. There is no bringing back all that was lost. This is urban combat and we're taking the war to children and women and innocents. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Series of air-to-ground attacks conducted in New Baghdad during the Iraqi insurgency, An AH-64 Apache helicopter, the type used in the attack, Arrest, convictions and sentencing of Manning, Attack on personnel and a van per U.S. Army report account, Attack on building per U.S. Army report account, Julian Assange's comments regarding U.S. Army report, List of coalition military operations of the Iraq War 2007, "In Disclosing Secret Documents, WikiLeaks Seeks 'Transparency', "Video Shows U.S. There's houses behind where the van was. 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. Our heavy hearts still hold hope that we can restore inside our country the acknowledgment of your humanity, that we were taught to deny. That classified video created its own firestorm. As the gunner fires the first missile, another man is seen walking along the street in front of the building. If there's anything I can to do help, I would be more than happy to. Ethan McCord: Right. US Soldiers from Wikileaks Collateral Murder Video Apologize. McCord: When it was first released I don't think it was done in the best manner that it could have been. [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". McCord: It was random sporadic spurts. "[32], The Guardian stated "It is unclear if some of the men are armed but Noor-Eldeen can be seen with a camera". When I saw their faces, I was relieved, but I was just heartbroken. More than a dozen people were killed in three attacks captured in the video, including two Reuters journalists, one carrying a camera that was apparently mistaken for a weapon. I've had nightmares. WIRED may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. [118][119], Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}331849N 443043E / 33.3137N 44.512E / 33.3137; 44.512 (Airstrike of 2007-07-12). McCord: I doubt that they were a part of that firefight. There had been running gun battles. She had a stomach wound? In the video, you can clearly see that they did have weapons to the trained eye." You Cant Trust App Developers Privacy Claims on Google Play, Mozilla researchers found that apps often provide inaccurate data use disclosures, giving people a false sense of security., Batteries Are Ukraines Secret Weapon Against Russia. ", "Hudson Institute > Warfare Through 'a Soda Straw', "Gates assails Internet group over attack video", "WikiLeaks releases video depicting US forces killing of two Reuters journalists in Iraq", "Leaked Video Depicts Civilian Deaths In Iraq", "Video shows death of 2 Reuters employees in Baghdad attack", "WaPo denies allegation it sat on WikiLeaks video", "Two members of the company in the WikiLeaks video speak out", "US soldier in WikiLeaks massacre video: 'I relive this every day', "Former US soldier speaks (interview transcript)", "US intelligence analyst arrested over security leaks", "U.S. Intelligence Analyst Arrested in WikiLeaks Video Probe", "Report: Soldier arrested for allegedly leaking 'Collateral Murder' helicopter video to WikiLeaks", "Bradley Manning pleads guilty to some Wikileaks charges", "Bradley Manning Found Guilty of 19 Counts, Not Guilty of Aiding The Enemy", "Bradley Manning Found Not Guilty of Aiding the Enemy", "Army Pfc. He was kind of sitting on the floorboard of the van, but with his head laying on the bench seat in the front. [28] Noor-Eldeen has a camera and Chmagh is talking on his mobile phone. classified video created its own firestorm. Towards the end of the show, the star actor became an active member of the Screen Actors Guild and after he left "Adam-12." [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". When this video first came out, there was a lot of outrage by the soldiers, just because it depicted us as being callous, cruel, heartless people, and we're not that way. They were stating that these people had no weapons whatsoever, that they were just carrying cameras. [25] Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com said that "the vast majority of the men were clearly unarmed". 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. We humbly ask you what we can do to begin to repair the damage we caused. I'm going to help that person. Ethan was on the ground at the scene of the shooting, and is seen on the video rushing one of the injured children to a U.S. I was trying to wash it off in my room. A Pentagon spokesman said the video did not contradict the official finding that the helicopters' crew acted within the rules of engagement and said that the inquiry backed the assessment that the group of men were carrying a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG). McCord: I would be smoked. [18][19] The crew estimates the group is twenty men. 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. 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. Captain James Hall stated they couldn't drive in Bradleys in fear of running over bodies. [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". Ethan applied for mental health support following this incident and was denied by his commanding officer. [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. Smoked is basically like you're doing pushups a lot, you're doing sit-ups crunches and flutter kicks. 