WikiLeaks War Logs: 391,832 Iraq War Files Released to Media

Documents Reveal Civilian Killings, Ignoring of Torture

It was several days after the previously reported Monday release, and earlier than some more recent indications, but WikiLeaks finally released its 391,832 “war logs” files from the Iraqi War. As with the previous leak, The Guardian was at the forefront with a major, well-organized web release.

The document dump is by far the largest release of classified war documents in American history, and centers around field reports detailing civilian killings, friendly fire incidents, and killings of insurgents who were trying to surrender.

The documents revealed 15,000 previously unreported killings, and underscored that the military actually had been keeping track of civilian deaths, despite claims that no such counts were being made.

Another major revelation surrounded a standing order that existed ordering US military personnel not to investigate the rampant torture by Iraqi security forces. Officials had pled ignorance about what Iraqi officials were doing to detainees but the ignorance was “by design.” Al-Jazeera reported that the order not to probe the torture came from Gen. Sanchez.

According to WikiLeaks’ twitter, the documents were made available in advance to “TBIJ, IBC, Guardian, Spiegel, NYT, Le Monde, Al Jazeera, Chan4, SVT, CNN, BBC,” all of which are expected to release coverage related to it. Al-Jazeera is running an hour-long special beginning at 5:00 PM Eastern. Below is a list of the coverage so far from these sites, more will be added as they are available.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.