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Iraq War documents leak

August 13, 2023

The Iraq War documents leak is the disclosure to WikiLeaks of 391,832[1] United States Army field reports, also called the Iraq War Logs, of the Iraq War from 2004 to 2009 and published on the Internet on 22 October 2010.[2][3][4] The files record 66,081 civilian deaths out of 109,000 recorded deaths.[3][4][5][6][7] The leak resulted in the Iraq Body Count project adding 15,000 civilian deaths to their count, bringing their total to over 150,000, with roughly 80% of those civilians.[8] It is the biggest leak in the military history of the United States,[2][9] surpassing the Afghan War documents leak of 25 July 2010.[10]

Contents

The logs led to news reports of previously unknown or unconfirmed events that took place during the war.

Civilian casualties

The Iraq Body Count project estimated 15,000 civilian deaths that had not been previously admitted by the US government based on an extrapolation of a sample of the deaths found in about 800 logs. Although American and British officials had denied any official record of civilian deaths, the logs released by Wikileaks showed 66,081 civilian deaths out of a total of 109,000 fatalities for the period from 1 January 2004 to 31 December 2009.[11][9][12] As of 2 January 2013, the IBC has added a total of 3,334 of these previously unrecorded civilian deaths to its database from their ongoing analysis of the war logs.[13][14]

Some civilian deaths were classified as enemy casualties, such as the July 12, 2007, Baghdad airstrike by US helicopter gunships which killed two Reuters journalists along with several men thought to be armed suspected to be insurgents. They, including the journalists, were listed as "enemy killed in action".[3]

According to Al Jazeera English, some of the documents describe how almost 700 civilians were killed by US troops for coming too close to checkpoints, including pregnant women and the mentally ill. At least a half-dozen incidents involved Iraqi men transporting pregnant family members to hospitals.[15]

The New York Times said the reports contain evidence of many abuses, including civilian deaths, committed by contractors. The New York Times points out some specific reports, such as one which says "after the IED strike a witness reports the Blackwater employees fired indiscriminately at the scene."[16] In another event on 14 May 2005, an American unit "observed a Blackwater PSD shoot up a civ vehicle" killing a father and wounding his wife and daughter.[16]

Iraqi - Western coalition human rights abuses

The logs corroborate previous allegations that the US military handed over many prisoners to the Iraqi Wolf Brigade which was accused of beating prisoners, torturing them with electric drills and executing suspects.[17] According to The Guardian, that the logs also show that "US authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse, torture, rape and even murder by Iraqi police and soldiers."[3] The coalition, had "a formal policy of ignoring such allegations", unless the allegations involve coalition forces.[3]

Wired Magazine reported that abuse of prisoners or detainees by Iraqi security forces continued even after the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse incident came to light in 2004. In one recorded case, US troops confiscated a "hand cranked generator with wire clamps" from a Baghdad police station, after a detainee claimed to have been brutalized there.[9]

One report analyzed by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism seemed to show that "the US military cleared an Apache helicopter gunship to open fire on Iraqi insurgents who were trying to surrender".[18]

According to Dagbladet Information, Danish soldiers "passed on responsibility for a much higher number of prisoners to Iraqi police than had previously been made public. The practice continued even though the coalition witnessed, and was repeatedly warned of widespread torture and mistreatment of prisoners in the hands of the Iraqi police."[19]

Foreign training and support for insurgents

According to Wired Magazine, "WikiLeaks may have just bolstered one of the Bush administration’s most controversial claims about the Iraq war: that Iran supplied many of the Iraq insurgency’s deadliest weapons and worked hand-in-glove with some of its most lethal militias. The documents indicate that Iran was a major combatant in the Iraq war, as its elite Quds Force trained Iraqi Shiite insurgents and imported deadly weapons like the shape-charged explosively formed penetrator bombs into Iraq for use against civilians, Sunni militants and U.S. troops."[9]

It was reported in the Boston Globe that the documents show Iraqi operatives being trained by Hezbollah in precision military-style kidnappings. Reports also included incidents of US surveillance aircraft lost deep in Iranian territory.[20][21]

Miscellaneous

According to The Australian, a document from December 2006 described a plan by a Shia militia commander to kidnap US soldiers in Baghdad in late 2006 or early 2007. The Australian also reported that "detainee testimony" and "a captured militant's diary" are cited among the documents, in order to demonstrate "how Iran provided Iraqi militias with weapons such as rockets and lethal roadside bombs."[22]

According to The New York Times, the trove of documents released by WikiLeaks in October 2010 "portrays the long history of tensions between Kurds and Arabs in the north of Iraq and reveals the fears of some American units about what might happen after American troops leave the country by the end of 2011."[23]

An analysis published by The Jerusalem Post argued the leaked documents indicates a double standard in the international community views of human rights towards Israel's military policy:[24]

An editorial in The Washington Post said that the leak "mainly demonstrates that the truth about Iraq 'already has been told', while it 'has at least temporarily complicated negotiations to form a new government'". The editor also charged that "claims such as those published by the British journal The Lancet that American forces slaughtered hundreds of thousands are the real 'attack on truth.'"[25]

After criticism over the Afghan War documents leak, WikiLeaks redacted more information from the Iraq War documents. Assange explained that this was to stop people distracting from the message contained in the material.[26]

Reactions

International organizations

The UN's chief investigator on torture, Manfred Nowak, states that "if the files released through WikiLeaks pointed to clear violations of the United Nations Convention Against Torture the Obama administration had an obligation to investigate them."[27] The convention, according to Nowak, forbids the US from turning over detainees to the Iraqi government, if doing so meant they might be subjected to torture.[27] The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay said that "the US and Iraq should investigate claims of abuse contained in files published on the Wikileaks website". In addition, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak called "for a wider inquiry to include alleged US abuses."[28]

NATO's Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen stated that the release could cause "a very unfortunate situation", and that "such leaks ... may have a very negative security impact for people involved."

