Army Investigates Burning Of Taliban Corpses In Afghanistan

MTV.com ^ | 10/20/2005 | Gil Kaufman

[Hadean]

The Army has launched a criminal investigation following allegations that U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan burned the bodies of two dead Taliban fighters and used the charred corpses in a propaganda campaign against insurgent forces.

According to The New York Times, video shown on the Australian TV show "Dateline" on Wednesday night depicts what is described as an American psychological operations team broadcasting taunts over a loudspeaker in the direction of a village thought to be sheltering Taliban fighters in an attempt to lure the fighters out into the open.

A transcript of the show posted on the Special Broadcasting Service Web site states that American troops set fire to the bodies of two Taliban fighters killed the night before and laid them out facing Mecca. Facing the bodies west appeared to be a deliberate mocking of Islamic requirements to face Mecca during prayers, while Islamic law prohibits cremation. One soldier is quoted as saying, "Wow, look at the blood coming out of the mouth on that one, f---ing straight death metal."

Then, PsyOps specialist Sergeant Jim Baker broadcast a series of taunts over the loudspeaker to bait the enemy. "Attention Taliban," Baker reportedly said in the local dialect, "you are all cowardly dogs. You allowed your fighters to be laid down facing west and burned. You are too scared to come down and retrieve the bodies. This just proves you are the lady boys we always believed you to be."

A second, unidentified solder then taunted a number of mullahs by name and said, "Your time in Afghanistan is short. You attack and run away like women. You call yourself Talibs but you are a disgrace to the Muslim religion, and you bring shame upon your family. Come and fight like men instead of the cowardly dogs you are."

Once news outlets began reporting on the broadcast, the Pentagon said such acts were forbidden and opened the criminal investigation, according to the Times. Senior officials said preliminary indications are that the video is accurate, and the fear is that the incident could do further damage to the U.S. image in the Islamic world in the wake of the prison-abuse scandal at Abu Gharib.

The soldiers told a photojournalist who witnessed the scene — which the program said took place earlier this month in Gonbaz in southern Afghanistan — that they burned the bodies for hygienic reasons, but in the SBS program he said that claim made no sense since they were far away from the village. Freelance Australian photojournalist Stephen Dupont was embedded with the American unit to document its operations.

Human-rights organizations said the burning of the bodies was an act of desecration and a violation of the Geneva Conventions.

"This command takes all allegations of misconduct or inappropriate behavior seriously," Maj. Gen. Jason K. Kamiya, the American commander of daily tactical operations in Afghanistan, said in a statement. "If the allegation is substantiated, the appropriate course of action under the Uniform Code of Military Justice and corrective action will be taken. ... This command does not condone the mistreatment of enemy combatants or the desecration of their religious and cultural beliefs."

"Really bad news," an administration official who follows Afghan issues closely told the Times. "This is very serious," a senior military official said.

In a different interview on the SBS site, Dupont said soldiers from the unidentified airborne unit appeared to believe they were doing the right thing by laying the corpses out facing Mecca and setting them on fire. Dupont said the first group of soldiers told him, "We've been told to burn the bodies; the bodies have been here for 24 hours and they're starting to stink so, for hygiene reasons, this is what we've got to do."

But a second group of soldiers from a psychological operations unit told Dupont they intentionally used the burnt bodies as a propaganda tool. "They deliberately wanted to incite that much anger from the Taliban so the Taliban could attack them," Dupont told the Times.

[JimRed]

Were they wrapped in pigskin first?

[JamesA]

Get in a fight, ya fight to win no matter what it takes. Kill as many as you can with whatever means possible.

[mzbzybee]

oops..sorry I dropped a match.

[Ben Hecks]

These soldiers apparently observe good field sanitation rules and understand the need to cremate remains that have not been claimed by the next of kin.
When possible, the ashes should be recovered and placed in an empty Extra Hot Skinner's Pork Rinds container and shipped to the individual's home country if known.

[Ocracoke]

"The Army has launched a criminal investigation following allegations that U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan burned the bodies of two dead Taliban fighters and used the charred corpses in a propaganda campaign against insurgent forces"... Where can we get a copy of the video?

[chemical_boy]

I tracked down the video report and Transcript on the SBS site

Stephen Dupont Interview

Startling scenes of what can be done in the name of a just war, by Dateline's John Martinkus and freelance photojournalist Stephen Dupont. And earlier this evening Stephen and George Negus looked at that Taliban burning footage and then talked about it here in the studio.

Realmedia format

http://news.sbs.com.au/dateline/index.php?page=archive&daysum=2005-10-19

[chemical_boy]

However there is no footage of the elleged incident included in Interview

[GVnana]

Saw the tape on Special Report last night. Militarily effective, I'd say. Bad diplomacy. I don't know who's running the Army these days, but allowing a reporter to video tape this and providing him with the translated text is being a little too nice.

[MinuteGal]

Sometimes, I just don't get Tony Snow. He, along with with one of Fox's mealy-mouth military advisors, just pre-judged the soldiers involved in the burning, while claiming not to, of course.

The whole segment made me sick. The military man was NOT on the side of our guys.

Unwilling to challenge his fellow employee, Tony couldn't figure out how our soldiers could be so "enraged" to do such a thing.

How do we know yet they did this out of "rage", Tony? Were you there?

This segment was preceded by an interview of David Drier who really strained his thinking cap trying to find a conservative organization the equivalent to the radical MoveOn gang of traitors. By golly, he DID come up with one.

Drier stated the closest he could come was the Swift Boat group because like MoveOn's single goal (which we all are aware of), the Swifties also had a "single issue", which I gather meant exposing Kerry.

I tuned out again for the umptieth time this year, having had enough of "Fox Liberal Weekends", a regular feature of the "We Report, You Tune Out" bull-chippie Fox regularly feeds us on Saturdays and Sundays.

Leni