We are both soldiers who occupied your neighborhood for 14 months. [116] The military did not include the attack on the building in their report. It was a scene that had played repeatedly in his mind the last three [], All the Settings You Should Change on Your New Samsung Phone, Its Time to Fall in Love With Nuclear FusionAgain, Give Your Back a Break With Our Favorite Office Chairs, Fat, Sugar, Salt Youve Been Thinking About Food All Wrong, Apple Users Need to Update iOS Now to Patch Serious Flaws. [110], Mark Taylor, an international law expert and a director at the Fafo Institute for International Studies in Norway, told Al Jazeera "there's a case to be made that a war crime may have been committed." In addition to five[98][99] or six[100][101][102] espionage counts, she was also found guilty of five theft specifications, two computer fraud specifications and multiple military infractions. Smoked is basically like you're doing pushups a lot, you're doing sit-ups crunches and flutter kicks. [118][119], Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}331849N 443043E / 33.3137N 44.512E / 33.3137; 44.512 (Airstrike of 2007-07-12). The footage was portrayed as classified,[7] but the individual who leaked it, U.S. Army soldier Chelsea Manning,[a] testified in 2013 that the video was not classified. The crew for Crazyhorse 1/9 could not engage due to target obfuscation from buildings and dust. With such pain, friendship might be too much to ask. There is a period of 20 minutes not included on the leaked tape. On April 5, 2010, the attacks received worldwide coverage and controversy following the release of 39 minutes of gunsight footage by the Internet whistleblower website WikiLeaks. [28] Noor-Eldeen has a camera and Chmagh is talking on his mobile phone. 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. The Web site does not slow down the video to show that at least one man in that group was carrying a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, a clearly visible weapon that runs nearly two-thirds the length of his body. I think that the people could have been deterred from doing what they were doing in the van by simply firing a few warning shots versus completely obliterating the van and its occupants.[52][53]. Soldier on 2007 Apache Attack: What I Saw", "Redacted internal US Army report: "Investigation into Civilian Casualties Resulting from an Engagement on 12 July 2007 in the New Baghdad District of Baghdad", "WikiLeaks releases video of slaughter in Iraq", "Military shooting of Reuters men online", "Joan Smith: Now we see what war does to those who wage it", "US soldier on Baghdad airstrike: "Not out of the ordinary in Iraq", "2 soldiers in 'Collateral Murder' video apologize. The soldier, Ethan McCord, has since been discharged from the military and has been an outspoken voice against the Iraq War. McCord: When it was first released I don't think it was done in the best manner that it could have been. I've spoken with other soldiers who were there. The flood of emotions came back. "[76], Captain Jack Hanzlik, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command stated that the airstrike video "gives you a limited perspective, [it] only tells you a portion of the activity that was happening that day. [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. He was kind of sitting on the floorboard of the van, but with his head laying on the bench seat in the front. When Bravo Company arrived at the scene, they reported finding two RPGs and an AK-47 or AKM. James W. McCord Jr., a security expert who led a band of burglars into the shambles of the Watergate scandal and was the first to expose the White House crimes and cover-ups that precipitated the . We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C 107. Vehicle; "When I saw those kids, all I could picture was my kids back home". As Russia has accelerated its cyberattacks on its neighbor, it's barraged the country with an unprecedented volume of different data-destroying programs. Soldier on 2007 Apache Attack: What I Saw, Ethan McCord had just returned from dropping his children at school earlier this month, when he turned on the TV news to see grainy black-and-white video footage of a soldier running from a bombed-out van with a child in his arms. The Apache crew saw unarmed[25] men exit the vehicle and move to Chmagh. Their overall mission that day was to protect us, to provide support for us, so I can see where the initial attack on the group of men was warranted. I'm guilty of it, too, myself. [115], While the Air Weapons Team was providing support at the first engagement area they were informed by ground troops that they were receiving small arms fire from the south/southwest. . 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. It claimed reporters' "furtive attempts to photograph the Coalition Ground Forces made them appear as hostile combatants". That stays with you. 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. "[88] In this interview, McCord reports that repercussions for seeking mental health help could include being labeled as a "malingerer", a crime under U.S. military law. They arrived on station in New Baghdad at 9:53a.m., where sporadic attacks on coalition forces continued. Using short sentences, similar punctuation, or using the same words frequently as well as using Grammarly can boost your content as AI written. Josh . McCord's courage and integrity has nothing to do with his US army training. [58], On July 25, 2007, during an off-the-record briefing in Baghdad by the U.S. military, two Reuters editors were shown "less than three minutes of video from the Apaches gun camera, up to the exact moment it opened fire the first time." [18] A long shadow cast on the ground by a telephoto lens on Noor-Eldeen's camera is misidentified by the pilot as an additional RPG aimed at him and a U.S. Army Humvee directly below his aircraft. As the gunner fires the first missile, another man is seen walking along the street in front of the building. There's houses behind where the van was. Well in all actuality, we brought the battle to your kids. For about 5 to 10 minutes the team diverted its attention to this vehicle. [32] Assange also said "it's ludicrous to allege that we have taken anything out of context in this video". In the first example maybe it's collateral exaggeration or incompetence when they strafe the initial gathering, this is recklessness bordering on murder, but you couldn't say for sure that was murder. [45][114], "Cameramen and armed insurgents" (all captions from the Army report), "Cameraman peering around corner of wall", "Pictures taken by ground forces after reaching the site". [30], Assange stated that some of the press had not reported on the third airstrike, in which three Hellfire missiles were fired onto an apartment complex, which only appears in the longer unedited version of the two videos.