Countries

In preparation for the leak, the Pentagon created an Information Review Task Force to look for names, keywords and other issues that would be particularly sensitive, comprising 120 people led by the Defense Intelligence Agency.[29] A spokesperson for the Pentagon said the reports were considered to be simple observations and reports by military personnel and civilian informants, but nevertheless called their release a "tragedy," and the US Department of Defense requested the return of the documents.[30] US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned the leak, saying that it "puts the lives of United States and its partners' service members and civilians at risk."[29]

The U.S. military responded to the information in the documents about civilian deaths, saying that "it did not under-report the number of civilian deaths in the Iraq war or ignore prisoner abuse by Iraqi forces". Pentagon spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan added that "the U.S. military never claimed to have an exact count of the number of civilians killed in Iraq."[31] He also added that both WikiLeaks and the Pentagon had the same database to collate a civilian death toll and was further sceptical WikiLeaks "made any new discovery." General George Casey, the army chief of staff, said US forces went to morgues to collect data and he did not "recall downplaying civilian casualties."[32]

In response to the allegations of torture by Iraqi soldiers under US oversight, US General George Casey, in command of the Iraq War between 2004 and 2007, said that "[o]ur policy all along was if American soldiers encountered prisoner abuse, to stop it and report it immediately up the US chain of command and up the Iraqi chain of command."[33] Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Nick Clegg also expressed his support for an investigation into the "allegations of killings, torture and abuse" in the documents, having stated, "We can bemoan how these leaks occurred, but I think the nature of the allegations made are extraordinarily serious".[34]

Prime Minister of Iraq Nouri al-Maliki dismissed the records as politically timed smear and as a series of "media games and bubbles" as a defense against the information contained in the documents, which included "allegations [his administration] had permitted the abuse of prisoners and other misuses of power." This was echoed by Hassan al-Sneid, a "leader of Maliki's governing State of Law coalition", who stated, in terms of the images contained in the documents, "These are all just fakes from the Internet and Photoshop".[35] The Iraqi Government stated that it planned to investigate the role of private contractors, specifically Blackwater Worldwide, in deaths that occurred during the war and were revealed in the logs.[36]

The Iraqi News Network stated that "The WikiLeaks documents revealed very important secrets, but the most painful among them are not those that focus on the occupier, but those that reveal what the Iraqi forces, Iraqi government and politicians did against their citizens. Those leaders who returned to remove Iraq from oppression toppled the dictator but then carried out acts that were worse than Saddam himself. If these documents make the US apologise to Iraqis, they should compel Mr Maliki to leave the political arena altogether and apologise to everyone."[37]

Spokesman for Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted as saying, "Serious ambiguity and doubt linger regarding the intentions behind the suspicious release of WikiLeaks documents," and that Iran will "confront this mischievous act".[38]

During an interview with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on the radio version of Democracy Now!, host Amy Goodman discussed the response from Danish Prime Minister Lars Rasmussen, who had promised that "all allegations according to which Danish soldiers may have knowingly handed over detainees in Iraq to mistreatment at the hands of local authorities are regarded as very serious." However, he also "rejected calls by the opposition to establish an independent commission to investigate the claims."[39] In response to Rasmussen, an investigation by the Danish military was ordered by the minister of defence, Gitte Lillelund Bech.[40] The military also requested the original unedited documents from Wikileaks for their investigation.[41]

Non-government organizations

Amnesty International said that the actions taken by American and coalition troops in turning over prisoners from American to Iraqi custody when it was known that the prisoners were likely to be tortured may have broken international law.[42] An Amnesty official said that the organization had "concern[s] that the U.S. authorities committed a serious breach of international law when they summarily handed over thousands of detainees to Iraqi security forces who they knew were continuing to torture and abuse detainees on a truly shocking scale."[42]

The Iraq Body Count project, commenting on the projected additional 15,000 civilian casualties revealed by the logs, said that "[i]t is totally unacceptable that for so many years the US government has withheld from the public these essential details about civilian casualties in Iraq."[43]

Other reactions

Retired U.S. General Stanley McChrystal was quoted as saying, "I think it's sad. The decision to leak classified information is something that is illegal, and individuals are making judgments about threats and information they are not qualified to make. There is a level of responsibility toward our people that needs to be balanced with a right or need to know. It's likely that a leak of that information could cause the death of our own people or some of our allies."[44]

After the documents were released, US Iraq War resisters seeking refuge in Canada, including Joshua Key and the 17-year veteran Chuck Wiley, said that the October 2010 round of military documents released by WikiLeaks offers further support of their claims. Joshua Key, author, with Lawrence Hill, of The Deserter's Tale[45][46] (a book chronicling his service in Iraq and his subsequent departure from military life[47]), said, "It’s the truth actually being told. These [Wikileaks] documents coming out now are right from the level of the soldiers. I guess (the brass) never realized how much the Internet would take a part in the [Iraq] war."[48]

Media coverage

Wikileaks made the documents available under embargo to a number of media organisations: Der Spiegel, The Guardian, The New York Times, Al Jazeera, Le Monde, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, and the Iraq Body Count project.[49] In October 2010, it was reported that WikiLeaks was planning to release up to 400,000 documents relating to the Iraq War.[50] Julian Assange initially denied the reports, stating: "WikiLeaks does not speak about upcoming releases dates, indeed, with very rare exceptions we do not communicate any specific information about upcoming releases, since that simply provides fodder for abusive organizations to get their spin machines ready."[51] The Guardian reported on 21 October 2010 that it had received almost 400,000 Iraq war documents from WikiLeaks.[52] On 22 October 2010, Al Jazeera was the first to release analyses of the leak, dubbed The War Logs. WikiLeaks posted a tweet that "Al Jazeera have broken our embargo by 30 minutes. We release everyone from their Iraq War Logs embargoes." This prompted other news organizations to release their articles based on the source material.

