Seven men were killed, including Noor-Eldeen and Chmagh, with three others being wounded. 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. That stays with you. 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. [43], Assange responded to the investigation report released by the Army in an interview with Democracy Now!, stating that "the tone and language is all about trying to find an excuse for the activity. McCord, together with another former member of the company, Josh Stieber, have addressed an open "Letter of Reconciliation" to the Iraqi people taking responsibility for their role in this. [47] Greenwald called the second airstrike a "plainly unjustified killing of a group of unarmed men carrying away an unarmed, seriously wounded man to safety". 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. To all of those who were injured or lost loved ones during the July 2007 Baghdad shootings depicted in the "Collateral Murder" Wikileaks video: We write to you, your family, and your community with awareness that our words and actions can never restore your losses. [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. Many soldiers felt threatened just by the fact that you were looking at them, so they fired their weapons on anybody that was looking at them because they (I . 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]. A draft version of the video WikiLeaks produced made reference to the AK-47s and RPGs, but WikiLeaks said that ultimately they became unsure about the RPG, believing the long object could have been a camera tripod, so they decided not to point it out in the released version. Major Brent Cummings claimed they took great pains to prevent the loss of innocent civilian lives. McCord's courage and integrity has nothing to do with his US army training. [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. The ground controller responds, "If you've [positively identified] the individuals in the building with weapons, go ahead and engage the building". It was sent back for more reporting in an effort to incorporate a wider range of experts. There were plenty of times in the past where other insurgents would come by and pick up the bodies, and then we'd have no evidence or anything to what happened, so in looking at it from the Apache's point of view, they were thinking that [someone was] picking up the weapons and bodies; when, in hindsight, clearly they were picking up the wounded man. Two former soldiers from the Army unit responsible for the Wikileaks "Collateral Murder" incident have written an open-letter of "Reconciliation and Responsibility" to those injured in the July 2007 attack, in which U.S. forces wounded two children and killed over a dozen people, including the father of those children and two Reuters employees. Plus: Irans secret torture black sites, hacking a bank account with AI-generated voice, and Lance Bass unhinged encounter in Russia. In the video, you can clearly see that they did have weapons to the trained eye. [18] Al Jazeera stated that the Army had received "reports of small arms fire", but were unable to positively identify the gunmen. They request permission to fire a missile at the building, describing it as "abandoned" or "under construction". They were stating that these people had no weapons whatsoever, that they were just carrying cameras. "The helicopters were approximately a mile and a half away and they were zooming in on these guys . 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. But this particular eventthis is clearly murder. I think it is good that they're putting this stuff out there. I don't think that [the] big picture is whether or not [the Iraqis who were killed] had weapons. [56] U.S. forces spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Scott Bleichwehl later stated: "There is no question that coalition forces were clearly engaged in combat operations against a hostile force". The WIRED conversation illuminates how technology is changing every aspect of our livesfrom culture to business, science to design. Assange responded: Yes, absolutely Our promise to the public is that we will release the full source material. WikiLeaks stated that the footage shows the "murder of Iraqi civilians and two Reuters journalists". [88], McCord requested mental health assistance following his experiences on July 12, but was told by his superior officers to "get the sand out of [his] vagina" and to "suck it up and be a soldier". You can see in this particular image he is lying on the ground and the people in the van have been separated, but they still deliberately target him. Was it reasonable for the Apache soldiers to think that maybe the people they attacked were part of that insurgent firefight? They also found two Canon EOS digital cameras with telephoto lenses. Wired.com: Did you try to get information about the two children after the shooting? 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]. Home: Laytonsville, Maryland Served in: Baghdad (Rustamiyah) 07-08 Fort Riley, KS 06-07, 08-09, BACKGROUND ON ETHAN MCCORD: Branch of service: United States Army (USA) Unit: 1st ID Rank: Spc. [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. It has also ignored many veterans who have returned physically injured or mentally troubled by what they saw and did in your country. Wired.com: But you had been in combat before. 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. There is a period of 20 minutes not included on the leaked tape. As the gunner fires the first missile, another man is seen walking along the street in front of the building. I was pretty distraught over the whole situation with the children. 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. What we seek is to learn from our mistakes and do everything we can to tell others of our experiences and how the people of the United States need to realize we have done and are doing to you and the people of your country. McCord: There were approximately two to three other people who were moving who were still somewhat alive, and the medics were attending to them. Our hearts are open to hearing how we can take any steps to support you through the pain that we have caused. Responsibility for civilian deaths in such encounters rests with those who violate the rules of war. Wired.com: Civilians are supposed to know that they're not supposed to pick up a wounded person crawling in the road? Ethan McCord, a former US soldier, has shown great courage and integrity by exposing and condemning US war crimes in Iraq. I did see a video on YouTube after the Wikileaks [ video ] came out, of the children being interviewed. After the non-combatants were clear Crazyhorse 1/8 engaged the targets. [81] Tasked to conduct escort, armed reconnaissance patrols, and counter-IED and counter-mortar operations, the two helicopters left Camp Taji at 9:24a.m. 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. I was up on a rooftop at that time. [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. Gabriel Schoenfeld, Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, said of the airstrike: It is precisely the presence of weapons, including RPGs, that goes a long distance toward explaining why cameramen for Reuterspointing television cameras around corners in a battle zonewere readily mistaken by our gunships for insurgents. There is no bringing back all that was lost. Ethan and Josh are available for interviews. The crew for Crazyhorse 1/9 could not engage due to target obfuscation from buildings and dust. 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. When a congressman tried to jail him for his actions that day he . New details reveal that Beijing-backed hackers targeted the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, adding to a string of attacks in the region. Well in all actuality, we brought the battle to your kids. Among the group were two Iraqi war correspondents working for Reuters, Saeed Chmagh and Namir Noor-Eldeen. [91], In May 2010, a 22-year-old American Army intelligence analyst, Chelsea Manning, was arrested after telling hacker Adrian Lamo she had leaked the airstrike video, along with a video of another airstrike and around 260,000 diplomatic cables, to WikiLeaks. When I saw their faces, I was relieved, but I was just heartbroken. Though we have acted with cold hearts far too many times, we have not forgotten our actions towards you. [78] Gates stated: "They're in a combat situation. [16] The military reported that it could not find its copy of the video. Eamonn McCann Mon Aug 19 2013 - 20:49 Bradley Manning was scheduled to speak yesterday at the sentencing phase of his trial for having leaked 750,000 pages of classified documents and videos to. The crew for Crazyhorse 1/8 then located multiple individuals with weapons about 400 meters east of coalition forces and was given clearance to engage the targets. 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. 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. When Bravo Company arrived at the scene, they reported finding two RPGs and an AK-47 or AKM. You don't just take somebody's life and then go on about your business for the rest of the day. 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