on them. Obama will use chapter 6 to see what his repsonse should be. After all, soldiers, like cops, are always wrong. Maybe they can have a beer together.
 
I guess I have to do your leg work for you.

Jeremy Morlock has pleaded guilty to the charges and will testify against the other soldiers involved.

"Der Spiegel" claims to have 4,000 photos of the soldiers involved.

SOURCE

Morlock Pleads Guilty in Deaths of 3 Afghan Civilians

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash.—

A Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldier from Wasilla accused of killing Afghan civilians entered a guilty plea in court Wednesday.

Spc. Jeremy Morlock is one of the 5th Stryker Brigade soldiers allegedly shown posing with corpses in pictures.

One of Morlock's attorneys said he hoped the guilty plea will reduce Morlock's sentence. Under this plea agreement, Morlock would face a maximum sentence of 24 years.

The 22-year-old soldier pleaded guilty to three counts of murder, one count of conspiracy and one drug charge. Morlock is one of five soldiers accused of killing three unarmed Afghan men last year.

The court-martial comes days after a German news organization, 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.

Army officials had sought to strictly limit access to the photographs due to their sensitive nature. A spokesperson for the magazine declined to say how it had obtained the pictures, citing the need to protect its sources.

The Army claims this was a rogue platoon of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. (That excuse didn't wash for Bush, now, did it? - j)Defense Secretary Robert Gates admitted he was "upset" by the photos, but refused to comment on details of the case during his visit to Moscow.

"Well it's associated with an ongoing judicial matter. And so I obviously am not at any liberty to comment," said Gates.

The court martial started at 9 a.m. at Joint Base Lewis McChord.

According to a copy of the plea agreement, which was obtained by The Associated Press, Morlock agreed to testify against his co-defendants. In his plea deal, Morlock said he and others slaughtered the three civilians knowing that they were unarmed and posed no legitimate threat.

He also described taking a lead role in the January incident -- lobbing a grenade at the civilian while another soldier shot at him, and then lying about it to his squad leader.

Morlock told investigators the murder plot was led by Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs, of Billings, Mont., who is also charged in the case; Gibbs maintains the reasons behind the killings were legitimate.

Nathan said Morlock’s mother, hockey coach and pastor are among the witnesses who might testify on his behalf in court. He indicated the defense would argue that a lack of leadership in the unit contributed to the killings.

After the January killing, platoon member Spc. Adam Winfield, of Cape Coral, Fla., sent Facebook messages to his parents saying that his fellow soldiers had murdered a civilian and were planning to kill more. Winfield said his colleagues warned him not to tell anyone.

Winfield’s father alerted a staff sergeant at Lewis-McChord, which is south of Seattle, but no action was taken until May, when a witness in a drug investigation in the unit also reported the deaths.

Winfield is accused of participating in the final murder. He admitted in a videotaped interview that he took part and said he feared the others might kill him if he didn’t.

Also charged in the murders are Pvt. 1st Class Andrew Holmes of Boise, Idaho, and Spc. Michael Wagnon II of Las Vegas.

Seven other soldiers in the platoon are charged with lesser crimes, including assaulting the witness in the drug investigation, drug use, firing on unarmed farmers and stabbing a corpse.

Copyright © 2011, KTUU-TV
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jim, you need help. shit happens in a war. this is not directly comparable to abu ghraib, but your utter desperation is again causing you to make buttswizzling analogies.
 
Murtha said:
"It's much worse than reported in Time magazine. There was no fire fight. There was no IED that killed these innocent people. Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood. And that's what the report is going to tell."
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Oops, never mind
 
You know its

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