The United Nations chief investigator on torture is calling on the Obama administration to order a full investigation of the role of US forces in human rights abuses in Iraq. Manfred Nowak’s call came after the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks released nearly 400,000 classified US military documents that detail how US forces did nothing to stop reports of abuse, torture, rape and even murder by Iraqi police and soldiers. In addition, the WikiLeaks war logs show at least 15,000 more Iraqi civilians have died in Iraq than previously thought. In the streets of Baghdad, local residents say the leaked documents confirm what they have known for years.

Salah, Baghdad resident: “I think there is no new information, because all Iraqis witnessed the events following the invasion and those following the war. At least every family has a detainee who was tortured in prison, whether taken by Iraqi or foreign forces, or they know someone who was killed, either by Iraqi or foreign forces. This is something we all know about. We don’t need documents to know this. The only thing is that these documents are official confirmation.”