Thursday 21 October 2010
Twelve weeks ago the Bureau of Investigative Journalism was given access to the biggest leak of military documents in history.
These documents formed a database of nearly 400,000 military logs recorded over six years of the Iraq war and covering the years 2004 to 2009.
There are over 37 million words used to recount military significant actions that took place across the entire country. This material provides an unrivalled portrait of one of the most controversial wars of the modern age.
For the first time the files reveal just how much the American military detailed the escalating violence in Iraq, and how this contrasts markedly to what the politicians said in public. This is the story behind the pronouncements – the uncensored detail Washington did not want us to know.
Key findings
The data reveals how hundreds of civilians were killed by coalition forces in unreported events.
The data reveals how hundreds of civilians were killed by coalition forces in unreported events.
There are numerous claims of prison abuse by coalition forces even after the Abu Ghraib scandal. The files also paint a disturbing portrait of widespread torture in Iraqi detention facilities.
As the war progresses the documents record a descent into chaos and horror as the occupation sparked civil war. In case after case, the logs record thousands of bodies, many brutally tortured, dumped on the streets of Iraq.
Through these reports we see, in military snapshots, the full impact the war had on Iraqis – men, women and children. The sheer scale of the deaths, detentions and violence is laid bare for the first time.
About the logs
The files were each recorded by soldiers operating on the ground and detail significant events. They are known as “SIGACTS”.
The files were each recorded by soldiers operating on the ground and detail significant events. They are known as “SIGACTS”.
At the time each report was classified as “Secret” but the information contained is no longer militarily sensitive. In order to protect people mentioned in the reports the Bureau has removed all names and detailed grid references from the documents published on this site.
The files, leaked to the whistleblowers’ website Wikileaks, were made available to a select group of media outlets, including the Bureau, the Guardian, the New York Times, the German weekly Der Spiegel and French newspaper Le Monde.
Iraq Body Count, the agency that has been collating evidence of Iraq’s casualty numbers for many years, was also given access to the data.
Others involved include Sweden’s SVT and public interest lawyers.
The Bureau has made documentaries based on our findings for Dispatches and Al Jazeera English and Arabic.
We offered the United States Department of Defense the right to reply to our findings. They issued a statement which can be read here.
or read below...
Pentagon response to publication of logs
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism sent two letters – which listed a number of significant allegations regarding US forces and US defence policy – to the Department of Defense Press Office at the Pentagon, so as to provide an opportunity to respond in the interest of fairness.
Among the specific questions the Bureau asked the Pentagon to respond to were the following:
- We allege that the US Government handed over detainees to Iraqi authorities, knowing of concerns that torture was rife in Iraqi detention facilities.
- We have concerns that allegations of detainee abuse by Iraqi authorities reported to US forces were not properly investigated.
- On February 22 2007 a US lawyer advises Crazyhorse 18’s Command Unit that Anti-Iraqi Forces could not surrender to an aircraft and were still valid targets. However, we have found four occasions in the data when people were allowed to surrender to aircraft. What is the DoD’s response to this?
- We have found over 300 alleged cases of detainee abuse by US soldiers after Abu Ghraib in 2004.
- Contained within the files are intelligence reports alleging strong links between Syrian intelligence agents and al Qaeda. What is the DoD’s position on such reports?
The US Department of Defense’s response is as follows:
“We strongly condemn the unauthorised disclosure of classified information and will not comment on these leaked documents other than to note that ‘significant activities’ reports are initial, raw observations by tactical units. They are essentially snapshots of events, both tragic and mundane, and do not tell the whole story. That said, the period covered by these reports has been well-chronicled in news stories, books and films and the release of these field reports does not bring new understanding to Iraq’s past.
“However, it does expose secret information that could make our troops even more vulnerable to attack in the future. Just as with the leaked Afghan documents, we know our enemies will mine this information looking for insights into how we operate, cultivate sources, and react in combat situations, even the capability of our equipment. This security breach could very well get our troops and those they are fighting with killed.”
No comments:
Post a Comment