Tuesday, April 6, 2010
COLLATERAL MURDER
Yesterday, this devastating video was leaked by several whistleblowers inside the military. It was never intended for public viewing. Shot from a helicopter gunship in a suburb of Baghdad, the video shows the killing of several people, including two Reuter's reporters, and the serious wounding of two children. At a time when Iraq news is on the back burner, and we're "lucky" to get a few sound bytes from embedded reporters or military spokespeople, it's critical to see the raw reality of the war and the consequences of our actions, regardless of our political points of view. In that spirit, we've decided to post this video.
"Overview: 5th April 2010 10:44 EST 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."
"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'."
Norman Solomon, writer and media critic, calls this film "a powerful refutation of illusions about US military operations in in Iraq, Afghanista, Pakistan and elsewhere."
For more information, and the complete leaked video (this is an 18 minute clip of the 40 minute video) please check Collateral Murder.
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Reuters has picked up the story--naturally, since two of their reporters were gunned down--and while this has been picked up in the major media I'm surprised this hasn't made more of an impact. Sure, it's unpleasant, and yes it doesn't show "our" mission in the best light, but shouldn't this be examined closely by the well-paid watchdogs? The temptation is to say they're not watchdogs at all, more like lapdogs, but I'll wait patiently. This seems important. Presently, the news cycle has rolled over it for other important stories, but someday soon, I hope--these alleged war crimes will be important enough to push aside the lingering minutia of the Tiger Woods story and news-vertisements about the iPad and we'll get some real investigative journalism.
The Reuters' story:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6344FW20100406
The NYTimes' story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/world/07wikileaks.html
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