Upon the lifting of the embargo, the media coverage by these groups was followed by further coverage by other media organisations. The Guardian said that "the New York Times, Washington Post and other papers were accused by web publications and some bloggers of downplaying the extent to which the documents revealed US complicity in torture and provided evidence that politicians in Washington "lied" about the failures of the US military mission".[37] The Guardian had reported that "fresh evidence that US soldiers handed over detainees to a notorious Iraqi torture squad has emerged in army logs published by WikiLeaks",[17] and Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com commented that "media outlets around the world prominently highlighted this revelation, but not The New York Times",[53] calling their coverage of the document leak "subservient" to the Pentagon, and criticising them for what he called a "gossipy, People Magazine-style 'profile' of Assange".[54]

Total death count

See also: Casualties of the Iraq War

While the U.S. tally of Iraqi and US-led Coalition deaths in the war logs is 109,000, a widely quoted[55] 2006 study published in The Lancet used a cross-sectional cluster sample to estimate about 650,000 deaths were due to the Iraq war increasing mortality.[56] Another study by the World Health Organization called the Iraq Family Health Survey estimated 151,000 deaths due to violence (95% uncertainty range, 104,000 to 223,000) from March 2003 through June 2006.[57] The Iraq Body Count reviewed the war logs data in three reports in October 2010 and concluded that the total recorded death toll, civilian and combatant, would be more than 150,000.[12]

