Canada Body Count

Apparently Trudeau has already started the process of getting our bombers out of the war on ISIS. This is according to an Antiwar.com link.

Here is the link

http://news.antiwar.com/2015/10/20/canada-to-withdraw-jets-from-isis-war/

That announcement and the renewed called for the legislation of marijuana are welcome signs.

I find it strange that Trudeau would tell Obama about this withdrawal during a congratulatory phone-call - but anything to stop the killing is good news. The worst part of that antiwar article was the fact that Canadian jets had killed 30 civilians in August and I didn't even know about it. I asked my class and none of them had heard about it either. Western nations are now just bombing and drone-assassinating people around the clock and their citizens are not even told.

It might be easier for a traditional capitalist party like the Liberals to get some 'leftist' stuff done because they are not always worried about being red-baited as 'socialists' or the 'loony left' - while the modern NDP always kept going to the right to avoid these charges. Or perhaps the NDP does represent the working-class perspective after a decade of FOXnews propaganda and 4 decades of worsening working conditions.

Despite this, I saw that Jack Harris lost by only 658 votes and I really wish that he had been able to stay at the St.Johns MP.

I was disturbed to find out Canadian jets had killed 30 civilians. It is horrible to say but these days I just assume when we are using bombers a significant amount of civilians will die. The fact that I have grown to assume this and the medias betrayal of both the victims and us is sickening but again not really a surprize. I wonder if there is any where to find out how many civilians Canada has killed in Syria or Libya?

Reb wrote: I wonder if there is any where to find out how many civilians Canada has killed in Syria or Libya?

I suspect we would have to make estimates based on media reports. I doubt that offical public stats exist. Do we want to do it?

Here is an update on Trudeau II`s call to stop bombing Iraq

ottawacitizen wrote:The Department of National Defence says Canadian warplanes flew a total of 32 sorties, or individual missions, against ISIL in the week immediately after the election. They also attacked an enemy staging area in Iraq on Oct. 20, a bunker on Oct. 21, and a bunker and ammunition dump on Oct. 23.

I had a project in mind a while back about picking a country where there is currently warfare and try and keep a daily track of deaths.  So take Iraq or Libya or Syria or Yemen, etc..and check daily for military or civilian fatalities.  I was then thinking at the end of 365 days put it in video format with a counter running up to make it clearer how many people are dying.  

We could work on keeping track of civilians Canada has killed.  We would have to come up with a list of sites to check.  It may not be the easiest information to track down but I think keeping track of these is important.

When the Wars of Terror first started in Afghanistan, two things stood-out to my fledgling eyes: the US was deliberately bombing a Red Cross hospital (Oct. 2001) and no-one was keeping track of the civilian casualties.  I was shocked. It may sound naive but I did not suspect the US could bomb hospitals with immunity and bomb civilians with invisibly.

There was only one website, a professor`s old-fashioned web-page, that tried to keep track. He collected all the reports he could between 2001 - 4 for Afghanistan. Just one guy collecting media reports.

Around this time I would also realize that stats for the number of North Americans killed by police also did not exist. If civilians wanted to keep track of how states were killing them, it was up to civilians to keep count. A good example is the volunteer-run iraqbodycount.org and some sites to keep track of police-caused fatalities now exist.

A decade later I`m much more jaded but the hospitals still keep getting bombed and Afghan civilian body count still only exists as estimates in NGO papers.

Keeping track of casualties by country would be a full-time job for Syria, Yemen, Iraq. (I discovered a promising site called airwars.org that maybe keeping track of this). I think just getting an estimate of how many people killed by Canada in those disasters would be a good start. Or maybe a thread called `US Hospital Destroyer` that would focus on how American economics (TPP) and military strikes destroy health-care.

Canadian airstrikes linked to 2nd allegation of civilian casualties in Iraq, CBC has learned

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/fifth-estate-canada-airstrikes-iraq-civilian-casualties-1.3292723

One of the first targets way back in 2004 was a Falluja hospital. The "reason" for it being a target was it was being used as to produce propaganda by releasing causality numbers.

Here is a Link to a NY times article about the attack.


American exceptionalism as it's finest. They bomb hospitals, civilians and even military targets with impunity. The freedom to kill and have it defended, promoted and obfuscated by the media keep the public misinformed. In my mind there is no doubt that many of these actions have been war crimes by almost any standard.

Reb - did you posted a list of US-bombed hospitals? If you did could you re-link it.
I can find some lists but I know there was a nice list created in the wake of the Afghan MSF strike and I can't find it.

I think this may have been the link.

Here is a link about the Canadian military paying out money to families of killed civilians or damages caused.  Apparently the life of an Afghan interpreter is worth between $6,790 and $9,900.

Here are the amounts paid out for each of 2007, 2008 and 2009.

