the iraqi national guard or the iraqi police service. the u.s. and u.k. appear to have adopted a fragmented order that requires them to take no action whatsoever once a have established that this torture and ill treatment was the responsibility of the iraqis. this is completely contrary to international law. it is well known that there is an absolute prohibition on torture. it may never be used. accordingly, all states have a duty to each other to cooperate together to stamp it out so that know beforehand that they will be found and prosecuted for their war crimes. u.s. and u.k. forces cannot turn a blind eye on the basis it was not there soldiers during the torturing. that is what happened and is revealed in these logs. both states have obligations to take definite and clear action to stop the torture by the iraqis. that did not make them complicity. a second case 6 accountability for the u.k. failure to act in these circumstances. the third area concerns the huge and growing body of evidence about killings, it would treat, and torture

military and civilian government for criminal acts against the iraqi people if the u.s. takes now actions to repress wiki leaks it may very well backlash backfire and instead of repressing them and intimidating them and their supporters create a groundswell of worldwide support for them the people want justice they want the truth we've heard a lot tonight about the reaction from the top brass in washington but let's spare a thought for the iraqi people how are they going to be reacting tonight to this news that the americans allegedly have been turning a blind eye to thousands of killings do you think their attitude to the u.s. assistance force in the country could change from now on. well of course it completes the story because it's revealed documents it's from the pentagon it's from the u.s. military itself but i think in the main it will confirm what the iraqi people already know there is not a single iraqi family that hasn't been touched by these criminal acts not only of hundreds of thousands died so many civilians but five million iraqis have become refugees displ

they include 300 names of iraqis. they say it is important to recognize that every iraqi civilian death is important. american forces have been contacting them to protect them from retaliation. >> i have no idea what the intentions are. but, the bottom line is there are a half million classified secret documents in the public domain for enemies to use or the people we are waging war against. others can be the beneficiaries of these secrets being out in the public. that is not good. this is classified for a reason. it could undermine our nation's security or endanger our forces. >> the real importance of these is that every family who has lost a loved one in the war be it american soldier or iraqi civilian needs to have that loss publicly recognized. if it's not, it breeds hatred and resentment and the war cannot be put behind. it's in the interest of all of us that every iraqi death is treated with the same honor as the american death. >> the classified information shows 15,000 civilian deaths the group didn't know ab

, as well as the iraqi police departments.learly, this is a different iraqi security forces today, than there was at the beginning of this conflict, which dates back to the period the documents first cover. i'm not going to get into the specifics of any of the documents. i can tell you, our policy with regards to detainee views, if we happened upon it, if we witnessed it, found evidence of it, report it up the chain of command. that was then referred to the iraqi military, to take action, disciplinary action, investigations and hopefully correct the behavior of the personnel in the field. >> but these leaked documents indicate that there was, apparently, a policy of telling american troops not to investigation any detainee abuse unless it was carried out by americans or our coalition partners. is that true? >> our policy has always been, when we witness or find evidence of abuse, that we are to report it up the chain of command. we're not going to have a guy at the ground level, who is out in the field, conduct an investigatio

do iraqis and those kind of concerns that may be putting this information out there puts iraqi citizens in danger? >> reporter: well, t.j., the iraqi prime minister and interior minister have yet to comment on the release of these documents but we have started getting some reaction from some iraqi lawmakers. we spoke earlier with an iraqi lawmaker with the sunni coalition here. earlier today he told us, i haven't reviewed or seen the document but was i've heard about them through media outlets. i'm not shocked and i'm not surprised. it made me remember the agony of the previous events we lived through, all the incidents, we lives through it, cold-blooding killing by the american and iraqi forces torture and secret prisons. we spoke with kurdish lawmakers who are not surprised to see what's in the documents, what's being reported by the media and this will verify what they know, there were torture that happened there were abuses that happened to iraqi detains at hands of iraqi officials and americans turned a blind eye and helped cover it up. >> you might have made the point, they're wat

