BUT NO PROBLEMS WITH THIS IMAGE, RIGHT?
Posted on 10/21/2005 6:43:39 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US soldiers burned the bodies of two Taliban fighters in Afghanistan because villagers had not claimed them a day after they were killed and the bodies "were bloated and they stank," a US magazine reported, citing soldiers who were present at the incident.
Australian television reported on Wednesday that soldiers had burned the bodies of two suspected Taliban militants and afterwards used the incident to insult villagers and try to provoke them into attacking US-led coalition troops.
The incident has prompted a US military investigation into the alleged desecration of the corpses, which is in violation of the Geneva Convention on human rights.
It also further clouds the United States's reputation, already tarnished by the sexual humiliation of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and allegations of mistreatment of "war on terror" inmates at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
According to the article published on Time magazine's website, a US army platoon was sharing a rocky hilltop above Gonbaz village in southern Afghanistan with the bodies of the two fighters.
"The Taliban men had been killed in a firefight 24 hours earlier and in the 90 degree (Fahrenheit, 32 degrees Celsius) heat, their bodies had become an unbearable presence," Time reported, citing soldiers who were present.
Earlier, Lieutenant Eric Nelson, the leader of B Company, I-508 platoon had sent word down to Gonbaz asking the villagers to pick up the bodies and bury them according to Muslim ritual.
But the villagers refused -- probably because the dead fighters were not locals but Pakistanis, said one US Army officer, the magazine said.
The magazine said it was then that Nelson took a decision that could jeopardize his career.
"We decided to burn the bodies ... because they were bloated and they stank," Time reported, citing a soldier.
The incident, captured on film by Australian photojournalist Stephen Dupont and aired on Australian public broadcasting channel SBS, unleashed world outrage.
Islamic tradition requires the bodies of Muslims to be washed, prayed over, wrapped in white cloth and buried, if possible, within a day.
Under the Geneva Convention, the disposal of war dead "should be honorable, and, if possible, according to the rites of the religion to which the deceased belonged."
Time noted that one US officer in Kandahar had "pointed out that the Taliban and Al-Qaeda never show any qualms about defiling the bodies of dead Afghan or American soldiers."
Ret. Gen. Paul Vallely and Michael Baden weighing in.
C-4 would have alleviated this problem. Um... with the reporter in close proximity.
Why do we allow cameras?
...Rule #3: Don't think that war will not be hellish. Dead. Burning. Bodies...
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Baden says there is no reason that bodies should have been burned, due to disease or otherwise.
Vallely gives benefit of doubt and says no criminal activity likely. Villagers did not claim bodies when given access to do so. Let investigation go forward.
Colmes is his typical self looking for an opportunity to pee on the administration, wants full investigation.
Sean is of the mind that before any facts are in, immediately we hear shouts of "It's all America and the troops fault". let the investigation go on and let's get some facts first.
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Baden made no mention of the contractors who were burnt and hung on a bridge over a river in Iraq... but then that would have meant he would have had to have been critical of our enemies and their behavior too.
Should I post the pics of pissed off Islamic folks around the world burning American flags now? ;-)
The American press can go to hell. They subvert all efforts and don't give a ship about our troops.
Non-combatants were not burned. Absent insignia, and command structure; it was proper to notify the local holy man. When locals defer with regard to human remains, the health and welfare of the troops conducting the operation overrides all other directives. Who is to say that this is desecration? A Christian prayer was likely said. Or heaven forbid, a rabbi was present.
stink, stank, stunk. Why didn't they just bury them?
Afghans Outraged Over Alleged Desecration
By DANIEL COONEY, Associated Press Writer
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051021/ap_on_re_as/afghan_bodies_burned_20;_ylt=AhO4sPcn_xHyz1j1csksOpblWMcF;_ylu=X3oDMTA5bGVna3NhBHNlYwNzc3JlbA--
KABUL, Afghanistan - Islamic clerics expressed outrage Thursday at television footage that purportedly shows U.S. soldiers burning the bodies of two dead Taliban fighters to taunt other militants and warned of a possible violent anti-American backlash.
President Hamid Karzai condemned the alleged desecration and ordered an inquiry. The operational commander of the U.S. military in Afghanistan, which launched its own criminal probe, said the alleged act, if true, was "repugnant."
Worried about the potential for anti-American feelings over the incident, the State Department said it instructed U.S. embassies around the globe to tell local governments that the reported abuse did not reflect American values.
