Webmaster for site with Iraqi corpse pics accused of obscenity

[sabra]

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051008/APN/510080702&cachetime=3&template=dateline

Webmaster for site with Iraqi corpse pics accused of obscenity

Associated Press Writer

A man who runs a pornographic Web site that includes pictures of Iraqi war dead has been arrested on sexual obscenity charges.

Chris Wilson, a 27-year-old former policeman from Lakeland, was taken into custody Friday night on one felony and 300 misdemeanor indecency counts unrelated to the grisly pictures from Iraq. The charges come a week after his site made national news and launched a Pentagon investigation into how war zone photos of charred and dismembered bodies described as victims of U.S. attacks could have surfaced.

Polk County sheriff's officials said he was charged because the Web site also features sexually explicit pictures and videos that users send of women who are supposedly their wives and girlfriends - including those who appear to be active-duty soldiers.

Sheriff's officials insist the charges are unrelated to the Iraq pictures, but Wilson's lawyer, Lawrence Walters, disagreed.
"Of all the hundreds of thousands of webmasters in the country, and even in central Florida, why would Chris Wilson be arrested a week after he hits national spotlight news on the Iraqi war photos?" said Walters, a First Amendment specialist. "I think any reasonable person would be suspicious of that.

[tuvor]

1. Shooting the messenger.

Or are there actually plans to also arrest the people who're providing the content?

Last I heard, the Pentagon wasn't interested.

[bpilgrim]

30. Is GlobalFreePress.com next?

http://GlobalFreePress.com

peace

[Poll_Blind]

2. VERY interesting...

I'm suprised that he's been arrested on obscenity charges. Maybe I didn't read the article carefully enough. I don't get what was obscene...pictures of the violence or the nudity or their propinquity?

Unless I'm missing something, as I stated earlier, I'm unsure what was considered obscene. I mean, I was researching the Rape of Nanking several days ago and I guarantee nothing on that site is close to images of what the Japanese did to the Chinese.

Should arrest those who provide historical references of that nature? How about the holocaust?

Just some thoughts...

onedit:Looks like it was the nude pictures. Oh well...I guess it's time to march out my old maxim "Violence is obscene, the human body is not"

PB

[Eric J in MN]

5. The sheriff's office says it was for pornography,

but the lawyer of the man in jail asks, "“Of all the hundreds of thousands of webmasters in the country, and even in central Florida, why would Chris Wilson be arrested a week after he hits national spotlight news on the Iraqi war photos?

[guruoo]

27. Why you ask?

[Eric J in MN]

3. I added this to SpeakSpeak News

in response to your post.

It's a blog about Free Speech.

www.speakspeak.org

[IndianaGreen]

4. So porn is okay, but posting pics of our Iraqi victims is not!

That's why he was arrested, not the porn, but because he showed the whole world that the crimes and abuses of Abu Ghraib are not confined to a handful of reservists, but it is systemic all over Iraq.

[Poll_Blind]

6. It's exactly opposite of what they stated but you're 100% right.

Fuckers can't bear for US citizens to see what their tax dollars are actually up to over seas.

PB

[sarcasmo]

25. Porn will be illegal by 2015 IMHO.

The Christian Taliban is making a hard push to do away with porn. If we have eight more years of Reich wing rule after MR Danger, say good bye to porn.

[RebelOne]

35. And rightly so, it should be.

I am not a prude, but with Internet access so available to our children, porn should not be allowed on the Internet.

[sarcasmo]

36. Looks like you must belong to the Christian Taliban.

You keep an eye on what your children watch and see on the internet. If as an adult I wish to view porn I should have that right.

[sendero]

40. I can pull up...

... 5,000,000 porn sites in no time at all.

This is why vague bullshit laws like "obscenity" and "indecency" need to be eliminiated. They are merely tools of official oppression.

[Poll_Blind]

7. BTW, I'm pretty sure they nabbed him because he did not have...

...a particular form showing that the nude pictures were from women/men over the age of 18. I can't remember what the form is but I believe that all porn sites have to keep records on file of whomever they push photographs of showing they were over or at the legal age.

PB

[SOS]

38. Makes sense

Busting him on the unfiled record (if true) makes sense. The lewd photos and the dead Iraqis are probably not the issue here. The site creates a PR problem for the Pentagon.
The photos and messages are not the image this administration wants the world to see.
Bush and Rummy prefer the Iraq fantasy presented on Fox News.

[henslee]

8. Think I I found the site with a quick google search. Great hi res pix

of ied blown up jeep, raw nudie shots of female enlistees, misc. buddy shots of guys. Site gives you an honest sense of military culture/whats going on there.

[guruoo]

29. is this it?

thatsjustnotright.com

[clown]

31. think

im pretty sure its www.nowthatsfuckedup.com

[MrBenchley]

9. So dead and mutilated Iraqis are okay, but not tits and ass....

That's Alabama, all right.

