Wiki Leaks War Logs: Weak Search Capability

Wiki Leaks War Logs search capability disappointing. They invest untold time into combing thru the documents and making them searchable, then have a very weak search tool.

I wanted to search for Colonel James Steele, the guy who brought death squad methods from Central America to Iraq. I search for "Steele" and get "steel" too (and steal miss spelled as steel, Go USA!). I want to search for "James and Steele," and the search tool can't handle boolean logic.

Also, the public version is pretty heavily redacted. Compare Guardian UK report:

"Only the severed head was found. A wire was run through the ear with the corpse's ID attached to the wire. 3rd bn [battalion] commander identified the remains as Ahdel Abu Hussain, he was an officer in the NP [national police] Wolf Brigade."

compared with what is available on line:

: //-___ REPORTS IP'___ FROM ___ FOUND A CORPSE IPE___ AND E___ FROM JSS ___ THE RECOVERY AND DISPOSITION OF THE REMAINS; NO BODY FOUND, NO OTHER WOUNDS VISIBLE, ONLY THE SEVERED ___ WAS FOUND. A WIRE WAS RUN THROUGH THE EAR WITH THE CORPSEE___ ID ATTACHED TO THE WIRE.
___ Battalion COMMANDER IDENTIFIED THE REMAINS AS
___ , HE WAS AN OFFICER IN THE ___ WOLF BRIGADE ___ Battalion, ID SERVICE NUMBER IS ___.

And we hear all of this racket from the US establishment about how wiki leaks exposes people to threats of reprisal. The material is pretty sanitized. Typical establishment spin.

Collateral Murder Video

The following 17-min video speaks for itself, tho I've included the WikiLeaks narrative below. I know everyone else is posting this, but I want the web statistics to go through the roof.

Overview

5th April 2010 10:44 EST WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad -- including two Reuters news staff.

Reuters has been trying to obtain the video through the Freedom of Information Act, without success since the time of the attack. The video, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-site, clearly shows the unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers. Two young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded.

The military did not reveal how the Reuters staff were killed, and stated that they did not know how the children were injured.

After demands by Reuters, the incident was investigated and the U.S. military concluded that the actions of the soldiers were in accordance with the law of armed conflict and its own "Rules of Engagement".

Consequently, WikiLeaks has released the classified Rules of Engagement for 2006, 2007 and 2008, revealing these rules before, during, and after the killings.

WikiLeaks has released both the original 38 minutes video and a shorter version with an initial analysis. Subtitles have been added to both versions from the radio transmissions.

WikiLeaks obtained this video as well as supporting documents from a number of military whistleblowers. WikiLeaks goes to great lengths to verify the authenticity of the information it receives. We have analyzed the information about this incident from a variety of source material. We have spoken to witnesses and journalists directly involved in the incident.

WikiLeaks wants to ensure that all the leaked information it receives gets the attention it deserves. In this particular case, some of the people killed were journalists that were simply doing their jobs: putting their lives at risk in order to report on war. Iraq is a very dangerous place for journalists: from 2003- 2009, 139 journalists were killed while doing their work.

For Your Convenience:

• Contact the Broadcast Media
  
• Contact the US Senate
  
• Contact the House of Representatives

Sources:

WikiLeaks, Collateral Murder site.