BBC's crimes: actively aiding and abetting in war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide

Helen Boaden, Director of BBC News
Steve Herrmann, Editor, News Online

Three days passed since the ORB published its study suggesting a total of 1,220,580 deaths as a result of the conflict in Iraq since 2003 (ie as a result of violence rather than a natural death such as old age).

The BBC News website, as far as I could see, has not given the news yet!

Three days of deafening silence at BBC. Three days of shame that add to the shame for the active role you had in hiding the truth on the Iraqi genocide to the citizens who pay for your fat salary.

To refresh your memory, just three little examples from your vast and rich repertoire of the horrors:

October 2005 – The BBC ignores the Lancet study. Challenged, the BBC writes:

“The figures [the Lancet study] details are now around one year old where as [‘whereas’, presumably] those produced by Iraq Body Count are continually updated.” [and] “We do not usually use the Lancet's figure in standard news stories because it is so far out of line with other studies on the same issue. There are also some questions over the validity of the Lancet study in the case of measuring casualties in Iraq. The technique of sampling and extrapolating from samples has been criticised because the pattern of violence in Iraq has been so uneven. In this particular news story, the Iraq Body Count figure is used because it is the most recent study on the issue.”

March 2006 – The silence on the Lancet study continues. Challenged, BBC News Online Editor Steve Herrmann writes:

Dear Gabriele,

In response to your email about our story on the Iraq Body Count figures, I would make the point that we reported on this as part of our overall effort to cover the war in Iraq and its consequences as fully as possible across a wide range of coverage.

We reported on the Iraq Body Count (IBC) as a credible attempt available in the public domain to count the civilian casualties of the war. We do not think their count is faultless, and indeed we have pointed out that because it relies on deaths reported by the media, the IBC itself suggests its figures are an underestimate as “many if not most civilian casualties will go unreported”.

The Lancet study is a snapshot taken more than 18 months ago and though the methodology has been widely acknowledged as standard, there has been argument about whether the sampling method is the most appropriate for this kind of survey. By featuring the IBC count of civilian deaths in Iraq we are not seeking to dismiss the Lancet study. We have reported on the latter extensively and refer to it in our report on the IBC.

Yours sincerely
Steve Herrmann

April 2006 - In email sent to Media Lens’ David Cromwell regarding Iraqi civilians deaths, the IBC and the Lancet study, Helen Boaden, Director, BBC News, wrote “I'm not sure if you were copied in on Steve Herrmann's reply to "The Cat's Dream", whose complaint was in similar vein to yours. I agree with his remarks”

Time goes by but there are things never change at the BBC. You have denied paramount information in a critical and tragic time to the citizens you were supposed to serve and for this crime you’ve been actively aiding and abetting in war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

Resign!

Gabriele Zamparini
London

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UPDATE: The BBC has now buried the 1.2 million Iraqis slaughtered by the US-led illegal war of aggression, the supreme international crime for which the major Nazi war criminal were hanged in Nuremberg, in the last paragraphs of an article titled 'US contractors in Iraq shootout' [Last Updated: Monday, 17 September 2007, 11:03 GMT 12:03 UK]

These paragraphs read:

Civilian toll

Sunday's violence followed the publication of a survey of Iraqis which suggested that up to 1.2m people might have died because of the conflict in Iraq.

A UK-based polling agency, Opinion Research Business (ORB), said it had extrapolated the figure by asking a random sample of 1,461 Iraqi adults how many people living in their household had died as a result of the violence rather than from natural causes.

The results lend weight to a 2006 survey of Iraqi households published by the Lancet, which suggested that about 655,000 Iraqi deaths were "a consequence of the war".

However, these estimates are both far higher than the running total of reported civilian deaths maintained by the campaign group Iraq Body Count which puts the figure at between 71,000 and 78,000.

Please note as Iraq Body Count is again used to deny the Iraqi genocide.

As I have already written:

Helen Boaden, Director of BBC News and Steve Herrmann, Editor, News Online: Resign!

Prof. John Sloboda, Co-founder, analyst and press spokesperson IRAQ BODY COUNT: Please, shut down your website!