The panel on the Dylan Ratigan show discussed the newly released video by WikiLeaks and the implications it might have for the United States and rules of engagement in these occupations of ours. As Glenn Greenwald points out, unfortunately this sort of incident is all too common and this kind of footage is seen all the time in the Muslim world and all too rarely in the United States. More from Glenn at Salon:
WikiLeaks releases video of slaughter in Iraq:
Earlier today, I wrote about the cover-up by the U.S. military in Afghanistan of the deaths of five civilians, the Pentagon's forced retraction of its story, and the way in which the U.S. media (as usual) mindlessly disseminated their original false claims.
Those two stories came together perfectly when WikiLeaks today released a video of the U.S. military, from an Apache helicopter, slaughtering civilians in Iraq in 2007 -- including a Reuters photojournalist and his driver -- and then killing and wounding several Iraqis who, minutes later, showed up at the scene to carry away the dead and wounded (including two of their children). The video (posted below) is truly gruesome and difficult even for the most hardened person to watch, but it should be viewed by everyone with responsibility for what the U.S. has done in Iraq and Afghanistan (i.e., every American citizen). Reuters has been attempting for two years to obtain this video through a FOIA request, but has been met with stonewalling by the U.S. military. As Dan Froomkin documents, the videotape demonstrates that military officials made outright false statements about what happened here and were clearly engaged in a cover-up: exactly as is true for the Afghanistan incident I wrote about earlier today, which should be read in conjunction with this post. Read on...
Ratigan promised there would be more discussion on his show throughout the week and I hope that's true. It's a sorry indictment of our media in the United States that it takes an organization like WikiLeaks breaking this instead of the public being shown that this type of tragedy is all too often the result of our military occupations by our sorry excuses for "news" organizations. They're too busy chasing around Tiger Woods or allowing politicians and pundits to fill the airways spouting tired talking points.
Collateral Murder:
5th April 2010 10:44 EST WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad -- including two Reuters news staff.
Reuters has been trying to obtain the video through the Freedom of Information Act, without success since the time of the attack. The video, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-site, clearly shows the unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers. Two young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded. Read on...
(Warning... very violent and definitely not safe for work.)