by iraqi security forces.irst of all, while american troops often looked on, why didn't american troops intervene in those situations more often? >> well, there are a couple of reasons. one is iraq was the sovereign state. and we didn't have necessarily the legal authority to stop the iraqis from doing their business. the other reason though, i think there was a huge disconnect between our strategy which was to transition security responsibilities to the iraqi security forces, and the reality on the ground which was those security forces were fundamentally incapable of securing iraq. and in some cases were complicity in the sectarian violence themselves. so our troops perhaps were disincentivized from reporting or from acting on what the iraqi forces were doing because their own strategy said we were supposed to, our way out of iraq was to support these forces. >> warner: what, do you agree professor mearsheimer that this indicates something about the cost of the sort of surge and transition strategy that we'r

by iraqis and what the u.s.should do about it as it hands-off security responsibility to local forces has surfaceded before in washington. it came up in november 2005 with marine general peter pace then chairman of the joint chiefs and his boss at the time defense secretary>> donald rumsfeld. >> it is absolutely responsibility of every u.s. service member if they seend inhumane treatment being conducted, to intervene, tonk stop it. >> i don't think you mean that you have an obligation to physically stop it. it's to report it. >> if they are physically present when inhumaneon treatment is taking place they have an obligation to try to stop it. >> warner: the wikileaks documents show that americans did attempt to stop abuse at times and did report it on many occasions. but investigation and prosecution was left to theso iraqis. and for more on lessons from the weaked-- leaked d >> ifill: for more on lessons. from the leaked documents, we get two views. retired army colonel peter mansoor led a u.s. brigade in iraq

effect on the iraqi street or in the iraqi politics or any major operations military value in iraq andpresident obama was very clear that he said. military operations has ended in iraq ok and politician from the national iraqi alliance thanks so much for being on the line from baghdad tonight on. so cheapos forward with it so limpid preparations the massive construction works also revealing the russian city's ancient past as are about here. with discovery of an eighth century temple which has been uncovered during building work for the twenty fourteen games that he's done is plus kids across the story. it could be a scene from an indiana jones movie archaeologists trying to solve the secrets left behind by architects of an eight ball these rooms in the media to. a considered among the most prized discoveries in the area would you. give new media a new superman just take a look at how good these pipes are they almost didn't break when they fell down it appears that they were embedded in the wall so that hot air from the fireplace could be spread around so no will be able to put the piec

iraqi state agents iraqi surrogate groups other regional extremist organizations and ad hoc groups were disgruntled individuals may use this time period to conduct terrorist attacks against the united states. in our interest either here or abroad we were led from this entire war from the beginning even until now with a series of wise and it wasn't just about weapons of mass destruction you know it was about how long it would take and how the iraqi people would view it and whether it was working or not and that the only reason that there's resistance is because we're winning and the lights at the end of the tunnel and on and on and on and frankly speaking evidence on the ground is contrary to that but if the american people don't know it they can make an independent judgment americans in particular are the number one target audience in the world for propaganda it matters what americans think because we can change the system here so it's important that the media function as a weapon of mass distraction to keep people's attention away from what's really going on that's the problem with the

other documents also reveal that hundreds of iraqi civilians were killed at u.s. military checkpoints. a number far higher than previously reported. and in a five-year period, some 66,000 iraqi civilians were killed, even though all along the u.s. military and pentagon claimed they never kept such statistics. the pentagon fears there may be the names of more than 300 iraqi informants working hand in glove with the american military. so tonight, the u.s. military in iraq is working with the iraqis to track down and warn each and every one of them that their lives may now be at risk. brian? >> all right, jim miklaszewski. and so far any reaction from the building you're in from the department of defense, jim? >> reporter: officials here condemn the wikileaks leak of all these documents. they say it reveals american military tactics and techniques that puts americans at risk and may even risk national security. but at the same time, they understand that they are responsible for the leak of this information, and those documents should never have gotten out into the pu

documents on the war in iraq is stirring up a storm there's outrage in baghdad as iraqi prime minister nouri al maliki says the leaks aimed at undermining political stability in the country the war logs published by online whistleblower wiki leaks details thousands of iraqi deaths over the past six years molecules brushing aside allegations that death squads under his command were involved in that some of the killings the premier struggling to hold on to power being on able to form a government after parliamentary elections in march to talk more about this we're now joined live from baghdad by martin who is the middle east expert correspondent for the guardian daily thanks for being with us martin do you think prime minister maliki is really concerned here about the fragile stability of iraq or is he more worried about his own political future. i think the last hour i think these are a series of very damaging allegations for him at a time when mr maliki is trying to cast himself as a man for all the people here the key thing in the allegations that applied to him was that he sent a pos