April 2007 to March 2008 57 $152K

April 2008 to March 2009 102 $206K

April 2009 to March 2010 272 $661K

This link mentions two of the stories mentioned in the article above. The story about the two children being killed when the car they were riding in got to close to a convey did receive compensation while the first story about the passenger in a truck who was killed by turret fire did not receive compensation. It makes me wonder how many get compensation and how many do not.

Although "compensation" doesn't really help us find numbers for civilian casualties it does give us some indication of the damage admittedly caused. Also given that the second story above did not receive any "compensation" it makes these numbers further removed from civilian casualties.

Washington - and its coalition allies, including Canada - eventually realized that you can't win hearts and minds by ignoring a child's corpse wrote:

Here is a link to an article about Canadian air strikes killing 27 in Iraq.  

This report didn’t come from a bystander or a Tweet or social media. It came from an English-speaking fighter working with the coalition . . . who makes a fairly clear allegation, wrote:

The Canadian military says it didn’t investigate the claims because it found no supporting evidence and continues to insist it has no proof that any civilians died in the attack. wrote:

One of the reasons why losing Jack Harris as an MP was bad.

Still, NDP candidate Jack Harris called the report “concerning” and said the new details should prompt Defence Minister Jason Kenney to order a full investigation. “I’m not satisfied that this government has acted properly and the minister has been doing his job,” Harris said in an interview wrote:

This thread gives me a strong sense of deja vu to the first years I was watching the Wars of Terror begin. No body-counts, bombed hospital, the value of a human life.

I have a whole folder devoted to the concept of military compensation. When I get a chance I will post a summary and we can compile a list of such payments.

I have been reading through some of the casuality reports from 2015 on airwars.org and have found some more hospital hits.

This is just for 2015 and does not include the MSF hospital bombings.

March 3rd, 2015: Fallujah, Anbar province, Iraq
Summary: Aircraft bombed a primary school and a hospital in the Jamhouriya neighbourhood of Fallujah, reportedly killing up to 12 civilians and injuring 9.
Civilians reported killed: 3-12
Reported injured: 4-9

March 6th 2015: Bukamal, Dayr az Zawr governorate, Syria
Summary: Up to five non-combatants including a woman and two infants were reported killed in an alleged 1pm Coalition airstrike on the Aisha hospital in the town of Bukamal.
Civilians reported killed: 4-6, including a woman and 2 infants
Reported injured: 4

March 6th, 2015: Garma suburb of Fallujah, Anbar province, Iraq
Summary: An alleged coalition air strike on Garma hospital in east Fallujah reportedly killed one doctor and injured five other medical staff
Civilians reported killed: 1
Reported injured: 5

March 8th 2015: Atama, Idlib governorate, Syria - Hospital was not directly hit
Summary: Sources reported that five unnamed civilian were killed – along with fighters with the al-Nusra Front – in an airstrike on the Syria-Turkey border town of Atama.
“completely destroyed a number of houses, and caused material damage in others. The hospital in Atma also sustained minor damage, in the area west of Afrin majority inhabited by Syrian Kurds.”

July 7th 2015: Ar Raqqa, Al Raqqa governorate, Syria - Hospital not directly hit
Summary: Coalition aircraft reportedly targeted a vehicle in the vicinity of Al Shefa Hospital in Raqaa, wounding seven civilians in the process. No fatalities were initially reported, with the hospital also reported as having been damaged.
Civilians reported killed: 1
Reported injured: 7

That's a pretty good database at airwars.org if you can pull out that sort of info. Thanks for taking the time to check it out or I might have forgotten it - and now I find references to Airwars occuring in CBC article.

Here is an older listing I found, it is mostly strikes on media targets, but it includes the incredible Oct 2001 bombing in Afghanistan where US planes bomb the same Red Cross complex twice despite swearing not to do it again:

 

zerohedge wrote:  *In 1969 and 1970, the U.S. bombed several hospitals and a Red Cross facility in Cambodia

   *On February 13, 1991, the U.S. purposefully targeted an air raid shelter near the Baghdad airport with two 2,000-pound laser-guided bombs, which punched through 10 feet of concrete and killed at least 408 Iraqi civilians.

   *On April 23, 1999, NATO intentionally bombed a Serbian television station, killing 16.   President Clinton said of the bombing: “Our military leaders at NATO believe … that the Serb television is an essential instrument of Mr. Milosevic’s command and control. … It is not, in a conventional sense, therefore, a media outlet. That was a decision they made, and I did not reverse it.” U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke saidright after the attack that it was “an enormously important and, I think, positive development.” Amnesty International noted it was “a deliberate attack on a civilian object and as such constitutes a war crime.”

