Over the weekend Wikileaks released the Iraq War Logs — a database of nearly 400,000 military logs recorded over six years of the Iraq war and covering the years 2004 to 2009.
According to The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, 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 a similar approach to The Afghan War Diaries, Wikileaks released the logs to a select group of media outlets, again The Guardian, the New York Times, German weekly Der Spiegel and French newspaper Le Monde, Iraq Body Count, the agency that’s been collating evidence of Iraq’s casualty numbers for many years, and the UK’s The Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
As the New York Times writes of the data: “The Iraq documents provide no earthshaking revelations, but they offer insight, texture and context from the people actually fighting the war.”
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism is an independent, not-for-profit organisation that carries out research in the public interest and unless otherwise stated their articles and graphics can be republished without charge. Crikey has chosen this story from the Bureau to reproduce:
One day in Iraq: 128 dead, including three women and one child
by Yuba Bessaoud
When the Iraq Study Group published its report on December 6 ,2006 — a month to the day after Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation — their opinion was clear from the first line: “The situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating.”
On the same day 123 secret logs, including reports of the murder of 128 civilians, were filed.*
From synchronised attacks on higher education ministers and officials, to a series of closely timed Improvised Explosive Device (IED) explosions in Sadr City, the following entries, revealed here for the first time, underline the routine violence that had become an everyday occurrence.
The first report of violence is logged before daybreak.
0450: Baghdad — Patrol finds a dead body with a “GSW” – gunshot wound.
0545: Kirkuk — Explosion reported at interpreter’s house.
0650: Baghdad — Civilian corpse found “handcuffed, blindfolded and shot in the head”.
0700: Baghdad — Corpse found handcuffed, blindfolded and shot dead in Sadr City.
0750: Iskandariyah — “17-20-year-old” found shot in the head.
0800: Baghdad — Man found shot in head.
0806: Baghdad — “AIF” (Anti-Iraqi Forces) kill a man.
0825: Iskandariyah — IED ignites fire, kills one and wounds four Iraqis.
0825: Baghdad — University worker shot dead by AIF.
0830: Iskandariyah — IED explodes in garage killing four and injuring 12.
0830: Baghdad — Unknown corpse found.
0840: Baghdad — Two unknown corpses found shot in the head.
0900: Baghdad — Private security contractor is killed protecting the government’s minister for higher education (who is wounded).
0900: Baghdad — [in related attack] Higher education ministry driver is killed and ministry employee injured after attack by AIF.
0900: Baghdad — Man killed by AIF.
0910: Mosul — Male found with gunshot and axe wounds to the head.
0935: Baghdad — AIF kill Iraqi.
0945: Baghdad — Mahdi Army (JAM) suspected of killing of “high ranking” Ba’ath Party member.
0950: Mosul — AIF kill Iraqi male.
1010: Baghdad — Patrol finds four Iraqis – three murdered, one still alive. Wounded person is “medevaced” (medical evacuation).
1010: Baghdad — Two dead and two wounded people found after shooting.
1015: Baghdad — Corpse shot in the head.
1030: Khan Azad — AIF kill Iraqi.
1040: Al Musaiyib — Two people found shot in head.
1045: Baghdad — Corpse found.
1050: Baghdad — Mortar round kills eight Iraqis, injures 41 more.
1055: Baghdad — 30-40-year-old male found shot in head.
1100: Baghdad — AIF kill man.
1106: Baghdad — Man in mid–20s found dead.
1110: Baghdad — Unknown corpse found.
1100: Baghdad — Corpse found shot in head.
1120: Baghdad — Corpse found killed.
1130: Baghdad — 15 people killed and 25 injured in IED attack outside old Ministry of Defence building.
1145: Mosul — IED explodes killing one Iraqi.
1155: Baghdad — Two corpses found shot in head.
1155: Baghdad — Corpse found shot dead near power station.
1159: Baghdad (Sadr City) — IED kills three and wounds eight.
1200: Baghdad — AIF kill two Iraqis.
1206: Baghdad — Corpse found.
1215: Baghdad — AIF kill three Iraqi men.
1220: Baghdad — Two unknown corpses found.
1220: Baghdad (Sadr City) — IED kills one woman, injures 22.
1230: Baghdad — Two corpses found shot in head.
1240: Baghdad — Man in late-30s found shot in head.
1250: Baghdad — Bodies of two murdered Iraqi males found with gunshot wounds (GSW) to the head.
1300: Baghdad — Two corpses found.
1330: Baghdad — AIF kill Iraqi man.
1335: Baghdad — Unknown corpse found.
1335: Baghdad — Corpse found.
1355: Baghdad — Four bodies found.
1355: Baghdad — Two Iraqi males in their 30s found dead with their arms “zip tied behind their backs”.
