War porn

[one track mind]

Just saw a thing about a website (not sure the addy..webmaster Chris Wilson) that is allowing soldiers in Iraq to post graphic photos of the carnage in return for free membership to the porn material. They sometimes send captions with these photos “name the body part” and “cooked Iraqi”

Both sides of the opinions were interesting. One saying it is obscenity and distancing the gap between the Muslim world and Americans. Another said how can these photo’s be distancing the gap? What about the act itself? Anyway, they are calling it war porn.


This is important in the way that it exposes the war for it’s true atrocities..both physically and psychologically. It’s not just a game of numbers and offensives..they have boiled it down and censored the news to the point where it is no more distastefull than playing a game of risk. War is a propoganda machine. The whole Statue dislodgment was choreographed by the army..rounding up Iraqi’s to put on a celebration.

New forms of journalism have been established (embedded journalists) to cover the war. I’m just waiting for the helmet cam to be introduced with some live commentary and a half time show.

 

[ghostie]

Web site: U.S. troops traded Iraq photos for porn access
No evidence of felony, Army says
From Barbara Starr
CNN Washington Bureau

Wednesday, September 28, 2005; Posted: 1:54 p.m. EDT (17:54 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Army is investigating reports that troops took photographs of dead Iraqis and traded them to a pornographic Web site in return for access to that site, Army sources said Wednesday.

Army spokesman Paul Boyce told CNN that a preliminary investigation had found "no evidence of a felony crime," but both he and Col. Joseph Curtin said the Web postings, if verified, could constitute a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice provisions on good conduct.

"There is no criminal investigation into the matter of photos of deceased bodies in Iraq being posted on the worldwide Web anonymously," Boyce said. "Army criminal investigators examined this recently as a preliminary inquiry but found there is no specific evidence of a felony crime."

Curtin acknowledged an ongoing investigation, however, saying it was focusing on "allegations that soldiers may have exchanged personally taken photographs of dead Iraqis in exchange for pornographic access."

Chris Wilson, owner of the site, told CNN that he had given members of the military serving in Iraq and Afghanistan access to the site for free -- if they provided him with a photograph proving they were serving there.

CNN could not verify the authenticity of the photographs and videos posted on the site and will not include its name because it is considered offensive by many people.

Wilson, of Lakeland, Florida, said the military hasn't contacted him about the postings or the anonymous posters and he doesn't "suspect they'd have reason to."

"It would be a matter of free speech," he said. "Since I'm not a member of the military, I'm not bound by the laws of the military."

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), however, said the grisly practice may violate international laws of war.

The Geneva Conventions require respect for "the remains of persons who have died for reasons related to occupation or in detention resulting from occupation or hostilities and those of persons not nationals of the country in which they have died as a result of hostilities."

Wilson's Web site, which began as a place for men to post photographs and videos of their sexual partners, is hosted on servers located in Amsterdam, he said, and is bound by the laws of the Netherlands.

The site allows the anonymous postings of photographs and videos purportedly taken by members of the military with their own digital cameras. In particularly gruesome images, visitors to the site try to guess what body part is displayed.

U.S. military personnel also appear in some of the images.

Curtin said the investigation would try to verify the authenticity of the images and the identity of any U.S. personnel before it can determine if any prosecutable offense or violation of military policy exists.

"The photos show close ups of military uniforms and closeups of human body parts found allegedly in the streets of Iraq," Boyce said. "The military will work the matter within the chain of command in Iraq to ensure that personnel are aware of appropriate conduct and continue their sensitivity to the remains of local citizens and members of our Armed Forces -- since in some of the photos it is even difficult to discern the identity of the deceased."

The Web site also includes images purported to be from Afghanistan.

Wilson, 27, said gruesome photographs began to be posted because paid access to the site was blocked for those attempting access from so-called "high risk" areas like Iraq and Afghanistan. And members of the military, he said, wanted to be able to see the site.

"So I made a deal with them that if they sent me a picture proving they were serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, I would give them access to the site for free," he said.

Now, he said, some 30,000 of his 220,000 registered users or military members serving in the war zones.

The gruesome photos, he said, are "probably third or fourth" most popular areas on his 18-month-old Web site. The most popular, he said, are "the adult areas, for sure."

