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US Compensation Payments to Iraqi Civilians Made Public
The US army memo about the killing of an Iraqi woman in a taxi at a checkpoint in Iraq is terse and matter-of-fact.The incident occurred in the eastern Iraqi town of Baquba in February last year, when a taxi carrying a woman and her two children went through the checkpoint. US troops opened fire, killing the woman, who died from internal bleeding, and wounding her two children.
"There is evidence to suggest that the warning cones and printed checkpoint signs had not yet been displayed in front of the checkpoint, which may be the reason why the driver of the taxi did not believe he was required to stop," says the memo, which recommended a compensation payment of $7,500 (£3,798).
The memo is just one of 500 claims for damages by family members of civilians killed or injured by US forces and its allies in Iraq and Afghanistan that have been obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU made the documents public on its website today.
The ACLU received the records in response to a freedom of information act request filed in June last year.
"Since US troops first set foot in Afghanistan in 2001, the defence department has gone to unprecedented lengths to control and suppress information about the human costs of war," said Anthony Romero, the executive director of the ACLU.
He added: "Our democracy depends on an informed citizenry, and it is critical that the American people have access to full and accurate information about the prosecution of the war and the implications for innocent civilians."
In another case, an Iraqi civilian said US forces opened fire with more than 100 rounds on his sleeping family, killing his mother, father and brother. Such was the firepower that 32 of the family's sheep were also killed. The army acknowledged responsibility and made two payments: a compensation payment of $11,200 and a $2,500 condolence payment.
The ACLU released a total of 496 files: 479 from Iraq and 17 from Afghanistan. Of the 496 claims, the ACLU said, 164 incidents resulted in cash payments to family members.
In approximately half of the cases, the US accepted responsibility for the death of the civilian and offered a "compensation payment". In the other half, US authorities issued "condolence" payments - discretionary payments capped at $2,500 - offered "as an expression of sympathy" but "without reference to fault".
Compensation for non-combat cases are governed by the foreign claims act, in which the army can offer condolence compensation as a gesture of regret with no admission of fault.
Based on the number of deaths represented and the variation in number and location of claims per year, the ACLU said it believes additional documents are being withheld and is pressing the defence department to disclose them all.
According to the New York Times, the US has paid out more than $32m in compensation for civilian deaths, injuries and property damage.
"As these files remind us, war imposes heavy burdens on innocent civilians," said Jameel Jaffer, the deputy director of the ACLU's national security programme. "Although these files are deeply disturbing to read, they allow us to understand the human cost of war in a way that statistics and the usual platitudes do not."
The plight of Iraqi civilians was highlighted by a report yesterday.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said civilians are experiencing "immense suffering" because of a "disastrous" security situation, deepening poverty and a worsening humanitarian crisis.
The ICRC also saw no sign that the US "surge" in Baghdad was bringing relief to the capital.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
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16 Comments so far
Show AllI am glad the ACLU stepped in and decided this should be made Public, Long over due !!! It breaks my heart as Mother and Grandma all the suffering and Pain This country has inflicted, and NO amount of Money will ever be enough to bring thier loved ones back.. What we can do is offer Medical Doctors, Teachers, and the such to Volunteer and Help to rebuilt thier Beloved Country.. Myrna
This was a crime. Perhaps murder. At minimum it was criminal negligence on the part of the commander in chief because this happened over and over again... maybe 500 times or more. I knew this was happening repeatedly and I'm just a private citizen. Surely the Commander in Chief should have known about it. The fact that he didn't have controls in place, didn't act, didn't have information coming to him is not only incompetence; it is criminal negligence. No one that irresponsible should be commanding troops or making executive decisions.
http://www.gpln.com/treasontimeline.htm
reports about civilian casualties have been streaming out of the war zone since the beginning of the assault on Afghanistan, and accelerating with Iraq. They are all inexcusable atrocities, and not likely to stop. This one I coulld not forget- but it is just one of way too many
"We had a great day. We killed a lot of people. We dropped a few civilians, but what do you do? I'm sorry but the chick was in the way."
- Sgt. Eric Schrumpf , Fifth Marine Regiment
the "Chick" in question, Schrumpf explained
was too close to an Iraqui soldier
Everyone in Iraq, it would seem is also in the way.