See also

References

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  2. ^ a b "The WikiLeaks Iraq War Logs: Greatest Data Leak in US Military History". Der Spiegel. 22 October 2010. from the original on 23 October 2010. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
  3. ^ a b c d e Davies, Nick; Steele, Jonathan; Leigh, David (22 October 2010). "Iraq war logs: secret files show how US ignored torture". The Guardian. London. from the original on 30 July 2013. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
  4. ^ a b Carlstrom, Gregg (22 October 2010). "WikiLeaks releases secret Iraq file". Al Jazeera English. from the original on 23 October 2010. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
  5. ^ "WikiLeaks website publishes classified military documents from Iraq". CNN. 22 October 2010. from the original on 25 October 2010. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
  6. ^ "Enthüllung von US-Geheimdokumenten: Die Irak-Protokolle". Der Spiegel (in German). 22 October 2010. from the original on 24 October 2010. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
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  9. ^ a b c d Ackerman, Spencer; Shachtman, Noah (22 October 2010). "Chemical Weapons, Iranian Agents and Massive Death Tolls Exposed in WikiLeaks' Iraq Docs". Wired. from the original on 24 October 2010. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
  10. ^ Stewart, Phil (23 October 2010). "WikiLeaks data shows U.S. failed to probe Iraqi abuse cases". Reuters. from the original on 26 October 2010. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
  11. ^ "Five bombshells from WikiLeaks' Iraq war documents". The Christian Science Monitor. 22 October 2010. Retrieved 29 October 2019.
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  13. ^ ""Iraqi deaths from violence in 2012" by Iraq Body Count, 1 January 2013". from the original on 20 January 2013. Retrieved 19 January 2013.
  14. ^ ""Incidents added to the IBC database from the Iraq War Logs released by WikiLeaks, as of 2 January 2012" by Iraq Body Count". from the original on 6 January 2013. Retrieved 19 January 2013.
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  17. ^ a b Leigh, David; O'Kane, Maggie (24 October 2010). "Iraq war logs: US turned over captives to Iraqi torture squads". The Guardian. London. from the original on 23 August 2013. Retrieved 31 October 2010.
  18. ^ Stickler, Angus (22 October 2010). "US Apache guns down surrendering insurgents". iraqwarlogs.com. Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Retrieved 23 October 2010.[permanent dead link]
  19. ^ Gjerding, Sebastian (23 October 2010). "Danish forces involved in giving over detainees to abusive police". Dagbladet Information. from the original on 26 October 2010. Retrieved 28 October 2010.
  20. ^ Gordon, Michael R.; Lehren, Andrew W. (23 October 2010). "Leaks shine light on Iran's role as backer of Iraq's Shi'ite militias". The Boston Globe. from the original on 26 October 2010. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
  21. ^ "Hizbullah trained Iraqis how to kidnap soldiers". The Jerusalem Post. 23 October 2010. from the original on 24 October 2010. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
  22. ^ "WikiLeaks confirms influences on Iraq". The Australian. 25 October 2010. Retrieved 24 October 2010.[dead link]
  23. ^ Gordon, Michael R. (23 October 2010). "Tensions High Along Kurdish-Arab Line". The New York Times. from the original on 23 March 2018. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
  24. ^ Katz, Yaakov (29 October 2010). "Analysis: Lies, leaks, death tolls & statistics". The Jerusalem Post. from the original on 30 October 2010. Retrieved 31 October 2010.
  25. ^ "Wikileaks's leaks mostly confirm earlier Iraq reporting". The Washington Post. 26 October 2010. from the original on 27 October 2010. Retrieved 1 November 2010.
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  27. ^ a b Batty, David; Doward, Jamie (23 October 2010). "Iraq war logs: UN calls on Obama to investigate human rights abuses". The Guardian. London. from the original on 28 August 2013. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
  28. ^ "UN urges US and Iraq to probe Wikileaks torture claims". BBC News. 26 October 2010. from the original on 26 October 2010. Retrieved 27 October 2010.
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  30. ^ "Wikileaks: Iraq war logs 'reveal truth about conflict'". BBC News. 23 October 2010. from the original on 24 October 2010. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
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  32. ^ "US defends Iraq record". Al Jazeera English. 26 October 2010. from the original on 27 October 2010. Retrieved 27 October 2010.
  33. ^ "US rebuffs Wikileaks Iraq torture claims". BBC News. 25 October 2010. from the original on 26 October 2010. Retrieved 25 October 2010.
  34. ^ Spencer, Richard (24 October 2010). "Wikileaks: Nick Clegg backs calls for investigation". The Daily Telegraph. London. from the original on 27 October 2010. Retrieved 24 October 2010.
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  37. ^ a b Chulov, Martin; McGreal, Chris; Eriksen, Lars; Kington, Tom (28 October 2010). "Iraq war logs: media reaction around the world". The Guardian. London. from the original on 28 August 2013. Retrieved 31 October 2010.
  38. ^ "Iran slams 'mischievous' WikiLeaks". News24. 26 October 2010. from the original on 28 October 2010. Retrieved 27 October 2010.
  39. ^ Goodman, Amy (26 October 2010). "WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange on Iraq War Logs, "Tabloid Journalism" and Why WikiLeaks Is "Under Siege"". Democracy Now!. from the original on 26 October 2010. Retrieved 26 October 2010.
  40. ^ "Forsvaret får lækkede krigsdokumenter". Ekstra Bladet (in Danish). 3 November 2010. from the original on 8 March 2012. Retrieved 5 November 2010.
  41. ^ (in Danish). Ministry of Defence of Denmark. 3 November 2010. Archived from the original on 8 November 2010. Retrieved 5 November 2010.
  42. ^ a b Cloud, David S.; Parker, Ned (23 October 2010). "WikiLeaks documents indicate U.S. forces failed to stop prisoner abuse by Iraqis". Los Angeles Times. from the original on 24 October 2010. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
  43. ^ "US soldiers killed unarmed civilians, WikiLeaks claim". Financial Times. 22 October 2010. from the original on 25 October 2010. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
  44. ^ Farber, Dan (22 October 2010). "Gen. McChrystal: WikiLeaks a Sad Situation". CBS News. from the original on 23 October 2010. Retrieved 25 October 2010.
  45. ^ Key, Joshua; Hill, Lawrence (June 2007). The Deserter's Tale: The Story of an Ordinary Soldier Who Walked Away from the War in Iraq. Atlantic Monthly. ISBN 978-0-87113-954-2.
  46. ^ Key, Joshua; Hill, Lawrence (June 2007). The Deserter's Tale: The Story of an Ordinary Soldier Who Walked Away from the War in Iraq. House of Ansi Press. ISBN 978-0-88784-208-5.
  47. ^ Hill, Lawrence (24 November 2007). . Ottawa Citizen. Archived from the original on 15 February 2009. Retrieved 30 January 2009.
  48. ^ Infantry, Ashante (24 October 2010). "U.S. war resisters praise WikiLeaks". Toronto Star. from the original on 13 February 2012. Retrieved 7 November 2010.
  49. ^ . Bureau of Investigative Journalism. 22 October 2010. Archived from the original on 29 October 2010. Retrieved 31 October 2010.
  50. ^ "WikiLeaks May Release 400,000 Iraq War Documents". CBS News. 16 October 2010. Retrieved 16 October 2010.
  51. ^ Assange, Julian (18 October 2010). "Where do all these claims about WikiLeaks doing something on Iraq today (Monday) come from?". WikiLeaks. Retrieved 18 October 2010.
  52. ^ Davies, Nick; Steele, Jonathan; Leigh, David (22 October 2010). "Iraq war logs: secret files show how US ignored torture". The Guardian. UK. Retrieved 22 October 2010.
  53. ^ Greenwald, Glenn (25 October 2010). . Salon.com. Archived from the original on 1 November 2010. Retrieved 31 October 2010.
  54. ^ Greenwald, Glenn (27 October 2010). . Salon.com. Archived from the original on 30 October 2010. Retrieved 31 October 2010.
  55. ^ David Leigh (22 October 2010). "Iraq war logs reveal 15,000 previously unlisted civilian deaths". The Guardian. London. from the original on 30 July 2013. Retrieved 8 November 2010.
  56. ^ Burnham G, Lafta R, Doocy S, Roberts L (October 2006). "Mortality after the 2003 invasion of Iraq: a cross-sectional cluster sample survey". The Lancet. 368 (9545): 1421–8. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(06)69491-9. PMID 17055943. S2CID 23673934. from the original on 14 May 2013. Retrieved 26 October 2010.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  57. ^ "New study estimates 151 000 violent Iraqi deaths since 2003 invasion" 13 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine. 9 January 2008 news release. World Health Organization. See right sidebar for related links.

External links

 
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  • WikiLeaks releases Iraq War logs

