Another 400,000 juicy documents

[Sulkdodds]

The Pentagon warned them not to do it - warned them lives were at stake -

Pentagon officials are worried that the leaked documents could be used by the Taliban to kill informants and intelligence sources, though a letter from Robert Gates, the Pentagon chief, to Congress in August indicated that this had not happened.

But Wikileaks went and did it anyway. Well, lookie here! Guess what they found?

Iraq war logs: secret files show how US ignored torture

A grim picture of the US and Britain's legacy in Iraq has been revealed in a massive leak of American military documents that detail torture, summary executions and war crimes.

Almost 400,000 secret US army field reports have been passed to the Guardian and a number of other international media organisations via the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.

The electronic archive is believed to emanate from the same dissident US army intelligence analyst who earlier this year is alleged to have leaked a smaller tranche of 90,000 logs chronicling bloody encounters and civilian killings in the Afghan war.

The new logs detail how:

• US authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse, torture, rape and even murder by Iraqi police and soldiers whose conduct appears to be systematic and normally unpunished.

• A US helicopter gunship involved in a notorious Baghdad incident had previously killed Iraqi insurgents after they tried to surrender.

• More than 15,000 civilians died in previously unknown incidents. US and UK officials have insisted that no official record of civilian casualties exists but the logs record 66,081 non-combatant deaths out of a total of 109,000 fatalities.

The numerous reports of detainee abuse, often supported by medical evidence, describe prisoners shackled, blindfolded and hung by wrists or ankles, and subjected to whipping, punching, kicking or electric shocks. Six reports end with a detainee's apparent death.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/22/iraq-war-logs-military-leaks

One particularly interesting tidbit is that a helicopter gunship, allegedly the same vehicle from the same unit that killed two Reuters journalists and blew up an ambulance in that incident you all remember, fired upon two surrendering militants because they were assured that nobody can surrender to an aircraft.

Coalition authorities knew about massive and systematic torture on behalf of the Iraqi forces - and issued a specific order forbidding investigation.

Meanwhile, US troops regularly shot at British forces, especially when they were trying to overtake them on the road.

There are also incidents of detainee abuse from British and American soldiers (telegraph) (guardian)

The Coalition has repeatedly claimed that it doesn't keep body counts. It does, and it's full of civilians.

US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton did not bother to comment on all of this, but instead condemend whoever leaked those inconvenient files. Cool story. It's becoming increasingly clear - if it can get any clearer - that any and all protestations from governments on grounds of safety or national security should be regarded with the same suspicion with which US troops regard an unmarked vehicle speeding towards their checkpoint.

But don't trust my quick summary - explore it for yourself here or start here. Or just browse through wikileaks yourself.

 

[Matorbogl]

This is why despite leaks like this, nothing will change:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_0-KUaQl7k&feature=player_embedded

I'm going to walk if you're going to contaminate us revealing the deaths of 104,000 people with attacks against my person.

 

[Mogi67]

http://iraqwarlogs.com/ A good site for preliminary reports on findings in the docs.

 

[Jerry_111]

Here's a google earth doc of every death in iraq mapped out

 

[Mogi67]

There's no link mate

 

[Jerry_111]

There's no link mate

ooops. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/datablog/interactive/2010/oct/23/wikileaks-iraq-deaths-map?

 

[<RJMC>]

This is why despite leaks like this, nothing will change:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_0-KUaQl7k&feature=player_embedded

to be someone who talks about showing the true he seems reluctant to answer questiongs...

 

[Jerry_111]

^ that was a shitty interviewer. Here's a real interview:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e92_1280351573

 

[Escaep]

The civilian death tolls in the articles I've read sure are a lot less than the 1,000,000 plus a few people here touted for so long...

 

[<RJMC>]

these are non reported caualties I think

also this proves something I have been suspecting since I saw the video where saddam was executed,the usa gave power to a oposite faction,since the tortures where made by iraqui officials mostly

 

[Warped]

i can't even fathom how much more gets covered up.

