Gruesome Photos Reveal Sadism Run Rampant | Revolt of the Plebs

Gruesome Photos Reveal Sadism Run Rampant

Keith Johnson
American Free Press

Coalition forces in Afghanistan fear that gruesome pictures showing American troops posing with the corpses of murdered and mutilated Afghan civilians may provoke a more devastating backlash than graphic photographs taken of U.S. troops abusing prisoners in the notorious Iraqi prison Abu Ghraib.

In one of three photographs recently published in an edition of Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine, Army Cpl. Jeremy Morlock is pictured smiling as he poses near the body of a dead young victim whose head is yanked back as if he were a hunting trophy.

Der Spiegel claims to have nearly 4,000 similar photographs and videos. The vast majority of the photos remain under lock and key, but some have leaked out on the Internet. These items are said to be part of a collection that members of a self-described American “kill team” compiled while deployed in northern Afghanistan’s Kandahar province early last year.

Twelve soldiers are currently standing trial in the U.S. on various charges connected to the slaying of unarmed Afghans that occurred in that region between January and May 2010. Five of the soldiers are accused of premeditated murder. They allegedly engaged in “sport killings” and then attempted to cover up their crimes by staging combat situations to appear as though they had been provoked.

The other seven have been accused of collecting the body parts of dismembered victims, abusing drugs and attacking a fellow soldier who blew the whistle.

Morlock has already reached a plea agreement with prosecutors and could serve a maximum prison term of 24 years in exchange for cooperation in testifying against his codefendants.

In typical fashion, the U.S. government has distanced itself from the atrocities and laid the blame solely at the feet of the young men it trained to kill. The photographs depict “actions repugnant to us as human beings and contrary to the standards and values of the United States Army,” said Army Col. Thomas Collins in an official statement from the Pentagon. “We apologize for the distress these photos cause.”