1355: Baghdad — Two corpses found.
1400: Baghdad — University director assassinated.
1400: Baghdad — ( a second) University director killed.
1400: Basra — AIF attack British troops. One soldier and five civilians killed.
1400: Baghdad — Police report two bodies found.
1400: Mosul — AIF shoot and kill Iraqi man.
1406: Diyala Province — Two truck drivers found dead.
1411: Baghdad — Corpse found.
1416: Baghdad — Body found with “hands and feet bound”.
1436: Baghdad — “Christian” male in 40s found in truck with GSW to chest.
1458: Baghdad — 30-year-old male with GSWs to both eyes, broken teeth and crushed forehead found at “dump site”.
1500: Baghdad — Police report dead body.
1528: Baghdad — Two explosions after a gunfight kill one Iraqi and injure two more.
1530: Central Iraq — Checkpoint attacked by AIF killing eight civilians and wounding five. One policeman also killed.
1530: Baghdad — Body found with GSW to head.
1553: Baghdad — Corpse found.
1600: Baghdad — Body found near mosque.
1610: Baghdad — Corpse found.
1610: Baghdad — Corpse found shot in head.
1635: Baghdad — AIF disguised as police kill and rob Iraqi male at his house.
1635: Baghdad — Two males, 46 and 42 years old, found “shot in top of the head”.
1645: Baghdad — 35-year-old man found shot once to left wrist, five times to chest, once to the stomach and once to the head.
1651: Baghdad — 17-year-old female shot in “head and torso” found in “trash pile”.
1654: Baghdad — 50-year-old male found shot in head.
1701: Baghdad — 40-year-old male found shot twice to head and twice to body.
1720: Baghdad — Two bodies found with unknown causes of death.
1720: Baghdad — Two bodies found near primary school.
1730: Baghdad — Police find body in industrial zone.
1730: Baghdad — Unidentified corpse shot in head.
1735: Baghdad — Police report death of Iraqi male.
1735: Baghdad — AIF shoot man dead.
1800: Baghdad — Unknown male found shot in head.
1800: Baghdad — Police report body found.
1830: Baghdad — Mortar kills civilian.
1845: Baghdad — Man “assassinated”.
1900: Basra — Two Katyusha rockets hit two houses, killing a girl and wounding three others.
1900: Baghdad — Mortar kills civilian.
1940: Baghdad — Unknown corpse found shot in head.
1950: Baghdad — Unknown female found shot in head.
1950: Basra — AIF shoot and kill watchman at medical clinic.
2000: Baghdad — Iraqi working for US killed by gunmen at his home.
2200: MND (Multinational Division)-Central — AIF shoot possible former Ba’ath Party member.
2215: Baghdad — Corpse blindfolded, handcuffed and with signs of torture found shot in head.
2344: Ash Shamiyah — Shop owner and former Ba’ath Party member shot in head and chest.
*In the interests of security for the families of the individuals concerned — some of whom are named in the documents — no logs have been made available for this story
Makes the survey by the John Hopkins School of Public Health appear accurate – over 1.3 million people in Iraq are dead as a direct or indirect result of the invasion/occupation.
The survey below didn’t start until after the invasion of the Coalition – US/Britain and Australia!
BBC NEWS/26th March 2007 – “Iraqi death survey “was robust”?
By Owen Bennett-Jones
BBC World Service
The survey estimated that 601,000 deaths were the result of violence, mostly gunfire.
The British government was advised against publicly criticising a report estimating that 655,000 Iraqis had died due to the war, the BBC has learnt.
Iraqi Health Ministry figures put the toll at less than 10% of the total in the survey, published in the Lancet.
But the Ministry of Defence’s chief scientific adviser said the survey’s m
But a memo by the MoD’s Chief Scientific Adviser, Sir Roy Anderson, on 13 October, states: “The study design is robust and employs methods that are regarded as close to “best practice” in this area, given the difficulties of data collection and verification in the present circumstances in Iraq.”
ethods were “close to best practice” and the study design was “robust”.
Another expert agreed the method was “tried and tested”.
What followed was discussion/debate over the figures. Blair and Bush rejected them. Then the Blair govt said that they didn’t reject the methodology, (as the same people had used this methodology in other countries, and were recognised as being a respectable body) only the final figures????
If you go to the site, you can read the whole article. This was in 2007, the estimated death toll now, is about 1.3 million.
When these figures are added to the deaths during the first Gulf War, plus the estimated 1.5 million who died during the sanctions(500,000 were children) the legacy we’ve left has the dead at a higher figure than the Holocaust, but we only concern ourselves with Australian deaths? and the horrific ‘acts of terrorism’ by insurgents etc.
