[News] Video shows 'US attack' on Iraqis

[Anti-Imperialist News]

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The video here is a must see!
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/04/201045123449200569.html
or here:
http://wikileaks.org/

Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Video shows 'US attack' on Iraqis

One of the internet's biggest sources of classified government 
information has released video of what it says is a US helicopter 
firing at civilians in Iraq.

<http://wikileaks.org/>WikiLeaks, a website that publishes 
anonymously sourced documents, released what it called previously 
unseen footage on Monday.

It said the footage filmed from a helicopter cockpit shows a missile 
strike and shooting on a crowded square in a Baghdad neighbourhood in 
July 2007.

The website said 12 civilians were killed in the attack, including 
two journalists, Namir Nour El Deen and Saeed Chmagh, who worked for 
the Reuters news agency.

The two men appear to survive the first strike and attempt to get 
away, but the helicopter returns a second and third time.

Witnesses corroborated

There was no immediate comment from the US military on the video.

Al Jazeera's Patty Culhane, reporting from Washington, said Pentagon 
officials seemed "completely surprised" when informed of the release 
of the tape, and appeared not to have heard about the footage beforehand.
in depth

"So far we still haven't gotten [a response]. No response to what's 
on the tape and no confirmation that this is in fact a military 
tape," she said.

But Julian Assange, the editor of 
<http://wikileaks.org/>WikiLeaks.org,said there is strong evidence to 
suggest that the video is genuine.

"There was a Washington Post reporter who was with that US military 
unit on the ground on that day," Assange told Al Jazeera, referring 
to David Finkel, a journalist who was embedded with the US military 
in July 2007.

"He wrote a chapter in a book, which was published last year, called 
The Good Soldiers, which correlates directly to the material in that video.

"Also, Reuters conducted a number of investigations and interviewed 
two ground witnesses at the time.

"That story wasn't really taken seriously, [with] nothing to back up 
the witnesses, but now we have the video that shows that those 
witnesses were correct."

'Military whistleblowers'

<http://www.collateralmurder.com/>WikiLeaks set up a separate website 
with detailed information on the video,which it said it obtained from 
a number of "military whistleblowers".

"WikiLeaks goes to great lengths to verify the authenticity of the 
information it receives," the website read.

"We have analyzed the information about this incident from a variety 
of source material. We have spoken to witnesses and journalists 
directly involved in the incident."

In the video, a voice can be heard saying there has been a shooting 
in the area. The unidentified person later receives permission to open fire.

Following the shooting, the footage shows troops carrying two injured 
children, as another unidentified person asks for permission to take 
the wounded out of the area.

A voice responds, saying, "Well, it's their fault for bringing their 
kids into a battle."

Military regret

Our correspondent said the military had released a statement at the 
time of the attack saying they had positively identified weapons and 
militants in the strike.

"It's important to point out that at the time of this incident, the 
military was very specific," she said.

"They said that the children were injured by shrapnel and the people 
who were killed were identified positively as militants who had put 
the security of Iraq at risk and that they had ... weapons.

"The commanders at the time said that they really regretted that 
children were wounded in this and said that they had taken every step 
possible to make sure that innocent lives were spared."

Nabil Nour El Deen, the brother of the Reuters photographer killed in 
the shooting, condemned the attack as a "crime" committed by the US military.

"Is this the democracy and freedom that they claim they have brought to Iraq?

"What Namir was doing was a patriotic work. He was trying to cover 
the violations of the Americans against the Iraqi people," he told Al Jazeera.

"We demand the international organisations to help us sue those 
people responsible for the killings of our sons and our people."

Al Jazeera is not responsible for the content of external websites.









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