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Collateral Murder

OkemOkem 4,617 Posts
edited April 2010 in Strut Central
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.http://collateralmurder.com/Bellow is said video. You may, or may not, want to watch it. But it's seems to be being pretty much ignored by the main news outlets (apart from Al jazeera), guess it's literally just old news and 'Tiger Woods plays golf' is much more relevant.***JUST TO REITERATE. VIDEO IS OF ACTUAL COMBAT FOOTAGE WHICH IS PRETTY DISTURBING***

  Comments

  • hertzhoghertzhog 865 Posts
    Sick fuckers.

    "It's their fault for bringing their kids to a battle."

    "I don't know how the children got hurt." -Major Brent Cummings

    Gee, Major, maybe it has something to do with your "rules of engagement" AKA kill at will.
  • HamHam 872 Posts
    when the man is crawling on the ground, and they're like "all you have to do is reach for a gun..."
  • rootlesscosmorootlesscosmo 12,848 Posts
    who is talking in this clip? the guys in the chopper seem to be talking to someone who may be on the ground (in addition to someone back at the base or whatever?).

    I can see how dude at 4:09 peering around the bldg could be mistaken for armed with something. sure doesn't look long enough to be an RPG though.

    very sad but "murder" is not the right word, at least not until there's an investigation. a defense attorney could do a lot with this tape/transcript IMO.

    (I only watched thru the initial round of fire BTW.)
  • 4YearGraduate4YearGraduate 2,945 Posts
    That was f*cking horrifying jesus christ wtf this war needs to stop NOW
  • OkemOkem 4,617 Posts
    RC click on the link in the post, it'll take you to the Wikileaks site which has a transcript (with info of who's speaking).
  • rootlesscosmorootlesscosmo 12,848 Posts
    will do.
  • CosmoCosmo 9,768 Posts
    That was f*cking horrifying jesus christ wtf this war needs to stop NOW

    Yeah, war is hell.
  • GrafwritahGrafwritah 4,184 Posts
    when the man is crawling on the ground, and they're like "all you have to do is reach for a gun..."

    I hope this only seems brutal "out of context".
  • DocMcCoyDocMcCoy "Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,913 Posts
    This is one of those things, like the clip of Saddam's execution, that I've never felt any need to seek out for myself. There's enough of that kind of thing floating around the net as it is. However, the transcript alone was harrowing enough to seal the deal. Clear and present danger or not, it reads like a bunch of kids who've spent a little too much time on multi-player shoot-em-ups.

    Imagine my surprise, then, to click on a YouTube clip of a discussion of the video on MSNBC, and discover they're showing the "highlights" on a permanent loop at the side of the screen during the discussion. Nice work, guys.

    There are certain things you should reasonably expect to be able to avoid catching involuntary sight of, even on news channels. But when you loop that shit up like it's an animated gif created by some 4chan pondlife f0r t3h lulz, then it's a straight red from me.
  • barjesusbarjesus 872 Posts
    This is one of those things, like the clip of Saddam's execution, that I've never felt any need to seek out for myself. There's enough of that kind of thing floating around the net as it is. However, the transcript alone was harrowing enough to seal the deal. Clear and present danger or not, it reads like a bunch of kids who've spent a little too much time on multi-player shoot-em-ups.

    Imagine my surprise, then, to click on a YouTube clip of a discussion of the video on MSNBC, and discover they're showing the "highlights" on a permanent loop at the side of the screen during the discussion. Nice work, guys.

    There are certain things you should reasonably expect to be able to avoid catching involuntary sight of, even on news channels. But when you loop that shit up like it's an animated gif created by some 4chan pondlife f0r t3h lulz, then it's a straight red from me.
  • RockadelicRockadelic Out Digging 13,993 Posts


    Yeah, war is hell.
  • DORDOR Two Ron Toe 9,899 Posts
    Has anyone been keeping up with the Wikileaks stuff from before this video dropped?

    Crazy stuff really.

    It's like something Tom Clancy wrote. The US government is pulling some crazy shit.
  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts

    Bellow is said video. You may, or may not, want to watch it. But it's seems to be being pretty much ignored by the main news outlets (apart from Al jazeera), guess it's literally just old news and 'Tiger Woods plays golf' is much more relevant.

    Not every main news outlet thinks Tiger Woods is more important.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/world/middleeast/06baghdad.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
  • DORDOR Two Ron Toe 9,899 Posts
    f*cking disgusting.

    I couldn't get through the video. The whole thing makes me ill. And since when is picking up the bodies a reason to engage?

    Sad how most media is not talking about this.

    Drudge =
  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    f*cking disgusting.

    I couldn't get through the video. The whole thing makes me ill. And since when is picking up the bodies a reason to engage?

