Apparently Don Rumsfeld's orders banning cellphone and digital cameras exists on paper only. Today's headlines in
La Repubblica and
Il Corriere della Sera concern a website where US troops upload their images from Iraq of the burnt and mutilated corpses of their Iraqi and Afghani enemies. The damage may be worse than the Abu Ghraib scandal because accompanying the images are the most inhuman and cynical comments.
I ask, What noble people? What noble cause?
Below is a translation of the Corriere
article:
Rome. Horrible images from the war in Iraq in exchange for free access to a port site. The "deal" has been accepted by a number of US military personnel. A website is born--a genuine chamber of horrors. The discovery was reported by an Italian blogger and the story has been carried by the Italian press agency ANSA, which has a a long description in a dispatch written by correspondent Gioia Giudici:
As if they were figurines, terrifying images of Iraqis and Afghanis dismembered by explosions are exchanged on-line for free access to a porn site. The invitation to post photos of shocking cruelty is propsed to US combat troops who are asked to post their horror shots in order to enter the porn section of the site. Once gaining entry, many site visitors have been unable to resist the deal offered by www.nowthatsfuckedup.com: "If you are a US soldier deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan or any other theatre of war and you would like free access to the site, upload the photos which you and your buddies took during your service."
The site, primarily pornographic, is structured like a forum where users exchange pornographic material, not covered by copyright, which runs from voyeur photos to hardcore shots of lovemaking with girlfriends and wives. In two special sections, soldiers can receive free access by publishing the most audacious photos taken during their deployment. One is a general section displaying photos of soldiers, including war humor. The other section is a veritable chamber of horrors with photos of dead Iraqis and dismembered bodies. Once you enter this section you are immediately advised that you will be seeing cruel images and that persons not wishing to view this type of material should not enter.
Browsing through the posts is like a descent into hell. Each post contains the most graphic of images, escalating in barbarity and viciousness and accentuated by the comments left by posters. The posts exalt the violence of the images, shot in a theatre of war. You see headless, armless burnt bodies, a face in a bowl, the remains of suicide bombers, an arm or a leg accompanied by inhuman comments, extolling the horrors..."the only good Iraqi is a dead Iraqi." The comments are stupefying in their cynicism...there is even a barbaric quiz, asking the question, "what body part is this"...?