 

[georgebushmoron]

How did we get to this???

The total fear the Pentagon had in the bare truth getting to the American people caused it to create a policy of "embedded" journalism, which meant controlling all news that gets to the American public. Americans are now so hungry for the real truth, an "incentive" had to be created to get real images of the war out from the soldiers.

Journalism is about speaking the truth, but in America, it has turned into a business enterprise. The truth is colored, shaded, modified, distilled, etc., to a sellable commodity. The result is not the truth, but whatever CNN or Fox thinks will keep viewers entertained and glued to the box.

Now we have more profiteering for the sake of getting at the truth. Soldiers can now get free porn if they snap some gruesome pics of mutilated bodies. Do we only know how to get the truth if there is profit involved? Are we so desperate for the truth because we haven't had it so long, we even resort to such a repugnant transaction? Is the sanctity of human beings so worthless that one could take pictures of a mutilated body and trade it for sex (porn)?

This is American vulgarity at its finest. This is the filth that sits at the bottom of the American soul and rots it. God help us.

 

[ghostie]

This is the site if anyone is interested:

http://www.nowthatsfuckedup.com/bbs/forum22.html

It seems that it takes awhile to really find anything.

 

[ghostie]

I sort of screwed up that above web address... I sure everyone can figure it out on their own... but anyway... this is the main index:

http://www.nowthatsfuckedup.com/bbs/index.php

click on "Pictures From Iraq And Afghanistan - Gory" for the obvious...
http://www.nowthatsfuckedup.com/bbs/forum23.html

some of these are just absolutely fucking barf inducing...

the link I had posted in my other post is the just regular "army life in Iraq" stuff...

As Hatrick noted they have some amateur porn there as well... at least some of which you have to register for.

 

[ghostie]

I think I'm going to permanently retire from looking at this website. The attitudes of the people who write their little tough guy comments under the pictures, the attitude of supposedly "professional soldiers" to photograph their "fresh kills" and then send the pictures out to the world, and the attitude of these people that host the website. The whole thing is just insane. It's sadism in its purest form.

If you want war porn, why not check out what the Nazis did 65 years ago. They invaded countries that posed no threat to them as well... and slaughtered in the millions. And they took a lot of photos too. Saved samples from experiments on humans, made records, made films, it's all there.

What happened to them? Well, one way to think about it is to say that the hate and death swallowed up their country and burnt it to a cinder... taking millions of their people down with it and crippling Germany for 50 years, if not permanently.

Reading these comments and seeing what at least some in the United States have turned into... I'm not sure that any different outcome lies at the end of the path the U.S. has started to go down.

One thing is for sure... there are a lot more Muslims than there are Americans... (there are about 1.7 billion Muslims, over 1 billion on the Asian continent alone.... whereas ther are about 300 million Americans) and the Muslims who see this website, and their children, and their children's children, will have the desire to fight forever to avenge this disgrace. How could they not? Who is in the right here? The ones trying to drive out the foreign invaders who invaded their country and have slaughtered in the tens of thousands in the name of lies and abract political ideas, or these videogame era children who treat these people as animals to be hunted... and the cruel old men who control them from Washington.

If I was Iran I would be trying to build nuclear weapons as fast as possible (and by all accounts that is exactly what they are doing) and seriously... HOW THE FUCK COULD YOU NOT??? Are you going to let these Americans into your country??

This is why the world developed the "new" form of international law and new international institutions after the Second World War... So that states wouldn't have to arm to the hilt in fear of being invaded by a bully country that decided for itself when it was time for another states government to go. So that they could resolve problems without mass slaughter. The U.S. just doesn't seem to get this though. They seem to think that whoever has the most technology and the most money can just make their own rules and ignore the Geneva Conventions (and anything else) as it chooses...

John McCain knows that expensive airplanes, big guns and a sense of superiority don't count for shit when you are in the hands of the enemy. The only thing that counts is how your side treated the enemy when it captured them... and the U.S. has totally given that away in the last 4 years. Americans that get captured now are castrated, decapitated, burnt and hung from a bridge... is this progress folks?

