Wired.com: But you had been in combat before. [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. [110], Mark Taylor, an international law expert and a director at the Fafo Institute for International Studies in Norway, told Al Jazeera "there's a case to be made that a war crime may have been committed." They arrived on station in New Baghdad at 9:53a.m., where sporadic attacks on coalition forces continued. They also found 10-year-old Sajad Mutashar and his five-year-old sister Doaha covered in blood in a van. "[88] McCord also recalled being ordered to "kill every motherfucker on the street" in the event of an attack on their convoy. But for Army veteran Ethan McCord, it was just another day on duty. 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. Josh states that these casualties demonstrate the impact of U.S. military policy on both the civilians and the soldiers on the ground. It was pretty much a shock when we got there to see what had happened, the carnage and everything else. He's no longer in the Army. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. It didn't seem real, in the sense that it didn't look like human beings. Two men assisting in the rescue effort were from a group of five standing at an intersection seen in the upper right corner of the video when the Reuters employees arrive in the courtyard reported to Apaches as being a second position combatants were using to attack the Humvee. That's the hard part to swallow. 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. [23] Among the group are two journalists working for Reuters, Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh. It was sent back for more reporting in an effort to incorporate a wider range of experts. 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. 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. Minutes after the first engagement ended, the van returned traveling in an opposite direction (north) once again on this same road. [32], U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates criticized WikiLeaks for releasing the video without providing any context. One second later he screams, "He's got an RPG!" The film received an Oscar nomination in January. When a congressman tried to jail him for his actions that day he . McCord was captured in a video shot from one helicopter as he ran frantically to a military vehicle with Sajad in his arms seeking medical care. 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. 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. McCord: There were approximately two to three other people who were moving who were still somewhat alive, and the medics were attending to them. The Wikileaks videos also do not reveal the hundreds upon hundreds of cases in which American forces refrain from attacking targets precisely because civilians are in harm's way.[80]. 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. She concluded that command structures need to be in place to identify "combatants with serious psychological problems". (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. 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. She was crying. The flood of emotions came back. Wired.com: How much sniper fire were you getting? [19], As the tape resumes, two men, one holding an AK-47, are seen walking. 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. McCord: I've spoken with one of the medics who was there. 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. 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. She draws parallels with soldiers who suffered post-traumatic stress disorder in earlier wars. And cracking jokes is a way of pushing that stuff down. I always questioned it in the back of my mind. [29], A crew member requests authorization to engage after seeing five or six of the men moving in the direction of U.S. That's a violation of the laws of war and of course what the mainstream media have omitted from their stories is this context. [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. 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. It's obviously a hard thing to see. There had been running gun battles. [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. [117], In June 2011 the Federation of German Scientists (VDW) awarded the "Whistleblower Award" to the person who made the video Collateral Murder public via WikiLeaks. We heard the gunships open up. FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Vehicle; "When I saw those kids, all I could picture was my kids back home". It was nominated as a Documentary Short Subject for the 84th Academy Awards. Tasked to conduct escort, armed reconnaissance patrols, and counter-IED and counter-mortar operations, the two helicopters left Camp Taji at 9:24a.m. Since then, McCord has been receiving threats to him and his family on a regular basis. Assange responded:[69][70]. He kept saying, we were there, we know the truth, they're saying there was no weapons, there was. [61] Speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, a U.S. Defense official confirmed the authenticity of the leaked audio and video. Both of these men, Chmagh and Tomal, were killed in the second strike, and two of Tomal's children were badly wounded. 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. When they arrived, they found a scene of fresh carnage the scattered remains of a group of men, believed to be armed, who had just been gunned down by Apache attack helicopters. [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". Towards the end of the show, the star actor became an active member of the Screen Actors Guild and after he left "Adam-12." Highlighted in the 17-minute version of the video are Noor-Eldeen with a camera and Chmagh talking on his mobile phone. "[90], James Spione made a short documentary film about the airstrikes called Incident in New Baghdad, featuring a first-person account from Ethan McCord. 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. 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. The ground troops that secured the site of the first two strikes then receive small arms fire from nearby buildings. [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. [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. Plus: Irans secret torture black sites, hacking a bank account with AI-generated voice, and Lance Bass unhinged encounter in Russia. [32] Assange also said "it's ludicrous to allege that we have taken anything out of context in this video". They wrote that:[71][72][73][74]. "Our forces were engaged in combat all that day with individuals that fit the description of the men in that video. 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: I wasn't around that building when it happened. Our heavy hearts still hold hope that we can restore inside our country the acknowledgment of your humanity, that we were taught to deny. 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. US Soldiers from Wikileaks Collateral Murder Video Apologize. 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. I have a huge place in my heart for children, having some of my own. We humbly ask you what we can do to begin to repair the damage we caused. He looked at me, then his eyes rolled back into this head. 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". "The helicopters were approximately a mile and a half away and they were zooming in on these guys . She continued, "the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are inflicting huge psychological damage on combatants". 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. I was up on a rooftop at that time. There is no bringing back all that was lost. [42] According to the internal legal review, the helicopters engaged a group of armed insurgents, and that some were seen entering a nearby building. 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