Throw-down old news

A graphic series of photos from Iraq published in Cryptome (and provided by Mark Kraft whose blog is called Insomnia) appears to show that American troops killed a number of Iraqi teenagers, took at least one into custody, and then threw weapons - apparently exactly the same weapons for each victim - on the ground beside them to take another series of photos justifying why it was necessary to kill them (there is a long waste-of-time MetaFilter thread with the usual suspects defending the indefensible American military, ironically using the new right-wing meme that this kind of thing is 'old news'). It is not uncommon for police to carry 'throw down' weapons to be placed beside victims of police violence in order to make the police attack look like self defense, and apparently this practice has made its way to Pentagon procedure in Iraq. The arrested teenager's fate should be investigated, as it is likely that he has been framed.