When Specialist Billy Miller an Illinois National Guardsman in Afghanistan complained about being homesick his mother, Terri Miller, sent him a picture of a little girl that he helped raise in a wading pool. One picture showed a buttocks exposed and Miller was promptly arrested for possession of child pornography.
When I first saw this story in the Post, I doubted its authenticity. While we have seem similar stories of utter stupidity in the states, I assumed that no military prosecutor would throw a soldier in the brig in Afghanistan on such a charge without a modicum of judgment or investigation. As is usually the case with such assumptions, I was wrong.
It turns that Miller helped take care of the girl when she was diagnosed with cancer when her real father was going through boot camp.
His mother is tearing herself apart over the charges: “I blame myself every day, every day, if I wouldn’t have sent the pictures he would be home.” No, Mrs. Miller, there is a lot of room for blame in this story, but none of it falls on you or your son. This story is a national disgrace.
He is now looking at ten years in jail.
Waynsster, Gangster,
Turley!
Do you not have any moderator for these comments? If not, shame on you!
***************
Why, cannot take the heat? Then don’t pack and stay away from the criminal element. Really now, isn’t it a condition of O;Keefe’s Bond that he not associate with or tamper with or duh, duh, ladee duh, with witnesses. etc?
Turley!
Do you not have any moderator for these comments? If not, shame on you!
Mmmmmmm… That’s a sexy little girl. No wonder he plowed her!
The following letter is one that I wrote, that was published in the Northern Iowan, the student paper of the University of Northern Iowa, on October 14, 1988. In that letter, published over 21 years ago, I pointed out that the then-proposed law, which would criminalize “possession” of so-called “child pornography,” could be used as a trick to imprison political dissenters.
http://www.library.uni.edu/gateway/indexuni/pager1.php?url=http://www.lib.uni.edu/gateway/indexuni/ni/1988/00000250.jpg
Through that link, you can also read any one of around 90 other letters I published in the Northern Iowan, over the years, if you happen to be interested.
One of those letters, published on Nov. 20, 1987, was about “Operation Looking-Glass,” an entrapment program carried out by the US government, to sell “child pornography.”
I contacted some of the people who’d been entrapped, after getting their names from news stories. One of them, Kent Jacobson, was a retired Army man, of Newman Grove, Nebraska. He fought his case way up to the Supreme Court, and got the charges dismissed. There was an item about it, on either “60 Minutes” or “20-20,” around 1993.
(It’s also possible for someone to download child pornography by remote control. That development occurred after this letter was written.)
The military says:
“We can confirm that the photos of his niece in a bathing suit are not the photos related to the article 134 violation for child pornography nor are they related to the article 92 violation,” Master Sgt. Thomas Clementson told ABC News.com via e-mail.
Army investigators say they found adult pornography and other child images, which they believe qualify as pornographic.
“Now that he has been charged, his case is being investigated. It will then go to an Article 32, which is similar to a civilian grand jury. An officer has been appointed to review the evidence and determine if there are grounds for a trial by court martial, or if the case should be tried at all,” said Clementson
http://abcnews.go.com/US/soldier-charged-possessing-child-pornography-receving-innocent-photos/story?id=9595638
Hmmmm…a guy is charged with possessing child porn. He has a picture of his niece on his laptop. HE CLAIMS that’s the source of his being prosecuted.
Sorry, but that’s not enough proof for me that he didn’t actually have child porn on his computer IN ADDITION TO pictures of his niece.
Wow Ben…I certainly hope that you’re not Canadian!
The sooner these fat dog americans slip into an unredeemable economy and have to suck the chinese tite for survival the better this world will be.
America and there our shit dont stink attitude is disgusting and the country should be bombed
Thats why its best to take Virgin…..
Check this out. The whole world’s going crazy.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1243625/Businessman-Mirko-Fischer-sues-British-Airwars-treating-men-like-perverts.html
empirecookie:
very interesting video. I think our elected officials have too much time on their hands and probably get paid too much.
why did this happen in the first place. What happened in the 80’s to have all of those people arrested on child molestation charges, the family in California comes to mind. Out of control prosecutors and law enforcement was behind it, but what caused them to go “blind”?
Why is this even an issue with his mothers testimony? What has happened in our country to have this happen?
It seems to me that you cannot allow government to take over functions that we as citizens should handle without giving up more freedoms than you intended to. There appears to be no middle ground with governments, they do not want control in small measures. They want total control and so they use the excuse we are saving children or poor people or the homeless or animals or the world. And they take our liberties in the name of some cause that sounds righteous but in reality is nothing more than a Trojan Horse of totalitarianism.
Who watches to make sure governments do not morph from benign paternalism into some wild eyed beast? It seems to me the best course is to prevent benign paternalism from taking hold, to eschew the nanny state. It is better to stand on your own 2 feet and be willing to fail rather than chance a decent into despotism through good intentions.
Here in the United States of Hypocrisy the irony is lost on the Brass at The Pentagon; Spec. Billy Miller is in Afghanistan so Afghan women won’t be forced by the Taliban into wearing humiliating and sexist burkas.
Speaking of crazy Texas, here is an oldie, but goodie featurint my *hero* Molly Ivins on the Texas dildo and sodomy laws:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaUl6x1YXpg&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
Sorry AY, Henry is on his own. You won’t find me suggesting that the President pardon someone for a crime that they have not been convicted of.
What does a police officer’s excessive use of force have to do with the military charging one of their own, and a mother’s claim of innocence?
Henry, Bdaman, Duh,
And the Police on use the force necessary to subdue all suspects? Right?
I don’t believe for a minute that the exposed buttocks of his niece are the basis for these charges. That would be ridiculous.
It may not be due to pornography, but the good professor does seem to have a hard-on for the military (pun intended). This wouldn’t be the first time we saw a mother claim that her child would not have done that. It would be the first time we have seen our military prosecute for an image of the exposed butt cheek of a minor.
Well Alan, you might be right…of course one thing I learned a long time ago in faraway Vietnam was….Army officers lie all the time from the Commanding General to the shave tails…Officers and Gentlemen my @$$.
Henry, Bdaman, Duh
What could Obama pardon this man for? What is he convicted of?
Alan,
If you have ever been in the service or been a JAG you will find out that what the Military says is what they want you to hear. First of all, you have no right to a speedy trial. That one is out the window. Second, this has been declared a Military Zone so any civilian help is nearly impossible. Third, the rules of war prevail and therefore it could be years before this is heard. Fourth, although not treason it is an offense that the NCO/Enlisted would rather be dead than face.
If you think what they are doing to the people in custody in Cuba is child’s play compared to what they will do to him in a foreign land.