Nick Turse

Vietnam: “A Marine from 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines, moves a Viet Cong suspect to the rear during a search and clear operation held by the battalion 15 miles west of Da Nang Air Base.: 08/03/1965”

(It’s strange how much this “Viet Cong suspect” resembles an old man.)

Over the course of the Vietnam War, tens if not hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese were detained by U.S. and allied South Vietnamese forces. For some it was only a minor inconvenience: they were held for a few hours, questioned, and then released. Some were forced to spend a day baking in the sun, often with a burlap sack over their heads, but still escaped relatively unscathed. For many other Vietnamese, though, being detained would quickly turn into a nightmare ordeal of slaps, punches, kicks, sexual assaults, electric shocks, and the “water-rag” treatment or water torture — known today as waterboarding.

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Treating the wounds

During the ~~North Vietnamese Army’s~~ Vietnamese Revolutionary forces’ surprise 1968 Tet Offensive, a fierce battle raged in the city of Hue. Pitting ~~North Vietnamese regulars~~ members of the People’s Army of Vietnam (or more colloquially, the Vietnamese People’s Army) and ~~Vietcong~~ fighters from the People’s Liberation Armed Forces against ~~South Vietnamese Army~~ troops of the Republic of Vietnam and U.S. Marines, the month-long battle ended in defeat for the attackers and much suffering for civilians in the battered city. This photograph from February 6, 1968, shows D.R. Howe treating the wounds of Private First Class D.A. Crum.

Photograph of Soldiers at Hue City, 02/06/1968

Edits to text by NT

(via Ted Rall)

reuters:

Marines probe video of men urinating on Taliban corpses

The Marine Corps said on Wednesday it would investigate a video showing what appear to be American forces in Afghanistan urinating on the bodies of dead Taliban fighters.

Images of US Marines, and agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency and Afghan National Interdiction Unit raid narcotics labs in Afghanistan’s Nimruz province as part of an effort to interdict heroin trafficking. — US Marines and agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency and Afghan National Interdiction Unit, raid narcotics labs in Afghanistan’s Nimruz province as part of an effort to combat the heroin trade.

After arresting men suspected of narco-trafficking, US and Afghan forces give the detainees a drink out of a teapot. — US Marines and agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency and Afghan National Interdiction Unit, raid narcotics labs in Afghanistan’s Nimruz province as part of an effort to combat the heroin trade.

An Afghan agent arrests three men suspected of producing narcotics. — US Marines and agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency and Afghan National Interdiction Unit, raid narcotics labs in Afghanistan’s Nimruz province as part of an effort to combat the heroin trade.

The strange case of the Marine pilot who may have stolen nearly a half-million dollars - Battleland - TIME.com »

The U.S. government says that when it flooded occupied Iraq with crisp new $100 bills, Maj. Mark Richard Fuller helped himself to some of the funds. Time magazine chronicles the exploits of this (not-so) smooth (alleged) criminal:

“After Fuller returned from Iraq, he began depositing large quantities of brand new $100 United States currency notes, into various bank accounts controlled by him,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Raymond K. Woo alleged in the May 11, 2010, indictment. “Between October 5, 2005, and April 3, 2006, Fuller made 91 cash deposits, totaling over $440,000.00…” into his accounts at local branches of the Bank of America, Chase Bank, and the Navy Federal Credit Union. All were less than the $10,000 that requires banks to report large cash deposits to federal authorities. “In many cases, the defendant would make several cash deposits, under $10,000 each, on the same day to different banks,” Woo added in Fuller’s Jan. 4 sentencing memo. “Some of these deposits would be made within fifteen minutes of each other.”

When a Navy Federal teller asked him about the source of the money as he made a November 2005 deposit, he told her that “he was selling a family member’s personal property and that this was the last cash deposit he would make.” (The teller told authorities that she “had observed other cash deposits made by the defendant and noted that the deposits were all in $100 uncirculated bills.”) After being questioned by the teller about the source of the money, Fuller “immediately opened checking…and money market savings accounts…at Bank of America on November 29, 2005, and a checking account…at Chase bank on December 9, 2005.”

NBC: 2 US servicemen killed by friendly fire

NBC reports that a U.S. Marine and a Navy corpsman were killed when a drone pilot, presumably sitting at a base in the United States, fired a Hellfire missile at them.

The strike, requested by Marines involved in a firefight, killed Marine Staff Sgt. Jeremy Smith and Navy Corpsman Benjamin Rast, who were attempting to reinforce those Marines.

Photo credit: USAF