Atheist Age

‘Collateral Murder’: Wikileaks

© Wikileaks – 5th April 2010:

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.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rXPrfnU3G0

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.

Continued here.

Mark Benjamin, writing in The Salon’s ‘War Room’ attempts to rationalise this atrocity and intentional cover up:

A guide to watching Wikileaks’ video of shooting in Iraq:
“Newly released clip shows what looks like unjustified killing by U.S. forces — but things aren’t so simple”

The website WikiLeaks on Monday released what it says is gun-camera video from an American helicopter that shot and killed two Reuters journalists — photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and driver Saeed Chmagh, 40 — along with about a dozen Iraqis in 2007. It’s difficult to watch, and easy to come away feeling angry. The following is Salon’s guide for things to keep in mind when viewing the footage.

The video comes with several caveats. First, the warning soldiers always give about viewing things like this: Videos simply don’t capture the complexity, pressures and confusion of modern warfare, they say. Things may look one way, now, on video, but in the heat of battle, it’s likely that they seemed a lot different to those involved.

….

Another troubling sequence in the video occurs when a van pulls up to the scene and begins to evacuate the wounded. The Americans fire on it also, killing several more people and wounding two children who don’t seem to be visible before those shots are fired.

You can fire on the enemy if he is picking up the wounded or the dead. Is it OK to assume that an unmarked van pulling up and picking up wounded is the enemy?

“If you are willing to associate that vehicle with the guys you already fired on, then you can fire on that vehicle,” Solis said.

Full piece

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Tags: Terror, USA, Video