Posted on 04/06/2010 4:17:28 AM PDT by Bulldawg Fan
The investigative organization WikiLeaks on Monday released military video of what it describes as three incidents of an "indiscriminate slaying" by U.S. forces near Baghdad on July 12, 2007.
WikiLeaks says the encounters killed as many as 25 civilians, including two Reuters journalists. The U.S. military said in a statement at the time that a total of 11 people died in the strikes conducted by U.S. and Iraqi forces, including two Reuters employees.
The video, obtained by WikiLeaks, is shot from two Apache helicopters on patrol in Iraq. The choppers were responding to reports of AK-47 gunfire in the suburb of New Baghdad when military personnel on board spotted a group of nine to 12 persons, including what turned out to be the two Reuters photographers, walking through a courtyard. A military official confirmed the authenticity of the footage to Fox News.
The military contends that the U.S. followed the appropriate "Rules of Engagement" for these episodes. In fact at the time, the Pentagon says U.S. troops were hit by rocket-propelled grenades (RPG's) and small arms fire while caught in a clash with Shia insurgents.
"There is no question that coalition forces were clearly engaged in combat operations against a hostile force," said multinational forces spokesman Lt. Col. Scott Bleichwehl in July, 2007.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
My reaction? Good shooting guys.
Disappointing to see Fox News fall for this crap with the headline ....”unarmed...” I expect better from them, but sometimes they look just like their competitors at the other worthless media outlets.
LLS
Why is it that journalists, politicians, and pro athletes simply cannot understand the old saying "Play Stupid Games, Win Stupid Prizes"?
Unarmed? It looks like several of them are carrying AK-47s and one has a RPG.
If they aren’t equally armed, they are unamred! /MSM think
just finished watching the video. Truly disgusting.
LLS
If it walks like a duck and is in the company of ducks and you have a duck hunting license then it becomes meat on the table.
Rooters ‘journalists’ are usually up to no good.
It’s a war. By the way, I’ve noticed less Reuters stories. Excellent.
Obviously eight men kneeling at a corner are up to no good.
Looks to me like the Reuters bunch were in on it, they were going video the attack on the US Bradley’s. I guess they didn’t get they’re exclusive?
I can't watch the video at work, but if it doesn't show the whole engagement from start to finish, it's worthless. Whose to say that ground troops didn't see these folks with weapons 10 seconds before the helo's cameras came on? What if they were walking out of a building where shots had been fired seconds before?
Where did you see that. The Fox News story still photo doesn’t indicate anything.
Regardless, no series of videos or stills can accurately convey the information available to the combattants at the time. And Reuters’ stringers were and are indistinguishable from the public relations arm of Islamic terrorists. If they run with terrorists, what else can they expect?
This is like that journalist who was killed by tank cannon fire during the battle for Baghdad. There were people in the same hotel firing at American forces, apparently depending on the presence of “journalists” in the hotel to impart some sort of immunity from counterfire. Bad calculation for the sniper and the “journalist”/human sheild.
Eight men kneeling at a corner? Did you even watch the video. It was a group of people standing around in the shade in front of a building talking when they were shot down. Then when a van, that also had two children sitting in the front, came to help the wounded the shooting started again. All the while those doing the shooting were laughing about the whole thing.
This is just sick beyond words.
Even if it did, it does not prove anything. No video can capture everything that transpired.
Another thing to remember. In previous wars our response would be to level the city with carpet bombing, not conduct surgical strikes on individuals.
War is an ugly, filthy business and the Marquis of Queensbury is just some fag living a couple of blocks away(to paraphrase J. Wambaugh)
My Drill Sgt taught us, many moons ago, that the best place to shoot a man is in the back, and the best time is when he least expects it. It was and is very good advice.
I saw the whole 17 minute video on the Woodward report which was linked to Youtube.
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