Pentagon Lies About Military Deaths in Iraq Options

[Noonan]

Pentagon Lies About US Military Deaths in Iraq
by BRIAN HARRING

Out of the 158,000 U.S. military shipped to Iraq, 26,000 either deserted, were killed or seriously wounded.

US military personnel who died in German hospitals or en route to German hospitals have not previously been counted. They total about 6,210 as of 1 January, 2005.

The ongoing, underreporting of the dead in Iraq, is not accurate.

The DoD is deliberately reducing the figures.

A review of many foreign news sites show that actual deaths are far higher than the newly reduced ones.

Iraqi civilian casualties are never reported but International Red Cross, Red Crescent and UN figures indicate that as of 1 January 2005, the numbers are just under 100,000.

There is excellent reason to believe that the Department of Defense is deliberately not reporting a significant number of the dead in Iraq.

We have received copies of manifests from the MATS that show far more bodies shipped into Dover AFP than are reported officially.

The educated rumor is that the actual death toll is in excess of 7,000.
http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/ More

[ghostgovt]

Good awareness post!

You may consider diggin a foxhole and prepare for some possible incoming for spreading such awareness that exposes the tactics of the BushCo propaganda machine. Hang in there!

[Noonan]

No, I'm just assuming my posts will get ignored, as usual.
Frankly, I'm looking for someone that can either give a more 'trustworthy' source than what was given, or an unequivocal refutation so we can take this issue off the table.

The mailing list I received this info from has been debating this posting back and forth, with the list manager finally saying 'don't shoot the messenger'.

[lawnorder]

No, I'm just assuming my posts will get ignored, as usual.
Frankly, I'm looking for someone that can either give a more 'trustworthy' source than what was given, or an unequivocal refutation so we can take this issue off the table.

It got thoroughly debunked by the guy who does the icasualties.org site. He wrote on it for a dailykos piece

[lawnorder]

But this one is 100% true

103,000 wounded Iraq/Afghan War Veterans Need Care
by ZeeZee
Fri Jul 1st, 2005 at 04:05:01 CDT

1,740 US troops have been killed in Iraq so far. And with the 17 troops killed in this week's helicopter crash, the Afghan troop casualties reached 160, according to the information I find.

The number of wounded, at least those "needing care" we are suddenly informed, has reached 103,000! That number blows me away! Mostly because so little has been reported on these troops, as if they were totally invisible.

One hundred and three THOUSAND men and women, more than 50 times the number of dead,  have returned from these wars wounded  in less than three years - and many of the wounds are horrific, we know that much - and America has not noticed?????  The CONGRESS has not noticed?  The Commander in Chief has not wasted a single word on them, except to tell us that it was "worth it"?

The Rutland Herald writes that America should be outraged.  That is an understatement.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll.../507010343/1039

[lawnorder]

9,000 dead and the Reality-Based Community
by kos
Mon Jun 20th, 2005 at 01:44:37 CDT

We like to say that we are members of the reality based community. But to say that, we have to legitimately live in the reality based community.

So to those who keep passing around that ridiculous "9,000 dead GIs" figure -- stop it!

I don't know how many times this "expletive deleted" rumor has to be shot down.

And the best debunking comes from dear dKos community member Pat K, co-founder of iCasualties.org:

For two solid years now, Michael White and I have followed the deaths in Iraq literally on a daily basis. We haunt the CENTCOM, MNF-Iraq and DOD websites ... as well as all of the major news feeds. In fact, the two of us have grown adept at finding death notices in the news media prior to the military issuing them. For about the past year and a half, Michael and I have been joined in the research by Evan D., an historian in the Washington D.C. area, and by Lynn L., another researcher whose husband is in the 4th ID. So that makes 4 of us searching the news media and the military sites, each and every day mind you, for deaths.

And after all this time, we all four of us concur. Yes, there are a few unreported deaths, which I'll explain in a minute. But not thousands. We'd have found them if there were.

Here's something that might interest you. If you go to our homepage, you'll notice a place up top that says "Fatality Details". Click on that. That'll take you to our fully searchable database.

When you get there, scroll down to the bottom of that page to where the Filters are. I'm finding that many people simply don't realize these handy, dandy little tools are there. Go over to the right to where it says "Country of Death" ... and select, say, "Germany" from the drop down list. Then hit the "Apply Filter" button over to the left.

Voila ... a list of 23 guys will appear ... all of whom died in Germany from wounds or illnesses incurred in Iraq ... all of whom have formal releases from the DOD and who are on the DOD's death list.

Now go back to the filters and hit "Remove Filter" so that you can start fresh. Go back to the "Country of Death" and select "USA", then hit "Apply Filter". There's 31 troops who died in the USA and whom the DOD has owned up to.

So there's no truth to the rumor that if you die outside of Iraq, the DOD automatically ignores you. Yes, occasionally it does ... especially if the death happens months after the soldier gets back from Iraq (Lynn's husband knows of 5 men that this applies to). And I am told that occasionally Special Forces deaths may be hush-hush. But as a rule, no. It's just a wild rumor.

And it's the same with this 7,000 business. If our list were missing thousands of names, can you imagine the e-mails we would get from enraged grannies, aunts, best friends, etc. for daring to leave their loved one OFF !!!!!??? I shudder to think of it. I get called to task for every little goof-up I make as it is. I recently mistakenly entered a soldier's service branch as "U.S. Army National Guard" because that's what a news article said. Oh my ... the chaplain for the man's unit had an e-mail in to me within the HOUR complaining that it was U.S. ARMY RESERVES, dammit! And then there are the parents who write to say that the DOD published the wrong hometown, and would I please put the correct one in my database. We have thousands upon thousands of eyes out there watching that list. We aren't missing thousands of names.

The last thing to consider is this: the Bush administration isn't GOOD ENOUGH to hide that many deaths. They haven't managed to hide Halliburton's over-runs. They haven't managed to hide the troop equipment shortages. And they haven't managed to hide their own ineptness in the whole occupation. Somehow the truth has a way of seeping out between the cracks.

And me and Michael and Lynn and Evan watch those cracks like hawks.

So please, just stop it. You do yourself and the anti-war effort no good by running with unsupported conspiracy theories that contradict the very hard reality-based work cataloging the effects of the war by our very own side.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/6/20/24437/8204

[lawnorder]

More debunking here

http://lawnorder.dailykos.com/story/2005/6/25/51142/5494

[Marine]

No, I'm just assuming my posts will get ignored, as usual.
Frankly, I'm looking for someone that can either give a more 'trustworthy' source than what was given, or an unequivocal refutation so we can take this issue off the table.

The mailing list I received this info from has been debating this posting back and forth, with the list manager finally saying 'don't shoot the messenger'.

Well, if the web site you link it to didn't carry just about every conspiracy theory in the universe it might have a little credibility. According to them Ossama died in Tora Bora in 2001 and the spooks are using him as a boogey man to frighten us all with.

[winston smith]

But this one is 100% true

And this got e-mailed to my activist group. Credibility works every time. There's no need to think in terms of conspiracy theories- there are too many clear-cut facts going in that direction anyhow.

[Noonan]

Thank you guys. This is what I was looking for.