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. ", 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. [42] According to the internal legal review, the helicopters engaged a group of armed insurgents, and that some were seen entering a nearby building. It has also ignored many veterans who have returned physically injured or mentally troubled by what they saw and did in your country. The report concludes that the Reuters employees were in the company of armed insurgents. Knowing that I was part of the system that took their father away from them and made them lose their house it's heartbreaking. 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." But this particular eventthis is clearly murder. I'm guilty of it, too, myself. 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 . 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. In July 2007, McCord, a 33-year-old Army specialist, was engaged in a firefight with insurgents in an Iraqi suburb when his platoon, part of Bravo Company, 2-16 Infantry, got orders to investigate a nearby street. 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. I went back outside to the van, and that's when the boy took, like, a labored, breath. [84], Finkel had reported the day in his book The Good Soldiers,[62] including conversations which closely matched the subsequently leaked video footage. I have a huge place in my heart for children, having some of my own. [87], McCord discussed his experience in the battle in an interview with the World Socialist Web Site on April 28, 2010, stating, "What happened then was not an isolated incident. [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. "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. He said that the debate should be re-framed, that it is more appropriate to ask "questions of the larger system" that teaches "doing these things is in the best interests of my own country". [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. McCord: I have never seen anybody being shot by a 30-millimeter round before. Though we have acted with cold hearts far too many times, we have not forgotten our actions towards you. 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]. Our government may ignore you, concerned more with its public image. 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. How to Make Sure Youre Not Accidentally Sharing Your Location, Security News This Week: Sensitive US Military Emails Exposed. 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. And I picked him up and started running with him over to the Bradley. In 2009, Stieber left the military as a conscientious objector and became a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War. He is seen swinging the weapon below his waist while standing next to the man holding the RPG". We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C 107. Manning's Providence Inquiry", "US military video showing 2007 Apache attack on Iraqi civilians released", "Leaked video shows US military killing of civilians, Reuters staff", "Permission to Engage: WikiLeaks collateral murder footage examined", "US soldier linked to Iraq helicopter video leak charged", "Leaked U.S. video shows deaths of Reuters' Iraqi staffers", "WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange tells Colbert permission to engage was given before the word RPG was ever used", "Leaked video reveals chaos of Baghdad attack", Investigation into Civilian Casualties Resulting from an Engagement on 12 July 2007 in the New Baghdad District of Baghdad, Iraq, "Gates said leaked military video of shooting in Iraq doesn't show the broader picture of Americans being fired upon", "Records released to the public, under the FOIA, that are or will likely become the subject of subsequent requests", "July 12, 2007 Baghdad airstrike transcript", "Video expands notoriety of WikiLeaks site", "WikiLeaks reveals video showing US air crew shooting down Iraqi civilians", "The pictures that prove US helicopter gunships opened fire on Iraqi civilians", "Calls for inquiry into Apache attack on Iraqi civilians", "U.S. Military Releases Redacted Records on 2007 Apache Attack, Questions Linger", "Wikileaks reveals video showing US air crew shooting down Iraqi civilians", "Video shows deaths of two Reuters journalists in Iraq in 2007", "Massacre Caught on Tape: US Military Confirms Authenticity of Their Own Chilling Video Showing Killing of Journalists", "Military Raises Questions About Credibility of Leaked Iraq Shooting Video", 'Let Us Shoot': US Troops Fire On Journalists, Legal Glance on the Baghdad Helicopter Shooting | Peanik, "U.S. 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 think it is good that they're putting this stuff out there. Ad Choices, U.S. "[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. [104][105][106][107] Pursuant to a commutation by President Obama, Chelsea Manning was released on May 17, 2017. Wired.com: Have you heard from any other soldiers since the video came out? When we were on that roof, we were still taking fire. (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. McCord's courage and integrity has nothing to do with his US army training. They're trained as soldiers to go into a building and clear a building. It was more of a child who was frightened out of her mind. Seven men (including Noor-Eldeen) were killed during this first strike; Saeed Chmagh, who was injured, later died in a hospital. That classified video created its own firestorm when the whistleblower site Wikileaks posted it April 5 on a website titled "Collateral Murder" and asserted that the attack was unprovoked. [78] Gates stated: "They're in a combat situation. But youyou talked about the fog of war. I wasn't thinking about it as much. That's the hard part to swallow. According to Tom Raju, a reporter at CNN, "the soldiers of Bravo Company, 216 Infantry had been under fire all morning from rocket-propelled grenades and small arms on the first day of Operation Ilaaj in Baghdad". 