Military tightens use of electronic media

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon has tightened guidelines governing the use of photography, e-mail, Web logs, and other electronic media by US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, amid allegations that some soldiers snapped close-up photographs of corpses in Iraq and posted them on a pornographic website.

Senior Army officials said yesterday that criminal investigators have not been able to authenticate the photos or determine whether American troops snapped the gruesome scenes of mutilated corpses and provided them to an adult website -- which would clearly be a violation of the code of conduct and possibly the international laws of armed conflict.

The existence of the images was first reported in August by an Italian Web blogger and then this week by a small San Francisco alternative newspaper, the East Bay Express.

While no criminal inquiry has been opened, commanders are continuing to look into the matter to determine whether any disciplinary action is called for, officials said. The images provide little detail of the surroundings or easily identifiable features, and without evidence of a crime the military at this point can only pursue the case as one of possible conduct unbecoming of a soldier -- grounds for a dishonorable discharge from the military.

However, to avoid such violations in the future, commanders have updated the rules for using the Internet and other communications technologies such as digital cameras, which have captured the brutal reality on the ground in Iraq like perhaps no previous conflict.

A bulletin issued yesterday to US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan outlined new ''Internet security" guidelines. Among other things, the one-page memo warned troops against posting ''any photographs on any websites."

''Some soldiers continue to post sensitive information on the Internet and especially on their Web logs or online diaries," the bulletin said. Such violations ''needlessly place lives at risk and degrade the effectiveness of our operations."

The new guidelines were primarily designed to protect security of US military operations, the Army explained yesterday, noting that the advent of personal electronic communications has made it extremely difficult to keep a lock on the details of military operations and other data that could be useful to potential enemies.

The Pentagon has sought to provide soldiers with unprecedented access to electronic media in order to communicate with loved ones in the United States during their overseas tours. But such privileges have also been abused. In some cases they have led to major public relations disasters for the United States in the Muslim world, most notably when US prison guards at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison captured on the film the abuse of Iraq prisoners in 2003 and 2004.

If authenticated, the latest allegations could prove to be another setback for the Bush administration in the battle of images in the war on terrorism.

The photographs were allegedly posted by American troops on a pornographic website in return for free access to the pornographic images. Among the images are soldiers posing with a charred corpse, depictions of body parts, organs, and mutilated corpses. One shows smiling soldiers standing over what appears to be a badly burned corpse, with the caption ''Cooked Iraqi." Another appears to show a bloody pulp where a driver's head used to be.

Army spokesman Paul Boyce said such photography by US troops would be ''unacceptable." But he said determining the authenticity of the photos may prove extremely difficult because they were posted anonymously and it is not clear where they were taken.

However, the operator of the website in question, Chris Wilson, has been contacted ''and we're trying to sort it out," Boyce said. Wilson, who lives in Florida, did not return several messages yesterday.

Meanwhile, President Bush warned yesterday that insurgent violence could rise in Iraq in advance of the planned Oct. 15 referendum on a new Iraqi constitution. After meeting in Washington yesterday with his top commanders in Iraq, Generals John Abizaid and George Casey, Bush said that ''we can expect [insurgents will] do everything in their power to try to stop the march of freedom. And our troops are ready for it."

He also expressed new confidence in the ability of Iraqi security forces to take on more responsibility in battling the insurgency.

''The growing size and increasing capability of the Iraqi security forces are helping our coalition address the challenge we have faced since the beginning of the war," Bush said.

However, Casey, the top US commander in Iraq, yesterday backed away from his prediction that a substantial pullout of US troops could begin by next spring.

Casey repeatedly has said ''fairly substantial" troop withdrawals could happen after parliamentary balloting in December, if the political process stayed on track, if the insurgency did not expand, and if the training of Iraqi security forces continued as planned.

After the commanders met with senators, reporters asked Casey whether he still believed that to be the case, given current conditions in Iraq.

''I think right now we're in a period of a little greater uncertainty than when I was asked that question back in July and March," Casey said. ''Until we're done with this political process here with the referendum and the elections in December, I think it's too soon to tell," Casey said.

Bender can be reached at bender@globe.com. Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.