Not Winning Hearts and Minds!

With the added Atrocities of War and Occupation: How to get more of your fellow soldiers killed and maimed and in these times, of the past couple of decades, innocent civilians, anywhere, targets of international criminal terrorist attacks!

Army restricts access to photos of soldiers with Afghan corpses

The Army is strictly controlling access to several grisly photos of U.S. soldiers holding up Afghan corpses, images that were uncovered as part of an investigation into alleged war crimes.

September 25, 2010 - Earlier this month, Army prosecutors at Joint Base Lewis-McChord turned over the photos to a military representative of civilian attorneys representing five soldiers accused of murdering three Afghan civilians and other crimes.

But an Army commander decided the photos should not be released. In an unusual move, prosecutors then demanded defense representatives at the base return the computer disk containing the photos, according to attorneys involved in the case.

The decision reflects concern among the Army's senior leadership that publication of such evidence could anger Afghan civilians at a time the United States is trying to win support for a counterinsurgency campaign against the Taliban.

"I have determined that the risk of potential prejudice to the substantive rights of the accused, as well as negative impact on the reputation of the armed forces, associated with the potential public dissemination of these images outweighs minimal hardship upon the accused as a result of this order," Col. Barry Huggins wrote in a memorandum reported in The New York Times. {read rest}