[News] Leaked U.S. video shows deaths of Reuters' Iraqi staffers

[AdminOnline]

(Reuters) - Classified U.S. military video showing a 2007 attack by Apache helicopters that killed a dozen people in Baghdad, including two Reuters news staff, was released on Monday by a group that promotes leaking to fight government and corporate corruption.

The video:

The group, WikiLeaks, told a news conference in Washington that it acquired encrypted video of the July 12, 2007, attack from military whistleblowers and had been able to view and investigate it after breaking the encryption code.

A U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the video and audio were authentic.

Major Shawn Turner, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said an investigation of the incident shortly after it occurred found that U.S. forces were not aware of the presence of the news staffers and thought they were engaging armed insurgents.

"We regret the loss of innocent life, but this incident was promptly investigated and there was never any attempt to cover up any aspect of this engagement," Turner said.

The helicopter gunsight video, with an audio track of conversation between the fliers, made public for the first time a stark view of one bloody incident in the seven-year war in Iraq.

It showed an aerial view of a group of men moving about a square in a Baghdad neighborhood. The fliers identified some of the men as armed.

WikiLeaks said the men in the square included Reuters photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and his assistant and driver Saeed Chmagh, 40, who were killed in the incident.

"The gathering at the corner that is fired up on has about nine people in it," Julian Assange, a WikiLeaks spokesman, told reporters at the National Press Club.

The gunsight tracks two of the men, identified by WikiLeaks as the Reuters news staff, as the fliers identify their cameras as weapons. Military spokesman Turner said that during the engagement, the helicopter mistook a camera for a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

The helicopter opened fire on the small group, killing several people and wounding others. Minutes later, when a van approached and began trying to assist the wounded, the fliers became concerned the vehicle was occupied by militants trying to collect weapons and help wounded comrades escape.

The Apache helicopters requested permission to attack the van and waited impatiently.

"Come on, let us shoot," said one voice.

The fliers were granted permission to engage the van and opened fire, apparently killing several people in and around the vehicle.

Two children wounded in the van were evacuated by U.S. ground forces arriving at the scene as the Apache helicopters continued to circle overhead.

"Well it's their fault for bringing their kids into a battle," one of the U.S. fliers said.

David Schlesinger, Reuters' editor-in-chief, said the video released by WikiLeaks showed the deaths of Noor-Eldeen and Chmagh were "tragic and emblematic of the extreme dangers that exist in covering war zones."

"The video released today via WikiLeaks is graphic evidence of the dangers involved in war journalism and the tragedies that can result," he said.

Reuters has pressed the U.S. military to conduct a full and objective investigation into the killing of the two staff.

Video of the incident from two U.S. Apache helicopters and photographs taken of the scene were shown to Reuters editors in an off-the-record briefing in Baghdad on July 25, 2007.

U.S. military officers who presented the materials said Reuters had to make a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to get copies. This request was made the same day.

Turner said the military had released documents to Reuters last year in response to the FOIA request showing the presence of weapons on the scene, including AK-47 rifles and an RPG 7 grenade launcher.

Assange said he disagreed with a U.S. military assessment that the attack was justified.

"I believe that if those killings were lawful under the rules of engagement, then the rules of engagement are wrong, deeply wrong," he said. The fliers in the video act "like they are playing a computer game and their desire is they want to get high scores" by killing opponents, he said.

WikiLeaks posted the video at www.collateralmurder.com.

(Reporting by David Alexander and Phillip Stewart, Editing by Frances Kerry)

Source - http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6344FW20100406

[Gribble]

It's unfortunate but it is war. What are you supposed to do? You see what looks like a terrorist wielding a grenade launcher, do you shoot first or do you wait for him to kill you?

I dunno. I couldn't do what those men do on a daily basis.

[AdminOnline]

It's unfortunate but it is war. What are you supposed to do? You see what looks like a terrorist wielding a grenade launcher, do you shoot first or do you wait for him to kill you?

I dunno. I couldn't do what those men do on a daily basis.

the camera strap is thought to be the part of the ak 47 rifle ... but they are wrong.

There are two childrens in the van... and they did not double check it...

Too many assumption from the soldiers on the helicopter..

[Doc Durian]

It's disgusting.. I'm frankly revolted by it all and especially the part where the van showed up to cart off the injured.

Pull the troops out, now.

Before we have tens of thousands of these slaughter hardened types joining police forces upon their return.

Anyone who checks out the wikileaks information on their site and side project site and still maintains that it's part and parcel to "war" needs to have the same actions done to themselves and their respective families.

[Mish]

Who's going to fight THOSE terrorists?

[Gribble]

This is what happens when the enemy masquerades as civilians. I want our troops out, too. But I want them out alive. If a few civilians are shot because our soldiers can't tell them apart from murderous bastards that's just too damn bad. Lay the blame where it belongs, at the feet of the real terrorists.

[AdminOnline]

Doc, relax.. cool down..

[Doc Durian]

Sorry, Site Owner... but I get upset that government employees and their family members all support inappropriate conduct before, during, and after....because they're on the payroll.

