[39][40] Just as the van was destroyed, U.S. ground troops made their final turn and arrived on the road with the van. They were stating that these people had no weapons whatsoever, that they were just carrying cameras. Towards the end of the show, the star actor became an active member of the Screen Actors Guild and after he left "Adam-12." China Is Relentlessly Hacking Its Neighbors. Ukraine Suffered More Wiper Malware in 2022 Than Anywhere, Ever. Wired.com: Do you support Wikileaks in releasing this video? As Russia has accelerated its cyberattacks on its neighbor, it's barraged the country with an unprecedented volume of different data-destroying programs. The film received an Oscar nomination in January. [116] The military did not include the attack on the building in their report. [89], When interviewed by Wired, McCord stated that he supported WikiLeaks in releasing the video, with some qualifications: "When it was first released I don't think it was done in the best manner that it could have been. Though we have acted with cold hearts far too many times, we have not forgotten our actions towards you. [17] Julian Assange said "permission to engage was given before the word 'RPG' was ever used". [19], Fox News said that of the attack "WikiLeaks appears to have done selective editing that tells only half the story. I based the account in my book on multiple sources, all unclassified". [94], WikiLeaks said they were unable to confirm whether or not Manning was the source of the video, stating "we never collect personal information on our sources", but saying that "if [Manning is the] whistleblower then, without doubt, [s]he's a national hero"[95] and "we have taken steps to arrange for [her] protection and legal defence". Captain James Hall stated they couldn't drive in Bradleys in fear of running over bodies. 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. We are both soldiers who occupied your neighborhood for 14 months. He opened his eyes when I was carrying him. After getting permission to fire, the Apache crew fired on the van. 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]. 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. It was more of a child who was frightened out of her mind. I do know that there was a teenage girl [in there], just because I saw the pictures when I was there, that one of the soldiers took. Assange responded: Yes, absolutely Our promise to the public is that we will release the full source material. I just kept telling him, "Don't die; don't die." Noor-Eldeen fails to photograph the Apache but three pictures of the U.S. Humvee appear on his camera's memory card when it was recovered by U.S. soldiers. When we were on that roof, we were still taking fire. Fox News reported in 2010 that the rules of engagement in Iraq had not been changed since the incident occurred. We lost our country and our lives were destroyed. We are both soldiers who occupied your neighborhood for 14 months. [32] The Apache crew alerted the ground troops of the van and requested permission to engage the vehicle before the ground troops arrived. 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. "These people can put out anything they want, and they're never held accountable for it. [25] Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com said that "the vast majority of the men were clearly unarmed". Plus: Irans secret torture black sites, hacking a bank account with AI-generated voice, and Lance Bass unhinged encounter in Russia. The breakthroughs and innovations that we uncover lead to new ways of thinking, new connections, and new industries. [55], Assange stated that the attack on the van was the most damning part of the video: "I'm very sceptical that was done under the rules of engagement; and, if it was legal, the rules of engagement must be changed". The missile hits the building, and the man is caught in the explosion. We did unto you what we would not want done to us.". [32], U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates criticized WikiLeaks for releasing the video without providing any context. Just from watching that video, people cannot understand the complex battles that occurred. I don't think that people really want to see this, though, because this is war. The majority of us aren't. 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. 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. However, the co-pilot/gunner then observed a child and some other non-combatants in the vicinity of the individuals and decided to hold off on the engagement until the non-combatants were clear. New details reveal that Beijing-backed hackers targeted the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, adding to a string of attacks in the region. On 19 April 2010, Ethan McCord, who appears on the ground in the video, and Josh Steiber, a member of the same company who was not present on the day, wrote an open Letter of Reconciliation & Responsibility to the Iraqi People apologising for the events in the video. These people were operating in split second situations.". McCord: There were approximately two to three other people who were moving who were still somewhat alive, and the medics were attending to them. FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Ethan McCord, a soldier who arrived on the scene after the attack, stated in an interview for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation: From being in the perspective of the Apache helicopter crew, I can see where a group of men gathering, when there's a firefight just a few blocks away, which I was involved in, and theyre carrying weapons, one of which is an RPG. Their age, their weapons, and the fact that they were within the distance of the forces that had been engaged made it apparent these guys were potentially a threat. [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. "[31], In May 2011 the Barcelona Human Rights Film Festival awarded the investigative film Collateral murder, Hellfire, done by Kristinn Hrafnsson, WikiLeaks spokesperson, and Ingi Ingason, with the award for International Journalism and Human Rights. 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". I was trying to wash it off in my room. 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. US Soldiers from Wikileaks Collateral Murder Video Apologize. The video makes plain that in this incident, as in almost all military encounters in both Iraq and Afghanistan, our soldiers are up against forces that do not wear uniformsa violation of international law precisely because it places innocent civilians in jeopardy. I think it is good that they're putting this stuff out there. The event was covered by Al Jazeera English and Reuters,[16] and later by The Washington Post,[82] The New York Times,[2] The Christian Science Monitor,[83] the BBC,[66] and CNN. Josh . [59][16] In a personal statement during her court-martial, Chelsea Manning stated that the military had access to the video, and was actively examining it, yet it told Reuters in response to the FOIA request that the information might no longer exist. There's no before and there's no after". We acknowledge our part in the deaths and injuries of your loved ones as we tell Americans what we were trained to do and what we carried out in the name of "god and country". Those guys could have just been protecting their area". McCord admits that she was sad to go because she had been there for a decade and a half, but that "it wasn't the end of the world" and that she wasn't worried for "a nanosecond" that . The company was supported by two Apache helicopters from the 1st Cavalry Division's Aviation