Pentagon is pressed on killings of Iraqis-Lawmakers, ACLU want records on civilian deaths

[babylonsister]

Pentagon is pressed on killings of Iraqis
Lawmakers, ACLU want records on civilian deaths


By Farah Stockman, Globe Staff | October 9, 2007

WASHINGTON - The firestorm over the Sept. 16 shooting of more than a dozen unarmed Iraqis by members of Blackwater USA, a private security firm, has sparked renewed calls for the US military to release its own records related to the killing of Iraqi civilians at checkpoints or near convoys.

Many hundreds of Iraqi civilians have been killed or injured by US forces for getting too close to checkpoints or convoys over the past four years, according to US military documents and officials.

Private security contractors such as Blackwater and US soldiers are authorized to fire at vehicles that get too close to convoys or checkpoints, after giving a series of warnings known as "escalation of force."

US military officials say they have launched a successful effort to reduce the number of such shootings by training soldiers to give more visible warnings, but the Pentagon so far has declined to release data to back up the assertion. That refusal has sparked a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union seeking copies of military reports on such escalation-of-force shootings. Key members of Congress have also called for the release of the documents.

"Without these documents being released, we don't really know how well the military is doing," said Jon Tracy, a former judge advocate general in Iraq who now works for CIVIC, a Washington-based group that seeks to curb civilian deaths. "We don't know how often this happens, and when it does happen. We can't know if a soldier reasonably had fear or was the soldier was just trigger-happy?"

Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat who has been an outspoken advocate of civilian victims in Iraq and Afghanistan, has renewed calls for the Pentagon to create a declassified database of civilian deaths.

"Such a database would assist in evaluating the effectiveness of the Pentagon's efforts to reduce civilian casualties and in determining appropriate compensation for the victims' families," Leahy said in a statement to the Globe last week. "It would also help to credibly refute inaccurate claims of civilian deaths."

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http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2007/10/09/pentagon_is_pressed_on_killings_of_iraqis/?page=1

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. why would we care about dead iraqians? I mean

after 9/11 they have no bizniz living, damn El Cadians. Nuke em, nuke em all, I say, make that dessert glow in the dark. Then, Iran, and then Belgium. Unless France behaves. If we got nukes and don't use, they go stale. So we better use em or lose em. Besides, we got us a working shield in Alaska, thanks to our dear leader. None of those damned talibanskis have any reason to bitch. Hey, this is a american century. Rush tole me so.

What a waist of time for our senators to ask about iraqi dead. Did they ask about all those Americans that them Iraqis kilt? WE gotta fight them over their to keep them from fighing over hear. Ever since 9/11 my president has stopped those damn iraqians from attacking me here, so that means he was right and them librul dirty hippie freaks was wrong. Who wood Jesus bomb is RIGHT! He'd bomb dem iraqians and next dem iranistanis.