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]. McCord is the father of three children. 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 . 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. 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. Colbert asked "So 'Collateral Murder' is to get political impact?" They're like, oh yeah, we're the "collateral murder" company. Ethan and Josh claim that though their unit was following the Rules of Engagement that day, they are taking responsibility for their role in the incident and initiating a dialogue around it; "Though we have acted with cold hearts far too many times, we have not forgotten our actions towards you. I was up on a rooftop at that time. This is his account of what he saw. They did have weapons there. You joke about the situations and what's happened to push away your true feelings of the matter. After the non-combatants were clear Crazyhorse 1/8 engaged the targets. I think it is good that they're putting this stuff out there. "[88] McCord also recalled being ordered to "kill every motherfucker on the street" in the event of an attack on their convoy. I know the van, I know the faces of everybody that was there that day. We lost our country and our lives were destroyed. Ethan and Josh are available for interviews. However, personally I don't feel that the attack on the van was warranted. It shouldn't have surprised you what you saw. [16][18][30] After the lead helicopter fires, one of the crew shouts "Hahaha. And then the father, who I'm assuming was the father, in the driver's seat slumped over on his side. Now, as far as rules of engagement, [Iraqis] are not supposed to pick up the wounded. However, I don't feel that the attack on the [rescue] van was necessary. [116] The military did not include the attack on the building in their report. The crew then reposition the helicopter and fire two more missiles into the upper floors of the building[44], WikiLeaks said in the preface to one of their videos of the incident 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. The Web site does not slow down the video to show that at least one man in that group was carrying a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, a clearly visible weapon that runs nearly two-thirds the length of his body. 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. WIRED is where tomorrow is realized. They're smoking you, they're making you tired. 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. Michael Bailey a medic who treated some of. If you or I saw someone wounded on the ground what is your first inkling? As Russia has accelerated its cyberattacks on its neighbor, it's barraged the country with an unprecedented volume of different data-destroying programs. It could be that since he and Amelia (Sigrid Thornton) have quit. WikiLeaks also does not point out that at least one man was carrying an AK-47 assault rifle. As the killing goes on, you obviously would see the killing of men who are lying on the ground in an operation where ground troops are approaching and perfectly capable of taking those people captive, but meanwhile you're murdering before the troops arrive. A passing van then stopped and attempted to load a wounded man. The WIRED conversation illuminates how technology is changing every aspect of our livesfrom culture to business, science to design. [43] He walks into a building which has been identified as the source of fire at U.S. ground troops. I hit 'em" and another member of the crew responds "Oh yeah, look at those dead bastards".[29]. [18][25][31] Chmagh was killed[18][25][31] along with three other men, while two children, not known to be in the van to the U.S. forces, were injured. You don't just take somebody's life and then go on about your business for the rest of the day. Tasked to conduct escort, armed reconnaissance patrols, and counter-IED and counter-mortar operations, the two helicopters left Camp Taji at 9:24a.m. McCord: I've spoken with one of the medics who was there. Our secretary of defense may say the U.S. won't lose its reputation over this, but we stand and say that our reputation's importance pales in comparison to our common humanity. [17], In an interview with Fox News Assange said that "it's likely some of the individuals seen in the video were carrying weapons" and "based upon visual evidence I suspect there probably were AKs and an RPG, but I'm not sure that means anything. 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. We have asked our fellow veterans and service-members, as well as civilians both in the United States and abroad, to sign in support of this letter, and to offer their names as a testimony to our common humanity, to distance ourselves from the destructive policies of our nation's leaders, and to extend our hands to you. [32], On the day of the attack the U.S. military reported that the two journalists were killed along with nine insurgents, and that the helicopter engagement was related to a U.S. troop raid force that had been attacked by small-arms fire and RPGs. In the video, you can clearly see that they did have weapons to the trained eye. 