The Civilian Casualty Files

By artappraiser on Sat, 12/18/2021 - 9:05pm |

Read the 9,600+ word investigation, but see the documents for yourself.

Explore the more than 1,300 Pentagon "civilian casualty assessments," published here: https://t.co/7f5KbZRBWo
— Azmat Khan (@AzmatZahra) December 18, 2021

URL:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/civilian-casualty-files.html

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After years of reporting — more than 1,300 hidden Pentagon documents, ground investigation at the sites of 100+ U.S. airstrikes in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, and scores of interviews — we present part 1 of

THE CIVILIAN CASUALTY FILES:https://t.co/uauULKMumt
— Azmat Khan (@AzmatZahra) December 18, 2021

by artappraiser on Sat, 12/18/2021 - 9:07pm

For example, a chat log from one of the records, related to a January 13, 2017 airstrike in East Mosul, described here: pic.twitter.com/dIznguphyr
— Azmat Khan (@AzmatZahra) December 18, 2021

In chat logs accompanying some assessments, crew can sound as if they are playing video games, in one case expressing glee over getting to fire in an area ostensibly “poppin” with ISIS fighters — without spotting the children in their midst. pic.twitter.com/luFByYiaCT
— Azmat Khan (@AzmatZahra) December 18, 2021

Read the full document (https://t.co/WgFWjq9Bwe) for the military's account of what went wrong...

"FMV clearly shows eight unarmed individuals some of whom are assessed to be children moving in the rubble after the first munition detonated on the target building."

But also...
— Azmat Khan (@AzmatZahra) December 18, 2021

Find out what really happened to those people "moving in the rubble" before the second strike hit... pic.twitter.com/FfSwGizW15
— Azmat Khan (@AzmatZahra) December 18, 2021

by artappraiser on Sat, 12/18/2021 - 9:10pm

He's making an important point:

The NYT report on casualties from America’s air war is important. But the primary responsibility for civilian casualties lies with the terrorists who concealed themselves among the innocent. They wielded our own values against us as a weapon of war. https://t.co/59cxJIfCLV
— David French (@DavidAFrench) December 22, 2021

And yes, there are evil criminal outliers in any job that has use of weapons as a major part. And yes, some people in those jobs lose their sense of humanity. And yes, the Pentagon is known to try to cover up when either of those things happen, as well as many more mistakes.

So that's stipulated.

So don't start those arguments against what French is writing about - that would be redirecting and hijacking from his point- he's doing the big picture - who are the actors and movements who caused this to happen?

by artappraiser on Thu, 12/23/2021 - 2:12am

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