Titten und Tote: Fotos von und für US-Soldaten

--- Es gibt mal wieder ein Skandälchen um digitale Fotos von US-Soldaten, die in Afghanistan und im Irak stationiert sind. Denn wie Online Journalism Review berichtet, haben die vom Kriegseinsatz genervten GIs auf dem von ihnen häufig besuchten Sex-Forum NowThatsFuckedUp.com auch von ihnen erstellte Aufnahmen von zu Tode gekommenen Aufständischen und Gegnern in der Rubrik "Blutige Bilder" veröffentlicht:

According to the site's owner, Chris Wilson, who lives in Lakeland, Fla., but hosts the site out of Amsterdam, the site was launched in August 2004 and soon became popular with soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. When female soldiers started to appear in the nude on the site, the Pentagon blocked access to the site from military computers in the field, according to the New York Post. But the story gets more twisted. Wilson said that soldiers were having trouble using their credit cards in Iraq to access the paid pornographic content on the site, so he offered them free access if they could show that they were actually soldiers. As proof, some sent in G-rated photos of traffic signs in Baghdad or of a day in the life of a soldier abroad. Others sent in what appear to be Iraqi civilians and insurgents who were killed by suicide bombs or soldiers' fire. Now there's an entire forum on the site titled "Pictures from Iraq and Afghanistan - Gory," where these bloody photos show body parts, exploded heads and guts falling out of people. Along with the photos is a running commentary of people celebrating the kills, cracking jokes and arguing over what kind of weaponry was used to kill them. But the moderators will also step in when the talk gets too heated, and sometimes a more serious discussion about the Iraq war and its aims will break out. Wilson told me in a phone interview that he is "not very" political and considers NTFU as a community site. "People say, 'This is a porn site so why are you talking politics?' " Wilson said. "But it's actually a porn community, and any time you have a community with shared interests there's going to be other interests. Just because somebody looks at porn doesn't mean that they have a below-60 IQ and don't know anything. I have doctors and lawyers and police officers and teachers, and it doesn't surprise me that there are educated people who want to discuss things. It's interesting, and I love reading it." Wilson has no qualms about running the gory photos of war in open forums that don't require registration or payment. "I enjoy seeing the photos from the soldiers themselves," Wilson said. "I see pictures taken by CNN and the mainstream media, and they all put their own slant on what they report and what they show. To me, this is from the soldier's slant. This is directly from them. They can take the digital cameras and take a picture and send it to me, and that's the most raw you can get it. I like to see it from their point of view, and I think it's newsworthy." ... Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, saw the gory photos as another black eye for the U.S. military after the Abu Ghraib prison torture photos. "This is just another form of pornography," Hooper told me. "I think this is something that should be strongly discouraged by military authorities.

Die Bilder sind auf jeden Fall nicht sonderlich appetitlich und einige sind laut den Zählerangaben bereits gut 50.000 mal angeschaut worden. Die Site scheint auf jeden Fall gut besucht zu sein. Mehr zu der Story heute in der New York Times. Update: Inzwischen auch in Telepolis. Und ein paar Stunden später auch in Spiegel Online.

Update II: Upgefucked: Der Betreiber der Sex-Website wurde wegen sexueller Obszönität verhaftet.

Der scheidende US-Generalstabschef Myers predigt derweil Durchhalte-Appelle an die US-Bevölkerung aufgrund des Irak-Kriegs: "Unser Lebensstil steht auf dem Spiel."

Und sonst: Deutlich ästhetischere, aber dennoch beeindruckende Schwarz-Weiß-Fotos von den Katrina-Nachwirkungen gibts von Alan Chin in den BAGNewsNotes.

Mein aktueller Beitrag zur Meta-Weblogdebatte: Weblogs und die große Freiheit: Das Handbuch der "Reporter ohne Grenzen" sieht Blogger als Vorkämpfer der freien Meinungsäußerung.

Medienschelte Revisited: Bundespresseamt sagt Medien-Kongress ab. Die Bundesregierung wird nun doch keinen Kongress zum Thema "Die Rolle der Medien im Wahlkampf" veranstalten. Die Planung wurde überraschend eingestellt. Offiziell heißt es, die Zeit fehle, so etwas seriös vorzubereiten.

PR-Bloggen für Wal-Mart: RedState Blogger Boosts Wal-Mart For Bucks.

Das Lobbying- und PR-Buzzword Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) auseinandergenommen: The Corporate Placebo Effect.

<a href="http://del.icio.us/esmaggbe/irak" rel="tag">irak</a>