Why is the New York Times silent on massive Iraq death toll? A question for Bill Keller

World Socialist Web Site

The corporate-controlled American media is deliberately suppressing the results of a survey that demonstrates that the US invasion and occupation of Iraq has caused more than 600,000 deaths in the past three years—a figure that in and of itself refutes all the claims by the Bush administration that it carried out the invasion of Iraq in order to foster democracy in the Middle East. What kind of "freedom" and "human rights" can be the consequence of such a slaughter? The major American media organizations—including the New York Times—published only brief reports on the study October 11. Taking their cue from President Bush, who declared the survey’s methodology faulty without offering any proof, the Times and other leading media outlets have dropped the subject. There have been no editorials in the Times, the Washington Post, or other major newspapers, nor any demands for a more serious response from the Bush administration...

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...A police officer in the nearby Sunni-dominated town of Duluiyah said members of the Mahdi Army militia loyal to anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr had moved into the area and were killing Sunni men and boys. Local police were aiding the militias, said the officer, repeating a common claim made against the Shiite-dominated security forces. Balad is a predominantly Shiite city, ringed by Sunni-dominated villages, towns and farmland. Bodies of victims of Balad's Sunni minority lay in the streets, while elderly people and women were being forced to leave the city, said the officer, who spoke on condition on anonymity for fear of reprisals. Scores of terrified Sunnis had fled to Duluiyah and other neighboring towns, the policeman said. Ahmed Ali, a 32-year-old Sunni truck driver who was trying to reach his wife's family in Balad, said Sunni families in neighboring towns have armed themselves to fight-off militia raids. He said he'd been told his in-laws were killed on Friday. "Militiamen gave them just two hours to leave the house. But after half an hour, they broke into the house and killed four of them," Ali said. An army officer at provincial headquarters said authorities have counted 74 Sunnis killed since Friday. The latest deaths came when Sunni houses were attacked with mortars late Sunday, killing five people, including a child, and injuring five others, said the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to talk to media...

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