Tarnished Images
‘DOESNT that British soldier pretending to punch a trussed-up Iraqi detainee bear more than a passing resemblance to former Mirror editor Piers Morgan?
| Lance Corporal Mark Cooley at work |
And what of his colleague pictured standing on another prisoner and pretending to surf? Is he not the spitting image of that papers newly svelte Royal correspondent James Whittaker?
And could those Iraqis forced to wave to the camera as they simulate sex acts be none other than two of the Mirrors 3am girls after a big night as celebrity gossips?
But no Morgan may have lost his job after publishing mocked-up pictures of British soldiers torturing Iraqis but the ones on the front of all todays papers seem real enough.
So real, in fact, that they have led to the court martial of the three soldiers involved Corporal Daniel Kenyon and Lance Corporals Mark Cooley and Darren Larkin, all of whom are members of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.
L/Cpl Larkin admits one charge of assaulting an Iraqi civilian; the other two deny all charges.
If convicted, the Independent says they face dismissal from the Army and a maximum of 10 years in jail.
The Times says that, whatever the outcome of the trial, the images will cause outrage across the Arab world and severely undermine the reputation of the British Army.
Not least to its reputation for intelligent soldiering.
The paper says the pictures came to light when Fusilier Gary Bartlam took a film into a high street shop back in Blighty to get it developed.
The court was told the victims had been caught trying to steal food from an aid centre in Basra known as Camp Bread Basket in May 2003, soon after the fall of Saddam.
The Telegraph says the soldiers claim they had been told to deter other looters by working them hard an order that apparently convenes the Geneva Convention.
The result has certainly made the rest of the Armys job a lot harder work.
SAS author Any McNab tells the Telegraph: These shocking photos will be on the streets of Iraq and I fear they will act as a recruiting tool for al-Qaeda.
And, among a few sadists, as a recruiting tool for the British Army…’
Posted: 19th, January 2005 | In: Uncategorized Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
