This photo is one of 18 provided to the Los Angeles Times of US soldiers posing with corpses. (photo: LAT)
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paratroopers had their assignment: Check out reports that Afghan police
had recovered the mangled remains of an insurgent suicide bomber. Try
to get iris scans and fingerprints for identification.
The 82nd Airborne Division soldiers arrived at the police station in Afghanistan's
Zabol province in February 2010. They inspected the body parts. Then
the mission turned macabre: The paratroopers posed for photos next to
Afghan police, grinning while some held - and others squatted beside -
the corpse's severed legs.
A few months later, the same platoon was dispatched to
investigate the remains of three insurgents who Afghan police said had
accidentally blown themselves up. After obtaining a few fingerprints,
they posed next to the remains, again grinning and mugging for
photographs.
Two soldiers posed holding a dead man's hand with the
middle finger raised. A soldier leaned over the bearded corpse while
clutching the man's hand. Someone placed an unofficial platoon patch
reading "Zombie Hunter" next to other remains and took a picture.
The Army
launched a criminal investigation after the Los Angeles Times showed
officials copies of the photos, which recently were given to the paper
by a soldier from the division.
"It is a violation of Army standards to pose with corpses for photographs outside of officially sanctioned purposes," said George Wright, an Army spokesman. "Such actions fall short of what we expect of our uniformed service members in deployed areas."
Wright said that after the investigation, the Army
would "take appropriate action" against those involved. Most of the
soldiers in the photos have been identified, said Lt. Col. Margaret
Kageleiry, an Army spokeswoman.
The photos have emerged at a particularly sensitive
moment for U.S.-Afghan relations. In January, a video appeared on the
Internet showing four U.S. Marines urinating on Afghan corpses. In
February, the inadvertent burning of copies of the Koran at a U.S. base
triggered riots that left 30 dead and led to the deaths of six
Americans. In March, a U.S. Army sergeant went on a nighttime shooting
rampage in two Afghan villages, killing 17.
The soldier who provided The Times with a series of 18
photos of soldiers posing with corpses did so on condition of
anonymity. He served in Afghanistan
with the 82nd Airborne's 4th Brigade Combat Team from Ft. Bragg, N.C.
He said the photos point to a breakdown in leadership and discipline
that he believed compromised the safety of the troops.
He expressed the hope that publication would help
ensure that alleged security shortcomings at two U.S. bases in
Afghanistan in 2010 were not repeated. The brigade, under new command
but with some of the same paratroopers who served in 2010, began another
tour in Afghanistan in February.
U.S. military officials asked The Times not to publish any of the pictures.
Capt. John Kirby, a Pentagon
spokesman, said the conduct depicted "most certainly does not represent
the character and the professionalism of the great majority of our
troops in Afghanistan.... Nevertheless, this imagery - more than two
years old - now has the potential to indict them all in the minds of
local Afghans, inciting violence and perhaps causing needless
casualties."
Kirby added, "We have taken the necessary precautions to protect our troops in the event of any backlash."
Times Editor Davan Maharaj said, "After careful
consideration, we decided that publishing a small but representative
selection of the photos would fulfill our obligation to readers to
report vigorously and impartially on all aspects of the American mission
in Afghanistan, including the allegation that the images reflect a
breakdown in unit discipline that was endangering U.S. troops."
The photos were taken during a yearlong deployment of
the 3,500-member brigade, which lost 35 men during that time, according
to icasualties.org, a website that tracks casualties. At least 23 were
killed by homemade bombs or suicide bombers.
Suicide attacks on two bases of the brigade's 1st
Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment killed six U.S. soldiers
and four Afghan interpreters. The platoon whose soldiers posed for the
photos was part of the battalion.
The soldier who provided the photos, and two other
former members of the battalion, said in separate interviews that they
and others had complained of inadequate security at the two bases.
An Army investigation into a July 2010 suicide attack
in Kandahar that killed four U.S. soldiers found that senior members of
the battalion had complained about security. But it concluded that force
protection measures were "reasonable and prudent" in the face of
limited resources.
Virtually all of the men depicted in the photos had
friends who were killed or wounded by homemade bombs or suicide attacks,
according to the soldier who provided the images. One paratrooper on
the mission wore a bracelet bearing the name of a fallen comrade.
On the first mission, to the police station in the
provincial capital of Qalat, Afghan police told the platoon that the
severed legs belonged to a suicide bomber whose explosives detonated as
he tried to attack a police unit, according to the soldier who provided
the photos.
On the second mission, to the morgue in Qalat in late
April or early May 2010, Afghan police told the platoon that explosives
had detonated as three insurgents were preparing a roadside bomb.
The platoon was able to obtain some fingerprints from the corpses for a database maintained by U.S. forces, the soldier said.
The soldiers felt a sense of triumph and satisfaction,
especially after learning that the insurgents had been killed by their
own explosives, he said.
"They were frustrated, just pissed off - their buddies
had been blown up by IEDs" - improvised explosive devices - the soldier
said. "So they sort of just celebrated."
The Qalat photos were circulated among several members
of the platoon, the soldier said, and soldiers often joked about them.
Most of the soldiers in the photos were low-ranking - including six
specialists or privates.
Col. Brian Drinkwine, then-commander of the 4th
Brigade, and Lt. Col. David Oclander, then-commander of the 1st
Battalion, said they were not authorized to comment on the photos.
The Pentagon declined a Times request that Army
officials contact all active-duty soldiers in the photos to provide an
opportunity to comment. The Times sent requests for comment by email and
Facebook to seven soldiers in the photos. One, now serving in
Afghanistan, declined to comment. The others did not respond.
The photos were taken during a tumultuous period in the brigade's deployment.
In January 2010, the commander of the brigade's 2nd
Battalion and the battalion's top noncommissioned officer were relieved
of duty and ordered home after slides with racial and sexist overtones
were shown during daily PowerPoint briefings.
Separately, an Army investigation criticized Drinkwine
for failing to prevent his wife from threatening and harassing some
unit officers and their spouses during the deployment.
Ft. Bragg's commanding general, Lt. Gen. Frank
Helmick, told the Fayetteville Observer in June 2010 that Drinkwine had
created "a dysfunctional situation" in the unit. Drinkwine remained in
command until after the deployment ended that August.
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