   *On October 16, 2001, the U.S. attacked the complex housing the International Committee of the Red Cross in Kabul, Afghanistan. After detailed discussions between the U.S. and the Red Cross about the location of all of its installations in the country, the U.S. bombed the same complex again two weeks later. The second attack destroyed warehouses clearly marked with the Red Cross emblem containing tons of food and supplies for hungry refugees

   *On November 13, 2001, the U.S. bombed the Al Jazeera television bureau in Kabul.

   *On April 8, 2003, the U.S. bombed the Al Jazeera bureau in Baghdad, killing a reporter. The British home secretary at the time subsequently revealed that – a few weeks before the attack – he had urged Prime Minister Tony Blair to bomb Al Jazeera’s transmitter in Baghdad.

   *Also on April 8, 2003, a U.S. tank fired a shell at the 15th floor of the Palestine Hotel, where most foreign journalists were then staying. Two reporters were killed.  The Committee to Protect Journalists found that the attack “was avoidable."

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-10-11/america-has-repeatedly-committed-war-crimes-bombing-civilians

CBC has really doing some good work on the subject of Canadian bombings in Syria and Iraq. A new CBC documentary of the subject came out on Oct 30th, here is some of it:

cbc.ca wrote: "Despite claims by Canada and coalition forces of a near-perfect bombing record that has rarely harmed or killed civilians in Iraq and Syria, a fifth estate investigation has found nearly 50 credible allegations — involving as many as 600 possible deaths — that merit further review.

So far in the conflict in Iraq and Syria, Canada says it has conducted 181 airstrikes and dropped 469 bombs, but claims it has killed no civilians.

Airwars, a London-based group of independent journalists documenting allegations of civilian casualties in this conflict, reviewed almost 250 allegations, determining more than 100 of them — involving as many as 1,000 possible deaths — to be credible."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/fifth-estate-canada-airstrikes-record-coalition-1.3296285

I'm coming to grips with the fact that that killing that occurred when I was a watching the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on a daily basis (2001-2010) have simply continued on. There is a constant low-grade murder machine being run by the US that barely makes it to the media' attention. I knew this but digging up these bombing reports and watching the media headlines (there is a real right-wing media push to keep Canadian jets bombing people) is driving this home.

That's a pretty good database at airwars.org, if you can pull out that sort of info. Thanks for taking the time to check it out or I might have forgotten it - and now I find references to Airwars occuring in CBC article.

Here is an older listing I found, it is mostly strikes on media targets, but it includes the incredible Oct 2001 bombing in Afghanistan where US planes bomb the same Red Cross complex twice despite swearing not to do it again:

   *In 1969 and 1970, the U.S. bombed several hospitals and a Red Cross facility in Cambodia

   *On February 13, 1991, the U.S. purposefully targeted an air raid shelter near the Baghdad airport with two 2,000-pound laser-guided bombs, which punched through 10 feet of concrete and killed at least 408 Iraqi civilians.

   *On April 23, 1999, NATO intentionally bombed a Serbian television station, killing 16.   President Clinton said of the bombing: “Our military leaders at NATO believe … that the Serb television is an essential instrument of Mr. Milosevic’s command and control. … It is not, in a conventional sense, therefore, a media outlet. That was a decision they made, and I did not reverse it.” U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke saidright after the attack that it was “an enormously important and, I think, positive development.” Amnesty International noted it was “a deliberate attack on a civilian object and as such constitutes a war crime.”

   *On October 16, 2001, the U.S. attacked the complex housing the International Committee of the Red Cross in Kabul, Afghanistan. After detailed discussions between the U.S. and the Red Cross about the location of all of its installations in the country, the U.S. bombed the same complex again two weeks later. The second attack destroyed warehouses clearly marked with the Red Cross emblem containing tons of food and supplies for hungry refugees

   *On November 13, 2001, the U.S. bombed the Al Jazeera television bureau in Kabul.

   *On April 8, 2003, the U.S. bombed the Al Jazeera bureau in Baghdad, killing a reporter. The British home secretary at the time subsequently revealed that – a few weeks before the attack – he had urged Prime Minister Tony Blair to bomb Al Jazeera’s transmitter in Baghdad.

   *Also on April 8, 2003, a U.S. tank fired a shell at the 15th floor of the Palestine Hotel, where most foreign journalists were then staying. Two reporters were killed.  The Committee to Protect Journalists found that the attack “was avoidable."

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-10-11/america-has-repeatedly-committed-war-crimes-bombing-civilians

CBC has really doing some good work on the subject of Canadian bombings in Syria and Iraq. A new CBC documentary of the subject came out on Oct 30th, here is some of it:

cbc.ca wrote: "Despite claims by Canada and coalition forces of a near-perfect bombing record that has rarely harmed or killed civilians in Iraq and Syria, a fifth estate investigation has found nearly 50 credible allegations — involving as many as 600 possible deaths — that merit further review.

So far in the conflict in Iraq and Syria, Canada says it has conducted 181 airstrikes and dropped 469 bombs, but claims it has killed no civilians.