army, as well as the iraqi police department.learly this is a different so, cleao than there was at ent which dates back to when these -- the period the documents first cover. i'm not going to get into specifics of any of the documents. our policy with record to detainee views, if we happened upon it, if we witnessed it, found evidence of it after the fact, reported up the chain of milita for them to takeiate action disciplinary action, opefully sciplinary action, behavof tonne in the field. indicate ther was, apparently, a policy of telling american troops not to investigate any detainee abuse unless it was carried out by americans or our coalition partners. is that true? >> our policy has always been, when we witness or find evidence of abuse, we were to report it up the chain of we're not going to have a guy at the ground level, conduct an investigation at the site, or intervene in the areas of the iraqi army. let's get it up to appropriate levels. talk to iraqis about making a change in behavior. and do so. that's been our po

secret prison, iraqis abused by other iraqis. >> you can see by the iraqi military and security services the torturing of over 1,000 people and the lack of intervention for that torture by the united states. >> reporter: it will take weeks to work through all the documents but so far what they tell us is that the iraq war was even uglier than we thought. david martin, cbs news, the pentagon. >> reporter: now although all the do you means appear to be authentic, their exact origin has not been independently confirmed. >>> another tragedy is striking haiti as we speak, it is an epidemic of cholera. at least 150 people are already dead and that number is rising. cholera is caused by a bacteria that spreads through water. haiti's health minister says a river that people are using for drinking water is testing positive for cholera today. doctors are worried the outbreak will quickly reach the tenth camp where thousands of survivors are living. >>> well a startling medical concern tonight, a starting number of americans with diabetes is expected to double by the time your children are your age

>> they'll certainly be retreating more and more from everyday iraqi life, on to bases. and i think what trudy's talking about in sum, is best described in the term, security. physical security, economic security, and the question will be, how broadly do the iraqis define that term? is it security just for my clan, for village, my region, or will we get to a point where iraqis starting thinking more broadly? going beyond tribal allegiances that have really held the counry together for the first time, and this is something to look for. what are the things that are going to get kurds, shia, sunni, marsh arabs, talking in national terms, as opposed to very specific tribal or regional terms? >> what you see is alliances being formed across sectarian lines. you'll have a sunni sheik making an alliance with a shiite party, uh, and you know, two years ago, they might have been drilling holes in each other's heads. and so, in a sense, that's progress, but a lot of these alliances could be fleeting. but at least the principal of dealing across sectarian lines has now been establi

some of the allegations are that iran trained some iraqi insurgents to assassinate iraqi leaders, that iraqi insurgents went to iran to learn how to become snipers. one incident even shows u.s. forces engaging iranians. they were on patrol, they say they were ambushed. take a look at what the field report says. it says the iranians to the northwest of the column started to engage the patrol. the entire column was under fire and returned fire as they conducted u-turns to try to leave the area. that report goes on to say that the patrol took fire from the iranians almost all the way back to their checkpoint well inside the iraqi border. >> all right. chris, thank you so much. >>> we turn to afghanistan now where several militants were killed today when they attacked a u.n. compound. this happened in western afghanistan. local authorities said the militants were wearing suicide vests. the u.n. is trying to get more information about what happen. herat has not experiences the high level of violences that has plagues other parts of afghanistan. >>> to politics now where there are just ten d

iraqis tortured and abused by other iraqis. some cases the u.s. investigated, others were ignored or simply referred to the iraqis. assange claims it's evidence of war crimes. >> we can also see from the iraqi military and security services, the torturing of over a thousand people and the lack of intervention for that torture by the united states. >> reporter: the documents are all part of what is called the iraq database, which dwarfs the 76,000 afghan war documents wikileaks released earlier this year. in both cases, the documents are believed to have been given to wikileaks by army private bradley manning, who is accused of copying them while working in an operations center in iraq. so far, katie, what the documents tell us is that the iraq war was even uglier than we thought. >> couric: and, david, i understand there are also things in the documents about iranian activities in iraq. what can you tell us about that? >> well, there are reports and they were well known during the bush administration, of iran training and arming insurgents in iraq

