Story of US Soldiers “Burning Bodies” - RAISE THE BULLCRAP FLAG
- Posted by Beth on October 20th, 2005 filed in General, Journalism, Politics, Support the Troops, WTF
THERE’S MORE to this story than meets the eye:
The U.S. military said Wednesday it was investigating a report carried on an Australian television network that claimed American soldiers in Afghanistan burned the bodies of two Taliban fighters and then used the action to taunt other Islamic militants.
The SBS television network broadcast video footage that purportedly showed U.S. soldiers burning the bodies of the suspected Taliban fighters in the hills outside the southern village of Gonbaz, near the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.
The network said the footage was taken by a freelance journalist, Stephen Dupont, who told The Associated Press he was embedded with the 173rd Airborne Brigade of the U.S. Army earlier this month. Dupont said the burnings happened on Oct. 1.
WHO is Stephen Dupont? He’s no Michael Yon, to say the least. That in itself isn’t so important, but it definitely can explain how and why he chose to “connect unrelated dots” to CREATE another Abu Ghraib-style scandal.
The articles, and Stephen Dupont himself, are trying to connect dots that aren’t necessarily connected. Their purpose? I can only suppose that the purpose is to make American soldiers look bad and to try to incite Islamic hatred outside of this particular incident. By connecting these two SEPARATE events, the burning of the bodies for legitimate health reasons and the later PsyOps operation, the articles are trying to imply that the Soldiers who burned these bodies did so to “offend” Muslims, when it fact they did not.
Jason Coleman and Dan Riehl have dug up the story behind the story — the agenda (forget “bias,” this is an obvious agenda) behind it is appalling in its cavalier regard for American lives.
Now the reporter on the scene, Stephen Dupont, who was embedded with the American troops, himself admits that it was later, when a PsyOps unit arrived on the scene, that more was made of the burning than actually took place, IN ORDER TO “smoke out” and “provoke” a fight with other Taliban fighters on the scene. Taken as it is, a separate tactical event, this is not that big a deal. The goal of armies is to find and engage the enemy, to root them out and destroy them. PsyOps has long been considered a legitimate and effective means of waging war. All parties to conflicts use it and it generates the desired effects.
MUST READ and follow the links! Don’t let the agenda-driven mainstream media distort reality (again) and fuel the anti-American hate machine - spread the word!
MORE TO FOLLOW…
Sister Toldjah » Media bias apparent in ‘burning bodies’ story says:
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Mark Kraft says:
I know plenty of soldiers, and those I have talked to about this think that what happened was a disgrace, and reflected badly on what they are doing. Centcom has also said very plainly that such behavior is unacceptable, and that those responsible will be brought to justice. Why? Because it’s in violation of the Geneva Convention *AND* the Law of Land Warefare.
The idea that bodies freshly killed the evening before need to be burned for health reasons is absurd. Plenty of Americans die every day and aren’t found until 24 hours later, and they are still turned over for burial. The temperature at this time of year in Afghanistan is rarely higher than upper ’70s, so heat isn’t a huge factor… and the U.S. troops visited the nearby village the very next morning, and presumably could’ve let them know about the bodies and have them bury them in accordance to their customs.
For the soldiers to take it upon themselves to burn the bodies while facing Mecca is ludicrous. That’s why there will be soldiers who are put away a good long time over this, and you’ll be left eating crow. If you knew anything about hte military, you’d know that the PsyOps officer was obligated to stop what happened, because he clearly knew the consequences.
In any case, the pictures are available at http://www.livejournal.com/users/insomnia/623843.html . NSFW.
Beth says:
As a matter of fact, Mark, I DO know a thing about the military, although you’d never bother to check that, would you?
Guess we’ll just see who will be left “eating crow.” I, for one, have nothing to apologize for, nor will I, because I am not the one who’s out to denigrate or demoralize the military–UNLIKE YOU.
That’s real cute how you stuck the “NSFW” tag on there, too. I suppose TV and the mainstream media are also “NSFW,” then? Face it, asshole, you’re not fooling anyone.
HARDCORE CONSERVATIVE says:
Mark has no idea what he’s talking about
HARDCORE CONSERVATIVE says:
Hey Beth who let the moonbats in??:?:
Larry says:
Someone needs to tell Mark that the dead feel no pain. Who cares if they were burned ? He should really watch the beheading videos, or better yet, ask about the Marine captured alive during the invasion and the tortured and damn near crucified. Really civilized bunch we are fighting. It makes me sick…..
By the way, the Taliban and the rest of the islamofacist pigs are not signatories to the Geneva convention. I don’t mind eating crow, but I won’t eat Mark’s shi’ite.
MacStansbury says:
it’s amazing how many of the words in this thing start with B.
amazingly, after reading the stories on the links, I’m now more interested in the security images than this story. pretty quick little debunking, I say.
well, if you actually read the stories, as opposed to just whining and crying and believing everything some reporter tells you.
DAN RATHER!!!!! WHERE ARE YOU??????????
HARDCORE CONSERVATIVE says:
“DAN RATHER!!!!! WHERE ARE YOU??????????”
he’s having surgery to correct his oral-rectal inversion
MCPO Airdale says:
And this “journalist” dresses like a jihadi for his website for what purpose?
Mark - Not only do you not have a clue, you ain’t even suspicious that a crime was committed.
Gray says:
Burn the damned bodies. Burn ‘em all and shoot the damned Fiberal “journalists” in the knees.
Flopping Aces says:
Burning The Taliban
UPDATE 10/20 1330hrs
Spent pretty much all of last night and this morning setting up my new surround sound system so I missed the new facts coming out about this incident. First, an interview with Stephen Dupont was aired last night, check it out he…
dingo says:
A) Beth - from your military experience, have you ever heard of this before? I have not, but I don’t know if it has actually been used for health reasons.
B) Larry - it doesn’t matter if they are not signatories. We are. That is the only thing that matters. Additionally, dead American soldiers feel no pain either, but that doesn’t stop us getting pissed off when we see soldiers dragged through the streets. I don’t care if they behead people. We are better than them. That is why we are there.
C) Gary - do you want to actually want to win this war? Since the goal is not occupation and domination (we actually want these people to govern themselves), burning them is about as dumb idea as you can get. Think about our objectives before lighting a match.
Beth says:
Dingo: I wouldn’t have been in a position to know. Larry would be the one to ask, because he’s actually over there (in Iraq, that is) right now. Or maybe MacS knows; he WAS in Iraq. I was never near combat.
That said, Mark Kraft (above) is full of crap. The weather in Afghanistan, unless it’s in the low 30’s (Fahrenheit) is too warm for corpses to not decompose rapidly. Morgues store corpses at temperature levels FAR colder than the weather was in Afghanistan.
[Wikipedia: Morgue] Decomposing bodies would seem to me (just my guess) to be a “hygiene” risk, especially as they had already been there more than 24 hours.
Jason Coleman says:
The situation with the corpses had to be dealt with. The ground appears to be too hard to bury the bodies (not to mention the risk of getting sniped. Also after 24 hours you have flies/flying insects lighting on the corpses (remember, these corpses are also full of holes) and then buzzing round the soldiers. That’s a hygiene issue, it’s a disease issue. The corpses were there for over 24 hours in their position before they burned them, and the PsyOps came along AFTER they were already burning or burnt. That’s evident in Duponts own words on the Dateline video I linked.
–Jason
Howard Larson says:
Beth,
I suppose the PsyOps team wasn’t connected to the burning of the bodies. But, the news is saying that the burning of the bodies itself was a desecration and was wrong. What are we to believe?
HARDCORE CONSERVATIVE says:
Howard
The MSM is full of ahit
But that’s nothing new
HARDCORE CONSERVATIVE says:
I meant to say : The MSM is full of shi’ite
freakin’ CTK interface errors!:lol:
Larry says:
I get really sick of “being better thna them”. Guess what ? The Geneva Convention pretty clearly states that insurgents don’t really have any rights. We need to fight them, not understand them or be better than them. I could tell you stories that would curl your toes….and not in a good way. BTW, ANY dead body can be a health hazard.
Prchrmn2 says:
To Dingo, who appears to know nothing about the Geneva Convention - Direct Excerpts:
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/Human_Rights/geneva1.html
“The High Contracting Parties undertake to respect and to ensure respect for the present Convention in all circumstances.”
This means that all sides have to agree for anything to apply to anybody!
“Although one of the Powers in conflict may not be a party to the present Convention, the Powers who are parties thereto shall remain bound by it in their mutual relations. They shall furthermore be bound by the Convention in relation to the said Power, if the latter accepts and applies the provisions thereof.”
This means if someone is not a player that that those who are bound are still bound to others that are bound (by signature)(the whole Idea was to fight a gentlemans war!).
Prohibitive Acts Apply Only To Consenting Powers!
Humane Treatment Only Applies To Those Who Are Alive!
Read also Art 3.(1)
“Nationals of a State which is not bound by the Convention are not protected by it.”
“Deceased internees shall be buried in individual graves unless unavoidable circumstances require the use of collective graves. Bodies may be cremated only for imperative reasons of hygiene, on account of the religion of the deceased or in accordance with his expressed wish to this effect. In case of cremation, the fact shall be stated and the reasons given in the death certificate of the deceased. The ashes shall be retained for safe-keeping by the detaining authorities and shall be transferred as soon as possible to the next of kin on their request.”
Larry says:
Couple interesting things from the GC:
“Nationals of a State which is not bound by the Convention are not protected by it.”
“Art. 5 Where in the territory of a Party to the conflict, the latter is satisfied that an individual protected person is definitely suspected of or engaged in activities hostile to the security of the State, such individual person shall not be entitled to claim such rights and privileges under the present Convention as would, if exercised in the favour of such individual person, be prejudicial to the security of such State.”
Jason Coleman says:
I’ve posted the second installment of my examination into the Taliban Body Burnings.
“So what’s really going on. . .(The interview with Stephen Dupont)”
–Jason
euphoricreality.net says:
Burning Taliban
*************scroll down for updates***************
If this situation goes any further at all, I feel a war comin’ on (Pantano style)…
Report Of U.S. Burning Bodies Investigated
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