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Iraq War Documents Sheds Light on Civilian Deaths, Prisoner Abuse October 23 2010
The private Web site WikiLeaks, acting through several news organizations it selected, released a massive batch of classified Iraq war-related documents, which contain no dramatic new revelations but provide critical "context'' to the war and the U.S. role from 2003 through 2009, the New York Times reported.
The Pentagon protested the release of the documents, saying that publication of the material would harm national security.
An examination of the 392,000 documents by the Times revealed that:
-- The number of Iraqi civilian deaths is still unclear, but is probably greater than previously believed. Most Iraqi civilian deaths came at the hands of Iraqis, but there are tragic instances of the killing of Iraqis by Americans as well.
-- The grisly abuse of Iraqi prisoners by Iraqis may have been even worse than the shocking mistreatment of detainees by Americans at Abu Ghraib prison.
-- The Iraqi military, which has provided the United States with an exit strategy as it took over security duties from U.S. troops, intervened aggressively on the side of Shiite militias during the height of the Shiite-Sunni civil war -- and in some instances directly engaged U.S. forces.
In addition to the Times, the documents were made available to the Guardian newspaper in London, the French newspaper Le Monde, Al Jazeera and the German magazine Der Spiegel, on an embargoed basis.
The Times said it had edited or withheld any documents that would "put lives in danger or jeopardize continuing military operations.'' It said it redacted the names of informants, a particular concern of the Defense Department.
WikiLeaks, a private whistleblower organization, has not said where or how it obtained the documents, which follow its release in July of secret Afghanistan war documents. A notice on its Web site Friday said it was "currently undergoing scheduled maintenance.'' WikiLeaks said it would hold a press conference in Europe Saturday, but no details were immediately available.
In a statement to the Times, Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said, "We deplore WikiLeaks for inducing individuals to break the law, leak classified documents and then cavalierly share that secret information with the world, including our enemies.
"We know terrorist organizations have been mining the leaked Afghan documents for information to use against us, and this Iraq leak is more than four times as large. By disclosing such sensitive information, WikiLeaks continues to put at risk the lives of our troops, their coalition partners and those Iraqis and Afghans working with us."
The documents reveal that for Iraqi civilians, December 2006 was the worst month of the war, with about 3,800 fatalities. A total of about 1,300 police officers, insurgents and coalition soldiers were also killed in that month, the Times said. In several instances, Iraqi civilians were shot from U.S. helicopters.
In one such case, in February 2007, the crew of an Apache helicopter shot and killed two Iraqi men believed to have been firing mortars, even though they made surrendering motions, because, according to a military lawyer cited in the report, "they cannot surrender to aircraft, and are still valid targets." Read the Document »
Checkpoints could also be hazardous. At one Marine checkpoint, sunlight glare on a windshield prevented a female driver from seeing Marines signaling for her to stop. The mother was killed, and her three daughters and husband were wounded. W\ithout interpreters, the Marines were unable to speak to the survivors.
In the Iraqi prisons, beatings, burnings and lashings surfaced in hundreds of reports, the Times said. In one case, Americans suspected Iraqi army officers of cutting off a detainee's fingers and burning him with acid. In two other cases, bound detainees were executed. And while some abuse cases were investigated by the Americans, "most seemed to have been ignored, with the equivalent of an institutional shrug: soldiers told their officers and asked the Iraqis to investigate,'' the Times said.
In other cases, Americans intervened. In August 2006, for example, an American sergeant in Ramadi heard whipping noises in a military police station and walked in on an Iraqi lieutenant using an electrical cable to slash the bottom of a detainee's feet. The American stopped him, but later he found the same Iraqi officer whipping a detainee's back. Read the Document » One beaten detainee said in 2005 that "when the Marines finally took him, he was treated very well, and he was thankful and happy to see them." Read the Document »
The Times has made available a few of the documents provided to it by WikiLeaks, but it was unclear what wider dissemination the material would receive, or whether the full batch of 391,832 documents will be made available to the public.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, a 39-year-old Australian, is said to be in hiding in London. In Stockholm, an investigation of **** charges against Assange is continuing.
At the Pentagon, a task force of 120 analysts is poring through the documents believed to be the material made available by WikiLeaks. Pentagon officials said the damage-assessment team has found names of individuals and information about U.S. military capabilities and tactics.
It was unclear, however, what action the Pentagon could take in response.
At the time of the Afghanistan document dump, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were livid, telling reporters that the damage was incalculable and that the release of the documents could "endanger lives.''
Pentagon officials subsequently have said the damage was not as severe as they had first thought.
Release of the documents is certain to sharpen the hunt for those responsible for gathering the classified reports and giving them to WikiLeaks.
A junior intelligence analyst, Army PFC Bradley Manning, was arrested last May and charged with passing classified information, including a video allegedly showing Iraqis being gunned down by an American Apache helicopter. The video was subsequently released by WikiLeaks.
Manning is currently awaiting trial on eight criminal charges related to stealing classified documents, and is imprisoned at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Va.
