When gay Iraqi refugee Hussam (a pseudonym) told attendees of a fundraiser that he has photos of American soldiers torturing and executing LBGTs there, it set off a growing shitstorm of disbelief and inquiry. Especially since Hussam wouldn’t turn over the photos. But that doesn’t mean the U.S. military isn’t looking into things.
Hussam’s unseen photos caught the attention of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigative Command, relays the Washington Blade. Congressional gay Barney Frank is reportedly looking into the allegations as well.
Determining whether the photos exist appears to be Step One. Determining what they actually depict (read: How does one ascertain the people featured in the photos were, in fact, gay?) is also a top priority.
And without making the evidence public, or even providing the photos to military investigators, Hussam is generating his share of skeptics (including London-based advocacy organization Iraqi LGBT), especially since the claims were made during a fundraiser; what better way to generate cash to help Middle Eastern refugees than with tales of gross atrocities? But given the U.S. military’s wanton ways with Iraqis before, the notion that servicemen mistreated civilians isn’t outside the realm of possibilities. Executing them because they’re gay, however, is a stretch.
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The U.S. State Department only recently began singling out violence against Iraq’s gays as something it “condemns.” But while the U.S. military stands to be shamed if Hussam’s allegations are true, organizations that co-sponsored the fundraiser he appeared at — including Human Rights Watch, the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission, the National LGBT Bar Association, and the Human Rights Campaign, whose headquarters hosted the event — will get slapped with a red mark for welcoming Hussam and his “over-exaggerated” allegations, and giving his version of crazy a platform, if he’s been lying.
(Photo via)
Brian
RELIGION strikes again.
Elisabeth
This seems a little extreme to be believed. Muslim countries are (to the best of my knowledge) the only ones which still execute or even physically punish homosexuality as a matter of law.
I’ve honestly never heard a call to execute homosexuals from a Western Christian, no matter how fire-and-brimstone fundamentalist. Even if the troops involved were among the small number of Muslims in the U.S. armed forces, they would still have to be full-blown fundamentalists and thus unlikely to be in our military in the first place.
Brian
@Elisabeth: RELIGION has for 2,000 years made homosexuality wrong. That is an undeniable truth. That definition of homosexuals creates the hatred and bigotry. It doesn’t matter if it is shouted or whispered, that is what religion teaches and what people believe.
You can sit in a Church with a rainbow flag, but remember that Churches doctrine STILL condemns homosexuality. It makes many of wonder why a homosexual would even be there, in the place that created ALL the pain and suffering experienced by homosexuals.
Christians, Muslims and Judaism all “officially” make homosexuals “wrong, sinners, deviant and dangerous.” Hanging up a rainbow flag or ordaining a Bishop named Vicki-Gene doesn’t change the BELIEF. That BELIEF is the ENEMY.
Brian
@Elisabeth: By the way Elisabeth, it was a Mormon that tied Matthew Shepherd to a fence and a Baptist the beat him to DEATH. Those are “Christians,” right?
Remind me why YOU are a Christian?
redherring
@Elisabeth:
what an ignorant generalization that only a small-minded american could make based on limited news clips!
um, ever heard of that one continent… yeah, africa? many of its nations (besides those in n. africa and the west where, ironically, some residents were stolen and converted.. many are now bigoted lower-class americans) have very large christian populations. hrw reports actually note no difference b/t levels of homophobia amongst christians and muslims.
most of these nations are generally NOT gay-friendly, despite the magical, zombie blood of “jesus” in nations like nigeria and angola, for instance. being non-developed, misogynist places has allowed the hateful, heteronormative message of christianity to flourish. i know: 1.) the truth hurts. 2.) mommy and daddy were off about jesus, honey.
jjm16
@ 1,3, 4, 5: ditto
feisty, smart, atheist bitches. me like! lol
hyhybt
@Brian: I cannot speak for Elisabeth, of course, but to answer the question for myself: “Remind me why YOU are a Christian?” I believe that it is true that God exists, and that his son Jesus died and was resurrected; by definition that makes me a Christian. Neither my being attracted to men rather than women, nor my disagreeing with the majority of Christians about what homosexuality even *is*, much less whether it is sin*, even relates to that logically. It just makes it harder to find a church, especially in rural Georgia.
*logically I, along with the vast majority of posters here, have better information than straight people on what it is to be gay… but of course logic isn’t good enough 🙂
TANK
Logic isn’t good enough for you, either. As the there’s a logical contradiction in your very conception of god as a 3-O world creator (the god that christians worship). It’s called the logical problem of evil.
hyhybt
I don’t know why I’m bothering to reply, but that problem has been solved long ago. The fact that you don’t like the solution doesn’t invalidate it.
TANK
@hyhybt:
Um, it’s a conversation opener. No, it has not been solved. It’s one of the persistent problems that has plagued christianity (islam and judaism, and all faiths which affirm the existence of the 3-O world creator) since its inception. The problem itself predates christianity and was phrased accordingly by Epicurus. It has not been solved. It’s not that I don’t like the solution–it’s that the solutions don’t work. I don’t what’s true or what’s false, and neither do you–nor do I determine invalid from valid arguments (and those arguments are invalid on purely logical grounds).