It is comforting to know that the United States values an Iraqi life at $4566.67. Shameful and disgusting.
The only reason they are even paying any money at all is because they think that it will help pacify the relatives of those murdered.
$2.5 TRILLION accrual cost
One only hopes that the horrendous implications of the $2.5 TRILLION accrual costing of the Iraq War for the US tax-payer (as estimated by Nobel Laureate Professor Joseph Stiglitz, Columbia, and his Harvard colleague Professor Bilmes) will finally register with American and British voters.
If the accrued cost of the Iraq fiasco is going to be around 2.5 TRILLION…..Wouldn't have been cheaper to BUY Iraq's OIL with no loss of lives or additional cost of rebuilding the broken US Military machine and Iraq's infrastructure etc….
Since BUSH, NEVER apparently studied Opportunity Cost Theory in his MBA…Maybe he got his MBA out of a "corn flakes packet" along with his national guard service record….
Bush would never have appreciated the cost of the alternative that was forgone in order to pursue his STUPID little war. Bush never realized the benefits he could have received by following his Father's example…
by staying the HELL OUT OF MESS-O-POTAMIA….
It must be stated that the post-invasion Iraqi excess deaths (avoidable deaths, deaths that did not have to happen) now total ONE MILLION as of March 2007, after 4 years of war and as estimated from data from the top US medical epidemiology group in the World's top Public Health School (the Nobel Laureate-containing Bloomberg School of Public Health) at the top US Johns Hopkins University, published peer-reviewed in the top UK medical journal The Lancet and endorsed by 27 top Australian medical experts.
The latest 2006 Johns Hopkins data ( indicating 13.3 deaths annually per 1,000 people and an annual Iraqi pre-invasion death rate of 5.5 deaths per 1,000) yields an annual excess death rate of 7.8 per 1,000 i.e. 7,800 per million. Assuming an average population of 27 million this yields post-invasion excess deaths = 7,800 x 27 x 4 = 842,000 i.e. 0.8 million.
However taking the 2006 Johns Hopkins data but using a Jordan/Syria comparative baseline of 4 deaths per 1,000 per year (as opposed to a baseline of 5.5 deaths per 1,000 per year for pre-invasion Iraq after 12 years of crippling Sanctions) gives an annual excess death rate of 9.3 per 1,000 i.e. 9,300 per million and post-invasion excess deaths totaling 9,300 x 27 x 4 = 1,004,400 i.e. 1.0 million as of March 2007.
These estimates are consonant with 3 other estimates from 3 independent medical literature and UN Agency data sets.
The vastly lower Iraq Body Count estimate is of violent deaths only (ignoring the huge civilian deaths from egregious deprivation associated with racist US Asian wars) and from media reports (notoriously unreliable as discussed in the peer-reviewed paper in The Lancet by Dr Burnham and his colleagues from Johns Hopkins) .
The UN estimates that there are 3.8 million Iraqi refugees and WHO estimates that the "total annual per capita medical expenditure" in Occupied Iraq is merely $64 - as compared to $23 for Occupied Afghanistan, $2,389 (UK), $2,874 (Australia) and $5,711 (US) (2003 figures).
The 1 million post-invasion Iraqi excess deaths constitute an Iraqi Holocaust largely due to Coalition violation of the Geneva Conventions that demand that Occupiers keep their conquered subjects ALIVE.
Three quarters of the people of Iraq are Women and Children. The Bush War on Terror is in harsh reality a War on Women and Children, and more specifically a War on Asian Women and Children.
This on-going Anglo-American crime against humanity (1 million post-invasion Iraqi excess deaths, 3.8 million refugees) has reached the magnitude of the British-overseen 1845-1850 Irish Famine (An Gorta Mór; 1 million dead, 2 million refugees).
We are obliged to inform everyone about gross abuses of humanity - please inform everyone you know. Will British media in general - or , as in Orwell's 1984, do they accept that "ignorance is strength" and that "2 plus 2 does not equal 4"?
It should be noted that Germany is proposing that the EU criminalize minimizing or ignoring of ANY genocidal or man-made holocaust event (i.e. as an extension of widespread criminalization of denial of the WW2 Jewish Holocaust in Western Europe).
