Photographer confronted marines with Haditha images

[leftchick]

Photographer confronted marines with Haditha images

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3694245a12,00.html



SAN FRANCISCO: Just days after the suspected massacre of two dozen civilians in Haditha in an incident now under investigation, an American photographer confronted US Marines with the images of the dead, including Iraqi children.


Freelance photographer Lucian Read, 31, had spent months capturing shots of Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment. But when Iraqis invited him to photograph their dead two days after the Haditha killings in November 2005, he felt compelled to show the images to the platoon.

"I made a point that day and over the course of the next several days to show all of those pictures to as many of the Marines as possible," Read, who arrived back in Haditha a day after the killings, said in an interview on Wednesday.

"When children are killed, I don't care what the situation is, that's bad, and I wanted those guys to see that so they would keep it in their mind next time something like that happened – hey, we don't want to be killing any more kids."

An officer and enlisted men reacted to the images with "regretful frowns," he said.

"It was basically, `man, that's not good'," he said. "A few, a number of the guys had been there on scene, taken the bodies to the hospitals, to the morgue. Some of those guys already knew what was in the house.

[HonorTheConstitution]

1. A bit late coming out with this

Obviosly this photographer was well embedded with the troops!? Why did he not present these photos to the world media in November? Or did he! If not, he did not achieve anything.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. At our anti-war protest this past Tuesday,

a guy in a big Dodge Ram pickup truck with 40" wheels drove by. He came around the block a second time and stopped at the light and yelled at us that we made him sick.

Then he pulled over and parked and came over yelling at us. He claimed he was a Marine who had just got back from Iraq. We tried to talk to him rationally but he was just literally insane with rage. I had my cell phone out and was ready to call 911 as soon as he touched anyone in our group. But he just yelled. We took his picture and he really went nuts. I also took a picture of his truck and the tag. There was a firefighter decal on the back window.

So it turned out he is a Marine just back from Iraq who also happens to be a firefighter. And he really was insane. I asked him if he had been at Haditha and he said "Oh do you think I like to kill innocent civilians?" One of the guys in our group said "no, we know you have to follow orders and our beef is with the administration who sent you to Iraq, not with the soldiers".

He said he is coming back next week. And we are wondering if we should call the fire dept. He really was as crazy as a loon. I know I wouldn't want him to come put out a fire at my house.

[MADem]

4. Can I make a suggestion?

Bring along a video camera, with a good microphone, and a zoom lens, on your next outing. Stand back, and discreetly record the guy if he turns up again. Don't make a big deal out of doing it, just be sure someone standing back a bit has a lens on him. If he gets at all shifty or shirty, alert the MEDIA!

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. Yes we thought of that

I always have my camera ready too. When they get hostile as they drive by, I take a picture of their tags.

[wicket]

14. Great advice

:thumbsup:

[BR_Parkway]

5. Maybe you should print out some of those pictures - ask him if that's

what he's supporting.

[saigon68]

7. He supports the Nazi Chimp

Killer of small children

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. We do have pictures of injured Iraqi kids.

One of our members hands them to the war mongers who stop and yell at us. But she was not with us Tuesday. darn!

[dmoded]

8. i think insane is a prerequisite for enlistment these days

nothing surprising at all. how soon before we hear from his neighbors "But he was such a nice, quiet boy"....

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. We talked to him about ptsd and depleted uranium

He seemed to listen to that.

[saigon68]

12. Low hanging fruit

Ok you jock sniffers flame away

[blackhorse]

20. I wonder

... if the firefighter's paper-mache image of an America that never was has fallen apart and is fueling his rage. I've seen a few implosions of these kinds of people. The better-grounded ones go through a period of shock and then re-groove. The insecure ones grow angry, dangerously angry IMO.

Calling the FD would be responsible, but with the prevalent attitude in the country anymore, the leadership there might just ignore your comments.

Good luck with the situation.

