Why Do We Never Hear More Of Pentagon Investigations Into Atrocities Against Civilians?

It seems to go something like this.

Some media reporter, Iraqi or Afghani family reports that American forces have killed 20 civilians and asks the US authorities about it.

They're stock answer is:

We have no information about that (a reporter knows but they don't?) and "we are investigating" that report.

And you basically never hear about that incident from the Pentagon again, though more media reports may follow.

Why is that?

Is it a valuable war secret?
Is telling the truth somehow aiding the enemy?
If you didn't killed civilians and lie this aids the enemy?
if you killed civilians and tell the truth this aids the enemy?
If you killed the enemy and lie this aids the enemy?
The enemy doesn't know whether or not they've been killed?

I don't get it.

P.S. Occasionally there is a followup, but its rare.

The same reason why I don't tell many people about the time when I threw up on a really attractive woman in a bar.

It's embarrassing and it makes me look bad!!

Loose lips sink ships

It's war, and nobody on either side will talk about possible bad Apples, that will aid the other side's cause....

there has been investigations into deaths involving civillians with connection to US personnel. i am curious as to your source of info?.. i think you are exaggerating this situation.(possbile far left web site propaganda?)
everything is thouroughly followed through. even when its a frivolous accusation its investigated. trust me, i was out in iraq, and many times its the terrorists bombing mosques and killing there own people blaming us! they do that to get civillians to turn on us.. maybe we should investigate those more.. ugh.

honestly, it sounds like you have a hidden agenda with this question. can you please just come out and say what i think you're really implying.
seems like youre implying we go around killing civillians. majority of the civillians are killed by terrorists!!!! a small percentage are american-caused casulaties(accidental), but we are at war. what the hel is there to investigate? maybe they should INVESTIGATE WHY TERRORISTS HIDE BEHIND INNOCENT WOMEN AND CHILDREN, MAKING THEM COLLATERAL DAMAGE! thats the only time we "accidenntaly kill them"..so dont blame us!

I too would like your source. You sound like a nut! Nice too see you questioning our military and not the insurgents.. Way to go jack*ss!

To report such things in the same way as other "news" is contrary to the money from liberals that controls the media. It would make the military look too good if they are actually seen as serious about illegal actions (which they are). When the investigations are complete, all information is released to the press but the press decides what to use.

Because most of the time, nothing happened.

There are literally hundreds of cases where Iraq's tell reporters that 20 or 50 civilians were killed by a US military raid.

When in fact, no civilians were killed at all.

There are hundreds of reporters writing reports that civilians were killed, when the reporters never investigated and no civilians were killed.

Remember the stories where the iraqi's thought US night vision goggles saw thru clothing ?

Rumors fly fast and easy in Iraq,

In one town, there were wild dogs running around, the iraq's started saying that the US military had released the wild dogs into the town.

The US commander had to take a local cleric to the US kennals and show him, all the US dogs were there and then shoot one of the wild dogs to convince him that they were not US dogs.

Because the media is not interested in stories that discredit themselves.

The military does release the results of their investigations - however the media downplays them because otherwise people would be questioning their judgment in printing unsubstituted rumor as fact.

During the battle of Samarra - myself, the brigade surgeon, a translator and a driver spend an entire day driving around the city looking for the "hundreds" of dead civilians reported by CNN. We determined the CNN story to be a hoax and when we confronted them about it, they refused to correct or withdraw their story.

Here is a good way to identify bogus stories about this sort of thing. If the story disappears from the media in less than two weeks then the story was bogus and the media is hoping that you forget about it.