August 13, 2023
iraq, documents, leak, disclosure, wikileaks, united, states, army, field, reports, also, called, iraq, logs, iraq, from, 2004, 2009, published, internet, october, 2010, files, record, civilian, deaths, recorded, deaths, leak, resulted, iraq, body, count, proj. The Iraq War documents leak is the disclosure to WikiLeaks of 391 832 1 United States Army field reports also called the Iraq War Logs of the Iraq War from 2004 to 2009 and published on the Internet on 22 October 2010 2 3 4 The files record 66 081 civilian deaths out of 109 000 recorded deaths 3 4 5 6 7 The leak resulted in the Iraq Body Count project adding 15 000 civilian deaths to their count bringing their total to over 150 000 with roughly 80 of those civilians 8 It is the biggest leak in the military history of the United States 2 9 surpassing the Afghan War documents leak of 25 July 2010 10 Contents 1 Contents 1 1 Civilian casualties 1 2 Iraqi Western coalition human rights abuses 1 3 Foreign training and support for insurgents 1 4 Miscellaneous 2 Reactions 2 1 International organizations 2 2 Countries 2 3 Non government organizations 2 4 Other reactions 3 Media coverage 4 Total death count 5 See also 6 References 7 External linksContents EditThe logs led to news reports of previously unknown or unconfirmed events that took place during the war Civilian casualties Edit The Iraq Body Count project estimated 15 000 civilian deaths that had not been previously admitted by the US government based on an extrapolation of a sample of the deaths found in about 800 logs Although American and British officials had denied any official record of civilian deaths the logs released by Wikileaks showed 66 081 civilian deaths out of a total of 109 000 fatalities for the period from 1 January 2004 to 31 December 2009 11 9 12 As of 2 January 2013 the IBC has added a total of 3 334 of these previously unrecorded civilian deaths to its database from their ongoing analysis of the war logs 13 14 Some civilian deaths were classified as enemy casualties such as the July 12 2007 Baghdad airstrike by US helicopter gunships which killed two Reuters journalists along with several men thought to be armed suspected to be insurgents They including the journalists were listed as enemy killed in action 3 According to Al Jazeera English some of the documents describe how almost 700 civilians were killed by US troops for coming too close to checkpoints including pregnant women and the mentally ill At least a half dozen incidents involved Iraqi men transporting pregnant family members to hospitals 15 The New York Times said the reports contain evidence of many abuses including civilian deaths committed by contractors The New York Times points out some specific reports such as one which says after the IED strike a witness reports the Blackwater employees fired indiscriminately at the scene 16 In another event on 14 May 2005 an American unit observed a Blackwater PSD shoot up a civ vehicle killing a father and wounding his wife and daughter 16 Iraqi Western coalition human rights abuses Edit The logs corroborate previous allegations that the US military handed over many prisoners to the Iraqi Wolf Brigade which was accused of beating prisoners torturing them with electric drills and executing suspects 17 According to The Guardian that the logs also show that US authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse torture rape and even murder by Iraqi police and soldiers 3 The coalition had a formal policy of ignoring such allegations unless the allegations involve coalition forces 3 Wired Magazine reported that abuse of prisoners or detainees by Iraqi security forces continued even after the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse incident came to light in 2004 In one recorded case US troops confiscated a hand cranked generator with wire clamps from a Baghdad police station after a detainee claimed to have been brutalized there 9 One report analyzed by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism seemed to show that the US military cleared an Apache helicopter gunship to open fire on Iraqi insurgents who were trying to surrender 18 According to Dagbladet Information Danish soldiers passed on responsibility for a much higher number of prisoners to Iraqi police than had previously been made public The practice continued even though the coalition witnessed and was repeatedly warned of widespread torture and mistreatment of prisoners in the hands of the Iraqi police 19 Foreign training and support for insurgents Edit According to Wired Magazine WikiLeaks may have just bolstered one of the Bush administration s most controversial claims about the Iraq war that Iran supplied many of the Iraq insurgency s deadliest weapons and worked hand in glove with some of its most lethal militias The documents indicate that Iran was a major combatant in the Iraq war as its elite Quds Force trained Iraqi Shiite insurgents and imported deadly weapons like the shape charged explosively formed penetrator bombs into Iraq for use against civilians Sunni militants and U S troops 9 It was reported in the Boston Globe that the documents show Iraqi operatives being trained by Hezbollah in precision military style kidnappings Reports also included incidents of US surveillance aircraft lost deep in Iranian territory 20 21 Miscellaneous Edit According to The Australian a document from December 2006 described a plan by a Shia militia commander to kidnap US soldiers in Baghdad in late 2006 or early 2007 The Australian also reported that detainee testimony and a captured militant s diary are cited among the documents in order to demonstrate how Iran provided Iraqi militias with weapons such as rockets and lethal roadside bombs 22 According to The New York Times the trove of documents released by WikiLeaks in October 2010 portrays the long history of tensions between Kurds and Arabs in the north of Iraq and reveals the fears of some American units about what might happen after American troops leave the country by the end of 2011 23 An analysis published by The Jerusalem Post argued the leaked documents indicates a double standard in the international community views of human rights towards Israel s military policy 24 An editorial in The Washington Post said that the leak mainly demonstrates that the truth about Iraq already has been told while it has at least temporarily complicated negotiations to form a new government The editor also charged that claims such as those published by the British journal The Lancet that American forces slaughtered hundreds of thousands are the real attack on truth 25 After criticism over the Afghan War documents leak WikiLeaks redacted more information from the Iraq War documents Assange explained that this was to stop people distracting from the message contained in the material 26 Reactions EditInternational