BH

[gratuitous]

23. And why wouldn't he be crazy as a loon?

But I'm glad you returned kindness and gentility for the anger that has overmastered this guy. Maybe he really will be back next week. If so, it's an opening to a relationship that just might bring this guy back in the human fold. He's outside, scared and lonely, in a very bad place. Everything looks like an enemy to him right now. He either doesn't understand where he is, or if he does, he doesn't understand how he got there and who put him there. He can lash out at you, but he can't lash out at the folks who really put him where he is.

Sadly, that's the risk peacemakers take all the time, and because we don't carry weapons, we're always at risk of bodily injury or death from people who do believe the myth of redemptive violence. But like a moth drawn to the flame, here we are, talking about peace just the same.

[DELUSIONAL]

3. This is why we need an independent press/media

They are supposed to be our witnesses -- but when they become the propaganda dispensers -- we are in big trouble.

The individuals who murdered these people should be brought to justice.

They weren't kids -- I reject that claim.

When I was 18 or 20 or 21 (the supposed age of the marines) -- I knew it was wrong to murder innocent children.

The act of murder in this case was deliberate . . .

And YES the fault/blame for this goes right up the chain of command. Bad leadership -- period.

However, these murders were carried out by individuals and in our culture murdering innocent children is not acceptable. These murderers did this because they knew that they would get away with it.

The US military has done this before -- to Native Americans -- it is apparently no difficult to de-culture humans through military training (brain washing) so that babies can be murdered.

God doesn't speak to bush -- only really crazy people make this claim.

[Jane Austin]

6. I am terribly confused by this story.

It says the photographer was invited to photograph their dead two days after the attacks.

I thought the marines sent in a squad to clean up the site either the day it happened or the next day.

How could there have been any bodies to photograph two days after the attack?

Can somebody clarify this for me?

Thanks.

[leftchick]

13. the confusion comes from the official Military account

I believe two days after the massacre this photographer took his photos. After he shows them to some officers, then I believe that is when the US decided to go back and take their own photos and recover some bodies to cover their asses.

[Jane Austin]

18. Don't Muslims have to bury their dead right away?

I thought that was a tenet of their religion.

[leftchick]

19. yes they do

and it confuses me as well. All I can think of is perhaps the US had it cordoned off for a couple of days. I do recall photos of corpses at the hospital and they were more than a day old. It appears the burial custom has gone the way of security in Iraq. :(

[54anickel]

17. I found that confusing as well. Did they actually just leave the bodies

lay there for 2 days?

Something just isn't right. Is this story a plant so that people question the "massacre" story and the Iraqis?

On edit - nevermind - read the whole thing more closely a second time. The first "skim" reading just caught the "invitation".

[ConcernedCanuk]

15. I read all the previous posts on this topic

.
.
.

Iraq was a massacre from the get-go

Depleted Uranium munitions are designed to kill for millenniums . . .

USA and it's coerced "coalition" were slaughtering Iraqi citizens right from "Shock and Awe"

They train teen-agers to hate and kill

Then they wonder why the vets have a problem re-adjusting to normal life on their return to the USA

The USA Administrations have been training killers for decades

And will continue to do so

Until Russia and China get fed up with them fucking around on THEIR Continent . . . .

Sumthing to think about . . .

[lpbk2713]

16. Good way to end up dead .....

... piss off a whole platoon of battle-weary Marines.

[daleo]

21. Are you suggesting that marines murder reporters and photographers?

I just can't imagine that, at least not American reporters.

[Lerkfish]

22. right. no journalists have been killed in Iraq by american forces

and I have a bridge to sell you. Its over there, right next to the unicorn.

[daleo]

24. Yeah, there have been killings of reporters by U.S. troops

I was being a bit facetious.

Although I can't imagine a troop of marines killing a photographer in cold blood after being shown pictures, no matter how pissed off they were.

[Lerkfish]

25. well, if you consider that the haditha massacre implicates them directly

it would be a matter of destroying evidence that could convict them, n'est-ce pas? People have killed for less provocation than that.

[daleo]

26. That's a point

It certainly isn't impossible, given what we have discovered. I suppose the original post just implied a higher level of pre-meditation than I was willing to consider.