Three Pentagon officials told Helen Thomas that the military doesn't keep track of the number of Iraqi dead - military or civilian. When White House Spokesman Scott McClellan was asked if Bush knows the Iraqi death toll, he refused to answer either way. Pentagon spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Jane Campbell told the New York Times: "We don't keep a list. It's just not policy."

But a general in Iraq told the New York Times something different:

"We do keep records of innocent civilians who are killed accidentally by coalition force soldiers," said Brig. Gen. Mark Hertling, assistant commander for the First Armored Division, which patrols Baghdad. "And, in fact, in every one of those innocent death situations, we conduct internal investigations to determine what happened."

That same article focuses on Capt. Jonathan Tracy in Baghdad, who hands out "sympathy payments" of $1,000 for an injury and $2,500 for a life. These payments are for people killed or injured during combat situations, including the "major combat" of March through 01 May 2003. Tracy also doles out payments for noncombat situations, as the Times explains:

Captain Tracy also helps process claims under the Foreign Claims Act, which covers damages and wrongful deaths but only in noncombat situations. Captain Tracy checks each claim a civilian files against a database of military incident reports. If they match, the military pays the civilians, but does not issue a formal apology or claim of responsibility. Of 540 claims filed, he said he had paid 261. While occasional payments were made to families wrongly bombed in Afghanistan, there was nothing this formalized before.

In a similar article, New York Newsday reports:

The U.S. Foreign Claims Act entitles Iraqis to financial compensation when US forces kill or injure civilians, or damage their property, provided the incident occurred during "non-combat related activities" in which soldiers acted "negligently or wrongfully." Thus families of those killed in cross fire or, like Mohammad, in a counterinsurgency raid, are ineligible for compensation.

As of the article's date, 07 March 2004:

The US military has doled out $2.2 million in compensation to Iraqis under that law since Washington formally declared major combat operations ended on May 1. But of the 11,300 claims processed so far, it has denied compensation in 5,700 cases, just more than half. Another 3,700 claims are outstanding.

The information about record-keeping is treated as incidental in both articles. The details aren't crystal clear, but this appears to be what we know:

• The military keeps a database of incidents in which civilians are killed or injured (or property is damaged) by coalition forces in noncombat situations. The military has made compensation in 1,900 such cases as of 17 March 2004.

• The military keeps records and conducts investigations of "innocent civilians who are killed accidentally by coalition force soldiers," according Brig. Gen. Hertling. However, it's unclear whether he's referring to all civilian deaths or just those covered by the US Foreign Claims Act (i.e., noncombat deaths only). The location of his quote in the article implies that he's talking about combat and noncombat deaths, but this is just an assumption; the quote itself isn't clear enough.

• The military is making payments to people who were injured or whose family members were killed in combat situations. There may or may not be investigations and a database of these civilian combat fatalities, but it seems highly likely that the military is at least making note of who is receiving these payments. Otherwise, what's to stop someone from showing up every week, demanding payment for his injuries again and again? There must be at least a list, if not a formalized database, of people who have been given "sympathy payments."

The Memory Hole has filed Freedom of Information Act requests based on this information. Resulting information and documents will be posted. Readers are encouraged to formulate their own FOIA requests and send them to the Defense Department.

References

Gettleman, Jeffrey. "For Iraqis in harm's way, $5,000 and 'I'm sorry'." New York Times, 17 Mar 2004. [link] [mirror]

Tayler, Letta. "Grieving and angry: When U.S. troops kill Iraqi civilians, the rules on compensation leave many families bitter." Newsday (NY), 07 Mar 2004. [link] [Google cache]

10 USC 2734, the section of the United States Code that implements the US Foreign Claims Act. [link]

Thanks to Ira Chernus and reader J.G. for pointing out the buried NYT disclosure

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