and the new iraqi government covered up or not investigated.ot intervened by the united states military. >> larry: who was hiding this? >> that's an interesting question. the pentagon came out yesterday and said, well, there's nothing new in this material. which is precisely what they said with our afghan release as well. well, of course, there's nothing new to them in this material, but there's nothing new to the rest of the world. they were totally aware of this, the reports are internally designated as significant actions, so this is what the u.s. army internally thinks is significant enough to keep around and record. so one of the things we can see is that the deaths of civilians and the deaths of people listed as insurgents was counted since 2004, despite repeated statements over the years of the u.s. military did not have an ability to count or estimate the number of civilians killed, the hiding of the material. this covers every facet of the war. so we can see hundreds of incidences where what is said in public differs to what is said in

coming up in a few minutes here in r t the ethnically diverse iraqi city of kirkuk is a real box which makes you want to raid to prevent the site becoming a hotbed for terror. and in brazil the incoming leader will have to deal with the enormous gap between rich and poor learn about their first stop that's coming up on our take. but first the first ever joint u.s. russian anti drugs operation in war torn afghanistan has been held a success special forces knocked out for drug labs on the afghan border with pakistan and confiscated a ton of hair when worth hundreds of millions of dollars afghan president hamid karzai condemned the operation claiming it violated the country's sovereignty but russian officials say karzai statement is confusing as the raid was led by the afghan interior ministry the operation marks russia's return to afghanistan twenty years after soviet troops withdrew from a decade long war against the mujahideen insurgents parties katherina groucho reports how for some moscow's boost to the u.s. but anti drug effort came as a complete shock. it was gordon this one this o

the iraqi national guard or the iraqi police service. the u.s. and u.k. appear to have adopted a fragmented order that requires them to take no action whatsoever once a have established that this torture and ill treatment was the responsibility of the iraqis. this is completely contrary to international law. it is well known that there is an absolute prohibition on torture. it may never be used. accordingly, all states have a duty to each other to cooperate together to stamp it out so that know beforehand that they will be found and prosecuted for their war crimes. u.s. and u.k. forces cannot turn a blind eye on the basis it was not there soldiers during the torturing. that is what happened and is revealed in these logs. both states have obligations to take definite and clear action to stop the torture by the iraqis. that did not make them complicity. a second case 6 accountability for the u.k. failure to act in these circumstances. the third area concerns the huge and growing body of evidence about killings, it would treat, and torture

well i think is no doubt extremely damaging i mean on the one hand a lot of iraqis will know. the you know we'll know the truth behind these allegations anyway because they've been on the receiving end but i think for it to come out publicly on the international stage in this way will seriously damage mali and i think that will be a very big problem for him and it's also a very very big problem as i say for the for the u.s. so i think you know no one benefits from this none of the kind of. the players who are trying to dominate iraq actually come out well out of this and what's the real current state of the country do you think u.s. combat troops of course pulled out of iraq this summer but there is still a considerable american presence in the country some fifty thousand is it still an occupation as you see it. well i mean there's only one reason why the americans are staying there they say they're there to kind of you know to try and be advisers but you're talking about fifty thousand fully armed u.s. combat soldiers they're there to to try to. maintain u.s. interest to try

some of the most damning documents involve the deaths of iraqis, many of them iraqi security forces but most civilians. they reveal the u.s. military knew iraqi security beat, tortured and murdered detainees but american forces were under orders not to intervene, so they looked the other way. one document showed an american helicopter gunship shot and killed a group of iraqis trying to surrender. other documents reveal that hundreds. of iraqi civilians were killed in u.s. military checkpoints and in one five-year period more than 66,000 iraqi civilians were killed, even though the pentagon repeatedly claimed they never kept such statistics. u.s. intelligence officials also estimate that the names of more than 300 iraqi informants working with the americans appear in the documents. so today the u.s. military, along with the iraqis, are attempting to track down each and every one to warn them their lives may be at risk. this morning in london, wikileaks spokesman defended the public release of u.s. military secrets. >> in our release of these 400,000 documents, about the iraq war, the int