The private Web site WikiLeaks, acting through several news organizations it selected, released a massive batch of classified Iraq war-related documents, which contain no dramatic new revelations but provide critical "context'' to the war and the U.S. role from 2003 through 2009, the New York Times reported.
The Pentagon protested the release of the documents, saying that publication of the material would harm national security.
An examination of the 392,000 documents by the Times revealed that:
-- The number of Iraqi civilian deaths is still unclear, but is probably greater than previously believed. Most Iraqi civilian deaths came at the hands of Iraqis, but there are tragic instances of the killing of Iraqis by Americans as well.
-- The grisly abuse of Iraqi prisoners by Iraqis may have been even worse than the shocking mistreatment of detainees by Americans at Abu Ghraib prison.
-- The Iraqi military, which has provided the United States with an exit strategy as it took over security duties from U.S. troops, intervened aggressively on the side of Shiite militias during the height of the Shiite-Sunni civil war -- and in some instances directly engaged U.S. forces.
In addition to the Times, the documents were made available to the Guardian newspaper in London, the French newspaper Le Monde, Al Jazeera and the German magazine Der Spiegel, on an embargoed basis.
The Times said it had edited or withheld any documents that would "put lives in danger or jeopardize continuing military operations.'' It said it redacted the names of informants, a particular concern of the Defense Department.
WikiLeaks, a private whistleblower organization, has not said where or how it obtained the documents, which follow its release in July of secret Afghanistan war documents. A notice on its Web site Friday said it was "currently undergoing scheduled maintenance.'' WikiLeaks said it would hold a press conference in Europe Saturday, but no details were immediately available.
In a statement to the Times, Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said, "We deplore WikiLeaks for inducing individuals to break the law, leak classified documents and then cavalierly share that secret information with the world, including our enemies.
"We know terrorist organizations have been mining the leaked Afghan documents for information to use against us, and this Iraq leak is more than four times as large. By disclosing such sensitive information, WikiLeaks continues to put at risk the lives of our troops, their coalition partners and those Iraqis and Afghans working with us."
The documents reveal that for Iraqi civilians, December 2006 was the worst month of the war, with about 3,800 fatalities. A total of about 1,300 police officers, insurgents and coalition soldiers were also killed in that month, the Times said. In several instances, Iraqi civilians were shot from U.S. helicopters.
In one such case, in February 2007, the crew of an Apache helicopter shot and killed two Iraqi men believed to have been firing mortars, even though they made surrendering motions, because, according to a military lawyer cited in the report, "they cannot surrender to aircraft, and are still valid targets." Read the Document »
Checkpoints could also be hazardous. At one Marine checkpoint, sunlight glare on a windshield prevented a female driver from seeing Marines signaling for her to stop. The mother was killed, and her three daughters and husband were wounded. W\ithout interpreters, the Marines were unable to speak to the survivors.
In the Iraqi prisons, beatings, burnings and lashings surfaced in hundreds of reports, the Times said. In one case, Americans suspected Iraqi army officers of cutting off a detainee's fingers and burning him with acid. In two other cases, bound detainees were executed. And while some abuse cases were investigated by the Americans, "most seemed to have been ignored, with the equivalent of an institutional shrug: soldiers told their officers and asked the Iraqis to investigate,'' the Times said.
In other cases, Americans intervened. In August 2006, for example, an American sergeant in Ramadi heard whipping noises in a military police station and walked in on an Iraqi lieutenant using an electrical cable to slash the bottom of a detainee's feet. The American stopped him, but later he found the same Iraqi officer whipping a detainee's back. Read the Document » One beaten detainee said in 2005 that "when the Marines finally took him, he was treated very well, and he was thankful and happy to see them." Read the Document »
The Times has made available a few of the documents provided to it by WikiLeaks, but it was unclear what wider dissemination the material would receive, or whether the full batch of 391,832 documents will be made available to the public.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, a 39-year-old Australian, is said to be in hiding in London. In Stockholm, an investigation of **** charges against Assange is continuing.
At the Pentagon, a task force of 120 analysts is poring through the documents believed to be the material made available by WikiLeaks. Pentagon officials said the damage-assessment team has found names of individuals and information about U.S. military capabilities and tactics.
It was unclear, however, what action the Pentagon could take in response.
At the time of the Afghanistan document dump, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were livid, telling reporters that the damage was incalculable and that the release of the documents could "endanger lives.''
Pentagon officials subsequently have said the damage was not as severe as they had first thought.
Release of the documents is certain to sharpen the hunt for those responsible for gathering the classified reports and giving them to WikiLeaks.
A junior intelligence analyst, Army PFC Bradley Manning, was arrested last May and charged with passing classified information, including a video allegedly showing Iraqis being gunned down by an American Apache helicopter. The video was subsequently released by WikiLeaks.
Manning is currently awaiting trial on eight criminal charges related to stealing classified documents, and is imprisoned at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Va.
