Leaked video shows US military killing of two Iraqi journalists

[Antid Oto]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Goed werk van Rop. Hij weet toch telkens weer de media te vinden.

Cees Binkhorst wrote:
> REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl
>
> Een lokale 'jongen' :)
>
> http://www.volkskrant.nl/multimedia/article1366776.ece/Mysterieuze_klokkenluiderssite_zorgt_voor_vette_krantenkoppen
>
>
>  AMSTERDAM - Achter gesloten gordijnen in een gehuurd appartementje in
> Reykjavik, levend op pizza en pretzels. In die omstandigheden werkte de
> Nederlandse oud-hacker Rop Gonggrijp (42) twee weken non-stop aan de
> voorbereidingen voor de publicatie van de video over de Amerikaanse
> luchtaanval op Iraakse burgers.
>
> De video werd zondag naar buiten gebracht door klokkenluiderswebsite
> WikiLeaks, voor wie XS4ALL-oprichter Gonggrijp af en toe
> ‘hand-en-spandiensten’ verricht. WikiLeaks werd in 2006 opgezet door een
> bonte internationale combinatie van journalisten, studenten en
> wetenschappers. De website dient als veilige haven voor klikkers, waar
> strikt anoniem bedrijfs- en overheidsdocumenten of video’s kunnen worden
> geplaatst.
>
> Voor de publicatie van de video over de beschieting in Bagdad sloeg
> WikiLeaks de handen ineen met de IJslandse staatzender RUV. Maandenlang
> werd aan de publicatie gewerkt. Twee journalisten van de televisiezender
> vertrokken naar de Iraakse hoofdstad om het verhaal te checken. ‘Ze
> hebben met ooggetuigen en met familie van de slachtoffers gesproken’,
> aldus Gonggrijp.
>
> Eerdere publicaties op de site van WikiLeaks zorgden voor vette
> krantenkoppen. Zo werd een deel van de e-mails uit de gekraakte
> e-mailbox van de Amerikaanse vicepresidentskandidate Sarah Palin online
> gezet. Ook lekte het voorschriftenboek voor gevangenenbewaarders op
> Guantanamo Bay uit. Daarin stond beschreven dat sommige gevangenen niet
> met medewerkers van het Rode Kruis mochten praten. Inmiddels staan er
> zo’n 1,2 miljoen documenten op de server.
>
> Het succes van WikiLeaks kent ook een schaduwzijde. De website werd vaak
> gedaagd, met kostbare rechtzaken tot gevolg. Hoewel er geld werd
> ingezameld, was de website hierdoor begin dit jaar tijdelijk niet
> bereikbaar. In 2008 werd de website tijdelijk uit de lucht gehaald na
> een uitspraak van een Amerikaanse rechter.
>
> Jaren na de oprichting is er nog steeds onduidelijkheid over de website
> en de mensen erachter. Gonggrijp: ‘Velen hebben geprobeerd om WikiLeaks
> uit de lucht te halen, van grote banken tot regeringen. WikiLeaks
> probeert zijn mensen en bronnen te beschermen. Dat daar een bepaalde
> mate van geheimzinnigheid aan te pas komt, lijkt me vanzelfsprekend.
>
> Antid Oto wrote:
>> REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl
>>
>> Leaked video shows US military killing of two Iraqi journalists
>> By Patrick O’Connor
>> 7 April 2010
>>
>> Leaked US military helicopter video footage, published on the
>> Wikileaks website on Monday, has shed light on the circumstances of
>> the killing of two Iraqi journalists in July 2007. Reuters’
>> photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen and his assistant Saeed Chmagh were
>> shot dead while on assignment in eastern Baghdad. They were among
>> 10–15 Iraqis killed and badly wounded in the incident, including two
>> young children and other civilians targeted as they attempted to
>> provide assistance to those first attacked. The video footage, with
>> accompanying radio messages among the US troops involved, is further
>> evidence of the criminal character of the US-led invasion and
>> occupation of Iraq.
>>
>> The US military previously attempted to cover up the incident,
>> challenging Freedom of Information requests made by Reuters. The news
>> agency’s demand for an independent investigation was also rejected. An
>> internal military investigation conducted in 2007 exonerated the
>> troops involved in the incident, concluding that the force used was
>> justified and within the rules of engagement.
>>
>> The leaked video footage was recorded by at least one Apache
>> helicopter. Media outlets have reported that US military officials
>> have acknowledged that the material is genuine. According to
>> Wikileaks, several military whistleblowers provided the website with
>> encrypted video, which its staff was subsequently able to decrypt. The
>> leak will no doubt further fuel military hostility toward Wikileaks. A
>> March 2008 classified Pentagon report (which was itself leaked to the
>> website) declared that Wikileaks posed a security threat due to
>> published information potentially being of use to “foreign
>> intelligence and security services, foreign military forces, foreign
>> insurgents, and foreign terrorist groups”.
>>
>> On July 12, 2007, US troops and resistance fighters clashed in
>> Baghdad. Reuters’ employees Noor-Eldeen and Chmagh were investigating
>> when they were seen by US helicopter gunships among a group of about a
>> dozen men, one or two of whom appeared to be carrying rifles. The
>> occupying forces made no attempt to verify whether the men were
>> civilians carrying legally-owned weapons—Iraqi households are allowed
>> to have one registered AK-47 rifle—or establish the identities of the
>> other unarmed men. After radioing a report to their superiors, US
>> gunners received permission to kill everyone in the group.