[Dunvegan]

10. And There's That Sudden and Odd Administration "War on Porn"...

...announced very shortly after this "porn for war pix" site was highlighted in the media.

A War on Porn gives the g'ment the greenlight to do this particular action, it seems.

[MrBenchley]

11. Locking the barn door after the horse has been killed and mutilated...

I'm not going to weep bitter tears that this odious site has been shut down...instead I'll just jeer at the hypocritical and iditoic way ti was done.

[madfloridian]

12. That county has a faith-based sheriff's department and jail.

They have baptisms in the jail, with people coming for miles to take part in the ceremonies at the faith-based dorm.

While I don't like what this guy was doing, he doggone sure picked the wrong county in which to do it.

I think he is being charged for violating county moral standards, could be wrong.

I really don't see how they bring him down and not go after a lot more sites. That is the part that worries me. I don't like what he does, but who gets to draw the lines?

[HuffleClaw]

13. ...his site made national news and launched a Pentagon Investigation...

thats it in a nutshell. and thus continues the crushing of dissent in all its forms, be it a t-shirt, piece of artwork, a schoolchild's poster...

[guruoo]

14. War-dead Web site leads to Polk obscenity arrest

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/southwest/orl-obscene08_105oct08,0,5162765,print.story?coll=orl-home-headlines

War-dead Web site leads to Polk obscenity arrest

Anthony Colarossi | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted October 8, 2005

Polk County officials arrested a Lakeland man on obscenity charges Friday after investigating his graphic Web site, which has gained international attention for allowing U.S. soldiers to post pictures of war dead on the Internet.

The charges against Christopher Michael Wilson, a former police officer, are likely to reignite the debate about obscene material in the Internet age. It also raises questions about whether the federal government played a part in motivating the prosecution. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said late Friday that the 300 obscenity-related charges against Wilson all involve sexual content on his Web site -- and not graphic war-scene images posted by soldiers.
<snip>
Late last week, U.S. Army officials said they could not confirm whether photographs on Wilson's Web site, presumably showing Iraqi and Afghan war dead, were actually posted by U.S. soldiers.

Wilson, 27, was letting soldiers access normally paid portions of his site in exchange for graphic war-scene shots or proof that they were fighting in the Middle East, for instance. Late Friday, Wilson's site, which the Orlando Sentinel will not name, still had grisly images of war dead.

[merwin]

15. Welcome to the united police states of america

[populistdriven]

19. united corporate police states of america (I fixed it for ya)

[babylonsister]

16. I'm glad he got arrested; the pix were disgusting! nt

[Fleshdancer]

17. But he was arrested for the porn, not for the war pics n/t

[uniden]

18. I find your post disgusting, yet I don't hope that you get arrested.

freedom of speech

[merwin]

21. It's a blatent first amendment violation though.

Although you may not agree with the website or the content, he is not breaking any laws by letting soldiers post pictures of dead people.

[Tempest]

33. He wasn't arrested for the Iraq pictures

How is it a 1st amendment violation?

Local obscenity laws have been found to be constitutional.

[drduffy]

20. If you are glad he got arrested you are missing the point of America, no

offense intened.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

22. It's a distraction, but he may deserve some support.

[Geo55]

23. Yep.....them boobies & genitalia shots are the problem ,

NOT the OBSCENE pictorial proof of what really happens over there.

Doesn't surprise me at all....and that is sad.

[spooked]

24. Does anyone have a link?

I remember visiting but can't think of the address now.

[sabra]

26. all the info here:

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/09/us-soldiers-allegedly-trading-pictures.html

[Neil Lisst]

28. So a local sheriff who hates America and the first amendment ...

We are a country full of law enforcement which values order but not law. They don't understand that the constitution is the law of the land. It's not illegal to show pictures of some soldier's wife, or to show war dead, or to talk about those things.

Only goosestepping brownshirts think like that. They don't understand who really died for this country, who really made the sacrifices so we could our freedoms. They disrespect the constitution, and they dishonor every soldier who ever died for this country.


------
Neil Lisst progressive comic
http://www.webcomicsnation.com/neillisst/

[Tempest]

32. Local obscenity laws were found to be constitutional

Try another tact.

[johnny_yuma]

34. Webmaster for site with Iraqi corpse pics accused of obscenity"

This is justfuckedup...all in time for "Porn Sunday"

http://www.messedup.net/freechris/

[YouthInAsia]

37. I dont get how thats allowed. I've seen some stuff on the internet

that would literally make you jump out a window. The pics on his site, albeit graphic, were NOTHING compared to some of the crap I've come across. What happened to the 1st ammendment in this country?

[barenakedbiker]

39. The Criminal Injustice System At Work

Chris Wilson is an arrogant son of a bitch. But, he's entitled to the First Amendment. Does anyone believe free speech exists in America anymore?