For nearly five years, I have been charting the civilian death toll in Iraq, along with the payment (and non-payment) of "condolence" and "solatia" funds to victims and survivors. Today brings a report from the American Civil Liberties Union that builds on its past work in this field and releases thousands of pages of new documents via the FOIA.
"At every step of the way, the Bush administration and Defense Department have gone to unprecedented lengths to control and suppress information about the human cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan," says Nasrina Bargzie, an attorney with the ACLU National Security Project. "Our democracy depends on an informed public and that is why it is so important that the American people see these documents. These documents will help to fill the information void around the issue of civilian casualties in Iraq and will lead to a more complete understanding of the prosecution of the war."
The new documents relate to eight Navy probes of civilians killed by Coalition Forces in Iraq, including the cousin of the Iraqi ambassador to the United States. ACLU says these "records provide a vivid snapshot of the circumstances surrounding civilian deaths in Iraq."
From an ACLU release:
One of the files documents the investigation of the death of Mohammed al-Sumaidaie, a cousin of the Iraqi ambassador to the U.S, Samir al-Sumaidaie. In 2006, the ambassador accused Marines of "intentionally" killing his cousin and today's records shed light on al-Sumaidaie's NCIS investigation for the first time. Among the findings uncovered in this file are conflicting accounts of events, questions of credibility, possible command influence issues and cover-ups.
I've also just received a release from a group I have consulted in the past, the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC), which says today that of the eight ACLU cases it is "dismayed that only one resulted in payment to civilians for damages and called for swift compensation to the victims and their families."
These documents "tell us that victims and their families are being overlooked by US forces," said Sarah Holewinski, executive director of CIVIC. Holewinski cites the case of a man pulled from his home by Marines and shot by the side of the road. The Marines then planted an AK-47 and a shovel on the man to make it appear as though he was an insurgent caught burying an IED. The coverup was eventually revealed and several convictions followed, but compensation to the family did not follow.
Today's documents are available online at: here.
Greg Mitchell's book includes several chapters related to the civilian death toll. It is So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Failed on Iraq.