'sorry we shot your kid, but here's $500'

from information liberation/editor & publisher: For the entire war in Iraq, the press has been kept largely in the dark concerning the number of civilians killed by our forces, and what happened in the aftermath. Now several hundred files posted online reveal some of the true horror while raising questions about lack of compensation...

Last June, The Boston Globe and The New York Times revealed that a local custom in Iraq known as "solatia" had now been adapted by the U.S. military -- it means families receive financial compensation for physical damage or a loss of life. The Globe revealed that payoffs had "skyrocketed from just under $5 million in 2004 to almost $20 million last year, according to Pentagon financial data." ...

Now we have more evidence, thanks to an American Civil Liberties Union request for files on payments by the military. The FOIA request produced 500 case studies, which deserve broad attention.