US Military kill Reuters Journalists
A graphic video circulating on the internet shows the US military killing a Reuters photographer and his driver on a Baghdad street in 2007. The video, confirmed as authentic by the US military, shows repeated fire by two US Apache helicopters on a group of men including two unarmed Reuters employees, Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh.
The website WikiLeaks.org released the video yesterday after the US army had refused repeated requests by Reuters to provide the footage. WikiLeaks said it had obtained the video from “a number of military whistleblowers” after breaking the military encryption code of a black-and-white video recorded by the gun camera of at least one of the Apache helicopters involved.
The footage shows a group of men walking together on a Baghdad street with no obvious hostile action. The US army crew aboard one of the Apache helicopters assumes they are insurgents and mistakes photographer Noor-Eldeen’s camera slung over his shoulder, with its large lens, for a weapon.
The crew identify what they believe are “five to six individuals with AK-47s” before receiving permission to open fire from ground controllers.
“Look at those dead bastards,” one helicopter pilot says afterwards. Another replies: “Nice . . . good shootin’.”
The video then shows a lone wounded man among the dead, believed to be Chmagh, crawling on the road. The pilots appear eager to shoot again. “All you got to do is pick up a weapon,” one says.
Soon after, a dark van arrives. Two apparently unarmed men get out, pick up the wounded man and bring him back to the van. The Apache crew gain ground control permission to fire again, blasting multiple times and destroying the van.
When a US armoured vehicle later arrives to check the scene, its driver appears to run over one of the bodies. One helicopter pilot appears amused. “I think they just drove over a body,” he says.
US soldiers on the ground discover two wounded children in the van, and orders are given to evacuate them to hospital. “Well, it’s their fault for bringing their kids into battle,” says one pilot.
Reuters news editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said in a statement yesterday that the deaths three years ago of Noor-Eldeen, 22, and his driver, Chmagh, 40, were “graphic evidence of the dangers involved in war journalism and the tragedies that can result”.
A US military investigation at the time of the killings found the Apache helicopter crews involved had no reason to know that Reuters staff were among the group on the street. No action was taken against the crews.
An edited US military report issued yesterday, including statements from the Apache crews, said machine guns and grenades were found near the bodies.
It said the Reuters employees had made no attempt to display their status as media. “Their familiar behaviour with, and close proximity to, the armed insurgents, and their furtive attempts to photograph the coalition ground forces, made them appear as hostile combatants to the Apaches that engaged them.”
The military did not reveal how the Reuters staff were killed, and stated that they did not know how the children were injured.
After demands by Reuters, the incident was investigated and 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”.
Consequently, WikiLeaks has released the classified Rules of Engagement for 2006, 2007 and 2008, revealing these rules before, during, and after the killings.
WikiLeaks has released both the original 38 minutes video and a shorter version with an initial analysis. Subtitles have been added to both versions from the radio transmissions.
WikiLeaks obtained this video as well as supporting documents from a number of military whistleblowers and wish to ensure that all the leaked information it receives gets the attention it deserves. In this particular case, some of the people killed were journalists that were simply doing their jobs: putting their lives at risk in order to report on war. Iraq is a very dangerous place for journalists: from 2003- 2009, 139 journalists were killed while doing their work.
For more information on this issue from WikiLeaks go to the site they’ve set up for it’s exposure at: http://www.collateralmurder.com/