Airwars, a London-based group of independent journalists documenting allegations of civilian casualties in this conflict, reviewed almost 250 allegations, determining more than 100 of them — involving as many as 1,000 possible deaths — to be credible."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/fifth-estate-canada-airstrikes-record-coalition-1.3296285

I'm coming to grips with the fact that that killing that occurred when I was a watching the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on a daily basis (2001-2010) have simply continued on. There is a constant low-grade murder machine being run by the US that barely makes it to the media' attention. I knew this but digging up these bombing reports and watching the media headlines (there is a real right-wing media push to keep Canadian jets bombing people) is driving this home.

Another Canadian air strike with civilian casualties.

November 19th 2015: Mosul, Nineveh province, Iraq
Summary: At least ten civilians were reported killed and 13 or more injured, after a Coalition strike at 8.30am which targeted a Daesh IED facility also reportedly hit a next-door dairy factory in Mosul.
According to the local Nineveh Reporters’ Network, the attack “killed all elements of the organization [Daesh] who were inside the booby-trapping plant, but also damaged a large dairy building next door, killing approximately five civilian workers and injuring 13 others.” The minimum death toll was later raised to ten, with one victim named as Yasser, a father of two.
With claims that as many as 50 civilians were killed and injured, the event led to fresh calls for the Coalition to be more careful in its targeting of the city.
In a later statement to CBC News, Canadian Forces Major General Charles Lamarre said the strike had been reviewed and “did not reveal any information to suggest that civilians had been harmed or killed… The nearest structure to the strike was well outside of the explosive radius of the weapons used‎.”
However graphic video footage released by Islamic State showed not only the apparent destroyed IED facility but also a badly damaged adjacent building, including dead and injured persons.
Civilians reported killed: 10-13
Reported injured: 13-28
Sources: Nineveh Reporters Network [Arabic], Mosul News [Arabic], MNB [Arabic], MNB (2) [Arabic], Nineveh News [Arabic], Nineveh Reporters Network (2) [Arabic], Martyr’s page [Facebook, Arabic], Face Iraq [Arabic], Shafaaq [Arabic], GRAPHIC Islamic State propaganda footage of destroyed factory and casualties, Kulul Iraq [Arabic], CBC News,
Quality of reporting: Fair
Coalition position: The Coalition has confirmed targeting an IED facility in the city on November 19th 2015: “Near Mosul, one strike struck an ISIL weapons vehicle borne improvised explosive device manufacturing facility.”
Canada reports that its aircraft took part in the strike: “On 19 November 2015, while taking part in coalition airstrikes to increase Iraqi security forces’ freedom of movement in the region, two CF-18 Hornets successfully struck an ISIS weapons production facility in the vicinity of Mosul using precision guided munitions.”


This brings civilian casualties caused by Canadian airstrikes to be between 41 and 69 for 2015 so far.

Hey Hobb is there any chance you could post some of the information you have on compensation for civilians/interpreters, etc... killed?

Solatia Payment by the US Military (rough list)

[Feel free to edit this - this is just my rough notes]

ORIGIN




The Foreign Claims Act ("to promote and maintain friendly relations through the prompt settlement of meritorious claims" 10 U.S.C. §2734) covers most situations, and the US does a good job of investigating claims regardless of who or what caused them.  However, tort law is different in some places.  For example, in Japan, Korea, and Thailand, there is a concept called "solatia" which is intended to express immediate condolences, sorrow, etc.  In its purest form, the person making the offer of solatia does not have to be at fault -- just involved in the incident.  In some Southwest Asian countries (e.g., Saudi Arabia, Yemen), there is the concept of diyah or “blood money.”  The concept is Islamic -- if someone is killed, the closest relative has the choice of blood money or retaliation by killing the killer.  In some countries blood money is paid, regardless of fault, especially if the survivor is wealthier than the victim.  Payment of blood money is considered compensation, and is paid in fulfillment of a claim, not in addition to a claim.  The United States only pays if it caused some death or damage.  There is a two year statute of limitations for most claims.  Claims are paid in local currency, usually in person, and the claimant must sign a settlement agreement.  There are a number of circumstances where the US does NOT have to pay claims, including: (a) any issue involving private debts; (b) bastardy claims; (c) negligence of any contractor; (d) personal activities of family members, guests, servants, or pets of US personnel; (e) missing a target if malfunction is not involved and it is part of the mission (e.g. mistakenly bombing civilians); and (f) friendly fire incidents.

