Ethan Mccord and Josh Stieber deployed to Baghdad with Bravo Company 2-16 in 2007. You can hear the medic saying on the video, "There's nothing I can do here, she needs to be evac'd." I had blood all down the front of me from the children. "[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. 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. And where the soldier said [in the video], "Well, you shouldn't take your kids to battle." The men become obscured behind a building as the Apache moves around the group. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. The crew for Crazyhorse 1/9 could not engage due to target obfuscation from buildings and dust. 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. I grabbed the medic and we went into the back. There is a period of 20 minutes not included on the leaked tape. [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. Some of them [say] I don't care what anybody says they're not there. Reuters also stated that local police described the attack as "random American bombardment". He added, "I think what this video shows is really a case that challenges whether the laws of war are strict enough. It's very disturbing. [78] Gates stated: "They're in a combat situation. [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". Fox News reported in 2010 that the rules of engagement in Iraq had not been changed since the incident occurred. Bradley Manning acquitted of aiding the enemy, convicted of six counts of espionage", "Bradley Manning acquitted of aiding the enemy for giving secrets to WikiLeaks", "BBC News Bradley Manning guilty of espionage in Wikileaks case", "Manning Gets 35 years for wikileaks disclosures", "Bradley Manning Sentenced To 35 Years In Prison For WikiLeaks Disclosures", "Bradley Manning sentenced to 35 years in prison live updates", "Judge sentences Bradley Manning to 35 years", "Obama commutes Chelsea Manning's prison sentence", "Obama's final press conference: Chelsea Manning commutation is 'appropriate', "The WikiLeaks Video and the Rules of Engagement", "Exclusive: Reuters Chief Spikes Story on Killing of His Own Staffers In Baghdad", "US 'reviewing' Iraq killing video posted on WikiLeaks", "Ingi Ingason Ragnar and Kristinn Hrafnsson awarded International Journalism and Human Rights Award at Barcelona Human Rights Film Festival", "Verleihung des Whistleblower-Preises 2011", Whistleblower-Preis 2011 geht an Kernforscher, Collateral Murder: U.S. [23] Among the group are two journalists working for Reuters, Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh. You joke about the situations and what's happened to push away your true feelings of the matter. The soldier, Ethan McCord, has since been discharged from the military and has been an outspoken voice against the Iraq War. Both of these men, Chmagh and Tomal, were killed in the second strike, and two of Tomal's children were badly wounded. 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. I'm guilty of it, too, myself. [18][24][25][26][27] While the two are carrying media cards, a military officer claimed they were not wearing distinctive clothing identifying themselves as such. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. Fox News later stated that "although it could be argued AK-47 rifles are common household items, RPGs are not". The video doesn't show the broader picture of the firing that was going on at American troops. With such pain, friendship might be too much to ask. [16][18][30] After the lead helicopter fires, one of the crew shouts "Hahaha. [18][25][31] The Apache crew requested permission to engage, stating it "looks like [the men] possibly, picking up bodies and weapons" from the scene,[33] and repeated their request to shoot,[7][34][35][36][37] before they received permission to begin firing on the van and its occupants. 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. . The co-pilot/gunner for Crazyhorse 1/9 spotted three individuals near this building get into a red SUV and drive away to the west. Nearly every Iraqi household has a rifle or an AK. 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. 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. [84], Finkel had reported the day in his book The Good Soldiers,[62] including conversations which closely matched the subsequently leaked video footage. In fact, that's one of the reasons I went to the van immediately, because I could hear her crying. And cracking jokes is a way of pushing that stuff down. There had been running gun battles. James W. McCord Jr., a security expert who led a band of burglars into the shambles of the Watergate scandal and was the first to expose the White House crimes and cover-ups that precipitated the . [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". McCord added, "I don't say that Wikileaks did a bad thing, because they didn't. 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]. I always questioned it in the back of my mind. [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. [32] Assange also said "it's ludicrous to allege that we have taken anything out of context in this video". He was kind of sitting on the floorboard of the van, but with his head laying on the bench seat in the front. [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. [32] The legal review carried out by the U.S. Army stated that the two children were evacuated to the 28th Combat Support Hospital via Forward Operating Base Loyalty, then transferred to an Iraqi medical facility the next day. 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. The missile hits the building, and the man is caught in the explosion. "[112], On April 5, 2010, the same day as the release of the video footage by WikiLeaks, the United States Central Command, which oversees the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, released a collection of documents including two investigative reports. She had a stomach wound? That stays with you. This is the problem that we're speaking out on as far as the rules of engagement. The film received an Oscar nomination in January. She continued, "the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are inflicting huge psychological damage on combatants". Lying dead on a street were inanimate objects that turned out to be. On June 7, 2010, The New Yorker reported that Kristinn Hrafnsson, an investigative reporter who worked on the Collateral Murder video and later became a spokesman for WikiLeaks,[54] said he had found the owner of the building involved in the incident. "[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. 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. Oh well", and a minute later continued, "Well, it's their fault for bringing kids into a battle". More and more Americans are taking responsibility for what was done in our name. After getting permission to fire, the Apache crew fired on the van. There is no bringing back all that was lost. [61], Washington Post reporter David Finkel, who at the time was embedded with Bravo Company 216 Infantry, later covered the incidents of the day in his book, The Good Soldiers. [32], U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates criticized WikiLeaks for releasing the video without providing any context. The breakthroughs and innovations that we uncover lead to new ways of thinking, new connections, and new industries. "I grabbed him and ran to the Bradley myself". 