You can make out in the video [someone] carrying an AK-47, swinging it down by his legs. And as far as the way that the soldiers are speaking in the video, which is pretty callous and joking about what's happened that's a coping mechanism. After the non-combatants were clear Crazyhorse 1/8 engaged the targets. I hit 'em" and another member of the crew responds "Oh yeah, look at those dead bastards".[29]. Ethan McCord was a member of the military unit in "Collateral Murder" - the Wikileaks video showing 12 Iraqis being killed from a US helicopter.He rescued the two children severely wounded in the attack and is now speaking out to corroborate the Collateral Murder video. 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. "[90], James Spione made a short documentary film about the airstrikes called Incident in New Baghdad, featuring a first-person account from Ethan McCord. The second strike, also using 30mm rounds, was directed at a van whose driver, Saleh Matasher Tomal, appeared to happen to drive by and who proceeded to help the wounded Chmagh. One of the first soldiers on the scene after the air attack, Ethan McCord, is now the subject of a short documentary, Incident in New Baghdad, which will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York next week. I based the account in my book on multiple sources, all unclassified". McCord: I have never seen anybody being shot by a 30-millimeter round before. [108][109], In a June 7, 2010, article in The New Yorker, Raffi Khatchadourian addressed several issues involved in determining the legality of the attacks, including "proportionality", "positive identification" ("reasonable certainty" that the target has hostile intent), and "the treatment of casualties during an ongoing military operation". It shouldn't have surprised you what you saw. McCord: I've spoken with one of the medics who was there. 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. [81] US Soldiers from Wikileaks Collateral Murder Video Apologize. "[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. 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. It was the video that put WikiLeaks on the map: "Collateral Murder" turned the tide of war in Iraq and landed Private first class Bradley Manning in military detention. The ground troops that secured the site of the first two strikes then receive small arms fire from nearby buildings. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I didn't know if he was telling me that just to get me to shut up and to do my job or if he really found something out. Assange responded: Yes, absolutely Our promise to the public is that we will release the full source material. I know the scene by heart; it's burned into my head. You are seeing only a very narrow picture of the events". Gates said that the video provides the public with a view of warfare "as seen through a soda straw". If you or I saw someone wounded on the ground what is your first inkling? In the first strike, the crews of two Apaches directed 30mm cannon fire at a group of ten Iraqi men, including some armed,[17][18][19] standing less than 100 meters away from U.S. ground troops at a location where insurgents earlier that day had attacked an American Humvee with small arms fire. [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. [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'. "[60], Early in 2010, the Internet whistleblower site WikiLeaks made a public request for assistance in decrypting a video it described as "US bomb strikes on civilians", specifically requesting access to supercomputer time. Soldier Ethan McCord speaking about the civilian massacre documented in WikiLeaks's April 2010 vid. After attending to the girl's wounds and handing her to a medic, McCord was ordered to take position on the roof but he returned to the van to find the boy moving his hand. McCord: I would be smoked. It was a scene that had played repeatedly in his mind the last three years, and he knew exactly who the soldier was. [16][18][30] After the lead helicopter fires, one of the crew shouts "Hahaha. [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. 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. (quote begins at 5:15)", "Soldiers in 'Collateral Murder' video apologise", "Meet The New Public Face Of WikiLeaks: Kristinn Hrafnsson Forbes", "2 Iraqi Journalists Killed as U.S. 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. It was pretty much a shock when we got there to see what had happened, the carnage and everything else. [2][22] Pentagon officials told the Reuters news agency that U.S. military lawyers were reviewing the video and could reopen an investigation into the incident,[67] but a spokesperson later said that there were no plans to reopen the investigation. 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]. Two men were identified by Crazyhorse 1/8 as carrying an RPG launcher and an AKM or AK-47. They were stating that these people had no weapons whatsoever, that they were just carrying cameras. It didn't seem real, in the sense that it didn't look like human beings. Colbert asked "So 'Collateral Murder' is to get political impact?" There is no bringing back all that was lost. [103], On August 21, 2013, Manning was sentenced to 35 years' imprisonment, reduction in rank from private first class to private, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and a dishonorable discharge. [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". The story was then overtaken by a more updated one out of Washington that incorporated reporting from the original piece. As the gunner fires the first missile, another man is seen walking along the street in front of the building. "[32][77] He said that WikiLeaks "does not point out that at least one man was carrying an AK-47 assault rifle. Ethan applied for mental health support following this incident and was denied by his commanding officer. For instance, the Web site takes special care to slow down the video and identify the two photographers and the cameras they are carrying. After getting permission to fire, the Apache crew fired on the van. McCord is the father of three children. [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. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. "[32], The Guardian stated "It is unclear if some of the men are armed but Noor-Eldeen can be seen with a camera". One of the first soldiers on the scene after the air attack, Ethan McCord, is now the subject of a short documentary, Incident in New Baghdad, which will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. It claimed reporters' "furtive attempts to photograph the Coalition Ground Forces made them appear as hostile combatants". There's houses behind where the van was. In refusing to recognize this, the US military fails both its own soldiers and their victims. Now, as far as rules of engagement, [Iraqis] are not supposed to pick up the wounded. I'm going to help that person. That classified video created its own firestorm. Oh well", and a minute later continued, "Well, it's their fault for bringing kids into a battle". She had a stomach wound? [21], The Air Weapons Team (AWT) of two Apache AH-64s from the 1st Cavalry Division had been requested by the 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment (216), 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Kauzlarich, before July 12 to support Operation Ilaaj. WIRED is where tomorrow is realized. Give us a picture of what happened that day. That's why so many soldiers come back home and they're no longer in the situations where they have other things to think about or other people to joke about what happened and they explode. [50] In a later interview on the World Socialist Web Site, Stieber said that the attack "exposes so clearly the fallacy of using war as a tool of foreign policy or as a way to supposedly spread 'freedom and democracy' around the world".[51]. 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. [19], The events between the attack on the van and the attack on the building (approximately 30 minutes) were not captured on the leaked video footage. WikiLeaks also does not point out that at least one man was carrying an AK-47 assault rifle. And then the father, who I'm assuming was the father, in the driver's seat slumped over on his side. It also states that "The cameras could easily be mistaken for slung AK-47 or AKM rifles, especially since neither cameraman is wearing anything that identifies him as media or press". We're sorry for the system that we were involved in that took their father's life and injured them. I know the van, I know the faces of everybody that was there that day. McCord: It was random sporadic spurts. [117], In June 2011 the Federation of German Scientists (VDW) awarded the "Whistleblower Award" to the person who made the video Collateral Murder public via WikiLeaks. [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." I always questioned it in the back of my mind. The crew for Crazyhorse 1/9 could not engage due to target obfuscation from buildings and dust. 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. It was nominated as a Documentary Short Subject for the 84th Academy Awards. The men become obscured behind a building as the Apache moves around the group. McCord: There were approximately two to three other people who were moving who were still somewhat alive, and the medics were attending to them. Lawmakers are increasingly hellbent on punishing the popular social network while efforts to pass a broader privacy law have dwindled. She said that she was "aghast" at Finkel's portrayal of the incident. [17], In an interview with Fox News Assange said that "it's likely some of the individuals seen in the video were carrying weapons" and "based upon visual evidence I suspect there probably were AKs and an RPG, but I'm not sure that means anything. I was told to go pull security on a rooftop. "The first thing I thought of was my children at home". There is no bringing back all that was lost. [29], A crew member requests authorization to engage after seeing five or six of the men moving in the direction of U.S. WikiLeaks identified the leak's source as "a number of military whistleblowers". The flood of emotions came back. Inside 'Adam-12' Star, Kent McCord caught the attention of TV lovers when he popularized the "Jim Reed" character in 1968's "Adam-12." McCord maintained the role for seven seasons till the show ended in 1975. The missile hits the building, and the man is caught in the explosion. 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. They did have weapons there. "Reading his account," she explained, "one would believe the engagement was somehow justified as 'payback' for an earlier attack that led to the death of a soldier. [25] Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com said that "the vast majority of the men were clearly unarmed". But this particular eventthis is clearly murder. They wrote that:[71][72][73][74]. Highlighted in the 17-minute version of the video are Noor-Eldeen with a camera and Chmagh talking on his mobile phone. The promise we make to our sources is that not only will we defend them through every means that we have available technologically, legally and politically but we will try and get the maximum possible political impact for the material that they give to us. [19], The team observed several individuals from this group, some possibly wounded, run into a large multistory building. [81], Publicity of the incident ballooned following the release of the footage. More than a dozen people were killed in three attacks captured in the video, including two Reuters journalists, one carrying a camera that was apparently mistaken for a weapon. [42] According to the internal legal review, the helicopters engaged a group of armed insurgents, and that some were seen entering a nearby building. Since then, McCord has been receiving threats to him and his family on a regular basis. However, I don't feel that the attack on the [rescue] van was necessary. [61] Speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, a U.S. Defense official confirmed the authenticity of the leaked audio and video. 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. The owner told him that three families were living in the building and seven residents had died, including his wife and daughter. I think that the bigger picture is what are we doing there? I wasn't thinking about it as much. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. 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