Why 'USA Today' Probed Cluster Bombs in Iraq

By: Seth Porges USA Today's front-page story Thursday about how the Pentagon "painted a misleading picture" about the use of cluster bombs in Iraq was born when reporter Paul Wiseman encountered Iraqis personally affected by these controversial weapons.

According to the story, cluster bombs are responsible for killing and wounding many Iraqi civilians, and some U.S. soldiers, especially so-called "dud" bombs that do not explode upon initial use, but are stumbled upon at a later point by innocent people.

The story, reported by Wiseman from Baghdad and Washington over the past four months, ran over two entire pages in addition to the front page, and also received in-depth treatment at the paper's Web site.

"One reason that prompted our interest [in the story] was the number of deaths of U.S. personnel from cluster bombs in the first Gulf War," USA Today World Editor Elisa Tinsley told E&P Thursday. "The knowledge of the munitions that are left lying around that not only causes the deaths of civilians but also U.S. soldiers was of interest to us."

An Associated Press story filed late Thursday reports that the New York-based Human Rights Watch has just released a report claiming over 1,000 Iraqi civilian casualties from cluster bombs during the war. According to the AP, the 147-page report said U.S. and British forces used nearly 13,000 cluster bombs -- containing nearly 2 million munitions -- during the invasion. Hundreds were killed and many wounded, the report said, citing the example of a U.S. cluster-munition attack on the Iraqi city of Hillah on March 31 that killed at least 33 civilians and injured 109.

It was reported Wednesday that Iraqi Health Ministry officials had ordered a halt to an ongoing count of civilian casualties.

In its Thursday story, USA Today had also emphasized that the Pentagon had woefully undercounted the number of cluster bombs it used in Iraq.

"Paul Wiseman has been reporting in Iraq for us since during and after the war," Tinsley said. "And while he was there, he encountered Iraqis who had said they had relatives who were injured or killed by cluster munitions. That was the genesis of the story. He returned a couple of times to report on the story, spending weeks going into the field and finding people who could tell him the tale of what happened. And then he spent a lot of time trying to find out the U.S. military perspective why these weapons were used."