Both children were said to have been evacuated to the 28th Combat Support Hospital via Forward Operating Base Loyalty, then transferred to an Iraqi medical facility the next day. WIRED may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. But the video and accompanying audio make clear that the soldiers in the helicopter said they spotted 'weapons' among those in the grouplater identified by an internal army investigator as an AK-47 and an RPG. How to Make Sure Youre Not Accidentally Sharing Your Location, Security News This Week: Sensitive US Military Emails Exposed. Vehicle; "When I saw those kids, all I could picture was my kids back home". [65][66] [59], An internal legal review by staff at Forward Operating Base Loyalty in Iraq during July 2007 stated that the helicopters had attacked a number of armed insurgents within the rules of engagement, and that in an apparent case of civilian casualties two reporters working for Reuters had also been killed. McCord: She had a stomach wound and she had glass in her eyes and in her hair. [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". "[90], James Spione made a short documentary film about the airstrikes called Incident in New Baghdad, featuring a first-person account from Ethan McCord. In an Al Jazeera English interview on April 19, 2010, WikiLeaks' Julian Assange explained why WikiLeaks titled the video Collateral Murder: And you can see that they also deliberately target Saaed, a wounded man there on the ground, despite their earlier belief that they didn't have the rules of engagementthat the rules of engagement did not permit them to kill Saeed when he was wounded. Assange responded: Yes, absolutely Our promise to the public is that we will release the full source material. Apache helicopters were called in by a soldier in the Humvee (Hotel 26) under attack from the same position used by Namir Noor-Eldeen to photograph the vehicle. (The quote begins at 12:22 in video, and the shot that killed Saaed is at 12:25)", "Stephen Colbert Interviews WikiLeaks Founder", "US veterans write apology letter to Iraqis following WikiLeaks video", "We killed your father I'm heartbroken", "Widow of Iraqi killed by US troops in video 'accepts apology' after letter", "Airstrike Video Brings Attention to WikiLeaks Site", "Elliptical vs. treadmill: Which will give you the better workout? [84], Finkel had reported the day in his book The Good Soldiers,[62] including conversations which closely matched the subsequently leaked video footage. A unit from Bravo Company 216 was within 100 meters of the individuals that were fired upon with 30mm AH-64 Apache cannons. Our government may ignore you, concerned more with its public image. [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. [19] This account of first bringing the wounded children to the Combat Support Hospital appears to be contradicted by orders by radio that form part of the video record, which forbids it and orders that the children be handed over to local police. Since then, McCord has been receiving threats to him and his family on a regular basis. 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]. Forces Clash With Militias", "Reuters seeks U.S. probe into killing of Iraqi staff", "Return to Ward 17: Making peace with lost comrades", "Bradley Manning's statements during his trial", "U.S. gunfire kills two Reuters employees in Baghdad", "WikiLeaks silent on how it broke encryption", "Twitter / WikiLeaks: Have encrypted videos of U", "WikiLeaks posts video of 'US military killings' in Iraq", "Collateral Murder? (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. It shouldn't have surprised you what you saw. When I saw their faces, I was relieved, but I was just heartbroken. 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. The girl suffered from a stomach wound and glass in her eyes, and the boy a head injury. I have a huge place in my heart for children, having some of my own. McCord: My platoon sergeant knew that I was having a hard time with it and that same night he came into the room and he told me, hey, just so you know, both of the children survived, so you can suck it up now. When Bravo Company arrived at the scene, they reported finding two RPGs and an AK-47 or AKM. When the cameraman on the ground aimed his camera in the direction of Bravo Company 216, a pilot remarked "He's getting ready to fire". 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". Knowing that I was part of the system that took their father away from them and made them lose their house it's heartbreaking. Among the group were two Iraqi war correspondents working for Reuters, Saeed Chmagh and Namir Noor-Eldeen. [57], Reuters reported that it could locate no witnesses who had seen gunmen in the immediate area. Tasked to conduct escort, armed reconnaissance patrols, and counter-IED and counter-mortar operations, the two helicopters left Camp Taji at 9:24a.m. That's not leaking, that's a pure editorial." I did see a video on YouTube after the Wikileaks [ video ] came out, of the children being interviewed. 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 the video was released, one of the soldiers involved in the incident, Ethan McCord, stated the following: "If you feel threatened in any way, you're able to engage that person. The editors asked to see the remaining footage so Reuters could check whether it had been edited or manipulated. These people were operating in split second situations.". Using short sentences, similar punctuation, or using the same words frequently as well as using Grammarly can boost your content as AI written. I had blood all down the front of me from the children. The ground troops that secured the site of the first two strikes then receive small arms fire from nearby buildings. There's houses behind where the van was. Towards the end of the show, the star actor became an active member of the Screen Actors Guild and after he left "Adam-12." We are both soldiers who occupied your neighborhood for 14 months. Part of Banksy's, This page was last edited on 20 February 2023, at 21:26. Now, as far as rules of engagement, [Iraqis] are not supposed to pick up the wounded. 