Dutch journalist Arjan Dasselaar has this item up about a porn site that offered US GI's "free access to its 'meat supply' if the GI's send in pictures of gored and/or killed Iraqis instead. At least, according to Belgian newspaper De Standaard, which in turn quotes this Italian blog."
Seems the newspaper may be in error in suggesting the porn site specifically requested the currency of gore as payment for access. However, they did accept it. I contacted Chris Wilson, owner of the aptly titled Now That's Fucked Up website, who said this:
"I have been making this offer for many months now. I have a lot of users of my forum stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan and they were having trouble paying for access. They don’t have a normal billing address etc. So I decided that I would give FREE access to any member or the armed services that could prove they were stationed in a combat area. They had to provide a picture of them or something over there to prove to me they were there and not just someone else looking for free access. A lot of the members decided to post the gory pics for their free access. That was fine with me I like to see them as it shows what the mainstream media won’t. To clear up some things I have read in the press this far
1) There are NO dead American soldiers posted in my
forums.
2) I am American; the site itself is based out of Amsterdam.
3) Yes, I get tons of hate mail as well as tons of support mail."[Above photo one of many submitted to NTFU for consideration for access.]
There is a general section of shots of attacks, weapons photos, 'buddy' photos and shots of a naked female soldier, waist down.
There is a separate forum on the porn site for "Pictures From Iraq And Afghanistan - Gory" A look at a few shows these are truly gruesome photos -the horror of war unedited. The captions include general ones to the callous "50 cal to the head for access" and "Nice puss, bad foot." The latter is a photo taken during surgery on a woman, genitals exposed, whose right leg and foot has been reduced to bone and stringy, bloody cartiledge -the result of stepping on a land mine.
I'm reminded of a Wired article on the Abu Ghraib photos that quotes a soldier saying:
"I cannot help but wonder upon reflection of the circumstances, how much longer we will be able to carry with us our digital cameras, or take photographs and document the experiences we have had."
How long, indeed?
Related article on gory war pics: Newssite shut down over war photos: Editor of Yellow Times decries 'censorship' of gruesome images
