Colbert asked "So 'Collateral Murder' is to get political impact?" Reuters also stated that local police described the attack as "random American bombardment". As Russia has accelerated its cyberattacks on its neighbor, it's barraged the country with an unprecedented volume of different data-destroying programs. Ahlam Abdelhussein Tuman, the widow of the man who had been driving the van, and the mother of the children McCord had carried out, responded to the open letter in 2010:[75]. We have been speaking to whoever will listen, telling them that what was shown in the Wikileaks video only begins to depict the suffering we have created. In the video, you can clearly see that they did have weapons to the trained eye." Since then, McCord has been receiving threats to him and his family on a regular basis. Ethan McCord, a 33-year-old Army specialist, was engaged in a firefight with insurgents in an Iraqi suburb in July 2007, when his platoon, part of Bravo Company, 2-16 Infantry, got orders to. Ethan McCord describes the moment he realised Sajad Toman was alive In July 2007, 19 people were killed when an Apache helicopter opened fire on a group of Iraqis whom the pilots had identified. "[46] Assange later said "Based upon visual evidence, I suspect there probably were AKs and an RPG, but I'm not sure that means anything". After the incident, we went back to the FOB [forward operating base] and that's when I was in my room. McCord was captured in a video shot from one helicopter as he ran frantically to a military vehicle with Sajad in his arms seeking medical care. BACKGROUND ON JOSH STIEBER: Branch of service: United States Army (USA) Unit: 1st ID Rank: Spc. I was up on a rooftop at that time. Series of air-to-ground attacks conducted in New Baghdad during the Iraqi insurgency, An AH-64 Apache helicopter, the type used in the attack, Arrest, convictions and sentencing of Manning, Attack on personnel and a van per U.S. Army report account, Attack on building per U.S. Army report account, Julian Assange's comments regarding U.S. Army report, List of coalition military operations of the Iraq War 2007, "In Disclosing Secret Documents, WikiLeaks Seeks 'Transparency', "Video Shows U.S. Two former soldiers from the Army unit responsible for the Wikileaks "Collateral Murder" incident have written an open-letter of "Reconciliation and Responsibility" to those injured in the July 2007 attack, in which U.S. forces wounded two children and killed over a dozen people, including the father of those children and two Reuters employees. classified video created its own firestorm. She said that she was "aghast" at Finkel's portrayal of the incident. [91], In May 2010, a 22-year-old American Army intelligence analyst, Chelsea Manning, was arrested after telling hacker Adrian Lamo she had leaked the airstrike video, along with a video of another airstrike and around 260,000 diplomatic cables, to WikiLeaks. Ethan McCord, who was one of the first soldiers on the scene in the 2007 attack, told Wired.com that he saw several weapons at the scene, including a rocket propelled grenade launcher. Assange responded: Yes, absolutely Our promise to the public is that we will release the full source material. Personally, I believe the first attack on the group standing by the wall was appropriate, was warranted by the rules of engagement. What was shown in the Wikileaks video only begins to depict the suffering we have created. Vehicle; "When I saw those kids, all I could picture was my kids back home". On June 7, 2010, The New Yorker reported that Kristinn Hrafnsson, an investigative reporter who worked on the Collateral Murder video and later became a spokesman for WikiLeaks,[54] said he had found the owner of the building involved in the incident. Fox News reported in 2010 that the rules of engagement in Iraq had not been changed since the incident occurred. Minutes after the first engagement ended, the van returned traveling in an opposite direction (north) once again on this same road. [2], After 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", WikiLeaks released the classified Rules of Engagement for 2006, 2007 and 2008, revealing the rules before, during, and after the attacks. The ground troops that secured the site of the first two strikes then receive small arms fire from nearby buildings. [68], Stephen Colbert, in an interview with Assange in April 2010, asked him about the title: "You have edited this tape, and you have given it a title called 'Collateral Murder'. He later sought help for psychological trauma, but was ridiculed by his NCO and told that if he were to go to the mental health officer, "there would be repercussions". Ethan McCord: From Atrocities in Iraq to Resisting U.S. Wars Tweet This interview was done by and first appeared in Revolution newspaper Revolution: In the attack shown in the WikiLeaks video, you were part of the unit that was at the scene, on the ground. [81], Publicity of the incident ballooned following the release of the footage. The crew for Crazyhorse 1/9 could not engage due to target obfuscation from buildings and dust. Though we have acted with cold hearts far too many times, we have not forgotten our actions towards you. I had blood all down the front of me from the children. [48], In The Independent on April 8, 2010, human rights activist Joan Smith wrote that the engagements were like a game to the helicopter crew. Assange said that Finkel had seen the video and that at least one individual at the offices of The Washington Post had a copy of the video for at least a year, prior to its release by WikiLeaks. "These people can put out anything they want, and they're never held accountable for it. [22], In the video on the morning of July 12, 2007, the crews of two United States Army AH-64 Apache helicopters observe a gathering of men near a section of Baghdad in the path of advancing U.S. ground troops, some armed with AKMs and RPGs. After the non-combatants were clear Crazyhorse 1/8 engaged the targets. Plus: Microsoft fixes several zero-day bugs, Google patches Chrome and Android, Mozilla rids Firefox of a full-screen vulnerability, and more. WikiLeaks also does not point out that at least one man was carrying an AK-47 assault rifle. That classified video created its own firestorm when the whistleblower site Wikileaks posted it April 5 on a website titled "Collateral Murder" and asserted that the attack was unprovoked. As the killing goes on, you obviously would see the killing of men who are lying on the ground in an operation where ground troops are approaching and perfectly capable of taking those people captive, but meanwhile you're murdering before the troops arrive. To all of those who were injured or lost loved ones during the July 2007 Baghdad shootings depicted in the "Collateral Murder" Wikileaks video: We write to you, your family, and your community with awareness that our words and actions can never restore your losses. [47] Greenwald called the second airstrike a "plainly unjustified killing of a group of unarmed men carrying away an unarmed, seriously wounded man to safety". Ethan and Josh are available for interviews. McCord: I have never seen anybody being shot by a 30-millimeter round before. "[88] McCord also recalled being ordered to "kill every motherfucker on the street" in the event of an attack on their convoy. But this particular eventthis is clearly murder. [86], Ethan McCord, the soldier seen in the video carrying the injured boy, recalled in an interview on The Marc Steiner Show that on arrival at the scene, "The first thing I did was run up to the van". Ad Choices, U.S. Just from looking into the van, and the amount of blood that was on the boy and the father, I immediately figured they were dead. They did have weapons there. Describing doubts over his initial enthusiasm in Iraq, McCord said that "I didnt understand why people were throwing rocks at us, why I was being shot at and why we're being blown up, when I have it in my head that I was here to help these people. All rights reserved. [32], On the day of the attack the U.S. military reported that the two journalists were killed along with nine insurgents, and that the helicopter engagement was related to a U.S. troop raid force that had been attacked by small-arms fire and RPGs. But youyou talked about the fog of war. McCord: I've spoken with one of the medics who was there. [18][19][25] Once the group is eliminated, the Apache pilots direct the ground troops to move up to the position of the attack to clear the area. He was kind of sitting on the floorboard of the van, but with his head laying on the bench seat in the front. More and more Americans are taking responsibility for what was done in our name. Their 43-year-old father, Saleh, had been driving them to a class when he spotted one of the wounded men moving in the street and drove over to help him, only to become a victim of the Apache guns. I hit 'em" and another member of the crew responds "Oh yeah, look at those dead bastards".[29]. [20] According to a military review, soldiers in that company "had been under sporadic small arms and rocket propelled grenade fire since" the operationdescribed as "clearing their sector and looking for weapons caches"began. With Russia regularly knocking out Ukraines power grid, the country has turned to high-capacity batteries to keep it connected to the worldand itself. Many soldiers felt threatened just by the fact that you were looking at them, so they fired their weapons on anybody that was looking at them because they (I . Wired.com: Do you support Wikileaks in releasing this video? "The first thing I thought of was my children at home". McCord: Yeah. He condemned and reported the massacre as soon as it happened. As the pilot positions the helicopter to attack the building, two unarmed men walk towards, and perhaps into, the building. [18] Al Jazeera stated that the Army had received "reports of small arms fire", but were unable to positively identify the gunmen. A third, an infantry solider named Ethan McCord, was one of the men who had scooped up the bodies of the wounded children in the apache helicopter attack, what is now known as the "Collateral. [43] The report stated that the helicopter crew did not know how many people were in the building when they destroyed it with missiles, and that "there is evidence that unarmed people have both entered and are nearby". Ethan Cord (Horsley) is still a man with a conscience, and kids, but he is also less reluctant to rely on his ability with a gun. There's no front lines here. [32] Assange also said "it's ludicrous to allege that we have taken anything out of context in this video". If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. The WikiLeaks edited video did not add arrows pointing to these men, or label them, as it did with the men carrying cameras. Wired.com: The first thing you saw was the little girl in the van. The first real serious doubt, where I could no longer justify to myself being in Iraq or serving in the Army, was on that day in July 2007. I think it is good that they're putting this stuff out there. "I grabbed him and ran to the Bradley myself". [43], Assange responded to the investigation report released by the Army in an interview with Democracy Now!, stating that "the tone and language is all about trying to find an excuse for the activity. [59], An internal legal review by staff at Forward Operating Base Loyalty in Iraq during July 2007 stated that the helicopters had attacked a number of armed insurgents within the rules of engagement, and that in an apparent case of civilian casualties two reporters working for Reuters had also been killed. This is why we called it Collateral Murder. However, the long version of the video shows that this van had already been targeted by one Apache (Crazyhorse 1/8), prior to the second strike, as it traveled south toward the Reuters employees who were simultaneously targeted by the other Apache (Crazyhorse 1/9) as they walked with the group of men north on the same road toward the van. Part of Banksy's, This page was last edited on 20 February 2023, at 21:26. I think it is good that they're putting this stuff out there. [43] It concluded that an investigating officer would want to know how the armed men were identified as combatants from the earlier engagement; would question the nature of the collateral-damage estimate carried out by the crew before the missiles were launched; and would wish to determine whether a missile attack was a proportionate response to the threat. On July 12, 2007, a series of air-to-ground attacks were conducted by a team of two U.S. AH-64 Apache helicopters in Al-Amin al-Thaniyah, New Baghdad, during the Iraqi insurgency which followed the invasion of Iraq. soldiers. [62] At a February 2013 pretrial hearing, Manning stated that Finkel "was quoting, I feel in verbatim, the audio communications of the aerial weapons team crew". [55], Assange stated that the attack on the van was the most damning part of the video: "I'm very sceptical that was done under the rules of engagement; and, if it was legal, the rules of engagement must be changed". I would like the American people and the whole world to understand what happened here in Iraq. I've spoken with other soldiers who were there. [32], U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates criticized WikiLeaks for releasing the video without providing any context. He is seen swinging the weapon below his waist while standing next to the man holding the RPG". 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