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The study is the latest in a long series of attempts to come up with realistic numbers of civilian deaths. The numbers are politically fraught, and researchers' work has been further complicated by problems in collecting data while working in a war zone. The estimates have varied widely. The Iraq Body Count, a nongovernmental group based in Britain that bases its numbers on news media accounts, put the number of civilians dead at 47,668 during the same period of time as the World Health Organization study, the W.H.O. report said. President Bush in the past used a number that was similar to one put forward at the time by the Iraq Body Count. But another study, by Johns Hopkins, which has come under criticism for its methodology, cited an estimate of about 600,000 dead between the war's start, in March 2003, and July 2006. The World Health Organization said its study, based on interviews with families, indicated with a 95 percent degree of statistical certainty that between 104,000 and 223,000 civilians had died. It based its estimate of 151,000 deaths on that range. Those figures made violence the leading cause of adult male deaths in Iraq and one of the leading causes of death for the population as a whole, the health organization research team reported online in the New England Journal of Medicine. More than half the violent deaths occurred in Baghdad. While the new study appears to have the broadest scope to date, increasing its reliability, well known limitations of such efforts in war areas make it unlikely to resolve debate about the extent of the killing in Iraq. Iraqi officials gave conflicting assessments of the newest study, with one senior Health Ministry official praising it and another saying the numbers were exaggerated. The White House said that it had not seen the study and would not comment on its estimated death toll, but that the recent increase in American forces had reduced civilian and military casualties. "We mourn

About the Iraq Body Count project Iraq Body Count (IBC) records the violent civilian deaths that have resulted from the 2003 military intervention in Iraq. Its public database includes deaths caused by US-led coalition forces and paramilitary or criminal attacks by others. IBC's documentary evidence is drawn from crosschecked media reports of violent events leading to the death of civilians, or of bodies being found, and is supplemented by the careful review and integration of hospital, morgue, NGO and official figures. Systematically extracted details about deadly incidents and the individuals killed in them are stored with every entry in the database. The minimum details always extracted are the number killed, where, and when. Confusion about the numbers produced by the project can be avoided by bearing in mind that: IBC's figures are not 'estimates' but a record of actual, documented deaths. IBC records solely violent deaths. IBC records solely civilian (strictly, 'non-combatant') deaths. IBC's figures are constantly updated and revised as new data comes in, and frequent consultation is advised. IBC builds on innovative uses of new technologies without which this citizens' initiative would be impossible. The project was founded in January 2003 by volunteers from the UK and USA who felt a responsibility to ensure that the human consequences of military intervention in Iraq were not neglected. Finally, IBC could not exist without the journalists and media support workers, Iraqi and international, who labour to report war's daily carnage at the risk, and all too often the cost, of their health or their lives. For more on IBC's principles and objectives see the Rationale. For a more detailed description of IBC's working methodology and inclusion criteria, see the Methods section. For technical, research and media contacts, conditions of use, as well as a listing of IBC personnel

NOTE ON THE METHODOLOGY OF THE IRAQ INDEX: Although the footnotes to the Iraq Index document our sources in detail, it is worth noting here a few broad points. The majority of our information comes from the U.S. Government, though we must often analyze it and process it further to show trends over the full period since Saddam Hussein fell in 2003. Some information comes from foreign journalists on the ground and from nongovernmental organizations; a very modest amount to date comes from Iraqi sources. Most tables and charts are straightforward representations of data as we obtain it from the above primary sources, with only modest further analysis and processing required. However, a few graphics, such as those on crime and unemployment rates, require more methodological work (and more assumptions) on our part-and are as a result also perhaps somewhat less precise than most of the tables and charts.

This American soldier received 110 years to serve in a prison while another soldier in the same group recieved a 100 year jail sentence for participating in the rape crimes on an Iraqi girl. Now if American soldiers are given severe prison penalties for their crimes; would America provide farin justice to the Guitmo "enemy combattants" who were captured by co-alition forces in Afghanistan/Iraw etc.?

4565322798.wmv (video/x-ms-wmv Object) http://ps.newsnet.co.il/IOS/Users/ps.newsnet.co.il/Albom/4565322798.wmv

"The Iraq Index is a statistical compilation of economic, public opinion, and security data. This resource will provide updated information on various criteria, including crime, telephone and water service, troop fatalities, unemployment, Iraqi security forces, oil production, and coalition troop strength. "