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. I always questioned it in the back of my mind. 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. Their request was denied at the briefing and they were told to seek access under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. [104][105][106][107] Pursuant to a commutation by President Obama, Chelsea Manning was released on May 17, 2017. [15] An anonymous U.S. military official confirmed the authenticity of the footage,[16] which provoked global discussion on the legality and morality of the attacks. The company was charged with clearing their sector of any small armed forces, and had been under fire from small arms and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs). Bill Keller of The New York Times wrote, "But in its zeal to make the video a work of antiwar propaganda, WikiLeaks also released a version that didn't call attention to an Iraqi who was toting a rocket-propelled grenade and packaged the manipulated version under the tendentious rubric Collateral Murder. I was called a pussy and that I needed to suck it up and a lot of other horrible things. 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. [18][19][25] Once the group is eliminated, the Apache pilots direct the ground troops to move up to the position of the attack to clear the area. According to the U.S. Army investigation report released by the United States Central Command, the engagement started at 10:20 Iraqi local time and ended at 10:41. [17] Politifact stated: "When Assange points out in the context of justifying the title 'Collateral Murder' that the word 'RPG' was not used until after permission to engage was given, he leaves the impression that the soldiers were given the okay to open fire on a group of unarmed men, or men believed to be unarmed. [18][24][25][26][27] While the two are carrying media cards, a military officer claimed they were not wearing distinctive clothing identifying themselves as such. [86], Ethan McCord, the soldier seen in the video carrying the injured boy, recalled in an interview on The Marc Steiner Show that on arrival at the scene, "The first thing I did was run up to the van". And where the soldier said [in the video], "Well, you shouldn't take your kids to battle." [43] He walks into a building which has been identified as the source of fire at U.S. ground troops. There is no bringing back all that was lost. The story was then overtaken by a more updated one out of Washington that incorporated reporting from the original piece. The soldier in the video said that your husband shouldn't have brought your children to battle, but we are acknowledging our responsibility for bringing the battle to your neighborhood, and to your family. With such pain, friendship might be too much to ask. They request permission to fire a missile at the building, describing it as "abandoned" or "under construction". However, according to the co-pilot for Crazyhorse 1/8 they failed to positively identify the occupants as combatants and returned to the previous engagement area. [29], A crew member requests authorization to engage after seeing five or six of the men moving in the direction of U.S. It happened because my content was bad. Ethan McCord pulled your daughter and son from the van, and when doing so, saw the faces of his own children back home. [Then I] took my children to school one day and I came home and sat down on the couch and turned on the TV with my coffee, and on the news I'm running across the screen with a child. [63] The site stated on its Twitter account on January 8, 2010, that it had a copy of gunsight footage of the incidents. The soldier, Ethan McCord, has since been discharged from the military and has been an outspoken voice against the Iraq War. "When I did come up on the scene, there was an RPG as well as AK-47s there," he said. [92][93] The Internet chats between Manning and Lamo were revealed to the public by Wired. Hanzlik said images gathered during a military investigation of the incident show multiple weapons around the dead bodies in the courtyard, including at least three RPGs. Two men were identified by Crazyhorse 1/8 as carrying an RPG launcher and an AKM or AK-47. So I just sucked it up and tried to move on with everything. "[32], The Guardian stated "It is unclear if some of the men are armed but Noor-Eldeen can be seen with a camera". Ethan McCord: Right. The Push to Ban TikTok in the US Isnt About Privacy. [21][79], The New Yorker praised its release, calling it "a striking artifactan unmediated representation of the ambiguities and cruelties of modern warfare".[3]. [81] We've been there for so long now and it seems like nothing is being accomplished whatsoever, except for we're making more people hate us. He opened his eyes when I was carrying him. Josh Stieber was not at the scene of the shooting but says similar incidents happened throughout his 14-month tour; "The acts depicted in this video are everyday occurrences of this war." McCord added, "I don't say that Wikileaks did a bad thing, because they didn't. Ethan Mccord and Josh Stieber deployed to Baghdad with Bravo Company 2-16 in 2007. [78] Gates stated: "They're in a combat situation. When the helicopter pilots discover that they have killed a number of Iraqi civilians and wounded two children, one of them is heard to say: "Well, its their fault for bringing their kids into a battle".[41]. A third, an infantry solider named Ethan McCord, was one of the men who had scooped up the bodies of the wounded children in the apache helicopter attack, what is now known as the "Collateral. We were engaged in our own conflict roughly about three or four blocks away. Reuters responded, "It is absolutely untrue that this story was spiked. 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. 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. [113], The report states that at least two members of the group which were first fired on were armed, that two RPGs and one AKM or AK-47 rifle could be seen in the helicopter video, and that these weapons were picked up by the follow-up U.S. ground troops. WikiLeaks identified the leak's source as "a number of military whistleblowers". 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