A two-hour program on C-Span is covering a panel presentation and press briefing on the Lancet report on Iraqi deaths as a result of violence. Drs Roberts and Burnham, the authors of the report, plus Dr Juan Cole, of the U of Michigan History Dept, have made statements and are answering probing questions researched by Kucinich’s staff. Rep Ron Paul (R-TX) is a co-sponsor of the program, but he is not attending, as far as I can tell.
Kudos to Kucinich for his preparation and presentation of this panel…the MSM loves to poke holes in this report.
OTOH, I heard one Iraqi commentator describe the report results as Ba’athist-backed.
I missed panel first time around but will try and catch it when it airs again.
I would really hope that some/any of the information will end up in the MSM or someone would have Kucinich on their ‘news’ program. I’ve been of fan of Kucinich’s for a long long time.
With Congress on break, the program likely will be shown again. The link to their archived copy is not working just now; and the description refers to “Humanitarian Issues in Iraq” which is quite correct!
Dr Les Roberts called for another group to conduct a second review, equally in depth, to validate the Lancet results. Kucinich and Dr Juan Cole put a focus on the difficulty of obtaining a correct accounting of numbers of deaths when the US position has been to fudge, decline to report, and to even refuse to fund such an office from the get-go in Iraq.
It looks like Kucinich intends to continue pursuing this “oversight” with Rep Paul.
I saw this TWICE on C-Span tonight… absolutely wonderful. I almost found myself crying watching the whole thing, seeing how the researchers had painstakingly used such careful methodology to achieve their conclusions (which numbers are probably too LOW) and yet have their results dismissed out of hand simply because they are politically unpleasant.
Thank you Mr. Kucinich for now and forever being against this foolish, criminal war and thank you to all who risked their lives to gather the data for the Lancet study and thanks to Juan Cole for reading Arabic and telling the world what’s going on and thanks to the sponsors of this panel and thanks to C-SPAN for airing it multiple times.
Pax
You’re so right, soj.
This confirmation of the Lancet report and further publicity is needed, because it was done with acknowledged professional practices and is not, as Bush cavalierly dismissed it, “a guess.”
As TruthOut columns recently report, the killing factions in Iraq are not about to take a holiday break from crime and mayhem. If Rep Kucinich can keep this oversight and the report in the news, so that it receives wider and continued publicity, the study may become a vehicle for change, similar to Rep Murtha’s outspoken criticism had a widespread effect in time.