In a message dated 4/12/04 5:17:00 PM Central Daylight Time, 
[log in to unmask] writes:
> 
> RESERVIST UNDER INVESTIGATION FOR CLAIMS IN IMAGE
> Laura Bailey, Marine Corps Times, 4/9/04
> http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-2810106.php
> 
> An Islamic civil liberties group has called for a Pentagon investigation 
> into an apparent gag photograph of a Marine in Iraq taken during the last 
> year.
> 
> In the photo, a smiling Lance Cpl. Ted J. Boudreaux Jr. is standing next to 
> two Iraqi boys. All three have their thumbs up as one of the boys holds a 
> cardboard sign that reads "Lcpl Boudreaux killed my Dad, th[en] he knocked 
> up my sister!"
> 
> The photo has been circulating around the Internet for at least a month.
> 
> On April 2, a Muslim upset by the image e-mailed the photo to the 
> Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations. The organization, 
> which describes itself as America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, 
> promptly issued a press release calling for an investigation, said 
> organization spokesman Ibrahim Hooper.
> 
> "We're asking 'was it legitimate, what were the circumstances, did this guy 
> do these crimes or was it a joke?'" Hooper said April 5.
> 
> In the April 2 release, the council called on the Defense Department to 
> take action "to let military personnel know that such behavior harms 
> America's image and will not be tolerated."
> 
> "If the United States Army is seeking to win the hearts and minds of the 
> Iraqi people, this is the wrong way to accomplish that goal," stated 
> council executive director Nihad Awad in the release...
> 
> Boudreaux is a reservist with Headquarters and Service Company, 3rd 
> Battalion, 23rd Marines, according to Capt. Jeff Pool, a Marine Forces 
> Reserve spokesman. The New Orleans-based infantry unit deployed to the Kut 
> area of Iraq in May and returned home in mid-September.
> 
> Pool said the command began an investigation shortly after it received the 
> photo via e-mail several weeks ago.
> 
> Investigating officers have spoken with Boudreaux and are working to 
> determine whether the claims on the sign are true and what, if any, charges 
> to bring against him, Pool said. Investigation results were not expected to 
> be released for another week or two, Marines Forces Reserve spokesman Capt. 
> Patrick Kerr said April 8.
> 
> One Arab-American Marine who teaches culture to fellow military personnel 
> called the photo “deplorable” and said such behavior is a serious issue to 
> be addressed.
> 
> Gunnery Sgt. Jamal Baadani, the president and founder of the Association of 
> Patriotic Arab Americans in Military, is on a one-year tour in the Middle 
> East. There, he gives cultural lessons to newly assigned personnel and is 
> Chief of Host Nation Training Support Coordination.
> 
> “This picture and sign directed towards a Muslim family is inexcusable,” he 
> 
> said via e-mail. “Inexcusable because if this lance corporal was given a 
> basic class on Islam, he would have known that remarks such as ‘knocking 
> up’ a Muslim Arab woman is not tolerated and violates the honor of a Muslim 
> woman and her family...
> 
> SEE ALSO:
> 
> U.S. MUSLIMS SEEK PENTAGON PROBE ON IRAQ PHOTO
> http://www.cair-net.org/asp/article.asp?id=1058&page=NR

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