1960s - VIETNAM

Solatia Payments. If a unit deploys to the Far East or parts of Asia, judge advocates must consider the custom, widespread in that area of the world, of making solatia payments to accident victims. Solatia payments are not claims payment. They are payments in money or in kind to a victim or to a victim’s family as an expression of sympathy or condolence. These payments are immediate, and generally nominal. The individual or unit involved in the damage has no legal obligation to pay; compensation is simply offered as an expression of remorse in accordance with local custom. Solatia payments are not paid from claims funds but, rather, from unit operation and maintenance budgets. Prompt payment of solatium ensures the goodwill of local national populations, thus allowing the U.S. to maintain positive relations with the host nation. Solatia payments should not be made without prior coordination with the highest levels of command for the deployment area.

"Both men and women worked in our mess hall, while women and children washed clothes, and some women worked for the officers in their private quarters and club. I had no idea what the army paid the locals, but it must have been pitifully small by our standards. I had overheard Sergeant Greenley telling Captain Simpson about a settlement offered by the army to the family of a Vietnamese man who was struck and killed by one of our trucks as the man rode his bicycle along the side of the road. The man was 30 years old, and his wife was given $400, that being a fair approximation of the total earnings the man would have made during his lifetime, assuming he lived to be 55, which was quite elderly by Vietnamese standards. These compensations to the families were called solatia payments. "

Col. Prugh, MACV staff judge advocate from 1964 to 1966, believed strongly that a
well-run claims program was one way to “create a climate favorable to respect for law and order.” If the Vietnamese people saw that the law conferred a benefit in compensating them for injuries caused by the U.S. government, they would respect both the law and the government that made it.

The more difficult policy issue was the payment of combat-related
claims. Traditionally, the host country is responsible for such claims
but, at least initially, the Republic of Vietnam had no program to
compensate its citizens for injuries or damage suffered in combat
situations. In August 1965, for example, a U.S. Air Force B-57 bomber
returning from a combat mission crashed in the city of Nha Trang,
killing a number of civilians and destroying a great deal of property.
Viet Cong radio broadcasts accused the United States of criminal
recklessness, and this generated much bad feeling toward Americans.
Lt. Col. Robinson flew immediately to Nha Trang with two other
members of the MACV staff judge advocate’s office and began
accepting claims from Vietnamese civilians. While Robinson was
processing claims, however, an announcement from the Pentagon
stated that no compensation for this disaster could be paid because
damage resulting directly or indirectly from combat was not permitted
under the Foreign Claims Act. Robinson and Col. Prugh, however,
convinced MACV headquarters that payments to claimants would gain
the goodwill of the people.


1990s

On May 7, 1999, a U.S. B-52 bomber dropped three JDAM bombs upon the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. Three young Chinese journalists were killed and 27 other persons in the embassy were wounded. Four months later, the United States agreed to pay $4.5 million in damages to the families of the deceased and to the injured. This amounts to about $150,000 per victim.

When a U.S. marine jet hit aerial tramway cables in Italy (1998) cutting the cable and killing the 20 people in the tram, the U.S. gave close to $2 million to each Italian victim.

WARS OR TERROR era

2001 - In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, the government paid an average $2.1 million to the families of those killed in those attacks. The largest award so far, $6 million, went to the family of a victim who earned more than $200,000 a year.

On July 1, 2002, a U.S. AC-130 gunship attacked and strafed four villages in the Deh Rawud district of Uruzagan, killing more than 60 innocent Afghans and wounding about 120 others.1 The American troops which occupied the villages offered tents and blankets as compensation. A week later, the U.S.-installed  Karzai regime offered the Afghan wedding victims $18,500 in compensation, or about $100 per victim -- the payments were $200 on behalf of each individual killed and $75 for each wounded person, using Afghan regime figures of 48 killed and 118 wounded.



2003 - Until September 2003, [the war began in March]  the rules of the United States Central Command barred commanders from paying any compensation. Iraqis could seek restitution through the Foreign Claims Act for property damaged in accidents, like a tank crushing a car or killing a cow. But the law did not address losses caused by combat or similar action.

The compensation payments came from the Commanders Emergency Response Program, or CERP. The fund, set up in 2003, is designed to allow military commanders on the front lines to help stabilize and secure Iraq by building good will among locals. The fund, which once totaled more than $700 million, is available to unit commanders for a wide range of immediate local needs. The fund is generated from money seized or captured from insurgents along with contributions from the United Nations and $180 million appropriated by the US Congress, according to the October audit. Commanders were first authorized to make such payments in September 2003, and payments were initially financed with money seized from Saddam Hussein and his family and colleagues.


[stacks of US dollars]



2004  The data shows that the total condolence disbursements from the CERP fund was $4.9 million in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2004, and that it was $19.7 million during the period of Oct. 1, 2004, to Sept. 30, 2005. The fund is generated from money seized or captured from insurgents along with contributions from the United Nations and $180 million appropriated by the US Congress, according to the October audit.

In a single day in October 2004, Marines from the 11th Expeditionary Unit distributed more than $570,000 in condolence payments and instant restitution for damaged property in the city of Najaf, after heavy fighting between US troops and Shi'ite militia forces.