[31]. They were destroyed. [18] The report recommends encouraging journalists in Iraq to wear special vests to identify themselves, and to keep the U.S. military updated about their whereabouts. Wired.com: Did you try to get information about the two children after the shooting? The film received an Oscar nomination in January. When he is rescued, suddenly that belief changed. The crew then reposition the helicopter and fire two more missiles into the upper floors of the building[44], WikiLeaks said in the preface to one of their videos of the incident that "some of the men appear to have been armed [although] the behavior of nearly everyone was relaxed" in the introductory text of the shorter video. Just over a year ago, WikiLeaks released footage from a gunsight camera of an Apache helicopter engaged in an attack that killed two journalists and eight ci. [Then] we were just told to move to this [other] location. We have asked our fellow veterans and service-members, as well as civilians both in the United States and abroad, to sign in support of this letter, and to offer their names as a testimony to our common humanity, to distance ourselves from the destructive policies of our nation's leaders, and to extend our hands to you. McCord: Yeah. [88], McCord requested mental health assistance following his experiences on July 12, but was told by his superior officers to "get the sand out of [his] vagina" and to "suck it up and be a soldier". It was more of a child who was frightened out of her mind. The company was supported by two Apache helicopters from the 1st Cavalry Division's Aviation Brigade, call signs "Crazyhorse 1/8" and "Crazyhorse 1/9". He is seen swinging the weapon below his waist while standing next to the man holding the RPG". Those guys could have just been protecting their area". [57], Reuters reported that it could locate no witnesses who had seen gunmen in the immediate area. However, personally I don't feel that the attack on the van was warranted. After the non-combatants were clear Crazyhorse 1/8 engaged the targets. [97] On July 30, Manning was acquitted of the most serious charge, that of aiding the enemy, for giving secrets to WikiLeaks. The crew for Crazyhorse 1/8 then located multiple individuals with weapons about 400 meters east of coalition forces and was given clearance to engage the targets. [81] Highlighted in the 17-minute version of the video are Noor-Eldeen with a camera and Chmagh talking on his mobile phone. Lying dead on a street were inanimate objects that turned out to be. We took her in there and we're checking to see if there were any other wounds. Wired.com: Was anyone moving when you got there other than the two children? They were stating that these people had no weapons whatsoever, that they were just carrying cameras. There's no front lines here. [92], On February 28, 2013, Manning pleaded guilty to 10 of 22 specified charges. [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. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. [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". I hit 'em" and another member of the crew responds "Oh yeah, look at those dead bastards".[29]. The owner told him that three families were living in the building and seven residents had died, including his wife and daughter. 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. Home: Wichita, Kansas, AN OPEN LETTER OF RECONCILIATION & RESPONSIBILITY TO THE IRAQI PEOPLE From Current and Former Members of the U.S. Military. In a third strike, Apache pilots watched people, including some armed men, run into a building and engaged that building with several AGM-114 Hellfire missiles. [63] The site stated on its Twitter account on January 8, 2010, that it had a copy of gunsight footage of the incidents. A draft version of the video WikiLeaks produced made reference to the AK-47s and RPGs, but WikiLeaks said that ultimately they became unsure about the RPG, believing the long object could have been a camera tripod, so they decided not to point it out in the released version. Now, as far as rules of engagement, [Iraqis] are not supposed to pick up the wounded. They asked for an explanation of the confiscation of the journalists' two cameras, access to the on-board footage and voice communications from the helicopters involved, and access to the reports of the units involved in the incident, particularly logs of weapons taken from the scene. Soldier Ethan McCord's Eyewitness Story, "Shadowed, Clamoring, Blurry. It could be that since he and Amelia (Sigrid Thornton) have quit. The report concludes that the Reuters employees were in the company of armed insurgents. And cracking jokes is a way of pushing that stuff down. Some of them [say] I don't care what anybody says they're not there. I was trying to wash it off in my room. Our heavy hearts still hold hope that we can restore inside our country the acknowledgment of your humanity, that we were taught to deny. I always questioned it in the back of my mind. The Push to Ban TikTok in the US Isnt About Privacy. McCord: She had a stomach wound and she had glass in her eyes and in her hair. Captain James Hall stated they couldn't drive in Bradleys in fear of running over bodies. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. He gave his view of the context of the killings: the Reuters guys walked into the hottest spot of a very hot morning. It was a scene that had played repeatedly in his mind the last three years, and he knew exactly who the soldier was. [38] The children, a girl and boy, suffered injuries. It is the essential source of information and ideas that make sense of a world in constant transformation. The soldier, Ethan McCord, has since been discharged from the military and has been an outspoken voice against the Iraq War. Their age, their weapons, and the fact that they were within the distance of the forces that had been engaged made it apparent these guys were potentially a threat. Michael Bailey a medic who treated some of. You don't just take somebody's life and then go on about your business for the rest of the day. I wasn't thinking about it as much. And that in turn is what helped me and Josh write the letter, hoping that it would find its way to them to let them know that we're sorry. From our own experiences, and the experiences of other veterans we have talked to, we know that the acts depicted in this video are everyday occurrences of this war: this is the nature of how U.S.-led wars are carried out in this region. You can see in this particular image he is lying on the ground and the people in the van have been separated, but they still deliberately target him. US Soldiers from Wikileaks Collateral Murder Video Apologize. US soldiers Ethan McCord's Eyewitness Story of coming across the aftermath of the infamous Wikileaks Collateral Murder in which over a dozen innocent civilians, 2 of which were Reuters journalists, were killed. [18] Al Jazeera stated that the Army had received "reports of small arms fire", but were unable to positively identify the gunmen. Assange responded:[69][70]. Was it reasonable for the Apache soldiers to think that maybe the people they attacked were part of that insurgent firefight? 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