Iraq Body Count - NOT JUST NUMBERS!

On 8 May 2006 on Channel 4 documentary, 'Iraq - The Hidden Story' - Channel 4's journalist Jon Snow said:

"According to the most authoritative source, something like 35,000 lives have been lost in the last 3 years." (With the caption: Source - Iraq Body Count - www.iraqbodycount.net)

Jon Snow is talking over the images of a car bombing. So, who's responsible for the "lives [that] have been lost in the last 3 years." ?

Iraq Body Count Co-Founder and Oxford Research Group's Executive Director John Sloboda was on CNN on July 19, 2005:

Joining us now from London is IraqBodyCount.net co-founder, John Sloboda. He is also co-author of a new book, "A Dossier of Civilian Casualties in Iraq 2003-2005."

Certainly, the research is there, John. I don't think anyone doubts that. What's the most surprising thing from your latest compilation?

JOHN SLOBODA, AUTHOR, "DOSSIER OF CIVILIAN CASUALTIES IN IRAQ": Well, one of the things which has really, I think, shocked a lot of us is the fact that since the end of the invasion back in May 2003, there has been a steady, month-on-month increase in the number of civilians killed by anti-occupation forces, insurgents and crime. So that there were double the numbers kill in the second year of the occupation than there were in the first.

HOLMES: And who's doing the killing, John?

SLOBODA: Well, currently, the vast majority of killing is being done by anti-occupation insurgents, criminals and unknown agents. We just don't know who a lot of them are.

That is a complete reversal from the situation in the beginning of the conflict, when, of course, in the first six-week phase of the war, the vast majority of deaths were caused by U.S. bombs and aerial raids.

Mr. Sloboda's words are in total contradiction with the findings of the "Lancet study":

On 29 October 2004, the British medical journal The Lancet published ‘Mortality before and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq: cluster sample survey’:

Making conservative assumptions, we think that about 100000 excess deaths, or more have happened since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Violence accounted for most of the excess deaths and air strikes from coalition forces accounted for most violent deaths. (Interpretation)

Most individuals reportedly killed by coalition forces were women and children. (Findings)

Source: Mortality before and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq: cluster sample survey, The Lancet, Published online October 29,2004

This study reads:

"The researchers found that the majority of deaths were attributed to violence, which were primarily the result of military actions by Coalition forces. Most of those killed by Coalition forces were women and children... Eighty-four percent of the deaths were reported to be caused by the actions of Coalition forces and 95 percent of those deaths were due to air strikes and artillery." ('Iraqi Civilian Deaths Increase Dramatically After Invasion', October 28, 2004)

As if this contradiction were not disturbing enough, "John Sloboda took up his appointment as Executive Director of Oxford Research Group in January 2004."

On December 2005 Oxford Research Group published "Iraqi Liberation? Towards an Integrated Strategy"

Because of this Oxford Research Group's study, Iraq Body Count Co-Founder and Oxford Research Group's Executive Director John Sloboda, who co-authored this study was expelled by the international anti-war network BRussells Tribunal.

Dear friends,
John Sloboda has been excluded from the BRussells Tribunal. Not because of the conflict about IBC, but because he's apparently heading the Oxford Research Group, a think tank. They published this report recently: http://www.oxfordresearchgroup.org.uk/publications/books/iraqiliberation.htm .
Because of this report, that is in total opposition with everything the BT stands for, he really cannot be a part of our network.
Thought I'd let you know.
Dirk.

A few days ago, independent journalist Dahr Jamail wrote:

By far and away the survey that comes closest to the true number of dead in Iraq to date was the one conducted for the Lancet. Yet even Les Roberts, the lead author of that report and one of the world's top epidemiologists with the Center for International Emergency Disaster and Refugee Studies at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said this February that there might be as many as 300,000 Iraqi civilian deaths generated by the US invasion and occupation. So as not to skew the results, it is important to note that the survey did not include areas where major combat had occurred such as Fallujah, Najaf, and Sadr City - home to roughly three million Iraqis.

Any news agency, government, or other organization reporting anything less are actively attempting to hide the level of slaughter and mayhem and thus aiding and abetting the ongoing war crimes in Iraq.

My aforementioned friend in Fallujah is both frustrated and angry that most news agencies choose not to report the number of dead in Iraq more accurately. "I know there are some organizations who claim that they have an accurate count, which is less than 40,000 dead Iraqis," he wrote me recently. He went on to reference Bush Junior, "And as if that number itself isn't shameful enough for the US and the whole world to see. Anyone claiming that low number who calls himself a humanitarian is a shameful guy."

The "man behind Iraq Body Count", John Sloboda, recently gave an interview to "responsible media" BBC:

"I think it's because we don't fit into their worldview. The hard left and the hard right, they're both utterly rigid, and the stuff that's going on in the middle, they can't handle.

They want certainty. They want something they can latch onto and say - this is what I believe.

They like the sense of being a beleaguered minority.

What's most chilling is if you look at people's allegiance to much more dangerous causes than either of our critics are adopting. This is also the mindset that draws angry young men towards terrorism. And it's ultimately self-destructive." - John Sloboda, "the man behind Iraq Body Count"

For the BBC's role in this waltz, please read "THE BBC SMEARS MEDIA LENS - an email exchange with the BBC"