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. After the incident, we went back to the FOB [forward operating base] and that's when I was in my room. 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 . [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. McCord, in New York for the festival premiere, told the story of what he experienced while saving two children wounded in the incident. [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". They're trained as soldiers to go into a building and clear a building. How is this guy supposed to [decide] should I stop and pick them up, or is the military going to shoot me? They wrote that:[71][72][73][74]. [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. "[90], James Spione made a short documentary film about the airstrikes called Incident in New Baghdad, featuring a first-person account from Ethan McCord. They split up and the footage follows one who appears to be armed. It was more of a child who was frightened out of her mind. We are both soldiers who occupied your neighborhood for 14 months. Soldier Ethan McCord speaking about the civilian massacre documented in WikiLeaks's April 2010 vid. Part of Banksy's, This page was last edited on 20 February 2023, at 21:26. 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 think it is good that they're putting this stuff out there. Though we have acted with cold hearts far too many times, we have not forgotten our actions towards you. [92][93] The Internet chats between Manning and Lamo were revealed to the public by Wired. It's very clear that that is the approach, to try and find any mechanism to excuse the behavior, and that is what ended up happening. 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. When we were on that roof, we were still taking fire. 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. Plus: Microsoft fixes several zero-day bugs, Google patches Chrome and Android, Mozilla rids Firefox of a full-screen vulnerability, and more. McCord: There were approximately two to three other people who were moving who were still somewhat alive, and the medics were attending to them. BACKGROUND ON JOSH STIEBER: Branch of service: United States Army (USA) Unit: 1st ID Rank: Spc. As Russia has accelerated its cyberattacks on its neighbor, it's barraged the country with an unprecedented volume of different data-destroying programs. He opened his eyes when I was carrying him. I based the account in my book on multiple sources, all unclassified". 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. 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. 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. Since then, McCord has been receiving threats to him and his family on a regular basis. [47] The Australian newspaper said the group was displaying "no obvious hostile action". Smith describes this reaction as inhuman. Captain James Hall stated they couldn't drive in Bradleys in fear of running over bodies. Their request was denied at the briefing and they were told to seek access under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. "[32][77] He said that WikiLeaks "does not point out that at least one man was carrying an AK-47 assault rifle. [25] Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com said that "the vast majority of the men were clearly unarmed". [108][109], In a June 7, 2010, article in The New Yorker, Raffi Khatchadourian addressed several issues involved in determining the legality of the attacks, including "proportionality", "positive identification" ("reasonable certainty" that the target has hostile intent), and "the treatment of casualties during an ongoing military operation". Wired.com: How much sniper fire were you getting? Forces Clash With Militias", "Reuters seeks U.S. probe into killing of Iraqi staff", "Return to Ward 17: Making peace with lost comrades", "Bradley Manning's statements during his trial", "U.S. gunfire kills two Reuters employees in Baghdad", "WikiLeaks silent on how it broke encryption", "Twitter / WikiLeaks: Have encrypted videos of U", "WikiLeaks posts video of 'US military killings' in Iraq", "Collateral Murder? 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. I did see a video on YouTube after the Wikileaks [ video ] came out, of the children being interviewed. I just kept telling him, "Don't die; don't die." US soldiers Ethan McCord's Eyewitness Story of coming across the aftermath of the infamous Wikileaks Collateral Murder in which over a dozen innocent civilians, 2 of which were Reuters journalists, were killed. "The helicopters were approximately a mile and a half away and they were zooming in on these guys . They were destroyed. How to Make Sure Youre Not Accidentally Sharing Your Location, Security News This Week: Sensitive US Military Emails Exposed. He later sought help for psychological trauma, but was ridiculed by his NCO and told that if he were to go to the mental health officer, "there would be repercussions". 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. http://www.mediasanctuary.orghttp://www.wikileaks.org U.S. I've had nightmares. "[32], The Guardian stated "It is unclear if some of the men are armed but Noor-Eldeen can be seen with a camera". [59], An internal legal review by staff at Forward Operating Base Loyalty in Iraq during July 2007 stated that the helicopters had attacked a number of armed insurgents within the rules of engagement, and that in an apparent case of civilian casualties two reporters working for Reuters had also been killed. Lawmakers are increasingly hellbent on punishing the popular social network while efforts to pass a broader privacy law have dwindled. [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. The owner told him that three families were living in the building and seven residents had died, including his wife and daughter. 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]. Wired.com: Do you support Wikileaks in releasing this video? [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. Solemnly and Sincerely, Josh Stieber, former specialist, U.S. Army Ethan McCord, former specialist, U.S. Army. The girl suffered from a stomach wound and glass in her eyes, and the boy a head injury. [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. You are seeing only a very narrow picture of the events". I don't think that [the] big picture is whether or not [the Iraqis who were killed] had weapons. [21][79], The New Yorker praised its release, calling it "a striking artifactan unmediated representation of the ambiguities and cruelties of modern warfare".[3]. "[111] An article at Gawker stated that Reuters reporter Luke Baker had written an article claiming that the airstrikes may have been war crimes, but Reuters refused to run the story. 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. [15] An anonymous U.S. military official confirmed the authenticity of the footage,[16] which provoked global discussion on the legality and morality of the attacks. Rifles are common household items, RPGs are not '' for releasing the video does n't show broader. Her crying out, of the page across from the what happened to ethan mccord title receiving threats to him and his on. 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