Fuzzy Reporting

**CHUQ** · Agitator Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts votes: 3

This asks some good questions and deserve answers.

Hat tip to Brian Katulis at CAP who clued me on to this issue and Spencer Ackerman has already got a great post on this.

Basically there are more serious questions about the violence numbers that are being reported out of Iraq. The Pentagon is congressionally mandated to produce a quarterly progress report to Congress measuring stability in Iraq. Each of these reports has a graphic measuring sectarian violence. The last four reports were August, 29 2006 (pg 35), November 30, 2006 (pg 24), March 2, 2007 (pg 17) and June 7, 2007 (pg 17).

I graphed the levels of sectarian violence from these various reports and found some confusing trends. The abnormalities have been labeled A, B and C. (There is no difference between the November report and the March report and thus they overlap).

READ

**CHUQ** · Agitator Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts votes: 3

Another article along the same lines.

"The country is not a one-size-fits-all, a one-description-fits-all. It's much more a mosaic," the U.S. official in charge of training Iraqi security forces, Lieutenant General James Dubik, told military analysts today on a conference call. And he's got a point. So maybe it's fitting that the Pentagon's last two quarterly reports show all sorts of unexplained shifts -- even on the exact same pieces of data.

Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at the liberal Center for American Progress, told reporters at a National Security Network briefing today that the Pentagon reports can't keep their stories straight when it comes to the incidences of sectarian attacks and murders. Take two most recent reports, from March (pdf) and June (pdf).

ARTICLE

**Tumbleweed** · Admin Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts votes: 4

Quote:

Basically there are more serious questions about the violence numbers that are being reported out of Iraq

The numbers are fudged. It's as simple as that. They use word games and "classifications" to cover up the underlying problems. They use censorship to hide numbers also.

**Tumbleweed** · Admin Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts votes: 4

Quote:

the Pentagon reports can't keep their stories straight when it comes to the incidences of sectarian attacks and murders.

That's because liars can never get their story straight. Wink

The biggest lie is body count. The numbers put out by both governments is a total lie. The media and body count numbers are being censored. A simple report from morgues will point that out.

**CHUQ** · Agitator Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts votes: 3

TRue that--war always tries to elliminate the truth.

**Tumbleweed** · Admin Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts votes: 4

The truth is out there if people care to look for it. The best way is to check independent sources.

**CHUQ** · Agitator Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts votes: 3

But that would mean that they would have to stop playing Sopcom or Halo long enough to do some reading and that ain't happening.

**Tumbleweed** · Admin Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts votes: 4

Unless the major media outlets start reporting the war the sheep will continue to be lead to slaughter. Laughing