Bush et al should be indicted on war crimes and crimes against humanity. Bush and Cheney are the most impeachable individuals in US history.
For detailed analysis and documentation of the above see MWC News (Canada) and Crosswire (Australia): http://mwcnews.net/content/view/11849/42/ , http://open.newmatilda.com/crosswire/?cat=2 and http://mwcnews.net/content/view/12904/42/
$2.5 TRILLION accrual cost
One only hopes that the horrendous implications of the $2.5 TRILLION accrual costing of the Iraq War for the US tax-payer (as estimated by Nobel Laureate Professor Joseph Stiglitz, Columbia, and his Harvard colleague Professor Bilmes) will finally register with American and British voters.
If the accrued cost of the Iraq fiasco is going to be around 2.5 TRILLION…..Wouldn't have been cheaper to BUY Iraq's OIL with no loss of lives or additional cost of rebuilding the broken US Military machine and Iraq's infrastructure etc….
Since BUSH, NEVER apparently studied Opportunity Cost Theory in his MBA…Maybe he got his MBA out of a "corn flakes packet" along with his national guard service record….
Bush would never have appreciated the cost of the alternative that was forgone in order to pursue his STUPID little war. Bush never realized the benefits he could have received by following his Father's example…
by staying the HELL OUT OF MESS-O-POTAMIA….
It must be stated that the post-invasion Iraqi excess deaths (avoidable deaths, deaths that did not have to happen) now total ONE MILLION as of March 2007, after 4 years of war and as estimated from data from the top US medical epidemiology group in the World's top Public Health School (the Nobel Laureate-containing Bloomberg School of Public Health) at the top US Johns Hopkins University, published peer-reviewed in the top UK medical journal The Lancet and endorsed by 27 top Australian medical experts.
The latest 2006 Johns Hopkins data ( indicating 13.3 deaths annually per 1,000 people and an annual Iraqi pre-invasion death rate of 5.5 deaths per 1,000) yields an annual excess death rate of 7.8 per 1,000 i.e. 7,800 per million. Assuming an average population of 27 million this yields post-invasion excess deaths = 7,800 x 27 x 4 = 842,000 i.e. 0.8 million.
However taking the 2006 Johns Hopkins data but using a Jordan/Syria comparative baseline of 4 deaths per 1,000 per year (as opposed to a baseline of 5.5 deaths per 1,000 per year for pre-invasion Iraq after 12 years of crippling Sanctions) gives an annual excess death rate of 9.3 per 1,000 i.e. 9,300 per million and post-invasion excess deaths totaling 9,300 x 27 x 4 = 1,004,400 i.e. 1.0 million as of March 2007.
These estimates are consonant with 3 other estimates from 3 independent medical literature and UN Agency data sets.
The vastly lower Iraq Body Count estimate is of violent deaths only (ignoring the huge civilian deaths from egregious deprivation associated with racist US Asian wars) and from media reports (notoriously unreliable as discussed in the peer-reviewed paper in The Lancet by Dr Burnham and his colleagues from Johns Hopkins) .
The UN estimates that there are 3.8 million Iraqi refugees and WHO estimates that the "total annual per capita medical expenditure" in Occupied Iraq is merely $64 - as compared to $23 for Occupied Afghanistan, $2,389 (UK), $2,874 (Australia) and $5,711 (US) (2003 figures).
The 1 million post-invasion Iraqi excess deaths constitute an Iraqi Holocaust largely due to Coalition violation of the Geneva Conventions that demand that Occupiers keep their conquered subjects ALIVE.
Three quarters of the people of Iraq are Women and Children. The Bush War on Terror is in harsh reality a War on Women and Children, and more specifically a War on Asian Women and Children.
This on-going Anglo-American crime against humanity (1 million post-invasion Iraqi excess deaths, 3.8 million refugees) has reached the magnitude of the British-overseen 1845-1850 Irish Famine (An Gorta Mór; 1 million dead, 2 million refugees).
We are obliged to inform everyone about gross abuses of humanity - please inform everyone you know. Will British media in general - or , as in Orwell's 1984, do they accept that "ignorance is strength" and that "2 plus 2 does not equal 4"?