TANK
@TANK:
I don’t decide an invalid argument from a valid one, rather. I have no control over that.
Bill Perdue
@Elisabeth:
My guess is that Elizabeth’s closet is selectively sound proofed.
Elizabeth never heard of My Lai and all the other massacres in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Elizabeth ‘forgot’ to remember that the USAF wantonly, deliberately bombed civilian working class districts of Panama City, killing thousands, to frighten Noriega supporters. She doesn’t know who killed a million or so Iraqis but Elizabeth’s sure that the very christian US military officer corps had nothing to do with it.
Elizabeth thinks it might have been rabid raccoons or something.
Elizabeth is so closeted from reality that she never heard pentecostal TV mega church evangelist Jimmy Swaggart saying
. And that he and hundreds of violence prone clerical bigots feel perfectly safe calling for violence because like Clinton, Bush and Obama and their supporters run the government. They know they’re untouchable because politicians are pandering to bigots to get elected.
She’s deaf to stories about ‘corrective rapes’ routinely inflicted on thousands of lesbians in South Africa. Often fatal, they’re unusually violent and include torture. “Corrective rape is a form of punishment inflicted on lesbians to ‘cure’ them of their sexual orientation.” It’s virtually state policy, even if unwritten because the SA President, Jacob Zuma, was himself charged with rape. His defense was “that the woman was wearing a loose skirt.” Like anti-GLBT murders in the US and the EU, these rape-murders aren’t ‘officially’ state policy but when he state turns a blind eye it empowers homohating thugs and woman hating rapists.
Elizabeth, still deaf and dumb, can’t seem to remember that as many as 220,000 (some give lesser figures of 10-15,000) gay men were murdered by the very christian Nazis with the support of the very christian German cults, reformed and catholic.
In the US the murder of GLBT folks is not enshrined in law. But it is promoted by cult and political leaders who revile us, preach hatred and tell their listeners that we’re second class citizens because “gawd’s in the mix” or who promote and sign bigoted laws like DADT and DOMA.
…..
Elizabeth’s vile racism is documented in her theory that Arabamerican soldiers are the only ones potentially responsible for murdering gays. She’s closed her ears to widespread reports of ultra-right christer officers and their dangerous influence on the US military.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8171
But Elizabeth’s never heard of that. She’s all ears when it comes to peddling lies about Arabamerican soldiers but when it comes to christer and state tolerated violence against GLBT folks Elizabeth is deaf and dumb.
Brian
@hyhybt: The only “truth” is that Religion is the source of ALL gay hatred and discrimination. Religion branded homosexuals as sinners, wrong and deviant. That includes you – it doesn’t matter if you believe the Jesus story, you’re in the club that makes us WRONG.
Yeah, it’s hard to find one of those friendly churches that welcome gays because there are only 3,400 in the US – out of 350,000 churches. That’s less than 1% of the churches after 2,000 years. That’s progress. At that rate it will be 98,000 years before HALF the churches are friendly. Color me logical, but shouldn’t ALL the Churches be friendly?
Remind me again why you are in love with Jesus and Christianity?
Kirk Simple
@Brian: To that I would add colonialism. East Asian and African cultures were very tolerant toward homosexuality before those Europeans came with their penal codes and social attitudes (probably influenced by religion). Gay people living a Christian lifestyle are in great contradiction.
Whydah
PLEASE shove your anti-God rhetoric.
This article is saying that someone is claiming that the notoriously homophobic U.S. MILITARY is doing the gay killing – not anyone’s religion.
What is with you people? Any time there is ANY attack on gays you think it MUST be for a religious cause. HELLO!!! Most people who are homophobic aren’t religious! Did you forget Hitler? Castro? Stalin? The governments of Uganda, Egypt, China, North Korea – all ATHEISTS? Stop being so ignorant.
Not all religious people are homophobic. Some of us have been fighting very hard to protect and defend the rights of gays. If YOU don’t want to be categorized and stereotyped – stop doing it to people of faith.
-Rev. Jim Cunningham
King James Bible Ministries
http://www.GayChristianSurvivors.com
romeo
@ whydah #15: Relax, Reverend, it keeps coming back to religion because the monotheistic religions are the root cause of homophobia. Gays were integrated and accepted in the ancient world. But, yes, you’re right. There are some religious people who are cool, but they seem to be fighting a strong headwind from the rest. Good for you if you’re not a hater, but our discontent is generally justified.
Whydah
To ROMEO #16 …
NONSENSE! Homophobia is a HETEROSEXUAL disease, not a religious disease. Heterosexuals, who are already homophobic, merely use religion to hide behind and defend their homophobia with. If no religion spoke against homosexuals, there would still be the same amount of homophobia. Homophobes don’t hate homosexuals because “GOD” said so, but because they are homophobes – and then they JUSTIFY their homophobia by saying that God is ALSO a homophobe. God (at least the God of the Bible) is not a homophobe. Men invented homophobia based on their heterosexist lusts. Notice that religious folks do not treat any other “sin” with such vicious and violent response as they do homosexuality, which proves that their homophobia is based on subjective emotion; it is not religiously based – and certainly not BIBLICALLY based.
But the point is that the accusation presnted in this article is about alleged crimes against gays by sick redneck heterosexist – not religious – military soldiers.