Webmaster for site with Iraqi corpse pics accused of obscenity

By TRAVIS REED
Associated Press Writer

A man who runs a pornographic Web site that includes pictures of Iraqi war dead has been arrested on sexual obscenity charges.

Chris Wilson, a 27-year-old former policeman from Lakeland, was taken into custody Friday night on one felony and 300 misdemeanor indecency counts unrelated to the grisly pictures from Iraq. The charges come a week after his site made national news and launched a Pentagon investigation into how war zone photos of charred and dismembered bodies described as victims of U.S. attacks could have surfaced.

Polk County sheriff's officials said he was charged because the Web site also features sexually explicit pictures and videos that users send of women who are supposedly their wives and girlfriends - including those who appear to be active-duty soldiers.

Sheriff's officials insist the charges are unrelated to the Iraq pictures, but Wilson's lawyer, Lawrence Walters, disagreed.