Iraqis gaze at the bodies of adults and children who were killed in a house in Ishaqi, north of Baghdad, in March 2006.
In March 2006, a number of Iraqi civilians were killed under dubious circumstances in a home in the town of Ishaqi. Last week, WikiLeaks released a cable containing notes from U.N. investigators suggesting that the victims may have been executed and the event covered up by a U.S. airstrike. The U.S. government has been quiet about the killings, ignoring U.N. questioning, while the military maintains nothing improper occurred and won’t comment further.
To try to understand what happened, Salon’s Justin Elliott spoke with Kansas City Star reporter Matthew Schofield, who has followed the incident since he first wrote about it on assignment in Iraq in 2006. —ARK
Salon:
I know there are competing accounts, so can you explain what do we know—or think—happened in this incident in 2006?
What we know happened—what everyone agrees on—is that U.S. troops went to a house in Ishaqi, Iraq, in March of 2006. In one official U.S. version, the troops were looking for an al-Qaida-affiliated terrorist, or, in another official account, someone who had shot at U.S troops. When they approached the house in the early morning hours, there was a gunfight. Neighbors talked about this. In the U.S. version, in the course of the gunfight, the people in the house were killed, the house was destroyed at the same time, and they were able to detain the person they were looking for. In the account the neighbors told, as well as the report of a U.N. investigation on this, the house was standing when the soldiers went inside and was destroyed sometime later.
The bodies of the dead were found against one wall in one room, all handcuffed in white plastic handcuffs according to neighbors. The coroner we talked to after the incident said that the people who died were killed by gunshots to the upper chest and head. It didn’t necessarily look execution-style—the shots were not all to the same place in the head, or anything like that—but it looked like they were from fairly close range. His guess was that the bullets were from an M-16. The Iraqi police investigators, who had been trained by U.S. forces, said in their report that these had been execution-style killings by American forces.
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“No one should be invited to risk commenting so long as the word “alleged” is a necessary caveat.”
Sage advice but of course if you head over to Chris Floyd’s site and read all the links, you will discover that our proxies, the Iraqi’s, did a thorough investigation, which of course was tossed into the round file here by our government, after all, what can you expect from a Pentagon which did nothing to punish those responsible for My Lai?
Why should it be any different now? Has anyone here seen a torturer jailed and punished? Have you seen any of the banksters frog marched through the gauntlet of television cameras on the way to be fingerprinted and for the mug shots? Any sign of a modern day Pecora commission? Anything of any real consequence at all being investigated?
Nobody has paid the price for a damned thing that has been done here, or in Iraq, or anywhere else for that matter.
Truthdig, congratulations for having to the balls and integrity to print this.
And keep on doing it!
To all of the readers who would like to wait on investigation being completed before commenting, all I can say is don’t hold your breath waiting for THIS
ADMINISTRATION to act.
Note to Truthdig: This article begs for authentication and fully deserves to be investigated before reporting. Noone should be invited to risk commenting so long as the word “alleged” is a necessary caveat.
Let’s hear for the “Power Of Pride”! Oh, and don’t forget to “Support Our Troops”! And to think that our esteemed POTUS and the rest of our worthy “leaders” believe Bradley Manning to be a traitor. How can any true American not be reviled by the hypocrisy and criminality of this nation? One day the world will tire of you, America, and the real national debt will become due!
But the heartbreaking flash film about the atrocity with the images of the barbarism inflicted on these people and especially the small children can be viewed here: http://www.chris-floyd.com/isahaqi/
Warning this is about the most ghastly thing you can ever view but view it you must, to fully appreciate the depths to which our empire will go, to keep itself in business.
Marching in Chicago: Resisting Rahm Emanuel’s Neoliberal Savagery
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By morongobill, September 5, 2011 at 7:08 pm Link to this comment
“No one should be invited to risk commenting so long as the word “alleged” is a necessary caveat.”
Sage advice but of course if you head over to Chris Floyd’s site and read all the links, you will discover that our proxies, the Iraqi’s, did a thorough investigation, which of course was tossed into the round file here by our government, after all, what can you expect from a Pentagon which did nothing to punish those responsible for My Lai?
Why should it be any different now? Has anyone here seen a torturer jailed and punished? Have you seen any of the banksters frog marched through the gauntlet of television cameras on the way to be fingerprinted and for the mug shots? Any sign of a modern day Pecora commission? Anything of any real consequence at all being investigated?
Nobody has paid the price for a damned thing that has been done here, or in Iraq, or anywhere else for that matter.
Truthdig, congratulations for having to the balls and integrity to print this.
And keep on doing it!
To all of the readers who would like to wait on investigation being completed before commenting, all I can say is don’t hold your breath waiting for THIS
ADMINISTRATION to act.
Bill Mcdonald
Report thisBy gerard, September 5, 2011 at 2:45 pm Link to this comment
Note to Truthdig: This article begs for authentication and fully deserves to be investigated before reporting. Noone should be invited to risk commenting so long as the word “alleged” is a necessary caveat.
Report thisBy berniem, September 5, 2011 at 12:13 pm Link to this comment
Let’s hear for the “Power Of Pride”! Oh, and don’t forget to “Support Our Troops”! And to think that our esteemed POTUS and the rest of our worthy “leaders” believe Bradley Manning to be a traitor. How can any true American not be reviled by the hypocrisy and criminality of this nation? One day the world will tire of you, America, and the real national debt will become due!
Report thisBy morongobill, September 5, 2011 at 11:37 am Link to this comment
Chris Floyd’s Empire Burlesque just had a post about this the other day:
http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/2165-he-who-gets-slapped-the-progressive-perpetuation-of-past-and-present-evil.html
But the heartbreaking flash film about the atrocity with the images of the barbarism inflicted on these people and especially the small children can be viewed here:
http://www.chris-floyd.com/isahaqi/
Warning this is about the most ghastly thing you can ever view but view it you must, to fully appreciate the depths to which our empire will go, to keep itself in business.
Bill Mcdonald
Report this