The WikiLeaks edited video did not add arrows pointing to these men, or label them, as it did with the men carrying cameras. 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. I don't think that [the] big picture is whether or not [the Iraqis who were killed] had weapons. I can accept their apology, because they saved my children, and if it were not for them, maybe my two little children would be dead. [86], Ethan McCord, the soldier seen in the video carrying the injured boy, recalled in an interview on The Marc Steiner Show that on arrival at the scene, "The first thing I did was run up to the van". Ethan McCord, who was one of the first soldiers on the scene in the 2007 attack, told Wired.com that he saw several weapons at the scene, including a rocket propelled grenade launcher. Ethan McCord pulled your daughter and son from the van, and when doing so, saw the faces of his own children back home. Solemnly and Sincerely, Josh Stieber, former specialist, U.S. Army Ethan McCord, former specialist, U.S. Army. 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. [43] It concluded that an investigating officer would want to know how the armed men were identified as combatants from the earlier engagement; would question the nature of the collateral-damage estimate carried out by the crew before the missiles were launched; and would wish to determine whether a missile attack was a proportionate response to the threat. And I picked him up and started running with him over to the Bradley. The girl suffered from a stomach wound and glass in her eyes, and the boy a head injury. [18] Al Jazeera stated that the Army had received "reports of small arms fire", but were unable to positively identify the gunmen. 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. They also found 10-year-old Sajad Mutashar and his five-year-old sister Doaha covered in blood in a van. 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 . She had a stomach wound? Now, as far as rules of engagement, [Iraqis] are not supposed to pick up the wounded. "[31], In May 2011 the Barcelona Human Rights Film Festival awarded the investigative film Collateral murder, Hellfire, done by Kristinn Hrafnsson, WikiLeaks spokesperson, and Ingi Ingason, with the award for International Journalism and Human Rights. [21][79], The New Yorker praised its release, calling it "a striking artifactan unmediated representation of the ambiguities and cruelties of modern warfare".[3]. [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. So I went to a sergeant and asked to see [the mental health person], because I was having a hard time dealing with it. [59] Reuters requested a copy of the full video under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) on the same day. 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. 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. 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. The men become obscured behind a building as the Apache moves around the group. [25] Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com said that "the vast majority of the men were clearly unarmed". I would like the American people and the whole world to understand what happened here in Iraq. ", "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. The Apache crew saw unarmed[25] men exit the vehicle and move to Chmagh. He responded, "I hadn't heard of WikiLeaks before yesterday. [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. [68], Stephen Colbert, in an interview with Assange in April 2010, asked him about the title: "You have edited this tape, and you have given it a title called 'Collateral Murder'. WIRED may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. 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". BACKGROUND ON JOSH STIEBER: Branch of service: United States Army (USA) Unit: 1st ID Rank: Spc. 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. They split up and the footage follows one who appears to be armed. Inside 'Adam-12' Star, Kent McCord caught the attention of TV lovers when he popularized the "Jim Reed" character in 1968's "Adam-12." McCord maintained the role for seven seasons till the show ended in 1975. You can hear the medic saying on the video, "There's nothing I can do here, she needs to be evac'd." [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. We are both soldiers who occupied your neighborhood for 14 months. She said that she was "aghast" at Finkel's portrayal of 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". The review was not released in full until 2010, after the video of the incident had been released by WikiLeaks. As the ground troops advanced, a wounded Chmagh was seen crawling and attempting to stand. 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. [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. If you or I saw someone wounded on the ground what is your first inkling? "[90], James Spione made a short documentary film about the airstrikes called Incident in New Baghdad, featuring a first-person account from Ethan McCord. What was shown in the Wikileaks video only begins to depict the suffering we have created. McCord: My platoon sergeant knew that I was having a hard time with it and that same night he came into the room and he told me, hey, just so you know, both of the children survived, so you can suck it up now. In an interview on NPR on April 6, the day after the Collateral Murder video release, David Finkel said that the Reuters reporters were not embedded with anyone, but working independently. The ground troops that secured the site of the first two strikes then receive small arms fire from nearby buildings. It was sent back for more reporting in an effort to incorporate a wider range of experts. 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. "I grabbed him and ran to the Bradley myself". 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. McCord added, "I don't say that Wikileaks did a bad thing, because they didn't. After the non-combatants were clear Crazyhorse 1/8 engaged the targets. [19], The events between the attack on the van and the attack on the building (approximately 30 minutes) were not captured on the leaked video footage. [81], Publicity of the incident ballooned following the release of the footage. Wired.com: Do you support Wikileaks in releasing this video? McCord is the father of three children. [28] Noor-Eldeen has a camera and Chmagh is talking on his mobile phone. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. When Bravo Company arrived at the scene, they reported finding two RPGs and an AK-47 or AKM. Soldier Ethan McCord's Eyewitness Story, "Shadowed, Clamoring, Blurry. 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. So, the first thing I did was grab the girl. [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. [49], On Democracy Now!, Josh Stieber, who was at the time assigned to Bravo Company 216, said that although it's natural to "judge or criticize the soldiers", in fact "this is how [they] were trained to act". The owner told him that three families were living in the building and seven residents had died, including his wife and daughter. Instead, the Apaches decided to completely obliterate everybody in the van. He is seen swinging the weapon below his waist while standing next to the man holding the RPG. Wired.com: Did you try to get information about the two children after the shooting? [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. Wired.com: Have you heard from any other soldiers since the video came out? [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. With such pain, friendship might be too much to ask. 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. 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. [92], On February 28, 2013, Manning pleaded guilty to 10 of 22 specified charges. "[32][77] He said that WikiLeaks "does not point out that at least one man was carrying an AK-47 assault rifle. McCord: When it was first released I don't think it was done in the best manner that it could have been. So if people have a different opinion, the full material is there for them to analyse and assess. He's no longer in the Army. Ethan and Josh are available for interviews. We've been there for so long now and it seems like nothing is being accomplished whatsoever, except for we're making more people hate us. [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. 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. [116] The military did not include the attack on the building in their report. 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