International, Media, Military, Society

Wikileaks Releases Alleged Video Showing Killing of Civilians and Reporter — In Contradiction of U.S. Accounts

Wikileaks has released what it claims to be a video contradicting U.S. accounts of an attack that killed a Reuters photographer and 11 other people in Iraq in July 2007. Wikileaks says that it received the tape from a whistleblower in the military.

The tape shows the crews of two American Apache attack helicopters kill the civilians and gloat about the killings of presumed insurgents.

Click here for the video.

In the group was Reuters photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22. Also killed was Reuters driver, Saeed Chmagh, 40.

The attack targeted the group of men on the street in an eastern Baghdad district on July 12, 2007.

The video shows only one individual with a weapon, which is dangling on his side.
On the tape, you can hear one pilot state “Look at those dead bastards. Nice.”

The recording continues after the crew targets a vehicle that arrives to help the wounded and the crew hears that U.S. troops needed to take a child to the hospital who was in the car. One voice states “Well, it’s their fault bringing their kids into the battle.”

The U.S. military is not denying that the tape is authentic.

For the full story, click here.

49 thoughts on “Wikileaks Releases Alleged Video Showing Killing of Civilians and Reporter — In Contradiction of U.S. Accounts”

  1. From GAP’s Daily Whistleblower News:

    CBS: Obama, U.S. Subject to Human Rights Roasting
    November 5, 2010

    “Summary: In a move toward greater transparency, the Obama administration has submitted the U.S. to an examination of its human rights record by the United Nations’ Human Rights Council for the first time.

    WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was invited to give testimony at the meeting, and called for an investigation into torture and other abuses revealed in WikiLeaks’ trove of leaked documents.

    While other countries spoke out about flaws in the American human rights record, the harshest criticism came from a group within the U.S. — the U.S. Human Rights Network — which submitted its own 400-page report.”

    CBS: Obama, U.S. Subject to Human Rights Roasting –

    http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20021885-503544.html

    (The full report is available via the above link.)

  3. NOVEMBER 5, 2010
    WikiLeaks Faces New Competition

    From the article:

    WikiLeaks, the document-leaking website that has come under intense pressure after publishing classified U.S. military documents, is facing a new challenge: competition.

    A group that includes former WikiLeaks staffers who left the organization after disagreements with founder Julian Assange is pursuing plans for a rival document-leaking venture, said people familiar with their plans.

    These people said one of the leaders of the new initiative is Daniel Domscheit-Berg, a top WikiLeaks lieutenant who quit in September. Mr. Domscheit-Berg, a German, is planning to launch new technology to assist whistle-blowers who want to leak documents, said people with knowledge of the matter.

    Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704805204575594612532529470.html#ixzz14TERdaWJ

    (Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants. -Brandeis)

    There are things going on domestically that are destroying this country. Someone needs to leak it — someone needs to tell the truth.

  4. http://www.whistleblower.org/blog/31-2010/804-ny-times-ellsberg-joins-wikileaks-in-rebuking-us-war-on-whist

    N.Y. Times: Ellsberg Joins WikiLeaks in Rebuking U.S. War on Whistleblowers

    by Jesselyn Radack on October 25, 2010

    She closes with the following question: “So, I have to ask, why is the government using your taxpayer dollars to support war crimes and other illegalities, as well as for selective, malicious prosecutions of people who are trying to get the truth out?”

  5. There’s a two-part Amy Goodman interview with Julian Assange on Democracy Now! today.

    If one then looks at today’s Washington Post story about Wikileaks and also reads Glenn Greenwald’s article that is referenced below (the link is posted in one of my previous comments), it would seem that we’re once again seeing “how propaganda is disseminated”,as described by Greenwald.

    (Sunday, October 17, 2010 09:47 AM
    How propaganda is disseminated: WikiLeaks Edition
    by Glenn Greenwald)

    From IPA, The Institute for Public Accuracy

    News Release
    Rowley, McGovern and Ellsberg — Statement on Wikileaks
    June 17, 2010

    http://accuracy.org/newsrelease.php?articleId=2270

    partial excerpt:

    “Today, Washington is trying to shut down what it clearly regards as the most effective and dangerous purveyor of embarrassing information — Wikileaks, a self-styled global resource for whistleblowers. It is a safe bet that NSA, CIA, FBI and other agencies have been instructed to do all possible to make an example of Wikileaks leader, Australian-born Julian Assange, and his colleagues. Much is at stake — for both Pentagon and freedom of the press.

    “Those who own and operate the corporate media face a distasteful dilemma, both in terms of business decision and of conscience. They must choose between the easier but soulless task of transcribing government press releases, on the one hand; or, on the other, following Wikileaks into the 21st century by adapting high-tech methods to protect sources while acquiring authentic stories unadulterated by government pressure, real or perceived.”

  6. “Everything secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.” ~ Lord Acton

    Coleen Rowley and her co-author, Bogdan Dzakovic, wrote an expanded version of a column that recently appeared in the LA Times.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/coleen-rowley/could-wikileaks-have-help_b_772479.html

    About this “longer” version, Coleen Rowley states, “Bogdan Dzakovic and I co-wrote an op-ed “WikiLeaks and 9/11: What if?” for the Los Angeles Times that was published one week ago and that got a number of people thinking about the issue of governmental secrecy. We had originally written a much longer, more complete version in connection with the 9/11 anniversary. There’s hardly room in newsprint, however, for the number of words it takes to clearly explain a situation or argument sufficiently, especially when the idea seems counterintuitive. Our longer version would have answered many of the questions and criticisms that got posted about our op-ed so I thought it would be good to publish the original version.”

    (Her comments to this article are insightful, as well, IMO.)

    As one of the commenters suggests, perhaps the answer is an “international whistleblowers organization.” When did it become wrong to simply tell the truth?

  7. “You play outside the rules, and you will be dealt with outside the rules.” end quote

    If you live by the sword you will die by the sword.

  8. begin quote: In his native Australia, ministers have signaled their willingness to cooperate with the United States if it opens a prosecution. Mr. Assange said a senior Australian official told him, “You play outside the rules, and you will be dealt with outside the rules.” end quote

    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/24/world/24assange.html?_r=1&hp

    There is most definitely a system that operates “outside the rules.” It’s ugly and vicious, and may God help the person who gets caught up in it.

    I’m not saying that everything that Assange has done is right, but I do know that defamation and character assassination are a part of this “outside the rules”, extrajudicial system.

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