Classified U.S. Military Video Depicts Murder of Iraqi Civilians and Two Reuters Journalists
April 5th, 2010Via: collateralmurder.com:
WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad — including two Reuters news staff.
Reuters has been trying to obtain the video through the Freedom of Information Act, without success since the time of the attack. The video, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-site, clearly shows the unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers. Two young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded.
The military did not reveal how the Reuters staff were killed, and stated that they did not know how the children were injured.
After demands by Reuters, the incident was investigated and the U.S. military concluded that the actions of the soldiers were in accordance with the law of armed conflict and its own “Rules of Engagement”.
Consequently, WikiLeaks has released the classified Rules of Engagement for 2006, 2007 and 2008, revealing these rules before, during, and after the killings.
WikiLeaks has released both the original 38 minutes video and a shorter version with an initial analysis. Subtitles have been added to both versions from the radio transmissions.
Short / Annotated:
Uncut:
Wait and see: every single pro-war blog, blogger, and poster will say, “They sure looked like weapons to me! Our boys did the right thing. End of discussion.”
I am ashamed and sickened to have to admit I am an American.
According to Wiki-Leaks, “Iraq is a very dangerous place for journalists: from 2003- 2009, 139 journalists were killed while doing their work.”
The truth is, wherever armed Americans are is a very dangerous place for everyone, civilians and children included.
Americans need to view this video and consider why it is that we don’t seem to be making much headway in the Middle East.
If a foreign invader murdered one of your family or friends in this manner, how would that make you feel? Would you blithely shrug it off, or would it make them your sworn enemy unto death?
While I personally would never strap on a suicide vest, I might train my least favorite dog to sic the invaders’ camouflage pattern and fix him up with a nice new vest of his own, and I don’t think my opinion on the matter is very far off from most Americans’.
Why should we expect people in other parts of the world to feel differently and submissively accept the slaughter of their loved ones?
Absolutely sickening.
One thing is certain, the country that CANNOT be trusted with Weapons of Mass Destruction is the United State of America.
@anothernut:
This is EXACTLY the response I have been seeing. So then ask them, if they did the right thing and/or it was an honest mistake…why try so hard to hide it.
This video was so disturbing, and yet this type of murder is probably a nearly daily occurence in Iraq and Afghanistan. I am completely disgusted to be a member of the human race, sharing the same planet with individuals such as the murderers in that helicopter in the video.
“In accordance with the Rules of Engagement”? So the Rules of Engagement allow for firing on someone giving aid to a wounded person? Wow. Just wow.
Pure and unadulterated psychopathic thinking throughout the chain of command. The way the aircrew spoke it was as if the victims were “the bad guys” in a video game. If that doesn’t radicalise the Muslims who see it, nothing will. Utter madness.
If that doesn’t radicalise the Muslims who see it, nothing will.
correct!
as kevin and G. Orwell have pointed out on a few occasions, that’s the point. endless war–a sound business proposition.
When the 2008 GOP presidential candidate, John McCain, can garner nearly 60,000,000 votes with his sociopathic dance of “bomb, bomb, bomb Iran,” should we be shocked by the butcherous conduct of some American helicopter pilots?