Thread by @AzmatZahra

1. SOME NEWS:

@RCFP filed a lawsuit on my behalf against the U.S. Dept of Defense & CentCom after the agencies failed to comply w/ 3 FOIA requests for records related to civilian casualty reports from U.S-led airstrikes in Iraq & Syria: rcfp.org/browse-media-l…

Here’s why ⬇️

2. U.S. officials have completed more than 1,500 assessments of civilian casualty allegations from U.S.-led airstrikes in Iraq & Syria. To date, they have released only a handful of such credibility assessments, closure reports, or executive summary records to the public.

3. These records are vital to the public. They can tell us much abt what our govt truly knows abt casualties & how it investigates them. For Iraqi survivors, these docs are the only answer they will ever get to abt why they were hit—or why their losses have yet to be recognized.

4. Take for ex. this report into the airstrike that killed four members of @BasimRazzo’s family in September 2015, which you can read here, documentcloud.org/documents/4242…, & which @Anand_Gopal_ & I wrote abt in “The Uncounted” here: nytimes.com/interactive/20….

5. Between March 2017-2018, I submitted three FOIA requests asking CentCom for:
—The 221 civilian casualty assessments it determined to be “credible”
—The 1,168 assessments it determined to be “non-credible”
—Its OIR “Civilian Casualty Reporting & Response Procedures”

6. Despite an urgent need to inform the public, widespread public interest, & the fact that failing to obtain these records soon could pose imminent threat to the life or physical safety of civilian survivors of these strikes, my requests for expedited processing were denied.

7. Without expedited processing, I would be unlikely to obtain these records for years… but they remain urgent to the American public. Many of them involve survivors who are still waiting for answers.

8. So, after exhausting admin remedies, @RCFP filed my complaint in the Southern District of NY. It argues the DoD & CentCom violated FOIA by wrongfully denying expedited processing & failing to provide records, & seeks an order compelling the agencies to produce the records.

9. You can read the full complaint here: rcfp.org/sites/default/…

For further reading on why this kind of transparency so impt, some takes:
—theatlantic.com/international/…
—nytimes.com/2017/11/23/opi…
—nytimes.com/2017/11/22/opi…
—civiliansinconflict.org/blog/nyt-story…
—pogo.org/straus/issues/…

10. Lastly, to hear how important records like these can be to survivors, listen to @BasimRazzo in his own words, on The Daily:

Part 1: nytimes.com/2017/11/16/pod…
Part 2: nytimes.com/2017/11/17/pod…

@mikiebarb @nniebrown