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. The Apache crew then alerted the ground troops that they believed that they could see an injured child moving around inside the destroyed van. 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. 2023 Cond Nast. Seven men were killed, including Noor-Eldeen and Chmagh, with three others being wounded. [60] The Pentagon eventually blocked the FOIA request[25] despite several follow-up requests by Reuters. 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. [22], In the video on the morning of July 12, 2007, the crews of two United States Army AH-64 Apache helicopters observe a gathering of men near a section of Baghdad in the path of advancing U.S. ground troops, some armed with AKMs and RPGs. [18][25][31] As the U.S. soldiers moved towards the site of the attack, a van stopped near Chmagh. 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. The footage was portrayed as classified,[7] but the individual who leaked it, U.S. Army soldier Chelsea Manning,[a] testified in 2013 that the video was not classified. Soldier on 2007 Apache Attack: What I Saw", "Redacted internal US Army report: "Investigation into Civilian Casualties Resulting from an Engagement on 12 July 2007 in the New Baghdad District of Baghdad", "WikiLeaks releases video of slaughter in Iraq", "Military shooting of Reuters men online", "Joan Smith: Now we see what war does to those who wage it", "US soldier on Baghdad airstrike: "Not out of the ordinary in Iraq", "2 soldiers in 'Collateral Murder' video apologize. Smith describes this reaction as inhuman. [67], WikiLeaks released a 39-minute version, which shows all three incidents, and a 17-minute version, which shows only the first two incidents. 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. They also found two Canon EOS digital cameras with telephoto lenses. And With Reason", July 12, 2007 Baghdad airstrike radio traffic, US intelligence analyst arrested over Wikileaks video, WikiLeaks editor on Apache combat video: No excuse for US killing civilians, Families of Victims of 2007 US Helicopter Killing React to Leaked Video, Ethan McCord Describes Emotional Toll of Witnessing Killings, 'Collateral Murder' in Baghdad Anything But, Use of white phosphorus by the United States, United States and the International Criminal Court, A Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq, "The wrong war, at the wrong place, at the wrong time", AfghanIraqi Freedom Memorial (Salem, Oregon), The Iraq War: A Historiography of Wikipedia Changelogs, Democratic National Committee v. Russian Federation, WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=July_12,_2007,_Baghdad_airstrike&oldid=1140602029, Articles with dead external links from May 2019, Articles with permanently dead external links, Articles with dead external links from July 2022, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Press reports of the number killed vary from 12, Representation (including audio) by Banksy, October 9, 2013. 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. 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. For instance, the Web site takes special care to slow down the video and identify the two photographers and the cameras they are carrying. It's painful to see, especially when you learn after the fact what was going on. [19], As the tape resumes, two men, one holding an AK-47, are seen walking. Assange responded:[69][70]. Two children were found in the van, a four-year-old girl with gunshot wounds and embedded windscreen glass wounds and an eight-year-old boy with multiple wounds, including brain damage arising from shrapnel damage to his right temporal lobe. I was told to go pull security on a rooftop. On the same day as the NPR interview, Finkel was asked how he had seen the unedited video and whether WikiLeaks had shown it to him. The girl suffered from a stomach wound and glass in her eyes, and the boy a head injury. There's no easy way to kill somebody. 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. 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. McCord: I wasn't around that building when it happened. I was also told that there would be repercussions if I was to go to mental health. Responsibility for civilian deaths in such encounters rests with those who violate the rules of war. For about 5 to 10 minutes the team diverted its attention to this vehicle. It's very disturbing. "[76], Captain Jack Hanzlik, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command stated that the airstrike video "gives you a limited perspective, [it] only tells you a portion of the activity that was happening that day. How is this guy supposed to [decide] should I stop and pick them up, or is the military going to shoot me? There's also some soldiers who joke about it [as a] coping mechanism. The men become obscured behind a building as the Apache moves around the group. With Russia regularly knocking out Ukraines power grid, the country has turned to high-capacity batteries to keep it connected to the worldand itself. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. [2], After the U.S. military concluded that the actions of the soldiers were in accordance with the law of armed conflict and its own "Rules of Engagement", WikiLeaks released the classified Rules of Engagement for 2006, 2007 and 2008, revealing the rules before, during, and after the attacks. I always questioned it in the back of my mind. 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. 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 .
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