Wikileaks releases NATO report on civilian deaths

[SealLion]

this comes as no surprise. Its not just soldiers that are injured and killed in wars. Civilian deaths occur too.

Here's a short excerpt of what Wikileaks reports:


A confidential NATO report from January reveals that civilian deaths from the war in Afghanistan have increased by 46% over the past year.

The 12 page report was authenticated and released in full today by Wikileaks. .............The disclosure follows the unrelated arrest of Colonel Owen McNally earlier this month for passing older civilian death toll figures to Human Rights Watch analyst and former BBC radio reporter Rachel Reid. Human Rights Watch published a report based around that data, which covered 2006-2007, last September.[1]


Thats real sad to say the least. Most especially re: passing invalid death tolls to an organization that is just simply dedicated to ensuring the rights of others.


I have a funny feeling that those older death number's were passed because of embarrassing or damaging information.


Here's the link:

Wikileaks releases NATO report on civilian deaths - Wikileaks (http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Wikileaks_releases_NATO_report_on_civilian_deaths)






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[BrianBosworth]

Good find. The public deserves to know the truth.

[SealLion]

magic, there's a load of unreported news events at the Wikileaks.org site.

Some does get out to the public news media to be reported on, but this sites's main emphasis is "reveal(ing) unethical behavior in...... governments and institutions"


If your interested, you can go here: Wikileaks - Wikileaks (http://wikileaks.org/)

[anon]

I have a funny feeling that those older death number's were passed because of embarrassing or damaging information.

I think one of the reason older/lower death tolls are passed is so that the other side can't rejoice on having killed X enemy soldiers. They probably don't care about civilian casualties...

[SealLion]

that could very well be true, anon.

Its an interesting idea bringing it up.

[mike]

Wikileaks is a blacklisted site here in Australia - and if you link to it in a blog or forum here there is a $11,000/day fine if you don't remove immediately. Freedom of expression?

:frown:

It's still great here though - F1 on Sunday and I'll be there :biggrin:

[SealLion]

Its most likely blacklisted in Australia, mike is because in the past Wikileaks has revealed damaging information about the Australian government's past behavior.

Here's an example:

And, according to your info, since wikileaks is blacklisted there, here's some info on one of the many causes for which wikileaks may be blacklisted in australia, mike:


Andrew Wilkie (born 1961, Tamworth, Australia) is a former soldier and intelligence analyst who resigned from the Office of National Assessments (ONA), an Australian intelligence agency, in March 2003 over concerns that intelligence was being misrepresented for political purposes in making the case for Australia's contribution to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Wilkie trained at Duntroon (1980-84) and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel (1999) before transferring to the ONA. He joined the Young Liberals while a cadet at Duntroon, and after graduation and being stationed in Brisbane, he became a member of the Liberal Party. Wilkie has reportedly since let his membership lapse.

In the run-up to the 2003 Iraq war, the Australian, UK and U.S. governments were asserting that intelligence reports showed that Iraq held weapons of mass destruction. Wilkie resigned at this time, claiming that the reports did not support such claims and in the years since his resignation, no valid evidence supporting the pre-war claims of weapons of mass destruction has ever been found.

Wilkie has stated that he increasingly encountered ethical conflict between his duty as an intelligence officer and his respect for the truth, and on 11 March 2003, he resigned from ONA and placed evidence of this conflict before the Australian public. In response to widespread opposition to the war, Wilkie gave extensive television interviews and accepted numerous offers of public speaking engagements.

Wilkie was subsequently called to give evidence to the official U.K and Australian enquiries into the government's case for involvement in the Iraq war.

In 2004, Wilkie published Axis of deceit[1], an account of the reasons for his decision and its results. He describes his views on the nature of intelligence agencies and the analyst's work, the history of the Iraq war, the untruths of politicians, and the attempts to suppress the truth.

The link for that article is here:


Andrew Wilkie - Wikileaks (http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Andrew_Wilkie)


I understand that Australia is blacklisting several sites that not only relate to pornography but also other sites that, if blacklisted, would make critism of your country's goverment less damaging.

It's basically an excuse for bearucrats to ban/blacklist sites that may potentially damage the goverment or its beaurocrats in the goverment.

That's what wikileaks if for. Its for whistle-blowers to blow what cover up may exist, for what-ever government, institution, or organization.

from what I understand, at least as far as my knowledge goes in having read articles about wikileaks is that its one of a kind on the net. Not many like it exist.


there is an australian site that's dedicated to blowing the whistle in that country.

It's here:

Whistleblowers Australia (http://www.whistleblowers.org.au/)

[Aurion]

We always notice wars & dead people,but what other governments do ? nothing,absolutely nothing to prevent those masacres.The whole disturbed thing around the globe is because personal interests always overcome public safety & freedom,the global leaders of this world just take care of their personal businesses leading to a global mass destruction.

So sad...