Child porn charges for guardsman in Afghanistan
The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Jan 15, 2010 14:56:21 EST
GALESBURG, Ill. — An Illinois National Guard soldier in Afghanistan has been charged by the Army with possessing child pornography over pictures of a young relative his mother says she sent him.
Terri Miller of Galesburg says she sent her son, Spc. Billy Miller, pictures of the little girl to help him get over his homesickness.
The pictures show the child in a swimsuit playing a wading pool and sitting on a truck. In one, the girl is wearing a swim suit and part of her buttocks are exposed.
The Army says Miller will stay in Afghanistan until his court-martial. His unit came home last August. Miller faces jail time, if convicted.
Terri Miller says the pictures are innocent. She says her son is close to the girl.
obviously there’s more to the story… maybe he was caught jerking off to the pictures or something.
reminds me of a picture a guy in my unit received of his 7 year old daughter. apparently she was into gymnastics or something- she was wearing short shorts and the way her legs were spread, you could basically see all the way up them. i don’t know if it was too much worse than you see when they wear those gym tights they perform in, but the way the shorts rode up made it seem really graphic. he taped it to his wall locker, and i said something like “damn, dude… that’s almost porn.” he looked at it, his brow furrowed up, he cocked his head to the side a bit, scrunched up his face, and took it back down. i guarantee that pic was more graphic than any bathing suit pic- and it was totally innocent… just a really bad shot.
i never put pictures up… never seemed wise to hang pictures of wives and sisters and daughters up around a bunch of depraved infantrymen.
I treasure my son’s childhood in every way. I want to remember all aspects of what our life is like during this precious time. At 6, his innocence sustains me.
I always fill his bath with suds and toys and delight in watching him play as I did at his age. A mainstay of childhood. I have taken some pictures of him bathing when he was 3 or 4, but then erased a few if they seemed too revealing.
This never because I feel bad about it, I know where my head is. Only because I feared some bizarre accusation under some even more bizarre circumstance. No guilt involved, just caution.
Kind of like not walking around carrying your AR with the windows wide open in a neighborhood. Not committing a crime by any means, but possibly asking for trouble nonetheless.
i’m guessing it’s got something to do with sharia law… as far as I know, UCMJ defers to US code on matters like this, and a child in a bathing suit in a swimming pool doesn’t fit USC 18 definitions for child pornography, unless she’s in an explicitly sexual pose (in which case it certainly could fit the criteria).
i bet it’s got something to do with sharia law… either that or we’re just not getting the full story.
What does Sharia Law have to do with a “Illinois National Guard soldier in Afghanistan has been charged by the Army”?
He has been charged by the Army, Sharia Law should not have anything to do with it. Furthermore he is a member of the US military and not subject to Sharia Law no matter where he is.
As for “more to the story”, I did address that earlier. If there is more, then that should be what he is being charged with. Based upon all the information in the story, this is some Grade A Horseshit.
You mean like the Navy isn’t dumb enough to prosecute SEALS for punching a terrorist who mutilated Americans? Personally I think there’s a race to see who can come up with the most ridiculous and outrageous prosecution. Wonder what the prize is.
There was a movie on Lifetime this weekend about just such an instances. They zoomed in and cropped photos that a family friend took and the cop just wouldn’t let it go and blew it all out and ruined a family financially and emotional.
A coworker of mine got into a BOATLOAD of trouble one day with some dive students gearing up to start their first dive. He was making sure everybody’s gear was in order, and clipped secure a sternum strap ( that goes across the chest) on a 12 year old girl that was a little nervous. I thought her dad was going to rip his head off, went as far as involving the police. He didn’t take it further once the rest of the class said my coworker didn’t even physically touch her.
If they weren’t throwing the book at him, there would be room in prisons for actual child rapists. We need some prosecutorial triage, IE; once they’ve spent the maximum amount of time and money on really bad guys (committing actual crimes, personally hurting people) then they can move on down the line to other classes of criminals.
This doesn’t even warrant a Saturday worth of detention with the breakfast club.
The Army has gone around the bend on correctness (Ft. Hood and the whitewash of a rerport). In the interest of correctness, Army leadership has lost the ability to think. The higher the rank, the bigger the problem.
Be wary, the family is trying to try this issue in the press. When this happens there is always an agenda, don’t get confused by the smoke and mirrors. I believe the family did send some “innocent” photos. I doubt that these photos are at the heart of the young specialists current legal woes. One or two “borderline” photos does not garner a lot of prosecution interest. Photos of children engaged in sexual acts with adults will. I believe the kid had a lot more photos on his laptop than the family knows about and the army is willing to admit at this time.