A day after the Pentagon accused Al Jazeera of being 'irresponsible and inappropriate' for broadcasting the 'hunt for Jesus' in Afghanistan footage, the network releases unedited tapes.
Hours after Al Jazeera first broadcast a video showing US soldiers in Afghanistan being instructed by the military's top chaplain in the country to "hunt people for Jesus" as they spread Christianity to the overwhelmingly Muslim population, the Pentagon shot back. It charged that Al Jazeera had "grossly misrepresent[ed] the truth." Col. Greg Julian, told Al Jazeera: "Most of this is taken out of context ... this is irresponsible and inappropriate journalism."
Now, Al Jazeera and the man who filmed the controversial material are striking back. The network has just released unedited and unaltered footage (see below) of US soldiers in 'bible study' in Afghanistan. Jazeera describes it as "Extended footage shot by Brian Hughes, a US documentary maker and former member of the US military who spent several days in Bagram near Kabul."
In Al Jazeera's original report, Hughes addressed the fact that soldiers had imported bibles translated into Pashto and Dari. "[US soldiers] weren't talking about learning how to speak Dari or Pashto, by reading the Bible and using that as the tool for language lessons," Hughes told Al Jazeera. "The only reason they would have these documents there was to distribute them to the Afghan people. And I knew it was wrong, and I knew that filming it ... documenting it would be important."
Regarding allegations that the sermon of the military's top chaplain in Afghanistan, Lieutenant-Colonel Gary Hensley, where he instructs soldiers to "hunt people for Jesus" was taken out of context, Hughes said in a statment, "Any contention by the military that his words are purposefully taken out of context to alter the tone or meaning of his sermon is absolutely false."
Hughes is completely standing by the accuracy of Al Jazeera's report. Here is Hughes's statement:
On Sunday, May 3, the Al Jazeera English network and I made an agreement to produce a broadcast segment from a rough cut of my documentary film. This opportunity came after a May 2009 Harper's magazine cover story called "Jesus Killed Mohammed." While he researched and prepared that article, I allowed the author Jeff Sharlet to view the work-in-progress documentary. Sharlet's article brought the film to Al Jazeera English's attention.
My documentary, titled The Word and the Warriors, is inspired by a personal experience I had while serving as a combat flight crew member during the first Gulf War. During a very difficult and emotional time at war, an Army chaplain provided me comfort and counsel. I will never forget the important advice or the man who - without questioning my own faith - helped me at a time of need.
For two-and-a-half years, I have been researching and producing this film. I have traveled the world, interviewing both military servicemembers and civilians about the important role of these religious leaders/military officers.
During April/May 2008, I went to Afghanistan. With the assistance and full cooperation of the U.S. Army, I was allowed to film at Bagram Air Field. During that time, I was always wearing press credentials, and I was always accompanied by a media liaison while filming. The media liaison staff knew everything I filmed and - as I was told by them - they filed reports every evening about what I had filmed. It was my primary media liaison, an Army NCO, who - on my first day - invited me to meet LTC Gary Hensley. Hensley, the ranking chaplain in Afghanistan talked to me off camera expressing a concern he had about allowing me to film his chaplains. At the conclusion of the discussion, he agreed that I would be allowed to embed with his chaplains and invited me to film several hours of religious services.
Those hours at the Enduring Faith Chapel included his own sermon at a service called Chapel Next. With the exception of a few minutes I could not film because I was reloading my camera or moving to position for another shot, I videotaped Hensley's entire sermon.
Any contention by the military that his words are purposefully taken out of context to alter the tone or meaning of his sermon is absolutely false...
In recent press statements, the military also contends that - in the footage depicting the Afghan-language (Dari and Pashto) bibles - a cut was made before "it would have shown that the chaplain instructed that the Bibles not be distributed." This is a false statement. The chaplain - as seen in the footage before the cut - instructs the group to be careful and reiterates the definition of General Order #1. After this cut he begins to organize the group for the evening's bible study lessons.
Finally, and in my opinion most important, is the fact that EVERY FRAME of the rough cut from Bagram was provided to the U.S. Army Public Affairs Office in advance of this release. On Thursday, April 30 at approximately 1 pm EST, the Army took possession of a DVD with this footage by accepting a FedEx from me. Since Al Jazeera English first aired the piece Sunday, May 3 at 10pm EST, the Army had every frame of this rough cut for more than 80 hours.
Read more of Jeremy Scahill's work at RebelReports.com
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My post today at Daily Kos talks about how Evangelical beliefs obligate this kind of behavior: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/5/8/729334/-Bibles-in-Afghanistan:-They-had-to.
http://www.christianaggression.org/features_bush.php
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_n9_v113/ai_18118934/
thanks,
http://victimofprejudice.blogspot.com/
This will serve as a strong tool to recruit terrorists.
It's time we get an "Internal Affairs" for the military that is independent of the military.
When a government puts a weapon in your hand and tells you to shoot, the government is liable.
We can't alow renegade actors to destroy our military and national security.
al-Qaeda and the Taliban will use this as a key piece of propaganda and the real fault lies with those in our Military who took it upon themselves to re start the Crusades, and possibly all for the sake of bring on the Apocalypse and their mythical heretical Rapture...!
Conversion and any such talk of it in a Muslim nation not to focus on bibles in their native language is enough to turn even the most moderate Muslims who hate the Taliban against us over night...!
This could be almost as bad if not worse for our acceptance and well being of our troops and their intruding into their culture and countries as was abu Ghraib...!
When it rains it pours, we kill 100-120 Afghan civilians many women and children apparently, and then are caught with bibles in their language and a declaration of a holy war "hunt" for converts and they dare do this in the name of Jesus, which really p----- me off...!
I don't want my tax dollars going to support a country that does not allow freedom of religion.
It's understandable that we would have a Christian military, but like others, I have a real problem with having an aggressive evangelical military. Apparently this is widespread and aggresive. These people don't understand or respect the separation of church and state.
It's understandable that occupied populations would see our soldiers as crusaders, and unfortunatly these zealots represent America.
It absoluely is not understandable. It is understandable that many members of the military are, personally, Christian, but the military itself, like all organs of the state, has a constitutional obligation to be a secular organization. These people who are doing these things should be stripped of rank and pension, shipped to the brig for a while, then dishonorably discharged, because that is what this evil practice of prostilization is; dishonorable.