Some of you may know that the preamble to the Charter of the United Natons starts with a determination "...to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind." But I guess the Republican are right, what really counts is just blunt force to achieve any goal, no matter how impossible (such as the liberal democratization of Iraq) or trivial (to finish what daddy started)...after all the United States will never run out of money no matter how long they have to keep 125,000 troops stationed in Iraq, and no other country in the world has any ability to create any new technology. The United States will always be dominant forever and ever and this is why they can treat the rest of the world like shit... because it will never come back to haunt them. Just like Hitler, it's a thousand year Reich.

 

[georgebushmoron]

the attitude of supposedly "professional soldiers" to photograph their "fresh kills" and then send the pictures out to the world, and the attitude of these people that host the website. The whole thing is just insane. It's sadism in its purest form.

Good point. No professional soldier is proud to kill. This is the act of an assassin.

If you want war porn, why not check out what the Nazis did 65 years ago. They invaded countries that posed no threat to them as well... and slaughtered in the millions. And they took a lot of photos too. Saved samples from experiments on humans, made records, made films, it's all there.

While Germany engaged in it at the state level, really only the government was involved. This time the common soldier is voluntarily involved in this atrocity, and the government is involved by not shutting it down fast. In my opinion, this is far worse.

What happened to them? Well, one way to think about it is to say that the hate and death swallowed up their country and burnt it to a cinder... taking millions of their people down with it and crippling Germany for 50 years, if not permanently.

Reading these comments and seeing what at least some in the United States have turned into... I'm not sure that any different outcome lies at the end of the path the U.S. has started to go down.

It's a bit premature at this point, but I know where you are coming from. I've known a number of Germans personally, adn even though we never spoke about WW2 or the Holocaust, I can tell you that German culture is fucked up because of it.

One thing is for sure... there are a lot more Muslims than there are Americans... (there are about 1.7 billion Muslims, over 1 billion on the Asian continent alone.... whereas ther are about 300 million Americans) and the Muslims who see this website, and their children, and their children's children, will have the desire to fight forever to avenge this disgrace. How could they not? Who is in the right here? The ones trying to drive out the foreign invaders who invaded their country and have slaughtered in the tens of thousands in the name of lies and abract political ideas, or these videogame era children who treat these people as animals to be hunted... and the cruel old men who control them from Washington.

Damn good point. If my country were invaded, and my people were killed/mutilated and pictures were taken (by the people who did the killing) and traded on the internet for porn, I'd want never ending revenge. In my opinion, this sort of thing will turn the tide completely against the American occupation. Anti-Americanism will be widespread through all levels of Iraqi society, even in the newly created government.

If I was Iran I would be trying to build nuclear weapons as fast as possible (and by all accounts that is exactly what they are doing) and seriously... HOW THE FUCK COULD YOU NOT??? Are you going to let these Americans into your country??

Iran could be seen as the last stronghold of Islam. I think many Arabic countries will send money and resources to Iran to help them arm.

John McCain knows that expensive airplanes, big guns and a sense of superiority don't count for shit when you are in the hands of the enemy. The only thing that counts is how your side treated the enemy when it captured them... and the U.S. has totally given that away in the last 4 years. Americans that get captured now are castrated, decapitated, burnt and hung from a bridge... is this progress folks?

The fundamental reason why this administration is on the warpath is not because of oil or terrorism (though these are certainly motivating factors), but because this administration is driven by their belief in Fundamentalist (Protestant) Christian views of the world. America needs to shed itself of its attachment to religious ideals and step into the 21st century. John McCain would be a good leader to help America down the right path, but the crazy Christians would never support him if a religious nutbar contested the next presidency.

 

[ace85]

Paid Soldiers fighting fundementalists

You have to remember what makes up both sides.

I am not sure that seeing what the American do on the internet really changes any of the enemies opinions.

Staunch fundementalists are pretty comfotable with their opinions.

 

[smackyo]

kinda funny how when it was kennedy people were concerned that his religious views could come into play in his presidency in terms of making choices. now it seems that this is what the country wants. kinda strange if you ask me.

 

[georgebushmoron]

You have to remember what makes up both sides.

I am not sure that seeing what the American do on the internet really changes any of the enemies opinions.

Staunch fundementalists are pretty comfotable with their opinions.

Yes, but the general population is never as extreme as the fundamentalists. This will only recruit more in the general population to the fundamentalists. It's a great tool for converting new terrorists.