Correction & Update

Correction and Update to "United for Peace and Some Justice?"



Correction:



We wrote: "Just Foreign Policy takes The Lancet study and adds reported deaths to it (reported since the study)."



Actually, JFP uses the reported deaths as a sample to come to an estimate due to the trend of under-reporting deaths. They start with the data from The Lancet study (which ended in July of 2006) and then:



To update this number, we need to obtain a rate of how quickly deaths are mounting in Iraq. For this purpose, the Iraq Body Count (IBC) provides the most reliable, frequently updated database of deaths in Iraq. (The IBC also usefully provides a database of all violent Iraqi deaths demonstrable through press reports and thus relatively undeniable.) The IBC provides a maximum and minimum. We opted to use the midpoint between the two for our calculation.
We multiple the Lancet number as of July 2006 by the ratio of current IBC deaths divided by IBC deaths as of July 1, 2006 (43,394).
The formula used is:
Just Foreign Policy estimate = (Lancet estimate as of July 2006) * ( (Current IBC Deaths) / (IBC Deaths as of July 1, 2006) )





Update:



In the same feature, we noted that a report authored by Phyllis Bennis and Eric Leaver this month, posted at United for Peace & Justice, went with the lower of two figures in The Lancet study that ended in July 0f 2006, well over a year ago, to obtain their "high" figure. On Tuesday, C.I., Elaine and Rebecca were advised that number ("600,000 plus") was no longer being used and that UFPJ would be noting the number of deaths as over one million. Wednesday C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" contained the following:



In other peace news, United for Peace & Justice states they are using the Just Foreign Policy count for Iraqis who have died in the illegal war. The report on the state of Iraq has been updated to note the Iraqi dead during the illegal war is over a million.



We will add "now" to "they are using" (making it "they are now using"). The second half is an update, not a correction.