I find the bleating of US/Britain and Australia at the actions of Wilileaks as a disgrace. Shock horror that we might know the truth. Perhaps they’ll hesitate in future, and realise, that this is not the 50’s -90’s this is a new age-the technological age, and information can be ‘spread around’ and inform us of the real stories! I may have a tiny bit of appreciation for the relevant govts, if just once they showed some real remorse about the murderous path they’ve been on – but no, it’s only the troops who are of concern. After all, Iraqis and Afghanis aren’t REAL PEOPLE are they? They don’t count! Well done Wikileaks!
Wars are about killing and murdering. Everybody knows that. No excuse for ‘collateral damage’. Let’s call a spade – a spade.
We go to wars to murder innocent and defenceless. Unless we defend our country against a foreign invasion we participate in mass killing.. We did not like Japs on our soil. Every country has every right to defend themselves.
What would Australians do if a coalition of the killing invaded our country? And the excuse would be to introduce someone else’s ‘value system’ because our system does not fit the enemy’s standards?
Wilkileaks has some questions to answer – mainly, it did not leak documents showing the real reason for civil war in Iraq – so it looks like the Iraqis are solely responsible for tribal violence. I remeber that after the invasion on Iraq some politicians were warning ‘the coalition’ of inciting civil war, but nobody would listen.
The question is: What is the real reason behind this publication of classified documents? How is it possible to smuggle such an incredible amount of them? Who can have access to Pentagon archives? Why is it such a murky reference to Iran helping Iraqis to defend their country? Whistleblowers usually do not travel freely without any indication that they can be held responsible for spying or illegal access to classified information. Is the USA going to take any action against the Wikileaks? Or is it part of ‘freedom of speech and information’? So what documents would be classified as ‘classified’ in Pentagon?
@ZENA – I’mnot interested in why Wilkileaks, or why he/they did it. I’m just glad they did. I agree with all you said about wars and killing, and everything you and I believe and feel stems from our disgust at the awfulness of the whole deal. Have you noticed, that we only invade countries that can’t fight back? The US has a long history. Since the end of WW2, the US has either invaded or interfered with almost 50 countries. Too many of those were impoverished countries of Latin America – the most recent, the overthrow(twice) of a democratically elected president in Haiti; the overthrow of the president of Honduras; the 2002 in Venezuela, that almost resulted in the end of the democratically elected president, Hugo Chavez? The 80’s produced Nicaragua and El Salvador, and sadly, too many others.
The US military person who was responsible for training etc the militia in El Salvador, was sent to Iraq immediately prior to the so-called ‘civil wars’? Until the invasion in ’03, the different cultures in Iraq lived together quite amicably, in fact, better than amicable. Christians, as well as Muslims would visit each other’s homes; people didn’t ask if you were Shia or Shi-ite – that happened after the invasion. Why? They wanted the people to fight among themselves, and while that was going on, the coalition of the killing could carve up the oil industry and do with it as they pleased. That is the reality today. Saddam had nationalised the oil industry – as other govts in the middle east had also done. This has now changed. The OIL industry is privatised, and very little of the ‘goodies’ will flow back to the Iraqi people, but of course, our govt, and the other govts responsible for this grand theft, speak not a word about it. Go to http://www.handsoffiraqioil.org They’re being screwed. Iraq is a basket case – they still don’t have clean water, and only the rich(govt people, favoured people???) have the money to buy a generator or have electricity for their lifts – the others have to walk up several flights each time they need something – including going out to find some ‘fresh’ water?.
It’s depressing and I feel ashamed – but, who cares how I feel? Iraq is so far away, and the attitude is, that they’re not ‘real people’ like us! So that’s OK then, isn’t it?
The Pentagon etc and our govt are almost frothing at the mouth at the outrage of ‘going public’ with all this ‘stuff’? How dare Wikileaks show us just some of the truth? Why don’t they play the game and play it according to the war mongers and killers? What a terrible risk they pose? Notice, that the concern is only for the ‘innocent Iraqis and military people’ of the coalition whose lives now might be at risk? Not a thought for all those babies and mothers who are now dead, or the men and young boys detained in Abu Graib or???or the mothers who divide their time taking care of kids at home, and going to the US ‘prisons'(hell holes)looking for their sons and husbands?
Now, they’re playing, ‘let’s kill the messenger’? If I was Julian, I’d be very very careful of where I go and what I do – he’ll end up dead! Then guess what? The Pentagon/White House/Downing St/The Lodge, will come out and decry the violence blah blah blah – we’ll all know who the guilty ones will be????Again????Sometimes I despair! How about you? It’s very sad and shameful!
Rena – Blind Freddie could see that the result of deposing Saddam (who ran a government dominated by the Sunni minority) would be the majority Shiites, supported by Iran, taking on the Sunnis for power while the Kurds in the North would push for at least quasi-autonomy. Blind Freddie could, but the US couldn’t.