Covering up the trail of dead Iraqis

How the Pentagon has used "tactical perception management" to obscure the killing of Iraqi civilians by U.S. forces.

By Dahr Jamail

Read more: George W. Bush, Military, Afghanistan, Iraq, Opinion, Baghdad, Iraq War

Nov. 28, 2007 | "Sometimes I think it should be a rule of war that you have to see somebody up close and get to know him before you can shoot him." -- Col. Potter, M*A*S*H

Name them. Maim them. Kill them.

From the beginning of the American occupation in Iraq, airstrikes and attacks by the U.S. military have only killed "militants," "criminals," "suspected insurgents," "IED [Improvised Explosive Device] emplacers," "anti-American fighters," "terrorists," "military age males," "armed men," "extremists" or "al-Qaida."

The pattern for reporting on such attacks has remained the same from the early years of the occupation to today. Take a helicopter attack on Oct. 23 of this year near the village of Djila, north of Samarra. The U.S. military claimed it had killed 11 among "a group of men planting a roadside bomb." Only later did a military spokesperson acknowledge that at least six of the dead were civilians. Local residents claimed that those killed were farmers, that there were children among them, and that the number of dead was greater than 11.

Here is part of the statement released by U.S. military spokeswoman in northern Iraq, Maj. Peggy Kageleiry:

"A suspected insurgent and improvised explosive device cell member was identified among the killed in an engagement between Coalition Forces and suspected IED emplacers just north of Samarra ... During the engagement, insurgents used a nearby house as a safe haven to re-engage coalition aircraft. A known member of an IED cell was among the 11 killed during the multiple engagements. We send condolences to the families of those victims and we regret any loss of life."

As usual, the version offered by locals was vastly different. Abdul al-Rahman Iyadeh, a relative of some of the victims, revealed that the "group of men" attacked were actually three farmers who had left their homes at 4:30 a.m. to irrigate their fields. Two were killed in the initial helicopter attack and the survivor ran back to his home where other residents gathered. The second airstrike, he claimed, destroyed the house killing 14 people. Another witness told reporters that four separate houses were hit by the helicopter. A local Iraqi policeman, Capt. Abdullah al-Isawi, put the death toll at 16 -- seven men, six women and three children, with another 14 wounded.

As often happens, the U.S. military, once challenged, declared that an "investigation" of the incident was under way.

On Oct. 21, two days before that helicopter strike near Djila, American soldiers, again aided by helicopters, but this time in a heavily populated urban neighborhood, claimed to have killed 49 "armed men" in a "gun battle" in Sadr City, a sprawling Shiite neighborhood in eastern Baghdad. Then, too, the military initially insisted "no civilians were killed or injured." A Shiite citizens' council and other Shiite groups responded that many innocent bystanders had died. Among the 13 dead mentioned in initial reports by local Iraqi police were three children and a woman. Other Iraqi authorities announced that 69 people had been injured.

The U.S. military had no explanation for the widely varying American and Iraqi tallies of casualties.

The official American account went like this:

"The operation's objective was an individual reported to be a long time Special Groups member specializing in kidnapping operations. Intelligence indicates he is a well-known cell leader and has previously sought funding from Iran to carry out high profile kidnappings. Upon arrival, the ground force began to clear a series of buildings in the target area and received sustained heavy fire from adjacent structures, from automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenades, or RPGs. Responding in self-defense, Coalition forces engaged, killing an estimated 33 criminals. Supporting aircraft was also called in to engage enemy personnel maneuvering with RPGs toward the ground force, killing an estimated six criminals. Upon departing the target area, Coalition forces continued to receive heavy fire from automatic weapons and RPGs and were also attacked by an improvised explosive device. Responding in self-defense, the ground force engaged the hostile threat, killing an additional estimated 10 combatants. All total, Coalition forces estimate that 49 criminals were killed in three separate engagements during this operation. Ground forces reported they were unaware of any innocent civilians being killed as a result of this operation."

To be fair, the military admitted that the target of this manhunt was not, in fact, among those captured or killed.

After the "operation," television news outlets broadcast images of grieving families in the streets of Sadr City. One man reported that his neighbor's 6-year-old child had been killed, and a 2-year-old wounded. Arab television outlets caught scenes of ambulances with wailing sirens carrying the injured to the Imam Ali hospital, the largest in Sadr City, where doctors were shown treating the casualties, including children.

Typically with such incidents, those 49 dead "criminals" turned back into civilians when local police began checking, including two (not three) children in their final count.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki vowed an investigation for which U.S. military officials offered to form a joint committee; but, as is so often the case in such "investigations," there have been no follow-up reports. In this "incident," the U.S. military, as far as we know, still stands by its assertion that no civilians were killed or wounded.

Two months earlier, in a similar incident, the U.S. military claimed 32 "suspected insurgents" killed during an airstrike, also in Sadr City, a claim disputed by Iraqis in the neighborhood, followed by the usual promise of an investigation -- of which, once again, nothing more was heard.

Next page: The U.S. admits to planting pro-American articles in the Iraqi "free" press, yet doesn't stop