E&P: WaPo Cites 'Pressure' on Iraq Death Count

[Hissyspit]

This is from yesterday, but I couldn't find it in any search of DU, so here it is. Sorry, if dupe.

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002113904

'Wash Post' Cites 'Pressure' on Iraq Death Count

By E&P Staff
Published: March 01, 2006 10:45 AM ET

NEW YORK A day after reporting a shockingly high death toll in the current sectarian violence -- 1,300, or about four times the official figure -- The Washington Post returned to the subject today. On Tuesday, most other news outlets, including The Associated Press and Knight Ridder, questioned the Post's number, which it had obtained at the Baghdad morgue. Iraqi officials also called the 1,300 number "inaccurate" and "exaggerated." The Post said it had received confirmation from one Iraqi official that it was at least 1,000 or more.

Today, Ellen Knickmeyer, who co-authored the Tuesday story, observed that officials overseeing Baghdad's morgue "have come under pressure not to investigate the soaring number of apparent cases of execution and torture in the country, the former U.N. human rights chief for Iraq said Tuesday.

"John Pace, who left his post this month, spoke as Iraqi and U.S. officials offered widely varying numbers for the toll so far in the explosion of sectarian violence that followed last Wednesday's bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra. "Pace said the pressure had come from 'both sides,' but declined to give further details. The statement seemed to refer to both the Shiite-led government and the Sunni insurgency fighting it."

Knickmeyer also explained the Post's count: "On Monday, workers at Baghdad's main morgue said that more than 1,300 bodies had been brought in since the previous Wednesday and that 200 to 300 bodies remained unclaimed. Washington Post reporters saw several dozen bodies on the floor and on gurneys and tables in the entry halls outside the main rooms of the morgue. All the dead appeared to be victims of violence, as did the men in photographs of what morgue workers said were the unclaimed dead."

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[linazelle]

1. Sounds like NOLA: Ignore the fatalities. nt

[bryant69]

2. This is SOP for Conservatives

They never want any attention focused on the downsides or costs of their programs.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com