2005 - IRAQI Solatia skyrocketed from just under $5 million in 2004 to almost $20 million, according to Pentagon financial data -- suggests that American commanders made on-the-spot restitution far more frequently.

Almost half of the more than $19 million in compensation that the American military allocated to compensate for killing or injuring Iraqis and damaging property came from Marine-led units in Anbar Province, Defense Department records show.

The increase, Pentagon officials say, is due in part to a policy clarification from the Defense Department last summer that for the first time explicitly permitted condolence payments to be paid from funds controlled in the field by American commanders, with little oversight from senior officers. Previously some units had paid compensation and some had not.

The officials and outside experts said more officers began paying restitution and more Iraqis who suffered losses began stepping forward after the ambiguity was removed. But they added that the increase in payments, especially in areas controlled by the marines, was probably also a result of increased combat.

Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, commander of Multinational Forces in Iraq since January, has made it a priority to look for ways to ease tensions with civilians arising from the presence of American troops in Iraq.

He told National Public Radio in an interview last week that making condolence payments had become a standard response by the military. The practice, he said, is "common in this part of the world — it means a death payment, a death gratuity, so to speak — it is part of life over here."

But Sarah Holewinski, executive director of the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, an advocacy group in Washington, said that despite last year's policy change authorizing restitution for combat losses, decisions about who is paid remain largely up to American commanders, a process that she said brought wide discrepancies.

"The arbitrary nature of how the money is dispersed can intensify feelings of ill will on the ground, which, ironically, the compensation payments are designed to mitigate after a casualty," Ms. Holewinski said, adding that her group wanted the military to issue guidelines that would ensure that incidents are fully investigated, and that the amounts of payments were consistent for similar incidents.

If each of the payments made in 2005 was the maximum $2,500 for an Iraqi death, it would amount to 8,000 fatalities.

Khaled Salem Rsayef , a lawyer who is representing some of the families of the Haditha victims and who himself lost relatives during the killings, told the Associated Press last week that about a month after the deaths the US military gave the families $2,500 for each person killed , except four males said to be insurgents -- for a total about $38,000.

No matter the reason or the circumstance, every time U.S. soldiers kill an Iraqi civilian in his sector, Wood meets with the family of the deceased to pay his respects. On Thursday, he had to do it twice.

Both victims apparently were shot by U.S. soldiers from other units passing through Beiji, where insurgents mount regular attacks on Americans, Iraqi security forces and Iraq's oil pipeline. Neither convoy stopped to help the civilians the soldiers had shot. It would be pretty much impossible to ascertain which U.S. unit was passing through the area at the time and track down those who did the shooting, Wood said. "Seems like I pick up a lot of people's pieces around here," he said. "These ... patrols that drive around and shoot people have been a thorn in everybody's side all year."

Other members of the 2-7 battalion are equally concerned about the incidents.

"I hate the fact that American soldiers ride around killing civilians," said Command Sgt. Major Samuel Coston, 44, from North Carolina. "All you got to say is 'I feel threatened,' 'the car was driving aggressively,' and you shoot. They have no remorse. They just keep on driving."

Wood reached into his pocket and produced an envelope with $2,500 -- a compensation package the U.S. military gives to the families of innocent civilians its troops kill in Iraq.

"No matter how much money you give me, it's not going to give me my son back," Mara'e said. Then, he said "thank you" and took the money.

Capt. Ray Osorio, 31, from Orlando, who handles the colonel's relations with Iraqis, said he did not feel the $2,500 could compensate for the loss of a life.

"I always try to put myself in their shoes -- what if it was my sister who got killed, and someone is giving me money?" Osorio said. "You can't solve it by paying. We just want to make things right."

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/COLONEL-S-TOUGHEST-DUTY-Battalion-commander-2601938.php

AFGHANISTAN - Last November, a man from Gardez died of hypothermia in a US military jail. When his family were called to collect the body, they were given a $100 note for the taxi ride and no explanation. In scores more cases, people have simply disappeared.

He was taken to Bagram, where US military doctors had to amputate his leg. Afterwards, he said, "an American woman appeared. She said the US was sorry. It was a mistake. The men in the car were Special Forces or CIA on a mission. She gave me $500."

Ensconced in a Soviet-era staff building was the camp's commanding officer, Colonel Gary Cheeks. He listened calmly as we asked about the allegations of torture, deaths and disappearances at US detention facilities including Salerno. We read to him from a complaint made by a UN official in Kabul that accused the US military of using "cowboy-like excessive force". He eased forward in his chair: "There have been some tragic accidents for which we have apologised. Some people have been paid compensation."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,1440836,00.html

2006

Iraqi compensation skyrocketed from just under $5 million in 2004 to almost $20 million last year, according to Pentagon financial data -- suggests that American commanders made on-the-spot restitution far more frequently.

