The Place of Dead Roads

From the AP, Army Probes Complaints of Corpse Photos:

The Army is investigating complaints that soldiers posted photographs of Iraqi corpses on an Internet site in exchange for access to pornographic images on the site, officials said Tuesday.

An Islamic civil rights group said it wrote to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld objecting to the practice, which it said may violate international laws of war, and urging the Pentagon to bring it to an end.

"This disgusting trade in human misery is an insult to all those who have served in our nation's military," Arsalan Iftikhar, legal director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in his letter to Rumsfeld.

Bryan Whitman, a spokesman for Rumsfeld, said the Pentagon had recently become aware of Internet postings and is looking into it.

"Obviously, it is an unacceptable practice," Whitman said.

An Army spokesman, Col. Joseph Curtin, said the Criminal Investigation Division recently began investigating the matter on behalf of Lt. Gen. John Vines, commander of the Multinational Corps in Iraq.

Another Army spokesman, Paul Boyce, said later that the preliminary criminal inquiry determined, based on available evidence, that felony charges could not be pursued. But the matter, including the possibility of disciplinary action, was being handled in coordination with other military services, he said.

Many of the photos depict dismembered Iraqi corpses and body parts. Some also were submitted by soldiers in Afghanistan.

Just two examples (WARNING: VERY GRAPHIC AND DISTURBING)
Iraqi driver tryed [sic] to run a check-point
Warning This is Some Hardcore Shit - Not For The Squeamish
Here is the link to the forum in question (while it is still up?)Pictures From Iraq And Afghanistan - Gory

John Aravosis at AmericaBlog has been on this story like stink and flies on dead bodies. Here are his articles, in order:

• US soldiers allegedly trading pictures of dead Iraqis & Afghanis for porn
• Pentagon is aware of death-for-porn site and basically doesn't care
• The Hotline reports on military's new Do-It-Yourself Abu Ghraib scandal
• Great background on the military porn-for-death-photos scandal
• AP breaks military porn-for-death-photos scandal
• US Army has ALREADY concluded that they won't press charges against soldiers based on the death-photos-for-porn scandal. Gee that was fast.
• BREAKING: Army cancels probe of "war dead for porn" scandal