Just found out that Piers Morgan's brother is in the army and serving in Basra! Just shows the lengths he'll go to for a catchy front page. I wonder what he thinks about the bounties that have been placed on the heads of British soldiers as a result of his newspaper...

[ 05-15-2004, 02:26 PM: Message edited by: shamrock_uk ]

doesnt matter shamrock, he made a buck for the corporation. i wouldnt be surprised if they payed him a hefty sum to take the fall for their money making venture... after all, they get to sell two stories: abuse AND scandal, even if its their own, it'll still sell.

i wonder how many front page stories a soul goes for these days?

The 'prisoner' was probably another TA soldier. I can't believe the Mirror couldn't see the pictures were fake!

The 'prisoner' was probably another TA soldier. I can't believe the Mirror couldn't see the pictures were fake! </font>[/QUOTE]There were only two things that struck me about the photos - one was that the webbing was incorrectly worn (no regular army personnel could make such a basic mistake) and the soldiers arms looked more like an office worker than a soldiers.

In the former, I guess you need some military experience to spot - a lot of my non-army friends couldn't spot the difference - and I guess that most journalists wouldn't have much of an army career behind them. And the second suspicion (obvious and out of place to me), seems like pure conjecture to others.

Furthermore, the pictures were not delivered anonymously - but by serving TA members (and many TA units have been to and still are in Iraq) - including the unit from which these soldiers hailed from. The newspaper did check out their TA status/identities and therefore they had no reason to believe that they were fake.

That does not (of course) excuse the newspaper for not conducting a fuller investigation and getting the opinion of a military expert.

[ 05-16-2004, 12:13 PM: Message edited by: Skunk ]

From a purely photographic point of view they are obviousl staged. There is no movement in the pictures at all. A rifle butt in the family jewels would cause any man to recoil.

And apparentlty you can't 'pee' in droplets.