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Afghan & Iraq War Logs Coverage. Tidal wave of secret files raises new questions on Iraq. 23 October 2010Last updated at 04:33 By Nick Childs, BBC defence and security correspondent The leaked documents are by and large low-level reports from the field in Iraq This is not so much a leak as a tidal wave of secret documents. It dwarfs the previous disclosure by Wikileaks of US army field logs from the war in Afghanistan. And it will take time to sift through, and to draw conclusions about just what it changes in terms of public perceptions of a conflict that is already widely seen as grim and costly. The documents certainly raise new questions about the behaviour of the new Iraqi security forces, and about the US military's approach to dealing with them. There are truly grisly reports of torture of detainees, of attacks with acid and electric drills, of beatings, and mutilations.

There is a report from as recently as December of US forces obtaining video footage of an execution of an Iraqi detainee. But the Pentagon has rejected the charge that it turned a blind eye. Unclear resonance. Iraq secret war files, 400,000 leaked. Michael Clarke, from defence analysts Rusi, told Dispatches: "The use of air power in counter-insurgency is as a monitor. "You use it to see what's going on and to listen to, collect intelligence. But using it either for bombing or attacking, or strafing a building on the ground, or somewhere where you think insurgents are hiding, is very dangerous indeed. " In one case, the files show, a group of children herding goats and collecting tree roots for firewood were mistaken for IED planters and fired on with a Hellfire missile from a US Apache helicopter. A 13-year-old boy was killed in front of his friends.

The documents also show American forces killed people who appeared to be trying to surrender. A helicopter crew seeks advice via radio before being cleared to shoot by a military lawyer - who says the men cannot surrender to an aircraft. The detailed military records confirm a huge overall increase in Hellfire launches - a leap from 91 in 2006 to 911 in 2007. News: The Secret War - Iraq War Logs. Why hasn’t the US government crushed Wikileaks? So, Wikileaks has done it again. The largest military data leak in history has revealed grisly truths about the Iraq war that the US and Iraqi governments would surely prefer had never been widely known. It was clear that some serious evidence against the US was coming when almost a week ago The Pentagon urged news organisations not to publish the data.

As news organisations around the world that had been analysing the war records for weeks released their reports a few hours ago, the US government condemned Wikileaks, saying they “Threatened national security”. That all seems a little “soft” though, doesn’t it? The US, with all its political and military might, can’t stop a leak that it will have known was coming for days or weeks. In years gone by, wouldn’t Wikileaks founder Julian Assange (pictured) have simply been arrested and silenced, or failing that, “disappeared” in a mysterious incident engineered by the CIA or a similar, secretive organisation? BBC iPlayer - World Briefing: 23/10/2010. The Nixonian henchmen of today: at the NYT - Glenn Greenwald. After Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers, exposing the lies, brutality and inhumanity that drove America’s role in the Vietnam War, President Nixon and Henry Kissinger infamously plotted to smear his reputation and destroy his credibility.

As History Commons puts it in its richly documented summary of those events: This weekend, WikiLeaks released over 400,000 classified documents of the Iraq War detailing genuinely horrific facts about massive civilian death, U.S. complicity in widespread Iraqi torture, systematic government deceit over body counts, and the slaughter of civilians by American forces about which Daniel Ellsberg himself said, as the New York Times put it: “many of the civilian deaths there could be counted as murder.” It shouldn’t be surprising that Burns is filling the role played in 1971 by Henry Kissinger and John Ehrichman. His courageous and high-quality war reporting from Iraq notwithstanding, it’s long been clear from his U.S.

NYT v. the world: WikiLeaks coverage - Glenn Greenwald. To supplement my post yesterday about The New York Times‘ government-subservient coverage of the WikiLeaked documents regarding the war that newspaper played such a vital role in enabling, consider — beyond the NYT‘s sleazy, sideshow-smears against Julian Assange — the vast disparity between how newspapers around the world and The New York Times reported on a key revelation from these documents: namely, that the U.S. systematically and pursuant to official policy ignored widespread detainee abuse and torture by Iraqi police and military (up to and including murders). In fact, American conduct goes beyond mere indifference into active complicity, as The Guardian today reports that “fresh evidence that US soldiers handed over detainees to a notorious Iraqi torture squad has emerged in army logs published by WikiLeaks.” Media outlets around the world prominently highlighted this revelation, but not The New York Times: The Guardian: Al Jazeera: Hindustan Times: Three cheers for the U.S.!

Wikileaks Iraq war logs: key findings. Live reaction and WikiLeaks address. 9.53am: A massive cache of secret US military files passed to the Guardian via the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks has revealed the devastating scale of the human rights abuses committed in the wake of the invasion of Iraq. WikiLeaks has passed almost 400,000 secret US army field reports to the Guardian and a range of other media outlets. The files are believed to have come from the same dissident US army intelligence analyst who earlier this year is alleged to have leaked 90,000 logs chronicling civilian killings and human rights abuses in the Afghan war. Read the Guardian's special report on the Iraq war logs here.

The main revelations are: • US authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse, torture, rape and even murder by Iraqi police and soldiers whose conduct appears to go unpunished. • A US helicopter gunship involved in a notorious Baghdad incident had previously killed Iraqi insurgents after they tried to surrender. "This disclosure is about the truth. WikiLeaks releases secret Iraq file - Secret Iraq Files. In the biggest leak of military secrets in history, WikiLeaks, the whistleblower website, has released 400,000 secret US files detailing every aspect of the war in Iraq, copies of which have been obtained by Al Jazeera. The sheer magnitude of data contained in the secret files reveals a graphic narrative of the war that goes far beyond any information about the conflict ever released into the public domain.

Using thousands of classified US military reports, Al Jazeera is now able to tell the inside story of a war which left thousands dead and a country fractured along sectarian lines. Working with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in London for the past 10 weeks, Al Jazeera has analysed tens of thousands of documents, finding facts the US has kept hidden from public scrutiny. What has been uncovered often contradicts the official narrative of the conflict.

The new material throws light on the day-to-day horrors of the war. Frontline Club 10/25/10 Assange/Daniel Ellsberg Video. WikiLeaks: Watch this! All you need t... Media reaction around the world. Iraq Iraq's media continues to probe two key themes from the WikiLeaks disclosures. Newspapers and television networks have focused heavily on the claim that prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, directed a counter-terrorism unit answerable only to him, which targeted predominantly Sunni areas. They have also examined disclosures that the numbers of civilian deaths throughout the eight-year war are 15,000 higher than previously stated. The Iraqi News Network was typical of the tone: "The WikiLeaks documents revealed very important secrets," it said. "If these documents make the US apologise to Iraqis, they should compel Mr Maliki to leave the political arena altogether and apologise to everyone.

" The revelations have led to an uncomfortable week for Maliki, who has been battling to cobble together a coalition government that would allow him to lead the country for a second term. Iraq's human rights minister has threatened to sue any organisation found culpable of torture. United States Denmark.