It should be noted that Germany is proposing that the EU criminalize minimizing or ignoring of ANY genocidal or man-made holocaust event (i.e. as an extension of widespread criminalization of denial of the WW2 Jewish Holocaust in Western Europe).
Bush et al should be indicted on war crimes and crimes against humanity. Bush and Cheney are the most impeachable individuals in US history.
Counting the cost
Richard Horton
March 27, 2007 1:58 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/richard_horton/2007/03/counting_the_cost.html
Our collective failure has been to take political leaders at their word. This week, the BBC reported that the government's own scientists advised ministers that the Johns Hopkins study on Iraq civilian mortality was accurate and reliable. This paper was published in the Lancet last October. It estimated that 650,000 Iraqi civilians had died since the American- and British-led invasion in March 2003.
Immediately after publication, Blair's official spokesman said that The Lancet's study "was not one we believe to be anywhere near accurate". The foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, said that the Lancet figures were "extrapolated" and a "leap". President Bush said: "I don't consider it a credible report".
Scientists at the UK's Department for International Development thought differently. They concluded that the study's methods were "tried and tested". Indeed, the Hopkins approach would likely lead to an "underestimation of mortality".
The Ministry of Defense's chief scientific advisor said the research was "robust", close to "best practice", and "balanced". He recommended "caution in publicly criticizing the study".
It is disgusting that the US quantifies (and so cheaply) the value of an Iraqi life. Small wonder that they wish us gone. That they are willing to kill themselves to drive us out. The sheer magnitude of our mistakes, and they are many, boggles the mind. We should leave. We should apologize, write them a blank check, pay them whatever they want for their oil, and crawl back home and hope one day we can again stand with deserved dignity amongst the rest of the world. For now, we hang our heads in shame.
How much would you want them to pay if they knocked off your little child or any loved one? Would any amount of money make it right?
As MLK Said:
"...the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -[is] my own government."
Of course, such hideous barbarism has been the American way from the start with the genocide launched against the natives. The internet makes it impossible for them to keep the truth from everyone. We who know must repeat our demands (for impeachment, peace, diplomacy, etc) until those demands are met. Our participation in the struggle is imperative. The truth (spread far and wide about the horrific corruptness of the American gov't) will set us free (from blind, ignorant support and tolerance of that monster that it is).
http://www.impeachbush.org
Does this not bother anyone, that we are using the $$$$ the new god of the republicans. Do they feel that money can buy you anything? This is the republican party of today all that money can buy!
That must mean that anyone who has suffered from any war should be given a payout.
Can we go back a million years?
Money can buy anything to the wepucks but it is not their money it is ours.
4,560,670,000.00 is the low ball # for reparations...
God will remember all the wrongs and the rights.Effective judgment and punishment will be meted out to the guilty.I will be glad when this mess is behind us.How could we have been so ignorant to be led down this road.If I were an Iraqi I would squeeze that oil spigot closed so tight that no one could turn it loose.What keeps these troops from mutiny?Surely morale is at a low,who do we ask?Who tells the truth?
ALOHA !!
GOVERNMENT IS ONLY AS HONEST AS ITS MONEY ...
How is it the USA can afford to invade any country, much less have military bases in over 130 countires worldwide?
How is it the US Congress can afford to keep raising the debt ceiling annually, now approaching $9trillion?
How is it the USA can still operate with nominal debt over $40trillion?
As long as the US government can print money at will they can fund any atrocity they want to!
If you truly believe electing the Democrats will solve anything then you must be crazy! Which party got us into Vietnam? Which party supported funding the Iraq War?
So long as you keep this "two party" aristocracy in power you will never see an end to corruption or war ...
kaimu: well said
I would go one step further. The insult of taking some worthless greenbacks and stuffing them into the pocket of a human being that has been subject to experience the loss of loved ones under the most cruel and brutal circumstances is truly the 'American Way'. It happened with the Native American Indians, in Hawai'i, Vietnam and countless other places. A country were you can get jailed for smoking pot, but not impeached and executed for crimes against humanity and genocide calls itself 'Democracy'. What a farce. It's not about impeachment. It's about death penalty for the murderer's of innocent human beings. Women and Children. Sad that the American citizenry doesn't have enough yet and throws the thugs out of the hill.