Cremating bodies is banned under Islam, and one Muslim leader in Afghanistan compared the video to photographs of U.S. troops abusing prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.
"Abu Ghraib ruined the reputation of the Americans in Iraq and to me this is even worse," said Faiz Mohammed, a top cleric in northern Kunduz province. "This is against Islam. Afghans will be shocked by this news. It is so humiliating. There will be very, very dangerous consequences from this."
Anger also was evident in the streets.
"If they continue to carry out such actions against us, our people will change their policy and react with the same policy against them," said Mehrajuddin, a resident of Kabul, who like many Afghans uses only one name.
Another man in the capital, Zahidullah, said the reported abuse was like atrocities committed by Soviet troops, who were driven out of Afghanistan in 1989 after a decade of occupation. He warned that the same could happen to American forces.
"Their future will be like the Russians," Zahidullah said.
In Washington, the U.S. government also condemned the alleged incident.
The allegation was "very serious" and "very troubling," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. His comment came after the department said U.S. embassies had been told to inform foreigners that abuse of remains "is not reflective of our values."
The report also generated congressional debate with Senate Republicans saying the alleged U.S. troop participation goes to the heart of why Congress must pass legislation to standardize techniques used in the detention, interrogation and prosecution of detainees in the war on terrorism.
"This is a very, very serious problem," said Sen. John Warner (news, bio, voting record), R-Va., and the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He said the situation raises a question that must be answered: "What was the command and control that allowed this situation to happen?"
The move suggested U.S. worries about an anti-American uproar like Afghan riots in May that erupted after Newsweek said U.S. soldiers at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility desecrated Islam's holy book, the Quran. Newsweek later retracted the story.
The alleged body burning comes as the U.S. military is struggling to bolster its image in Afghanistan amid charges by Karzai of heavy-handed tactics in fighting the Taliban.
Australia's SBS television network broadcast the video purportedly showing soldiers burning the bodies of two suspected Taliban fighters in hills outside Gonbaz village in the southern Shah Wali Kot district — an area plagued by Taliban activity and considered by the local security forces as too dangerous to venture into unless accompanied by U.S. troops.
Viewers of the footage saw a group of about five troops in light-colored military fatigues, which did not have any distinguishing marks, standing near to a bonfire in which two bodies were laid side by side. The flames obscured the view of the bodies, making it impossible to tell if the remains were of Taliban fighters.
The network said the video was taken by a freelance journalist, Stephen Dupont. Dupont, who told The Associated Press that he was embedded with the Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade, said the burnings happened Oct. 1.
He told SBS that soldiers in a U.S. Army psychological operations unit later broadcast taunting messages targeting the village, which was believed to be harboring Taliban fighters.
"They deliberately wanted to incite that much anger from the Taliban so the Taliban could attack them. ... That's the only way they can find them," Dupont said.
The video did not show those messages being broadcast, although it showed some military vehicles fitted with speakers and playing loud music.
According to a transcript released by SBS, the messages called the Taliban "cowardly dogs."
"You are too scared to come down and retrieve their bodies," said one message, according to the transcript.
Dupont told the AP the messages were broadcast in the local dialect but were translated into English for him by members of the Army unit. He declined to provide further information.
The U.S. military said the Army Criminal Investigation Command was looking into the matter.
"This alleged action is repugnant to our common values," Maj. Gen. Jason Kamiya said from the U.S. base at Bagram. "This command takes all allegations of misconduct or inappropriate behavior seriously and has directed an investigation into circumstances surrounding this allegation."
A U.S. military spokeswoman, Sgt. Marina Evans, said investigators would check whether the purported act violated the Geneva Convention, which says the dead must be "honorably interred, if possible according to the rites of the religion to which they belonged."
The Afghan Defense Ministry launched its own investigation, Karzai's spokesman, Karim Rahimi, said.
"We strongly condemn any disrespect to human bodies regardless of whether they are those of enemies or friends," he told the AP.
Freelance journalist Stephen Dupont is seen in this image made from television during an interview in Sydney, Australia, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2005. Dupont while he was embedded with the 173rd Airborne Brigade of the U.S. Army, recorded American soldiers in Afghanistan burning the bodies of Taliban fighters in violation of Islamic tradition and then taunted a nearby village about the act. (AP Photo/SBS TV)
Why didn't they just bury them?
Afghanistan is the most heavily mined country in the world hence, digging is inadvisable.. It makes sense to burn the remains to reduce the impact of vectors such as flies and other vermin.
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