    Sad how media is not talking about this.

    Drudge =

    The story re: the video broke today and it looks like most news agencies are trying to vet it properly. It's getting out there.

    http://news.google.com/news/more?pz=1&cf=all&topic=w&ncl=dLkypv_fpVZQlDMaE1ud-OlqedM-M
  • faux_rillzfaux_rillz 14,343 Posts

    Sad how most media is not talking about this.

    It's on the front page of the Times.

    What are you looking for, exactly?
  • DORDOR Two Ron Toe 9,899 Posts
    Well, really the story broke awhile ago. It's just the video has finally been released. Like I mentioned above. If anyone has been following the wikileaks shit going down for the past week or two. With the things the government has been up to trying to stop them.
  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    Well, really the story broke awhile ago. It's just the video has finally been released. Like I mentioned above. If anyone has been following the wikileaks shit going down for the past week or two. With the things the government has been up to trying to stop them.

    Look, I'm not about to give the mainstream media a pass on their Iraq coverage since a lot of these outlets were complicit (intentionally or not) on selling a bullshit war to begin with. But it also doesn't make sense to single THIS out as being some super egregious example that's been ignored when you look at the grand arc of war coverage. At the height of the Iraq war, especially during the insurgency, most of the MSM outlets I can think of were running front page stuff on the War EVERYDAY. You couldn't get away from the death count. There were constant stories about all kinds of scandals. The idea that the media was only fixated on [fill in the blank of the latest TMZ/celeb scandal] is revisionist bullshit.

    None of that means the media couldn't have done a *better* job. Of course they could and should have. Since before the invasion. But I don't get how THIS story is so special as to highlight except that there's now video. How many civilians in Iraq were unnecessarily killed? How many journalist? How many times did that become a story? Or not?

    It's not like this was more egregious than stuff that did make it above the fold (example: the Blackwater massacre). The difference, again, is that there's video. That's the story that broke.

    "US military mistakenly kill unarmed civilians", I'm afraid, has become unfailingly ordinary.
  • JimsterJimster Cruffiton.etsy.com 6,890 Posts
    I think once they'd mistook that bloke as having an RPG it was "Kill or be killed". Panic may have set in.

    But it's the gung-ho glee that makes my piss boil. I'd be a lot more hesitant to pull the trigger. But then I guess that's why I'm not out there "Taking scalps".
  • DORDOR Two Ron Toe 9,899 Posts
    That's only part...

    Another main part about the story is the governments involvement with wikileaks.

    Things like US Intelligence plans to destroy Wikileaks which came to light recently.


    Or this http://morgue.isprettyawesome.com/?p=1361
  • DuderonomyDuderonomy Haut de la Garenne 7,784 Posts

    "US military mistakenly kill unarmed civilians", I'm afraid, has become unfailingly ordinary.

    f*cking BULLSHIT. THere's no mistakes involved when the helicopter shoots a van trying to rescue the injured. Dipshit mutherfuckers would do the same to an ambulance probably laughing about how the red cross just makes aiming easier.


    Forgive me for being a pissy euro liberal, but I'm not yet inured enough to this shit to call it ordinary.
  • FrankFrank 2,370 Posts
    Always remember: They hate you because you're free!
  • mickalphabetmickalphabet deep inna majestic segue 374 Posts

    rotten to the core
  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts

    "US military mistakenly kill unarmed civilians", I'm afraid, has become unfailingly ordinary.

    f*cking BULLSHIT. THere's no mistakes involved when the helicopter shoots a van trying to rescue the injured. Dipshit mutherfuckers would do the same to an ambulance probably laughing about how the red cross just makes aiming easier.


    Forgive me for being a pissy euro liberal, but I'm not yet inured enough to this shit to call it ordinary.

    Point taken. Just remove "mistakenly."

    Doesn't change the point though: the military kills civilians all the time. Sometimes it makes the news, sometimes it doesn't. But this incident has become newsworthy because video exists of it and that means the story's timeline began yesterday.
  • DORDOR Two Ron Toe 9,899 Posts
    Less than 24 hours and there doesn't seem like anything on the front page of many US media sites.

    http://www.cnn.com/
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/
    http://abcnews.go.com/

    But I did find out Michael Douglas is no longer leading with his libido .
  • GaryGary 3,982 Posts
    I saw it on the front page of cnn this morning....
  • rootlesscosmorootlesscosmo 12,848 Posts
    Talk of the Nation right now devoted to this issue; interviewing a dude who was there and who has apparently written a book about it.
  • picoandsepulvedapicoandsepulveda 1,026 Posts
    this is crazy.

  • coffinjoecoffinjoe 1,743 Posts
    front page of washington post
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