and in a few minutes the ethnically diverse iraqi city of kirkuk is a real tinderbox to take you want to leave to prevent the sites from becoming a hotbed for terror attacks. in brazil the incoming leader will have to deal with the enormous gap between the rich and the poor learned about their first steps in a few minutes on r.t. . the first ever joined us russian anti drug czar peroration in war torn afghanistan has been hailed a success special forces knocked out for drug labs on the afghan border with pakistan and confiscated a ton of heroin worth hundreds of millions of dollars now afghan president hamid karzai condemned the operation claiming it violated the country's sovereignty but russian officials say karzai statement is confusing as the raid was led by the afghan interior ministry the operation marks russia's return to afghanistan twenty years after soviet troops were removed from a decade long war against where you dean insurgents are to. reports for song goes to the u.s. led drugs effort came as a complete shock. for this one died so did this one. this one or this one died

first team change for the iraqi people. with excitement and enthusiasm there were coverage was a spectacular show of explosions and awesome left injury and their obvious support for the bush administration was remarkable to me. as in our recent filmmaker i wanted to understand how they could percent war this way and i started to search for real information through independent media and their investigations i discovered the silence stories. this is what really happens when we drop bombs. media sanitizes or i mean in the case of iraq. war is hell war is bloody war is ugly and that's what we should have seen twenty four hours a day on television war is not primarily about history to victory it's about death and not dealt with by any of the people who are leading us on whether it be mr blair or who's an experience of war of television or whether it be mr bush or trying to serve his country we have lost touch with the essence of war with what it is war is at its core death the celebration of our own military prowess what is that

government in mind when they chose this date and let's bear in mind that there hasn't been an iraqi government for seven months so it's not likely as if there's many dates to choose from when it comes to releasing this in this sense but i think that the documents certainly do point to a particular problem with the prime ministerial office in iraq it is an office that's been significantly empowered as part of the u.s. exit strategy with its individual sort of special forces units that have supposedly run internal prisons that these documents have now shown so maliki who is almost that close to the finishing line it seems at the moment with relations with iran and syria sort of confirming his role as the next prime minister now seems that he has another hurdle to jump across this is u.s. military documents so really like unlike any previous media story or an it total report from iraq this is words from their own mouth which makes it very difficult for them to deny it and they're not really doing that if you actually listen to what the pentagon and state department. it's been a saying

all the iraqi politicians big and acts not like statesman the iraqi military is on the ground throughout the country delivering some form of service whether it's security or more and ultimately the real question is whether senior members of the iraqi military will decide that while the politicians did it's their chance to step in take control of the political process and run the country themselves the newly rebuilt u.s. sponsored iraqi army numbers some six hundred fifty thousand if you include the border guard in the police and americans are in a weapons spending spree at the moment in the middle east they're just finishing off a sixty billion dollars deal with the saudis and i've spent over sold over ten billion dollars worth of weapons to the iraqis since the war including high tech equipment such as f. sixteen zero and one tanks the dream of formula one coming to russia has become a reality for a motor racing fans with so cheetos the first ever grand prix race in the country the f one caravan will come to town just after the twenty fourteen winter olympics as part of a six year deal

police and iraqi army and militia. so there's a giant civil war raging in iraq. we tried to tap down, ultimately successfully during the civil war, thousands were murdered and maltreated. these are tactical reports at the bottom of the chain of command observing this civil war. it is complete nonsense. we actually stop the fighting eventually or tap it down. you know, there was just no way to control this. this is sectarian violence at its worst. >> general, there are those who say the fact that the u.s. military had orders to ignore anything they would see along this front, in other words, not to get involved in issues between iraqi insurgents and iraqi police as you essentially point out there, anything about that not make sense to you, or is that property come property come? >> i don't think we were told to ignore it at all. the units were observing and reporting and that's coming out of the several hundred thousand tactical messages going back to the chain of command. and in many cases they would stop it if they we