organizations Edit The UN s chief investigator on torture Manfred Nowak states that if the files released through WikiLeaks pointed to clear violations of the United Nations Convention Against Torture the Obama administration had an obligation to investigate them 27 The convention according to Nowak forbids the US from turning over detainees to the Iraqi government if doing so meant they might be subjected to torture 27 The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay said that the US and Iraq should investigate claims of abuse contained in files published on the Wikileaks website In addition the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak called for a wider inquiry to include alleged US abuses 28 NATO s Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen stated that the release could cause a very unfortunate situation and that such leaks may have a very negative security impact for people involved Countries Edit In preparation for the leak the Pentagon created an Information Review Task Force to look for names keywords and other issues that would be particularly sensitive comprising 120 people led by the Defense Intelligence Agency 29 A spokesperson for the Pentagon said the reports were considered to be simple observations and reports by military personnel and civilian informants but nevertheless called their release a tragedy and the US Department of Defense requested the return of the documents 30 US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned the leak saying that it puts the lives of United States and its partners service members and civilians at risk 29 The U S military responded to the information in the documents about civilian deaths saying that it did not under report the number of civilian deaths in the Iraq war or ignore prisoner abuse by Iraqi forces Pentagon spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan added that the U S military never claimed to have an exact count of the number of civilians killed in Iraq 31 He also added that both WikiLeaks and the Pentagon had the same database to collate a civilian death toll and was further sceptical WikiLeaks made any new discovery General George Casey the army chief of staff said US forces went to morgues to collect data and he did not recall downplaying civilian casualties 32 In response to the allegations of torture by Iraqi soldiers under US oversight US General George Casey in command of the Iraq War between 2004 and 2007 said that o ur policy all along was if American soldiers encountered prisoner abuse to stop it and report it immediately up the US chain of command and up the Iraqi chain of command 33 Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Nick Clegg also expressed his support for an investigation into the allegations of killings torture and abuse in the documents having stated We can bemoan how these leaks occurred but I think the nature of the allegations made are extraordinarily serious 34 Prime Minister of Iraq Nouri al Maliki dismissed the records as politically timed smear and as a series of media games and bubbles as a defense against the information contained in the documents which included allegations his administration had permitted the abuse of prisoners and other misuses of power This was echoed by Hassan al Sneid a leader of Maliki s governing State of Law coalition who stated in terms of the images contained in the documents These are all just fakes from the Internet and Photoshop 35 The Iraqi Government stated that it planned to investigate the role of private contractors specifically Blackwater Worldwide in deaths that occurred during the war and were revealed in the logs 36 The Iraqi News Network stated that The WikiLeaks documents revealed very important secrets but the most painful among them are not those that focus on the occupier but those that reveal what the Iraqi forces Iraqi government and politicians did against their citizens Those leaders who returned to remove Iraq from oppression toppled the dictator but then carried out acts that were worse than Saddam himself If these documents make the US apologise to Iraqis they should compel Mr Maliki to leave the political arena altogether and apologise to everyone 37 Spokesman for Iran s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted as saying Serious ambiguity and doubt linger regarding the intentions behind the suspicious release of WikiLeaks documents and that Iran will confront this mischievous act 38 During an interview with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on the radio version of Democracy Now host Amy Goodman discussed the response from Danish Prime Minister Lars Rasmussen who had promised that all allegations according to which Danish soldiers may have knowingly handed over detainees in Iraq to mistreatment at the hands of local authorities are regarded as very serious However he also rejected calls by the opposition to establish an independent commission to investigate the claims 39 In response to Rasmussen an investigation by the Danish military was ordered by the minister of defence Gitte Lillelund Bech 40 The military also requested the original unedited documents from Wikileaks for their investigation 41 Non government organizations Edit Amnesty International said that the actions taken by American and coalition troops in turning over prisoners from American to Iraqi custody when it was known that the prisoners were likely to be tortured may have broken international law 42 An Amnesty official said that the organization had concern s that the U S authorities committed a serious breach of international law when they summarily handed over thousands of detainees to Iraqi security forces who they knew were continuing to torture and abuse detainees on a truly shocking scale 42 The Iraq Body Count project commenting on the projected additional 15 000 civilian casualties revealed by the logs said that i t is totally unacceptable that for so many years the US government has withheld from the public these essential details about civilian casualties in Iraq 43 Other reactions Edit Retired U S General Stanley McChrystal was quoted as saying I think it s sad The decision to leak classified information is something that is illegal and individuals are making judgments about threats and information they are not qualified to make There is a level of responsibility toward our people that needs to be balanced with a right or need to know It s likely that a leak of that information could cause the death of our own people or some of our allies 44 After the documents were released US Iraq War resisters seeking refuge in Canada including Joshua Key and the 17 year veteran Chuck Wiley said that the October 2010 round of military documents released by WikiLeaks offers further support of their claims Joshua Key author with Lawrence Hill of The Deserter s Tale 45 46 a book chronicling