Secret files released on Wikileaks reveal US ignored torture

A new trove of secret documents released by the Wikileaks website has revealed that the US military routinely turned a blind eye to torture and abuse committed by its Iraqi allies against suspected insurgents.

 

 

The documents also suggested about 600 civilians were killed at US military checkpoints after the invasion in 2003, and raised questions about the death toll.

 

 

Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, criticised the leak, which was the largest ever of US documents, and followed the 90,000 files from Afghanistan released earlier this year.

 

 

“I do have a strong opinion that we should condemn in the most clear terms the disclosure of any classified information by individuals and or organisations which puts the lives of United States and partner service members and civilians at risk,” she said.

 

 

Wikileaks has said it deployed teams of researchers to remove the names of Iraqis who co-operated with the Americans.

 

 

After the Afghanistan archive was released, it faced criticism of endangering the lives of Afghan collaborators, though the Pentagon later concluded that none had so far come to any harm at the hands of the Taliban.

 

 

The new archive is believed to have come from the same American military source charged with leaking the previous files.

 

 

Though the material does not contain dramatic revelations, it throws a harsh light on elements of American conduct in the war.

 

 

One record showed a US Apache helicopter gunship fired on Iraqi insurgents after they attempted to surrender during an attack on a military base in Baghdad. After radioing in for legal opinion, the pilot was told that the enemy could not surrender to aircraft and therefore remained legitimate targets. The helicopter crew was involved in a later incident in which two Reuters journalists were killed.

 

 

In one of many abuse cases by Iraqis, police shot a prisoner in the leg after which the detainee suffered abuse that caused cracked ribs, multiple lacerations and welts from being whipped with a large rod and hose across his back.

 

 

The official outcome was “No further investigation”.

 

 

The six years’ of reports include references to the deaths of at least six prisoners in Iraqi custody, while some of the worst abuses cases came in the later stages of the conflict, after President Barack Obama had taken over and vowed to clean up US military conduct.

 

 

The archive suggested beatings, burnings and lashings by the Iraqi security forces were commonplace. In one case, Americans suspected Iraqi Army officers of cutting off a detainee’s fingers and burning him with acid.

 

 

On the death count, the archive lists 109,000 civilian, insurgent and US military deaths, a figure which the New York Times concluded was in line with that given by the Iraq Body Count, an organisation that tallies civilian deaths from press reports.

 

 

The American paper was one of four global media outlets given an advance look at the material. The others were the Guardian, al-Jazeera and Der Spiegel. The Guardian claimed that the documents revealed that the death tally was 15,000 higher than previously thought.

 

 

The reports make it clear that most civilians were killed by other Iraqis with more than 30,000 of the dead killed by IEDs, or improvised explosive devices. – (The Daily telegraph UK)