Daily Kos Scoop -- BREAKING! -- US SOLDIERS EXECUTING GAY IRAQIS!

Wow! Pulitzer them!

Actually it's the Washington Blade

A fundraising event to benefit an LGBT community center in Lebanon last week took a surprise turn when stunned audience members were shown graphic photographs of beheaded corpses and images purportedly depicting U.S. soldiers preparing to execute gay Iraqis.

Two gay Iraqi refugees, who declined to use their real names, delivered a presentation at the Human Rights Campaign headquarters July 24 in which they detailed alleged abuses of fellow gay Iraqis while calling on their audience to donate funds to Helem, a Lebanon-based center that works to address the plight of LGBT people in the Middle East.

One of the Iraqis, who goes by the name “Hussam,” showed the audience of about 80 people gruesome images, including shots allegedly of a beheaded man who was gay and another of the victim’s twin brother grieving over the severed head.

While asserting that anti-gay violence in Iraq is often committed by Iraqis, Hussam also said U.S. service members were involved in anti-gay hostility.

For example, he said service members displayed signs in front of their barracks with the words “Fuck Off Fags.”

But the reaction from the audience turned from anger to shock when Hussam said U.S. service members had detained Iraqi civilians perceived to be gay and executed them.

He then showed an image of what appeared to be an American soldier standing in front of a small group of four or five kneeling naked men who were chained together. Hussam claimed the men were gay Iraqis and that he possessed images of their execution, which he did not show the audience.

Dana Beyer, a transgender activist and Chevy Chase, Md., resident who attended the event, said she was “appalled” by the images of the atrocities, but especially by the allegation that U.S. service members were murdering gay Iraqis.

“When it comes down to our armed services … who potentially have contributed to atrocities like that, I’m just appalled,” she said. “And I hope that we will pursue this through the government, through the State Department and through the Department of Defense because this just can’t be left standing.”

...

When confronted by a Blade reporter after the presentation, Hussam said he feared public disclosure of the photos would incite further violence in Iraq and refused to turn over copies of the images.

Uh-huh. The guy's fundraising among well-heeled liberal gays, peddling a story sure to open wallets, but he can't show you the photos, because, um, the photos are explosive.

The claims? Not explosive. The proof of those claims? Explosive.

The Washington Blade isn't super-duper culpable here as they are, as newspapers do, playing stenographer to someone making a claim. I'd have liked to have seen a bit more skepticism in the article, but, whatever.

The Daily Kossites on the other hand are ready to run with it.

I can't help but notice that the MSM is at a DEFCON 1 state of alert for any criticisms of the president -- Rush Limbaugh said this, Glen Beck said that.

But they never seem to note that their left-wing compatriots spend an awful lot of time maligning our troops -- "mak[in'] stuff up," as Sarah Palin correctly put it.

Nor do I remember the MSM having any particular troubles with Keith Olbermann calling Bush a "fascist" thirty times, nor the spate of assassination-fantasy films and books that became a cottage industry when Bush was President.

But call Obama a racist and it's a national emergency.

Thanks to Doc Holliday.

posted by Ace at 03:21 PM

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