Defense Department officials maintain that the payments mirror a local custom commonly known as ``solatia.” They stressed that the payments shouldn't be seen as an admission of guilt or responsibility -  amid reports that US Marines paid $2,500 per victim after dozens of civilians were killed on Nov. 19 in the town of Haditha -- killings now engulfed by allegations of a massacre...

In April 2006, "martyr payments" became permissible, covering the death of Iraqi army members, police officers or government civilians as a result of U.S. or coalition military actions.

The GAO found that wide discretion is given to commanders. A military unit provides a claim card to a victim or family member after an incident. That card is given to an Army judge advocate or a purchasing officer who determines if the incident occurred and whether it resulted from combat actions.

Lawyers go to war

Savage, a Marine Corps captain, packed an M-16 as he stalked the alleys of Fallujah one night with a platoon and a sergeant carrying a bag of money. The mission: deliver an apology and $2,500 cash to an Iraqi whose son was killed by American troops.

“It was my first time in combat,” said Savage, 36, now at Quantico Marine Corps Base, Va. “Everyone was expecting to get shot at.” In Fallujah, a 34-man platoon of specially trained reconnaissance Marines escorted Capt. Savage and a disbursing sergeant on a midnight mission to make a “solatia” – condolence – payment to a father whose son was killed by Marines.

The patrol, riding in a convoy of armored Humvees, left under cover of darkness. It’s too dangerous in daylight. At 3 a.m., the Marines found the dead man’s family, eight people asleep in a single room.

After waking them, the Marines apologized and handed a stack of crisp, consecutively numbered $20 bills to the father, Savage said.



“Twenty-five hundred U.S. dollars is a great deal of money in Iraq, but I think the apology was more important than the money,” he said.  

Thinking of his Iraq tour, Savage said, “It made me a more well-rounded attorney.”

A young boy riding a bicycle looks across at a newly-erected warning sign put up Wednesday, May 31, 2006 on a road around 100 metres from the maternity hospital which Nabiha Nisaif Jassim, 35, a pregnant woman and her 57-year-old cousin Saliha Mohammed Hassan, were driving to for Jassim to give birth when they were killed in Samarra, Iraq Tuesday, May 30, 2006. U.S. forces apparently shot to death two Iraqi women, one of them pregnant, when they fired at a vehicle that failed to stop at an observation post in the town, Iraqi officials and relatives said.” The US army admitted killing both Nabiha Nisaif Jassim and her cousin Saliha Mohammed Hassan. As Nabiha was being raced to the maternity hospital to give birth to her third child.
 “The brother of the pregnant woman, Redam Nisaif Jassim, who was driving the car, told IPS that he neither saw nor heard any warnings by the U.S. military. Two men who witnessed the incident from a nearby home also said they saw no signs of any warning.” “The next day Redam Jassim was summoned to a local police station. “The Americans offered me 5,000 dollars, and told me it wasn’t compensation but because of tradition,” Jassim told IPS. The U.S. military pays usually 2,500 dollars compensation for killing an Iraqi. Jassim says he refused the payment.
In short we still have a situation where a mother of two being rushed to give birth in the local maternity hospital was, together with her 57 year old cousin shot from behind by a concealed sniper, and died as a result. Efforts to save her baby were unsuccessful. The incident took place at what appears to have been a concealed checkpoint, the existence of which was not notified to the public at the time it was erected, and was indeed only signposted the next day. Moreover all witnesses specifically contradict the US version of events and at the very least questions as to why payment was offered. There are good grounds for suspecting that as in Haditha ] the motive was not “to express sorrow” but rather it was species of “hush money.”

2007

(AFGHANISTAN)
Army Brig. Gen. Joseph L. Votel, the Combined Joint Task Force-82 deputy commanding general for operations; Army Col. John Nicholson, the commander of Task Force Spartan; and Air Force Lt. Col. Gordon Phillips, the commander of the Jalalabad Provincial Reconstruction Team, and Gov. Gul Agha Sherzai, the Nangarhar governor and event host, and other regional political leaders for the event.
“Because of our honor and our respect for you and your traditions, we come today to offer support to the families of those killed or injured during these events,” Nicholson added.
Phillips, who played a key role in organizing the event and personally delivered the solatia payments, expressed his solidarity with and concern for the people. “The enemy will use these unfortunate events to further their cause,” he added.

The Measure of a Life, in Dollars and Cents

By Walter Pincus
Monday, June 18, 2007; A15

What's an Iraqi life worth? How about an Iraqi car?

For the U.S. military in Iraq, it may be roughly the same.

The Pentagon has set $2,500 as the highest individual sum that can be paid. Most death payments remain at that level, with a rough sliding scale of $1,000 for serious injury and $500 for property damage. Beginning in April of last year, payments of up to $10,000 were possible for "extraordinary cases" but only with a division commander's authorization.

