US Soldiers Ask Iraqi Women to Show Breasts at a Mosul Checkpoint?

[leftchick]

I wish there was some way to verify this report. It is Sickening if true....

<snip>

Allegations that US soldiers asked 40 young Iraqi women to show their breasts at a US checkpoint are now apparently being investigated by both the US military and with assistance from local authorities in Mosul.

The Iraqirabita.org website, which first broke the story, has also confirmed this adding that Mosul Mayor Dureid Kashmoula had asked for an investigation.

As hostilities against US forces apparently increased in the wake of the allegations, the US embassy sent a delegation to meet with Kashmoula.

A Captain Tracy Smith is said to be overseeing the investigation. She will meet with the bus driver and the girls over the course of the next few days and hopes to wrap up her investigation within a week.

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m21271&l=i&size=1&hd=0

[Drum]

1. Par for the course...

No need to miss Mardi Gras just cause you're thousands of miles away, right?

Thanks for giving us all a black eye...way to spread democracy boys....

[leftchick]

2. and girls!

Apparently a female soldier was involved in this incident. Here is the original report...

March 4, 2006

On 28th of Feb, 2006, a group of female students were returning home on board the official 40-seater bus belonging to the Mosul Institute of Teachers. As the bus reached Square-19, a US solider ordered the bus to stop, and proceeded to board the bus.

The bus driver was following the usual route in the vicinity of the Institute. As the bus reached the area of Square-19, those on board were shocked to find they were surrounded by US tanks; the bus driver stopped the bus when he was ordered to by he American soldiers; he was then handcuffed in the ever familiar fashion and made to sit on the side of the road. The soldiers then began to hit the bus with their riffle butts to intimidate and incite fear in the female students.

Then, American male and female soldiers boarded the bus full of the frightened girls. The female solider first ordered the girls to remove their traditional head dress, then removed her own shirt revealing her breasts before ordering them to reveal their breasts as well.

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m21248&l=i&size=1&hd=0

The US Military denied the report the same day. Now 3 days later they are investigating? Hmmmm....

[Drum]

4. Aiyiyi!

What the hell kinda party do they think this is????

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

8. ignore- posted in wrong place

[Virginia Dare]

3. I have a feeling..

it gets much, MUCH worse than this.

[no_hypocrisy]

5. The "Show Me Your Tits" routine is par for the course.

Our country is occupying their country.

Their citizens are not autonomous and independent, protected by their own government. They all are essentially our prisoners of war.

If ever there was a recruiting PR bit for Al-Quaeda, insurgents, Iraqi patriots generally, that would really get effects, aside from Abu Gharab prison abuses, this is it.

[Binka]

6. Nothing Says Democracy Like "Show Me Your Tits!"

Fucking out of control. SHIT!

[BlueEyedSon]

7. Did they at least throw them beads afterwords?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

9. Introducing Traditional American Values to the heathens.

Yesiree, giving oppressed Iraqi women the freedom to be humiliated and ogled by moronic GI's with guns. They should be grateful for their liberation from the backward idea that Americans think they are human beings.

[genie_weenie]

10. Nothing like a fresh load of Propaganda for the morning

This claim is the oldest one in the propaganda manual. Seriously, Ramses the Great must have had this carved bas relief style onto an obelisk. "If the Hitties attack, claim they denigrated the Women of Egypt!"

http://truth-about-iraqis.blogspot.com/2006/03/us-official-denies-mosul-bus-incident.html
And this blog from which your link directs from, actually does not say the 40 Iraqi women bared their breasts.

From truth-about-iraqis.blogspot:

"One US female soldier accompanied by a male soldier boarded the bus and, according to the girls, told them to remove their head covering veils.

The female soldier, who is said to speak some Arabic, then unbuttoned her shirt and revealed her breasts to the girls who were astounded. She then ordered them to show her their breasts.

Mosul residents have been debating whether such an incident could have happened."


And of course, people who are thousands of miles away will swallow this account, grow angry and...

[Moody Bluz]

12. When soldiers have a fratboy Commander in Chief...

is it surprising that they would act like fratboys themselves?

[genie_weenie]

13. First off

did you even check leftchick's link and backtrack it? Second, if you were in did you learn anything about Propaganda and how it works?

And WTF is this fratboy comment?

[leftchick]

14. indeed

Welcome to DU Moody Bluz!

:toast:

[Moody Bluz]

11. This really angers me.

Working a checkpoint in a war zone is harrowing enough without some guys trying to make a party out of it. That checkpoint will be manned by other soldiers who are more considerate and professional on another day and they will be the ones to suffer the consequences of the ones who acted like fratboys.

Had any of my soldiers acted like that when I was in, as their sergeant, I would have made sure there was hell to pay.

[soothsayer]

15. Well, it was Mardi Gras after all...

This is why we need gays in the military!

[WI_DEM]

16. there have been countless stories of our soldiers doing stupid

things like this. It doesn't help spread goodwill and just makes their mission more difficult. Of course the majority of our soldiers don't do this type of thing all they want is to come home.

[genie_weenie]

17. Aaargh! This is propaganda!

Please see my post #10!


Aaaargh!

[Radio_Guy]

18. Is there a second source for this?

Don't get me wrong (as others already have today), I don't doubt this can happen. But as one who works in the media, I'd love to see a second source on this. Blow it wide open for all the world to see. Because this would be yet another in the growing list of war crimes that would face Bushco atthe Hague.

[kevinbgoode]

19. Time to cut off their peepees

we must abide by American Taliban teachings. They likely ejaculated later about impregnating an unwed woman.

[Igel]

20. It's been claimed, it sounds scurrilous, it must be true.

Or at least truthy. No?

It's being investigated. It's rather like being arrested or indicted. Nobody that's innocent can ever be investigated, arrested, or indicted. No claim that's investigated can ever turn out false.

The rumors are widespread, no doubt--anything feeding the Sunni Muslim's sense of humiliation and self-loathing in Anbar is a good thing, since mute rage at how great they were and how badly they're treated is all their honor consists of these days--and the mayor asked about it. True or not, politics demands an investigation.

However, the allegers having gotten an investigation, an ill-founded sense of authority is now lent to the allegations. If the initial denial went over poorly, not finding the allegations to be true will be widely viewed as a cover-up and that will go over even more poorly. The US military hasn't figured out the game, much less how to play it. Then again, if they acted in a culturally appropriate manner for Iraq, it would be seen as culturally inappropriate for the US.