By Debra Sweet
Ray McGovern writes that Assange was presented the Sam Adams Award for integrity from Veteran Intelligence Professions for Sanity Saturday in London by Daniel Ellsberg and Craig Murray. The New York Times reported Sunday that Assange is a "hunted man," having been denied residency in Sweden, or in any country where the U.S. government’s influence is significant enough to endanger him. The Robert Gates (Defense) and Robert Gibbs (Obama’s Press Secretary) team repeats the same threat they did in July when Afghan War Diary came out: Wikileaks somehow "may have blood on their hands," for letting the truth out.
The major news media, including the NY Times, is spinning their own messages, consistent with their unquestioning reportage of the unjust, immoral US war — based on lies — these many years. World Can’t Wait is coompiling the best analysis we can find on our site, and will keep digging for what people living in this country need to know.
Key themes in the Iraq War Logs show:
Abuse, rape, torture, murder of detainees: Hundreds of incidents of abuse and torture of prisoners by Iraqi security services, up to and including rape and murder. These are so egregious that the UN is calling for further investigation.
Civilians are dying in greatest numbers: Rumsfeld always said "we don’t do numbers" on civilian deaths. Iraq War Log reveals that they kept some numbers. The US & allies killed civilians much more frequently than those they identified in the Log as "insurgents." Still, we’ll never know the total.
Hundreds of civilians killed at checkpoints: Robert Fisk says, "Out of the 832 deaths recorded at checkpoints in Iraq between 2004 and 2009, analysis by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism suggests 681 were civilians. Fifty families were shot at and 30 children killed. Only 120 insurgents were killed in checkpoint incidents."
Private contractors non-uniformed, unsupervised, wreak havoc: Blackwater (now Xe) and the thousands of civilian "security" operatives got away with murder, over and over again. And there are even more contractors in Afghanistan now than the larger troop force Obama sent in.
Indeed, the world owes a great debt to Assange and his colleagues. It is interesting to read the responses of the other major news media that received the documents: Le Monde, the Guardian, Der Spiegel for instance. The responses to the issues raised (not cries of outrage that they were raised and what is wrong with Assange) are universal elsewhere. The Guardian gives much coverage to demands of officials and others in the UK who are calling for investigations of British culpability. Such response makes that of the NY Times even more obviously one of protecting the illegitimate US empire.