his service in Iraq and his subsequent departure from military life 47 said It s the truth actually being told These Wikileaks documents coming out now are right from the level of the soldiers I guess the brass never realized how much the Internet would take a part in the Iraq war 48 Media coverage EditWikileaks made the documents available under embargo to a number of media organisations Der Spiegel The Guardian The New York Times Al Jazeera Le Monde the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the Iraq Body Count project 49 In October 2010 it was reported that WikiLeaks was planning to release up to 400 000 documents relating to the Iraq War 50 Julian Assange initially denied the reports stating WikiLeaks does not speak about upcoming releases dates indeed with very rare exceptions we do not communicate any specific information about upcoming releases since that simply provides fodder for abusive organizations to get their spin machines ready 51 The Guardian reported on 21 October 2010 that it had received almost 400 000 Iraq war documents from WikiLeaks 52 On 22 October 2010 Al Jazeera was the first to release analyses of the leak dubbed The War Logs WikiLeaks posted a tweet that Al Jazeera have broken our embargo by 30 minutes We release everyone from their Iraq War Logs embargoes This prompted other news organizations to release their articles based on the source material Upon the lifting of the embargo the media coverage by these groups was followed by further coverage by other media organisations The Guardian said that the New York Times Washington Post and other papers were accused by web publications and some bloggers of downplaying the extent to which the documents revealed US complicity in torture and provided evidence that politicians in Washington lied about the failures of the US military mission 37 The Guardian had reported that fresh evidence that US soldiers handed over detainees to a notorious Iraqi torture squad has emerged in army logs published by WikiLeaks 17 and Glenn Greenwald of Salon com commented that media outlets around the world prominently highlighted this revelation but not The New York Times 53 calling their coverage of the document leak subservient to the Pentagon and criticising them for what he called a gossipy People Magazine style profile of Assange 54 Total death count EditSee also Casualties of the Iraq War While the U S tally of Iraqi and US led Coalition deaths in the war logs is 109 000 a widely quoted 55 2006 study published in The Lancet used a cross sectional cluster sample to estimate about 650 000 deaths were due to the Iraq war increasing mortality 56 Another study by the World Health Organization called the Iraq Family Health Survey estimated 151 000 deaths due to violence 95 uncertainty range 104 000 to 223 000 from March 2003 through June 2006 57 The Iraq Body Count reviewed the war logs data in three reports in October 2010 and concluded that the total recorded death toll civilian and combatant would be more than 150 000 12 See also Edit Internet portal Iraq portal United States portalAfghan War documents leak Chelsea Manning Niger uranium forgeries Pentagon PapersReferences Edit Iraq War logs WikiLeaks 22 October 2010 Archived from the original on 20 May 2015 Retrieved 28 May 2015 a b The WikiLeaks Iraq War Logs Greatest Data Leak in US Military History Der Spiegel 22 October 2010 Archived from the original on 23 October 2010 Retrieved 23 October 2010 a b c d e Davies Nick Steele Jonathan Leigh David 22 October 2010 Iraq war logs secret files show how US ignored torture The Guardian London Archived from the original on 30 July 2013 Retrieved 23 October 2010 a b Carlstrom Gregg 22 October 2010 WikiLeaks releases secret Iraq file Al Jazeera English Archived from the original on 23 October 2010 Retrieved 23 October 2010 WikiLeaks website publishes classified military documents from Iraq CNN 22 October 2010 Archived from the original on 25 October 2010 Retrieved 23 October 2010 Enthullung von US Geheimdokumenten Die Irak Protokolle Der Spiegel in German 22 October 2010 Archived from the original on 24 October 2010 Retrieved 23 October 2010 Nya dokument avslojas fran Irak kriget in Swedish Sveriges Television 22 October 2010 Archived from the original on 25 October 2010 Retrieved 23 October 2010 Paul Reynolds 27 October 2010 Wikileaks Iraq war logs increase pressure for openness BBC Archived from the original on 8 November 2010 Retrieved 15 November 2010 a b c d Ackerman Spencer Shachtman Noah 22 October 2010 Chemical Weapons Iranian Agents and Massive Death Tolls Exposed in WikiLeaks Iraq Docs Wired Archived from the original on 24 October 2010 Retrieved 23 October 2010 Stewart Phil 23 October 2010 WikiLeaks data shows U S failed to probe Iraqi abuse cases Reuters Archived from the original on 26 October 2010 Retrieved 23 October 2010 Five bombshells from WikiLeaks Iraq war documents The Christian Science Monitor 22 October 2010 Retrieved 29 October 2019 a b Iraq War Logs What the numbers reveal Iraq Body Count project Archived from the original on 2 December 2010 Retrieved 23 October 2010 Iraqi deaths from violence in 2012 by Iraq Body Count 1 January 2013 Archived from the original on 20 January 2013 Retrieved 19 January 2013 Incidents added to the IBC database from the Iraq War Logs released by WikiLeaks as of 2 January 2012 by Iraq Body Count Archived from the original on 6 January 2013 Retrieved 19 January 2013 Carlstrom Gregg 23 October 2010 Iraq files reveal checkpoint deaths Al Jazeera English Archived from the original on 23 October 2010 Retrieved 23 October 2010 a b Glanz James Lehren Andrew 23 October 2010 Use of Contractors Added to War s Chaos in Iraq The New York Times Archived from the original on 26 May 2011 Retrieved 23 October 2010 a b Leigh David O Kane Maggie 24 October 2010 Iraq war logs US turned over captives to Iraqi torture squads The Guardian London Archived from the original on 23 August 2013 Retrieved 31 October 2010 Stickler Angus 22 October 2010 US Apache guns down surrendering insurgents iraqwarlogs com Bureau of Investigative Journalism Retrieved 23 October 2010 permanent dead link Gjerding Sebastian 23 October 2010 Danish forces involved in giving over detainees to abusive police Dagbladet Information Archived from the original on 26 October 2010 Retrieved 28 October 2010 Gordon Michael R Lehren Andrew W 23 October 2010 Leaks shine light on Iran s role as backer of Iraq s Shi ite militias The Boston Globe Archived from the original on 26 October 2010 Retrieved 23 October 2010 Hizbullah trained Iraqis how to kidnap soldiers The Jerusalem Post 23 October 2010 Archived from the original on 24 October 2010 Retrieved 23 October 2010 WikiLeaks confirms influences on Iraq The Australian 25 October 2010 Retrieved 24 October 2010 dead link Gordon Michael R 23 October 2010 Tensions High Along Kurdish