http://www.democracynow.org/2010/4/8/exclusive_witnesses_describe_deadly_2007_us
EXCLUSIVE: One Day After 2007 Attack, Witnesses Describe US Killings of Iraqi Civilians [image: Witness] As the US Central Command says it has no plans to reopen an investigation into the July 2007 helicopter attack that killed a dozen people in Baghdad, including two Reuters news staff, we play never-before-seen eyewitness interviews filmed the day after the attack. [includes rush transcript] Afthab Ellath On Thu, Apr 8, 2010 at 12:33 PM, Afthab Ellath <[email protected]> wrote: > Collateral Murder > > *By Amy Goodman* > > 07 April, 2010 > *TruthDig.com > *<http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/collateral_murder_in_iraq_20100406/> > > A United States military *video was released this week > *<http://www.countercurrents.org/wikileaks060410.htm>showing > the indiscriminate targeting and killing of civilians in Baghdad. The > nonprofit news organization WikiLeaks obtained the video and made it > available on the Internet. The video was made July 12, 2007, by a U.S. > military Apache helicopter gunship, and includes audio of military radio > transmissions. > > Two Reuters employees—a journalist and his driver—were killed in the > attack, along with at least eight other people, and two children were > injured. The radio transmissions show not only the utter callousness of the > soldiers, laughing and swearing as they kill, but also the strict procedure > they follow, ensuring that all of their attacks are clearly authorized by > their chain of command. The leaked video is a grim depiction of how routine > the killing of civilians has become, and is a stark reminder of how > necessary journalism is, and how dangerous its practice has become. > > After photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and his driver, Saeed Chmagh, 40, > were killed, Reuters demanded a full investigation. Noor-Eldeen, despite his > youth, had been described by colleagues as one of the pre-eminent war > photographers in Iraq. Chmagh was a father of four. > > The video shows a group of men in an open square in Baghdad, leading the > two Reuters employees to a building nearby. Noor-Eldeen and Chmagh are > shown, each carrying a camera with a telephoto lens. A U.S. soldier in the > helicopter says: “OK, we got a target 15 coming at you. It’s a guy with a > weapon.” There is much back and forth between two helicopters and ground > troops in armored vehicles nearby: > > “Have five to six individuals with AK-47s. Request permission to engage.” > > “Roger that. Uh, we have no personnel east of our position. So, uh, you are > free to engage. Over.” > > The helicopter circles around, with the cross hairs squarely in the center > of the group of about eight men. WikiLeaks and its partner for this story, > the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service, added subtitles to the video, > as well as arrows indicating the Reuters employees. > > Sustained automatic-weapon fire erupts, and most of the men are killed > instantly. Noor-Eldeen runs away, and the cross hairs follow him, shooting > nonstop, until he falls, dead. > > The radio transmission continues, “All right, hahaha, I hit ’em ...” and > then, “Yeah, we got one guy crawling around down there. ...” > > Chmagh, seriously wounded, was dragging himself away from the other bodies. > A voice in the helicopter, seeking a rationale to shoot, said: “Come on, > buddy. All you gotta do is pick up a weapon. ... If we see a weapon, we’re > gonna engage.” > > A van pulled up, and several men, clearly unarmed, came out and lifted > Chmagh, ostensibly to carry him to medical care. The soldiers on the Apache > sought and received permission to “engage” the van and opened fire, tearing > apart the front of the van and killing the men. The weapon used was a > 30-millimeter machine gun, used to pierce armor. With everyone in sight > apparently dead, U.S. armored vehicles moved in. When a vehicle drove over > Noor-Eldeen’s corpse, an observer in the helicopter said, laughing, “I think > they just drove over a body.” The troops discovered two children in the van, > who had miraculously survived. One voice on the military radio requests > permission to evacuate them to a U.S. military hospital. Another voice > commands them to hand over the wounded children to Iraqi police for delivery > to a local clinic, ensuring delayed and less-adequate treatment. > > The U.S. military inquiry into the killings cleared the soldiers of any > wrongdoing, and Reuters’ Freedom of Information requests for the video were > denied. Despite the Pentagon’s whitewash, the attack was brutal and might > have involved a war crime, since those removing the wounded are protected by > the Geneva Conventions. WikiLeaks says it obtained the video “from a number > of military whistle-blowers.” Wikileaks.org, founded in late 2006 as a > secure site for whistle-blowers to safely release documents, has come under > attack from the U.S. and other governments. > > WikiLeaks has broken numerous stories and has received awards. It and > members of the Icelandic Parliament are working together to make Iceland a > world center of investigative journalism, putting solid free speech and > privacy protections into law. The words of legendary journalist I.F. Stone > still hold true: “Governments lie.” Because of that, we need courageous > journalists and media workers, like Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh, and > we need whistle-blowers and news organizations that will carefully protect > whistle-blowers’ identities while bringing their exposés to public scrutiny. > > Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column. > > *Amy Goodman *is the host of "Democracy Now!," a daily international > TV/radio news hour airing on more than 800 stations in North America. She is > the author of *"Breaking the Sound > Barrier,"*<https://www.amazon.com/dp/193185999X?tag=commondreams-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=193185999X&adid=168FYYRVQP3AREBDYBDC&;>recently > released in paperback and now a New York Times best-seller. > > > > On Wed, Apr 7, 2010 at 8:57 PM, Afthab Ellath <[email protected]> wrote: > >> http://kafila.org/2010/04/06/nice-nice-good-shot-thank-you/#comment-9067 >> >> Bloodthirsty neo-cons who would defend barbecuing Arab babies on the White >> House lawn if they were told it was part of the “war on terror” are >> disgracefully scrambling to defend a shocking video released by Wikileaks >> which shows U.S. Apache helicopters massacring Iraqi journalists and >> children in Baghdad while laughing about it. >> >> http://www.prisonplanet.com/neo-cons-defend-massacre >> -of-iraqi-journalists-children.html >> > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. 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