If It's Not on TV, It Didn't Happen
Media watchdog Project Censored reports on "news stories of social significance that have been overlooked, under-reported or self-censored by the country's major national news media."
In the number 2 position of their top 25 list of under-reported stories for 2005 is Media Coverage on Iraq: Fallujah and the Civilian Death Toll. I would put it at number 1.
The Common Dreams Newswire summarizes the story like this:
The civilized world may well look back on the assaults on Fallujah in 2004 as examples of utter disregard for the most basic wartime rules of engagement. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour called for an investigation into whether the Americans and their allies had engaged in "the deliberate targeting of civilians, indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks, the killing of injured persons, and the use of human shields," among other possible "grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions" considered war crimes under federal law. More than 83 percent of Fallujah's 300,000 residents fled the city. Men between the ages of 15 and 45 were refused safe passage, and all who remained—about 50,000—were treated as enemy combatants. Numerous sources reported that coalition forces cut off water and electricity, shot at anyone who ventured out into the open, executed families waving white flags while trying to swim across the Euphrates, shot at ambulances, and allowed corpses to rot in the streets and be eaten by dogs. Medical staff reported seeing people with melted faces and limbs, injuries consistent with the use of phosphorous bombs. But you likely know little of this as the media hardly mentioned it.
The full Project Censored story ends with an update that lists other, smaller Iraqi cities that suffered a similar fate as Fallujah — Al-Qa'im, Karabla, and Haditha. Most disturbing are the reports that "medical personnel were unable to reach [the wounded] due to American snipers," and "U.S. snipers shot anyone in the streets for days on end." And of course, the self-imposed media silence: "Any mention of civilian casualties, heavy-handed tactics or illegal munitions was either brief or non-existent, and continues to be as of June 2005."