>>
>> The incident appeared to be one of several indiscriminate attacks.
>> Ahmad Sahib, an Agence France-Presse photographer who was a few blocks
>> away, has reported: “It looked like the American helicopters were
>> firing against any gathering in the area, because when I got out of my
>> car and started taking pictures, people gathered and an American
>> helicopter fired a few rounds, but they hit the houses nearby and we
>> ran for cover.”
>>
>> Just before the Reuters’ journalists and the men they were speaking
>> with were shot, the Apache gunners apparently mistook Namir
>> Noor-Eldeen’s camera, which was slung over his shoulder, for a rocket
>> propelled grenade launcher (RPG). After the first burst of gunfire,
>> involving about 300 rounds, the troops congratulate each other: “Oh,
>> yeah, look at those dead bastards... Nice... Good shoot... Thank you.”
>>
>> The video footage then zooms in on Saeed Chmagh, who was badly wounded
>> and slowly crawling to seek assistance. One soldier in the Apache
>> says, “Come on, buddy... All you gotta do is pick up a weapon,” hoping
>> to be able to kill him under military rules of engagement.
>>
>> Shortly after this, a van stops in the area and unarmed Iraqis get out
>> to help Chmagh and the other wounded, picking them up and trying to
>> move them into their vehicle. It was later reported that the Iraqi
>> driver of the van was a local man who had been taking his children to
>> a tutoring session. After reporting that people were “picking up the
>> bodies,” the Apache gunners received permission to “engage”. Another
>> sustained burst of gunfire followed, killing Chmagh, a man trying to
>> help him, and seriously wounding a boy and girl sitting in the front
>> seat of the vehicle.
>>
>> When US troops on the ground discover the children, the helicopter
>> gunners respond with indifference. “Well it’s their fault for bringing
>> their kids into a battle,” one says. Another replies: “That’s right.”
>>
>> After initially ordering the children to be evacuated to a US military
>> hospital for emergency treatment, the troops on the ground were told
>> to hand them over to Iraqi police who were then to take them to a
>> Baghdad hospital. Despite suffering chest and arm bullet wounds, both
>> children survived. Their mother, however, has reportedly received no
>> compensation for the death of her husband or ongoing medical expenses
>> for her children.
>>
>> After the evacuation of the wounded at the scene of the massacre, one
>> of the troops laughs as he sees a US tank drive over one of the bodies
>> of those initially killed: “I think they just drove over a body... Hey
>> hey! Yeah! ... Maybe it was just a visual illusion, but it looked like
>> it... Well, they’re dead, so...”
>>
>> Towards the end of the unabridged video footage, the Apaches fire
>> three Hellfire missiles into an apartment complex after reporting that
>> gunfire had been fired from there. Julian Assange, Wikileaks
>> co-founder, told Democracy Now!: “We have fresh evidence from Baghdad
>> that there were three families living in that apartment complex, many
>> of whom were killed, including women. And we sent a team down there to
>> collect that evidence... Innocent bystanders walking down the street
>> are also killed in that attack.”
>>
>> The footage provides a rare first hand glimpse of the military’s
>> recurring war crimes committed in the aftermath of the 2003 invasion.
>> Consistent with all colonial-style wars of occupation, US troops are
>> brutalised, desensitised to violence, and encouraged to regard the
>> local population with racist indifference and hostility.
>>
>> The US ruling elite regarded the invasion as a means of utilising its
>> military might to take control over a large part of the Middle East’s
>> critical energy resources, thereby gaining an advantage over rival
>> powers in Europe and Asia. From this decision to wage a war of
>> aggression—what was defined by the Nuremberg tribunals as “the supreme
>> international crime”—has followed innumerable atrocities leading to
>> the deaths of an estimated one million Iraqis. The images depicted in
>> the video footage are typical of what was carried out on a daily basis
>> in Iraq and what is now being inflicted on the people of Afghanistan
>> and in the border regions of Pakistan under President Barack Obama’s
>> offensive.
>>
>> The Iraqi Journalists Union yesterday demanded a criminal
>> investigation into the killing of the Reuters’ employees. “This is
>> another crime added to the crimes of the US forces against Iraqi
>> journalists and civilians,” union leader Mouyyad al-Lami said. “I call
>> upon the government to take a firm stance against the criminals who
>> killed the journalists.”
>>
>> According to Reporters Without Borders, 221 journalists and media
>> assistants have been killed in Iraq since the 2003 invasion. In many
>> cases there is overwhelming evidence of the US forces deliberately
>> targeting journalists. It does not appear that this was the case in
>> the 2007 killings of the two Reuters’ reporters.
>>
>> However, senior US military figures subsequently used the incident to
>> warn journalists against attempting to cover the Iraq war
>> independently of the occupying forces’ authority. Responding to
>> questions about Noor-Eldeen and Chmagh’s deaths, Pentagon spokesman
>> Bryan Whitman last year declared: “We think the safest way to cover
>> these operations is to be embedded with US forces.”
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/v/5rXPrfnU3G0
>>
>> http://wsws.org/articles/2010/apr2010/iraq-a07.shtml
>
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