documents on the war in iraq is stirring up a storm there's outrage in baghdad as iraqi prime minister nouri al maliki says the leaks aimed at undermining political stability in the country well. the war logs published by online whistleblower weekly leaks details thousands of iraqi deaths over the past six years previously unaccounted for while it is brushing aside allegations that death squads under his command were involved in some of the killings premiers currently struggling to hold on to power after being unable to form a government following a parliamentary election in march the mideast expert james down from king's college london says molecules overreacting to the latest we can only. think that would be very doubtful to imagine the wiki leaks and the soldiers responsible for giving these documents to them have the undermining of the iraqi government in mind when they chose this date let's bear in mind that there hasn't been an iraqi government for seven months so exactly as if there's many dates to choose from when it comes to releasing this in this sense but i think that the do

many deaths were at the hands of the iraqis. but the documents show the u.s. military was responsible for many more than previously thought. including 681 civilians who were killed at check points during the war. and there is graphic detail about torture of detainees by the iraqi military with prisoners being shackled, blindfolded, kicked and punched. the report says the u.s. military would sometimes turn a blind eye. the secret documents contain at least four cases of lethal shootings from helicopters. one, in february 2007, says that an apache helicopter pilot asked what to do about two iraqi men believed to have been firing mortars who are trying to surrender. word comes back, "they cannot surrender to aircraft and are still valid targets." the helicopter then shot and killed the men. arab-based news organizations are already playing up the reports. >> torture, claims of murder at checkpoints. >> reporter: the arab stations are reporting 285,000 dead and wounded. >> i don't know the numbers. i'm not going to get into a numbers game. i'm not going to speak t

government in mind when they chose this date and let's bear in mind that there hasn't been an iraqi government for seven months so it's not likely if there's many dates to choose from when it comes to releasing this in a sense this is u.s. military documents so it's really unlike any previous media story or report from iraq this is words from their own mouth which makes it very difficult for them to deny it and they're not really doing that if you actually listen to what the pentagon and state department spokesman are saying what they talk about is the critical nature of the nature of the leaks and whether u.s. soldiers are informers or people working with us will be put in danger by them talking about the method of the message rather than the message itself now the message itself paints a very different picture of the iraq the americans have been telling us about the last seven years some fifteen thousand iraqi deaths have not been accounted for so the history of iraq is being written by these documents which are as i say from the americans miles themselves. well fifty thousand u.s

the secret records show in all 109,000 iraqis were killed. but more than half, 66,000 were civilians, higher than previously disclosed. at a news conference today in london, wikileaks founder julian assange accused the u.s. of hiding the truth. >> iraq, as we can see, was a bloodbath on every corner. >> reporter: according to the documents, many died at the hands of the americans. 681 civilians were killed at u.s. military checkpoints alone. pentagon officials insist, however, u.s. military tactics have improved. >> we have gotten better over the years at protecting ourselves while at ourselves while at the the same time protecting civilians approaching checkpoints, but we have not been perfect. >> reporter: it was also revealed that u.s. military knew that military forces were tortured detainees. it was reported up the chain of command. one document states an american soldier watched an iraqi officer strike a detainee with a baton and whip another detainee's feet and back with an electrical cable. the soldier reported the incident but the do

sentiment at the time when the iraqi democracy as we know, the iraqi government is in a fragile stateit there, nena and byron, thanks for coming in today. . >> i used to think that the left wing was the tolerance of all the viewpoints, but that's not the case, now i've found out the hard way. >> that was juan williams over the npr decision to fire him as an analyst and find out what juan's former boss said when she fired him. rocker john mellencamp is impressed with sarah palin and even asked the mccain campaign to stop using the songs at his rally and now he says that the former alaskan government is smarter than people gave her credit for. and added quote, palin knows exactly what she's doing. and that's it for us in washington. kelly wright and jamie colby are standing by in new york to take over from here and be sure to tune in tomorrow for our exclusive interviews with two senate candidates, pennsylvania republican pat toomey and west virginia's governor joe manchin for the latest on two races that could play critical roles for the balance of power on election day and of course,