Arab Line The New York Times Archived from the original on 23 March 2018 Retrieved 22 March 2018 Katz Yaakov 29 October 2010 Analysis Lies leaks death tolls amp statistics The Jerusalem Post Archived from the original on 30 October 2010 Retrieved 31 October 2010 Wikileaks s leaks mostly confirm earlier Iraq reporting The Washington Post 26 October 2010 Archived from the original on 27 October 2010 Retrieved 1 November 2010 Shaughnessy Larry 23 October 2010 WikiLeaks redacted more information in latest documents release CNN Archived from the original on 25 October 2010 Retrieved 25 October 2010 a b Batty David Doward Jamie 23 October 2010 Iraq war logs UN calls on Obama to investigate human rights abuses The Guardian London Archived from the original on 28 August 2013 Retrieved 23 October 2010 UN urges US and Iraq to probe Wikileaks torture claims BBC News 26 October 2010 Archived from the original on 26 October 2010 Retrieved 27 October 2010 a b Fallon Amy 22 October 2010 Iraq war logs disclosure condemned by Hillary Clinton and Nato The Guardian London Archived from the original on 17 September 2013 Retrieved 23 October 2010 I can t comment on the details of the exact impact on security but in general I can tell you that such leaks may have a very negative security impact for people involved Wikileaks Iraq war logs reveal truth about conflict BBC News 23 October 2010 Archived from the original on 24 October 2010 Retrieved 23 October 2010 Stewart Phil Shalal Esa Andrea 25 October 2010 U S says did not under report Iraq civilian deaths Reuters Archived from the original on 25 October 2010 Retrieved 25 October 2010 US defends Iraq record Al Jazeera English 26 October 2010 Archived from the original on 27 October 2010 Retrieved 27 October 2010 US rebuffs Wikileaks Iraq torture claims BBC News 25 October 2010 Archived from the original on 26 October 2010 Retrieved 25 October 2010 Spencer Richard 24 October 2010 Wikileaks Nick Clegg backs calls for investigation The Daily Telegraph London Archived from the original on 27 October 2010 Retrieved 24 October 2010 Healy Jack 25 October 2010 WikiLeaks Iraq logs put Maliki in a tight spot The Hindu Chennai India Archived from the original on 27 October 2010 Retrieved 24 October 2010 Cockburn Patrick 25 October 2010 Baghdad to investigate role of Blackwater in deaths The Independent London Archived from the original on 26 October 2010 Retrieved 25 October 2010 a b Chulov Martin McGreal Chris Eriksen Lars Kington Tom 28 October 2010 Iraq war logs media reaction around the world The Guardian London Archived from the original on 28 August 2013 Retrieved 31 October 2010 Iran slams mischievous WikiLeaks News24 26 October 2010 Archived from the original on 28 October 2010 Retrieved 27 October 2010 Goodman Amy 26 October 2010 WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange on Iraq War Logs Tabloid Journalism and Why WikiLeaks Is Under Siege Democracy Now Archived from the original on 26 October 2010 Retrieved 26 October 2010 Forsvaret far laekkede krigsdokumenter Ekstra Bladet in Danish 3 November 2010 Archived from the original on 8 March 2012 Retrieved 5 November 2010 Forsvaret opfordrer WikiLeaks til at udlevere Irak dokumenter in Danish Ministry of Defence of Denmark 3 November 2010 Archived from the original on 8 November 2010 Retrieved 5 November 2010 a b Cloud David S Parker Ned 23 October 2010 WikiLeaks documents indicate U S forces failed to stop prisoner abuse by Iraqis Los Angeles Times Archived from the original on 24 October 2010 Retrieved 23 October 2010 US soldiers killed unarmed civilians WikiLeaks claim Financial Times 22 October 2010 Archived from the original on 25 October 2010 Retrieved 23 October 2010 Farber Dan 22 October 2010 Gen McChrystal WikiLeaks a Sad Situation CBS News Archived from the original on 23 October 2010 Retrieved 25 October 2010 Key Joshua Hill Lawrence June 2007 The Deserter s Tale The Story of an Ordinary Soldier Who Walked Away from the War in Iraq Atlantic Monthly ISBN 978 0 87113 954 2 Key Joshua Hill Lawrence June 2007 The Deserter s Tale The Story of an Ordinary Soldier Who Walked Away from the War in Iraq House of Ansi Press ISBN 978 0 88784 208 5 Hill Lawrence 24 November 2007 Just desertions Ottawa Citizen Archived from the original on 15 February 2009 Retrieved 30 January 2009 Infantry Ashante 24 October 2010 U S war resisters praise WikiLeaks Toronto Star Archived from the original on 13 February 2012 Retrieved 7 November 2010 The Iraq war logs nearly 400 000 files document the war on a daily basis Bureau of Investigative Journalism 22 October 2010 Archived from the original on 29 October 2010 Retrieved 31 October 2010 WikiLeaks May Release 400 000 Iraq War Documents CBS News 16 October 2010 Retrieved 16 October 2010 Assange Julian 18 October 2010 Where do all these claims about WikiLeaks doing something on Iraq today Monday come from WikiLeaks Retrieved 18 October 2010 Davies Nick Steele Jonathan Leigh David 22 October 2010 Iraq war logs secret files show how US ignored torture The Guardian UK Retrieved 22 October 2010 Greenwald Glenn 25 October 2010 NYT v the world WikiLeaks coverage Salon com Archived from the original on 1 November 2010 Retrieved 31 October 2010 Greenwald Glenn 27 October 2010 More on the media s Pentagon subservient WikiLeaks coverage Salon com Archived from the original on 30 October 2010 Retrieved 31 October 2010 David Leigh 22 October 2010 Iraq war logs reveal 15 000 previously unlisted civilian deaths The Guardian London Archived from the original on 30 July 2013 Retrieved 8 November 2010 Burnham G Lafta R Doocy S Roberts L October 2006 Mortality after the 2003 invasion of Iraq a cross sectional cluster sample survey The Lancet 368 9545 1421 8 doi 10 1016 S0140 6736 06 69491 9 PMID 17055943 S2CID 23673934 Archived from the original on 14 May 2013 Retrieved 26 October 2010 a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link New study estimates 151 000 violent Iraqi deaths since 2003 invasion Archived 13 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine 9 January 2008 news release World Health Organization See right sidebar for related links External links Edit Wikinews has related news WikiLeaks releases Iraq War logs Baghdad War Diary WikiLeaks The War Logs The New York Times Iraq The war logs The Guardian Iraq War Logs Der Spiegel Secret Iraq Files Al Jazeera English iraqwarlogs com Bureau of Investigative Journalism Warlogs crowdsourcing interface OWNI WikiLeaks Prepares Largest Intel Leak in US History with Release of 400 000 Iraq War Docs video report by Democracy Now 22 October 2010 Iraq War Logs Expose US Backed Torture video report by Democracy Now Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Iraq War documents leak amp oldid 1139033877, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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