Brigade, call signs "Crazyhorse 1/8" and "Crazyhorse 1/9". He gave his view of the context of the killings: the Reuters guys walked into the hottest spot of a very hot morning. You don't just take somebody's life and then go on about your business for the rest of the day. So I just sucked it up and tried to move on with everything. ", The letter, which they hope to get to the family who lost their father and whose children were injured in the attack, states that they "are acknowledging our responsibility for bringing the battle to your neighborhood, and to your family. Ethan and Josh are available for interviews. We're sorry for the system that we were involved in that took their father's life and injured them. [Then] we were just told to move to this [other] location. They heard about something, they came to it and they just wantedfrom everything I've learned since, they were just there to get that side of the story. They also found two Canon EOS digital cameras with telephoto lenses. WikiLeaks stated 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. From our own experiences, and the experiences of other veterans we have talked to, we know that the acts depicted in this video are everyday occurrences of this war: this is the nature of how U.S.-led wars are carried out in this region. I'm going to help that person. You are seeing only a very narrow picture of the events". Stuff like that happens on a daily basis in Iraq. She continued, "the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are inflicting huge psychological damage on combatants". The boy's alive!" Daniel Ellsberg, a former United States military analyst who was known for having leaked the Pentagon Papers to the media, said of the airstrike: It would be interesting to have someone speculate or tell us exactly what context would lead to justifying the killing that we see on the screen. 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. Ethan Cord (Horsley) is still a man with a conscience, and kids, but he is also less reluctant to rely on his ability with a gun. The film received an Oscar nomination in January. Some of them [say] I don't care what anybody says they're not there. They're trained as soldiers to go into a building and clear a building. "[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. Home: Wichita, Kansas, AN OPEN LETTER OF RECONCILIATION & RESPONSIBILITY TO THE IRAQI PEOPLE From Current and Former Members of the U.S. Military. The crew for Crazyhorse 1/9 could not engage due to target obfuscation from buildings and dust. The soldier, Ethan McCord, has since been discharged from the military and has been an outspoken voice against the Iraq War. Wired.com: Civilians are supposed to know that they're not supposed to pick up a wounded person crawling in the road? 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. He runs the girl to the Bradley. There had been a lot of RPG, grenade fire and so on, and they were doing what journalists do. When Bravo Company arrived at the scene, they reported finding two RPGs and an AK-47 or AKM. Killing of Reuters Employees", "Dealing With Assange and the WikiLeaks Secrets", "Iraq war files: Apache Hellfire victims", "US soldier on aftermath of WikiLeaks Apache attack", Leaked U.S. video shows deaths of Reuters' Iraqi staffers, "Notes from the Courtroom: Alexa O'Brien's Transcript of Pfc. 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. Ethan McCord, who was one of the first soldiers on the scene in the 2007 attack, told Wired.com that he saw several weapons at the scene, including a rocket propelled grenade launcher. 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." [115], While the Air Weapons Team was providing support at the first engagement area they were informed by ground troops that they were receiving small arms fire from the south/southwest. Major Brent Cummings claimed they took great pains to prevent the loss of innocent civilian lives. [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. Ethan McCord: Right. That's not leaking, that's a pure editorial." What was shown in the Wikileaks video only begins to depict the suffering we have created. Iraq war veteran Ethan McCord was one of three US soldiers who were on the ground during the Apache helicopter assault on twelve civilians in Baghdad in 2007 that was captured in a video. [25] Both videos depict the attack on the van, van driver, and two other men, and the aftermath when the two seriously injured children were evacuated by U.S. ground forces who arrived on the scene. 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. In a third strike, Apache pilots watched people, including some armed men, run into a building and engaged that building with several AGM-114 Hellfire missiles. WIRED may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. Ethan McCord was a U.S. soldier on patrol in Baghdad in July 2007 when he came upon a scene he says he'd never encountered. soldiers. Just over a year ago, WikiLeaks released footage from a gunsight camera of an Apache helicopter engaged in an attack that killed two journalists and eight ci. McCord, who served seven years in the military before leaving in the summer of 2009 due to injuries, recently posted an apologetic letter online with fellow soldier Josh Steiber supporting the release of the video and asking the family's forgiveness. Josh Stieber was in the same company but was not there that day, though he contributed to the your pain, and the pain of your community on many other occasions. As the gunner fires the first missile, another man is seen walking along the street in front of the building. I don't think that [the] big picture is whether or not [the Iraqis who were killed] had weapons. Ethan McCord describes the moment he realised Sajad Toman was alive In July 2007, 19 people were killed when an Apache helicopter opened fire on a group of Iraqis whom the pilots had identified. He was shot and killed. They arrived on station in New Baghdad at 9:53a.m., where sporadic attacks on coalition forces continued. A school district is mourning the loss of a 13-year-old student who was found dead along with 3 other family members after a "potential murder-suicide" in Clermont County.It happened around 9:41 a . Fox News later stated that "although it could be argued AK-47 rifles are common household items, RPGs are not". As the pilot positions the helicopter to attack the building, two unarmed men walk towards, and perhaps into, the building. 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. I was up on a rooftop at that time. 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. [92][93] The Internet chats between Manning and Lamo were revealed to the public by Wired. [20] According to a military review, soldiers in that company "had been under sporadic small arms and rocket propelled grenade fire since" the operationdescribed as "clearing their sector and looking for weapons caches"began. 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. 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. Minutes after the first engagement ended, the van returned traveling in an opposite direction (north) once again on this same road. They split up and the footage follows one who appears to be armed. [38] The children, a girl and boy, suffered injuries. Michael Bailey a medic who treated some of. A unit from Bravo Company 216 was within 100 meters of the individuals that were fired upon with 30mm AH-64 Apache cannons. So, the first thing I did was grab the girl. "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. It's very disturbing. 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