The report, titled "The Department of Defense's Use of Solatia and Condolence Payments in Iraq and Afghanistan," offers a particularly coldblooded example of how payments are estimated, drawn from CERP's operating procedures: "Two members of the same family are killed in a car hit by U.S. forces. The family could receive a maximum of $7,500 in CERP condolence payments ($2,500 for each death and up to $2,500 for vehicle damage)."

But if a noncombat accident takes place, such as a U.S. Army vehicle hitting and killing an Iraqi civilian as he crosses the street in Baghdad, the next of kin can file under the Foreign Claims Act. Payments awarded by the Foreign Claims Commission generally reach up to $100,000, according to the GAO.

A former Army judge advocate who served in Iraq from May 2003 to July 2004 has written that every Iraqi he spoke with on the issue expressed shock about this situation. Under the Foreign Claims Act, he wrote, "the full market value may be paid for a Toyota run over by a tank in the course of a non-combat related accident, but only $2,500 may be paid for the death of a child shot in the crossfire."

2008
At the request of US Embassy Baghdad, Blackwater has reached out to the families of those killed or injured in Nisoor Square on September 16 as part of this condolence payment process. These are customary condolence payments, and are not an admission of guilt, but recognize that Iraq is an extremely dangerous place.

At least two Iraqi families of victims killed by Blackwater security guards in September tell ABC News they have refused compensation offered by the company.

The father of a 9-year-old boy, who says his son was one of the 17 civilians killed when Blackwater guards, escorting a diplomatic convoy, opened fire at Baghdad's Nisour Square on Sept. 16, says he is trying to file a lawsuit against the company. He told ABCNews.com that Blackwater offered him $20,000 through an Iraqi prosecutor, but he refused the money.

Another Iraqi who lost both his wife and son in the incident says he too has refused the company's offer of compensation of $20,000 for each victim.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4489251&page=1

If you need more info, let me know. The above is raw 'cut'n'paste' with a few pictures added.

Here is the follow-up on the A-10 shooting up the Kunduz hospital

nbc wrote: Sixteen U.S. military personnel have been disciplined for their roles in the bombing.

The punishments are all non-judicial. No one will be court-martialed and there are no criminal charges pending. Some of the punishments, however, will be career-ending. A general officer will be the only person named while other lower-ranking service members will remain unnamed.

"The trauma center was a protected facility, but was misidentified," Gen. Joseph Votel, head of U.S. Central Command told reporters on Friday.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/pentagon-punish-16-afghan-hospital-airstrike-n564826

This verdict was released just as the latest hospital hit by airstrikes - that Syrian hospital hit in Aleppo - is getting major coverage. Here is look at the latest hospital hit by airplanes - - from a retired Green Beret senior officer who is skeptical of some of the claims:

On the Newshour last night I watched the Spaniard who is operations director for Medecins Sans Frontier (MSF) state that the air attack against a hospital the night before had been made by "barrel bombs."  This claim was directed at the government since a prevailing meme about "barrel bombs" is directed continuously at the government.  The attack took place after 10 PM local time.  It was obviously dark.  How does he know that the instruments of destruction were "barrel bombs?"  A bomb is a bomb from the point of view of those on the ground.  Did the victims see helicopters?   The rebels have also been shelling and gassing government and YPG Kurd held parts of the city, but that gets scant mention in the Mass Media.

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2016/04/httpwwwunderstandingwarorgsitesdefaultfilesaleppo20warning20update20april2028202016pdf.html

It is very hard to tell what happens in Syria because the Corporate Media is so anti-Syria that they have so blatantly twisted stories to blame the government before:

BBC News uses 'Iraq photo to illustrate Syrian massacre'

Photographer Marco di Lauro said he nearly “fell off his chair” when he saw the image being used, and said he was “astonished” at the failure of the corporation to check their sources.

The picture, which was actually taken on March 27, 2003, shows a young Iraqi child jumping over dozens of white body bags containing skeletons found in a desert south of Baghdad.

It was posted on the BBC news website today under the heading “Syria massacre in Houla condemned as outrage grows”.

The caption states the photograph was provided by an activist and is “believed to show the bodies of children in Houla awaiting burial”.

A BBC spokesman said the image has now been taken down.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/9293620/BBC-News-uses-Iraq-photo-to-illustrate-Syrian-massacre.html

It might be a case of mistaken targeting like the US strike in Afghanistan, more of the "collateral damage" that accompanies any war, or maybe it was something else. In any case the blame lies directly at the feet of those prolonging the war in Syria by arming and supporting the jihadists.

Here is a good quote from a Redditer on this whole subject: "It's fucked up though that we have to be skeptical of these atrocities. Is compassion now a weapon of war to incite attacks, playing on our empathy to encourage us to enter a war we have no business fighting? "