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 ...
Bleeding heart, liberal, panty waste sleeper agent detected?
People who claim these Iraqis had no weapons— you must be blind. I’m no military expert, but I clearly saw 2 AK47’s and an RPG.
God bless our troops.
And all the more so as it is readily apparent from the video that those men were gathering together there in the street for a Bible study.
Cordially,
LerbertarianJoe too... one of ths CodePinko Paulbots that can’t surrender fast enough.
Great job. Thanks.
These pilots thought these were insurgents whom were firing on US Troops and from what I’ve read it seems that they were. The journalists were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Referring to the video? I watched the whole thing & saw no ambush. What I did see was people calmly walking down the middle of the street, bunched up in a group, chatting with each other. Not exactly the actions you'd expect from veteran ambushers.
And you might want to avoid using your RPG for your plinking and target practice
Is possession of an RPG illegal in Iraq? What authority does the US have to enforce Iraqi RPG-possession laws? Is the penalty for possession death without arrest, trial & conviction?
...avoid looking to chummy with the CodePink loonies who are walking about your property with their assault rifles and RPG launchers
Don't have much use for loonie codepinkers, but I'd probably prefer hanging with them over the type of sick, sadistic, bloodthirsty freaks who'd cheer what was in that video.
It's OK though. One of the purposes of Iraq/Afghanistan is to desensitize our imperial troops to firing on civilians - don't want them hesitating when prez osama orders them to fire on that tea party rally, or that Ron Paul rally, or that NRA meeting, or etc, etc, etc.
New attacks in Baghdad, including a big one today, are showing that Bozo is snatching defeat out of victory in Iraq. We can't have that now can we?
He/she won't change their tune, frankiep is obviously a left wing troll crying in his/her beer that some terrorists and idiotic journalists were killed while trying to ambush American troops.
What a putz. You are obviously on the wrong forum, DU is easily accessible and you would probably be much happier on that site, along with the other left wing pretenders who are crying over this “slaughter” that was debunked by the military in 2007. It was a legitimate engagement but if you choose not to believe that then fine, that is your prerogative, just don’t expect us to cheer your sick fantasies(and they are sick)on while you do so.
that's so retarded I owe ya for the laugh, buddy!
I am one of those "imperial troops", I support and defend the Constitution, would shoot the first person that gives me an unlawful order to kill a civilian (esp. on American soil), and I detest your slandering of our armed forces. Take your thorozine and lithium and GO TO HELL.
Its idiots like you that ruin the libertarian party and philosophy. Go back to your bong and leave FR to the responsible adults.
Dont be so melodramatic, the army wouldnt do such a thing...
but the ATF might happen to show up just in time to watch you "commit suicide" by burning down your "white supremacy militia compound"...
It wasn't a traffic accident, friend, it was a combat zone, and if you're going to be picking up wounded people in a combat zone, you'd better have a clear marking on the top of your vehicle.
bfl
“What authority does the US have to enforce Iraqi RPG-possession laws? Is the penalty for possession death without arrest, trial & conviction?”
I suppose you would be willing to wait until they torched one off at you or one of your buddies, eh?
I’m glad we never served together.
By the way, combat troops aren’t cops. It isn’t their job to arrest anyone.
Of course you saw no ambush. The ambush occurred before the Apaches arrived on the scene. The Apaches arrived on the scene IN RESPONSE to a call for help from the troops on the ground. It would be quite a feat if the video system on the Apaches were capable of recording the events that occurred prior to their arrival.
Wow, with statements like that even the Losertarian Paulinistas are going to tell you to quit drinking the bong water.
Frankie,
Please check out the 2:05 - 2:24 time frame on the video you linked to. You will notice that this segment has a nice, easy to see video of a guy carrying then loading an RPG while another guy with an AK stands next to him. At the 19:21 mark the Bushmaster team clearing the area can be heard discussing an unexploded RPG grenade under one of the bodies.
I know that you WANT this to be a tape of innocents being killed so that you can continue to stoke the fires of anti-American rage burning in your heart but the fact of the matter is that this was a good and necessary shoot.
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