 

[Sparta]

The civilian death tolls in the articles I've read sure are a lot less than the 1,000,000 plus a few people here touted for so long...

I believe it was only 1 survey that estimated as high a 1 million civilians.

This information certainly seems definitive, though.

to be someone who talks about showing the true he seems reluctant to answer questiongs...

To be fair, he does have to answer/hear those questions in almost every single press conference he gives now-a-days. There's only so many times a person can say "It's not true, it's a lie" without getting annoyed at people for asking them the same question over and over and over again.

 

[Eejit]

The civilian death tolls in the articles I've read sure are a lot less than the 1,000,000 plus a few people here touted for so long...

The million-plus includes all the indirect deaths due to the war, such as additional death from disease due to destruction of infrastructure like water or hospital damage, death from crime due to the massive looting etc. shortly after the invasion.
Basically it comes from comparing the country's mortality rate pre-War to post-War. It's a widely used technique and has been used to estimate death in other conflicts such as Sudan (iirc). In those cases even the US state department has quoted such figures, while denying the validity of ones produced for Iraq using the same method. Hypocrisy at its finest.

 

[Escaep]

The million-plus includes all the indirect deaths due to the war, such as additional death from disease due to destruction of infrastructure like water or hospital damage, death from crime due to the massive looting etc. shortly after the invasion.
Basically it comes from comparing the country's mortality rate pre-War to post-War. It's a widely used technique and has been used to estimate death in other conflicts such as Sudan (iirc). In those cases even the US state department has quoted such figures, while denying the validity of ones produced for Iraq using the same method. Hypocrisy at its finest.

Didn't know they used that. People who touted it so much lead it on to me as they were direct combat deaths caused by the troops.

 

[Eejit]

No, it was all excess deaths due to the invasion.

 

[Escaep]

No, it was all excess deaths due to the invasion.

Yes, I read your post. I was under the impression from the way people worded their posts that they were direct combat deaths.

I was wrong mmkay? Enjoy your cake.

edit: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/24/world/24assange.html?_r=1&hp

LONDON — Julian Assange moves like a hunted man. In a noisy Ethiopian restaurant in London’s rundown Paddington district, he pitches his voice barely above a whisper to foil the Western intelligence agencies he fears.

He demands that his dwindling number of loyalists use expensive encrypted cellphones and swaps his own as other men change shirts. He checks into hotels under false names, dyes his hair, sleeps on sofas and floors, and uses cash instead of credit cards, often borrowed from friends.

...

Now it is not just governments that denounce him: some of his own comrades are abandoning him for what they see as erratic and imperious behavior, and a nearly delusional grandeur unmatched by an awareness that the digital secrets he reveals can have a price in flesh and blood.

 

[CptStern]

this probably makes things worse

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/06/15/neo_nazis_army

Fogarty speaks with regret that he "never had any kill counts." But he says his time in Iraq increased his racist resolve.

"I hate Arabs more than anybody, for the simple fact I've served over there and seen how they live," he tells me. "They're just a backward people. Them and the Jews are just disgusting people as far as I'm concerned. Their customs, everything to do with the Middle East, is just repugnant to me.""

"Many white supremacists join the Army to secure training for, as they see it, a future domestic race war. Others claim to be shooting Iraqis not to pursue the military's strategic goals but because killing "hajjis" is their duty as white militants."

 

[Stormy]

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/4od#3134558

America really fail at war, did they not learn anything in nam?

^^ im not even sure this will work in all countries but its a documenty about findings in the reports.

 

[<RJMC>]

in the bio of assange say that when he was a kid he and his family was chased by some cult so he lived avoiding them and such,I see he knows about being undercover

 

[Mr. Djees]

edit: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/24/world/24assange.html?_r=1&hp

They make it sound like there's some mass exodus from Wikileaks.
I haven't followed this closely, but have there been more than that one guy?