Washington, April 20: The US mainstream media are deliberately avoiding coverage of US military crimes, such as the publication of photos of soldiers posing with the dead bodies of Afghan civilians they killed, a report says.
“The fact that there hasn’t been a Congressional inquiry, there hasn’t been a UN inquiry, there hasn’t been a major public outcry is in some respect is scary,” Daniel Goure, who studies US military policy in Afghanistan, told a Media correspondent in Arlington, Virginia.
In late 2009, American soldier Jeremy Morlock and the other soldiers in his group began plotting to murder unarmed Afghans in Kandahar province.
The Washington Post has also noted the absence of the controversy from mainstream media.
Issues such as Japan’s nuclear crisis, uprisings in the Middle East and other topics have dominated the mainstream media in the US.
Stories such as the charged army soldiers have often been left off of the front page and some experts say hidden from the public.
Morlock used illegally-obtained Afghan weapons to make it appear that his victims were enemy combatants. To make the killings appear justified, the soldiers planted weapons near the victims’ bodies.
Later, several shocking photos were released showing Morlock and other soldiers posing with the dead Afghans. One image featured Morlock grinning as he lifts the head of a corpse by its hair.
He was sentenced to 24 years in prison after pleading guilty to murdering three civilians in Afghanistan last year.
Pentagon officials called the incidents repugnant and apologized for the actions of the soldiers who have been charged and are standing trial.
But as more punishments are handed out for a heinous crime, many wonder if media coverage will be transparent or held to a double-standard.
Civilians have been the main victims of violence in Afghanistan, particularly in the country’s troubled southern and eastern provinces.
——–Agencies