The following is an archived copy of a message sent to a Discussion List run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
Views expressed in this archived message are those of the author, not of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
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Dan, Actually, I placed this link here because I thought it was a useful research tool for members of the list, certainly one that I was intending to use myself. But I do have many serious doubts as to the quality of some of the reports coming out of Iraq, which is why I think that such an important subject ought to be undertaken by an official judicial organisation not the subject of press releases such as "200 Kurdish children found in mass grave, buried with their dolls" as was released by one tiny Kurdish group. Who knows exactly what relation to reality that bears? I take your point that Archeaologists for Human Rights are just monitoring news media reports, but in that case they should call themselves Media Monitors for Human Rights. A group with such a name you would expect to be undertaking serious forensic investigations, this doesnt seem to be happening anywhere. As regards to faking photos, you seem to have placed that in the wrong thread, as I have post at least two photos a month ago from the US state department website that no one disputed were obviously NOT from a mass grave site. In the more post, I should have placed the article it was from.... http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/iraqwar/story/0,4395,187250,00.html I would also note that whoever took that picture gave the coat the bones are placed in a good wash as well, because after 12 years of decomposition that removed all traces of flesh and hair, the coat is remarkably unsoiled. The photo at the top of a line of white sheets again seems to be lacking any signs of meaningful evacuation and far, far away from habitation or cultivation in the middle of the desert. It is clearly many miles from any large city such as Najaf, population half a million. Nor is this farmland is claimed in many of the media reports on this subject. You are correct to say it is very difficult to tell if a photo is faked from looking at it, that is why I believe those that I discuss are only the tip of the iceberg. Both HRW and Amnesty Internation rely heavily on media reports for information sources. You say "Journalists don't record everything!" That in my view is hardly the problem, the problem is that journalists record way too much! When you get journalists like Robert Fisk describing burial scenes that include giant tombs of Saddam's mother and graves of children killed in a bombing raid nearby when photos taken of the site quite clearly show the three graves are alone, isolated in a large empty field suggest that our media have a problem, a giant credibility problem. The question is not is the media lying, but how much and why. That may not be a popular view in some quarters but one I have every intention of pushing here. Tom ____________________________________________________________ Enter for a chance to win one year's supply of allergy relief! http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;6413623;3807821;f?http://mocda3.com/1/c/563632/125699/307982/307982 This offer applies to U.S. Residents Only _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk