Iraq - BBC obtains casualty figures

When I read that veteran BBC reporter John Simpson was going to Iraq I knew we were in for some of the worst bias from the BBC. I was right.

Coalition troops and Iraqi security forces may be responsible for up to 60% of conflict-related civilian deaths in Iraq - far more than are killed by insurgents, confidential records obtained by the BBC's Panorama programme reveal.

Note the qualifier "may" but that doesn't stop good ole John from his pronouncement does it?

How is it that everyone on the planet has been trying to get these figures and John just shows up and magically they are his?

The data covers the period 1 July 2004 to 1 January 2005, and relates to all conflict-related civilian deaths and injuries recorded by Iraqi public hospitals. The figures exclude, where known, the deaths of insurgents.

Well John, what is the percentage of unknown? He doesn't tell us. How convenient.

The period used covers the battles of Falluja, Najaf and Sadr city; some of the worst fighting and therefore, the highest casualties since the downfall of Saddam. Gee, I wonder why John is only using these figures?

I'd say so far it looks like John is being very selective about what information he shares with us.

The figures reveal that 3,274 Iraqi civilians were killed

There were over 1500 killed in Falluja, 1000 in Najaf and hundreds in Sadr city. How can you tell which are "innocent" civilians and which are insurgents?

If you subtract these figures from Simpson's you get a much lower and accurate figure.

Watch how Simpson tries to set up US Ambassador John Negroponte as either uninformed or worse lying.

Panorama interviewed US Ambassador John Negroponte shortly before it obtained the figures. He told reporter John Simpson: [Bullshit alert!]

"My impression is that the largest amount of civilian casualties definitely is a result of these indiscriminate car bombings.

"You yourself are aware of those as they occur in the Baghdad area and more frequently than not the largest number of victims of these acts of terror are innocent civilian bystanders".

Now that windbag Simpson is on the case in Iraq, watch out or a lot more bullshit from the BBC.

Panorama's film Exit Strategy, reported by BBC world affairs editor John Simpson from Baghdad, will be shown at 2215 GMT, Sunday night on BBC One.

Told you.

UPDATE:

It would have helped if I had posted the link to the BBC article. Doooh. However the BBC have now changed it to a "clarification" of the original story. Thankfully the original is cached at Google.
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