I'm one of five siblings...

Three of us five are involved in the USCG, Army, and Marines. My odd brother and I are out of that equation... we find it disgusting.

Out of the five of us... three of us support our widowed mother who is fighting fit, always working two jobs minimum, but can't surpass 35 hours per week. We pay 500 USD per month, per sibling, every month because billions of dollars are being spent every month overseas for a bullshit war on terror.

I have lost my girlfriend and best prospect for a happy life because 5 days of every working month goes to support my mother, financially raped by the system which assured her that she was safe.

**** anyone on the plastic government payroll, my brothers and sisters included.

They might mean well.... but they've got ****ed priorities...

Mom is hanging on less than 250 USD per month in her account after her monthly bills.

A farm which has remained in the family since 1864, built by their own hands... and do you know what?

All lost in the course of 60 days should the simple mortgage not be paid.

**** you.... **** you all... socialist scum.

ALL MY MONEY NOW GOES TO PROPPING UP MOM'S ACCOUNTS.

but YOU'RE my true enemy... I had to choose family love over reproductive love... and she was gorgeous...

**** you again.

[Gribble]

What the hell is the matter with you, Doc? Keep your problems to yourself or open up a thread of your own in which to gripe.

[Doc Durian]

You propose socialistic military complex/ domestic financial rape yet it's MY PROBLEM?????????????????????????

Step off, ****wit.

I live free, my mother thinks she's free... we are free, despite any socialist agenda.

If you have a problem with that, look up the Bill of Rights and the US Constitution.

[Gribble]

Where the hell did I propose that? I proposed bringing our troops back ALIVE, even at the cost of a few civilians. That's all. Go take your meds, drink your booze, smoke your pot--whatever it is that keeps you calm and allows you to function as an almost normal adult. If you have anything else to say try to keep it on topic or feel free to make your own anti-socialist thread.

[Doc Durian]

Where the hell did I propose that? I proposed bringing our troops back ALIVE, even at the cost of a few civilians. That's all. Go take your meds, drink your booze, smoke your pot--whatever it is that keeps you calm and allows you to function as an almost normal adult. If you have anything else to say try to keep it on topic or feel free to make your own anti-socialist thread.

Your proposed and continued military aggression against innocents as evidenced by the video and your remarks.

You grasping for mind altering drugs/excuses is laudable and a failed debate tactic/stance going back many centuries.

I have PLENTY to say... but your mind is too small to absorb it since it rests comfortably in glossing over the TRUTH of the matter.

Don't even try to match points nor wits with me... you'll only come up Yankee Doodle Dandy in Karl Marx drag.

[Mish]

This is what happens when the enemy masquerades as civilians. I want our troops out, too. But I want them out alive. If a few civilians are shot because our soldiers can't tell them apart from murderous bastards that's just too damn bad. Lay the blame where it belongs, at the feet of the real terrorists.

It could be just me, but I didn't see a correlation in that video between troops fighting the enemy and terrorists in an Apache helicopter mowing down civilians. Those terrorists should be brought to justice like all of the others imo. If it's okay for troops to shoot civilians at will and we openly encourage it then there is no difference between the terrorists and us. It means we are the Al-Qaeda.

[MVPlaya]

It's unfortunate but it is war. What are you supposed to do? You see what looks like a terrorist wielding a grenade launcher, do you shoot first or do you wait for him to kill you?

That would make sense if this video was not about people inside a plane at 8,000 feet taking out civilians who are unaware of their existence and who, if armed with the suspected weapons, would have no ability to threaten them in the slightest, considering an RPG can't target lock, fire for more than 1,000 feet, or shoot with accuracy.

I'd say they should have taken their time, double-checked their targets, triple-checked it, made sure what they were seeing was correct.

Instead, they were trying to interpret anything they could as weapons. They're Iraqi's, could be insurgents. They're carrying bags, could be weapons. Should we check again? No, we should immediately radio for approval to kill these people, when the people who give us the go ahead have no way of double-checking our accuracy in selecting these targets. These guys could have found an excuse to kill just about any civilian, and afterwards excuse it as a combat casualty. When people have such low standards for protecting other human beings lives, and are so eager to shoot and kill (and joke about bodies getting crushed by tanks), then lots of civilian's are going to die.

What happened here is emblematic of a terrible mindset, a poorly run war, and the error of having gone there, not of an unfortunate reality. These soldiers shooting weren't trapped in an unfortunate reality, they were actively creating it, and they are not the least bit accountable for the murder of 11 people... but I'm sure they won't care, they were Arabs anyway. Their fault for their skin tone and being in a war zone. Its perfectly rational in war to kill their kind and feel no regret.

[dewilliams2]

It's unfortunate but it is war. What are you supposed to do? You see what looks like a terrorist wielding a grenade launcher, do you shoot first or do you wait for him to kill you?

I dunno. I couldn't do what those men do on a daily basis.

Actually rules of engagement state that we can't fire unless fired upon.