The Absence of Evidence Isn't Evidence of Absence

Matt Welch | September 6, 2005

In my column from today, I quoted a good Guardian article about New Orleans violence rumors:

And while the floor of the convention centre toilets were indeed covered in excrement, the Guardian found no corpses.

Well, the British rag might not have found any dead bodies, but the New Orleans paper sure did:

"That one with his arm sticking up in the air, he's an old man."

Then he shined the light on the smaller human figure under the white sheet next to the elderly man.

"That's a kid," he said. "There's another one in the freezer, a 7-year-old with her throat cut."

He moved on, walking quickly through the darkness, pulling his camouflage shirt to his face to screen out the overwhelming odor.

"There's an old woman," he said, pointing to a wheelchair covered by a sheet. "I escorted her in myself. And that old man got bludgeoned to death," he said of the body lying on the floor next to the wheelchair.

Brooks and several other Guardsmen said they had seen between 30 and 40 more bodies in the Convention Center's freezer.

Whole horror here.