But this particular eventthis is clearly murder. When he is rescued, suddenly that belief changed. We were engaged in our own conflict roughly about three or four blocks away. McCord: I wasn't around that building when it happened. [15] An anonymous U.S. military official confirmed the authenticity of the footage,[16] which provoked global discussion on the legality and morality of the attacks. The company was supported by two Apache helicopters from the 1st Cavalry Division's Aviation Brigade, call signs "Crazyhorse 1/8" and "Crazyhorse 1/9". [23] Among the group are two journalists working for Reuters, Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh. Ethan McCord pulled your daughter and son from the van, and when doing so, saw the faces of his own children back home. One of the first soldiers on the scene after the air attack, Ethan McCord, is now the subject of a short documentary, Incident in New Baghdad, which will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. The crew then reposition the helicopter and fire two more missiles into the upper floors of the building[44], WikiLeaks said in the preface to one of their videos of the incident that "some of the men appear to have been armed [although] the behavior of nearly everyone was relaxed" in the introductory text of the shorter video. [32], U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates criticized WikiLeaks for releasing the video without providing any context. He runs the girl to the Bradley. It's very disturbing. [81] They also found two Canon EOS digital cameras with telephoto lenses. Noor-Eldeen fails to photograph the Apache but three pictures of the U.S. Humvee appear on his camera's memory card when it was recovered by U.S. soldiers. [17] Politifact stated: "When Assange points out in the context of justifying the title 'Collateral Murder' that the word 'RPG' was not used until after permission to engage was given, he leaves the impression that the soldiers were given the okay to open fire on a group of unarmed men, or men believed to be unarmed. Oh well", and a minute later continued, "Well, it's their fault for bringing kids into a battle". However, I do know some soldiers went in to clear that building afterwards and there were some people with weapons in there, but there was also a family of four that was killed. They did have weapons there. With Russia regularly knocking out Ukraines power grid, the country has turned to high-capacity batteries to keep it connected to the worldand itself. Now, as far as rules of engagement, [Iraqis] are not supposed to pick up the wounded. When this video first came out, there was a lot of outrage by the soldiers, just because it depicted us as being callous, cruel, heartless people, and we're not that way. That classified video created its own firestorm. One of the first soldiers on the scene after the air attack, Ethan McCord, is now the subject of a short documentary, Incident in New Baghdad, which will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York next week. That's the hard part to swallow. I did see a video on YouTube after the Wikileaks [ video ] came out, of the children being interviewed. There's no before and there's no after". Ethan McCord was a member of the military unit in "Collateral Murder" - the Wikileaks video showing 12 Iraqis being killed from a US helicopter.He rescued the two children severely wounded in the attack and is now speaking out to corroborate the Collateral Murder video. There's no front lines here. They asked for an explanation of the confiscation of the journalists' two cameras, access to the on-board footage and voice communications from the helicopters involved, and access to the reports of the units involved in the incident, particularly logs of weapons taken from the scene. 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. When Bravo Company arrived at the scene, they reported finding two RPGs and an AK-47 or AKM. "The helicopters were approximately a mile and a half away and they were zooming in on these guys . Using short sentences, similar punctuation, or using the same words frequently as well as using Grammarly can boost your content as AI written. [67], WikiLeaks released a 39-minute version, which shows all three incidents, and a 17-minute version, which shows only the first two incidents. Their overall mission that day was to protect us, to provide support for us, so I can see where the initial attack on the group of men was warranted. McCord, who served seven years in the military before leaving in the summer of 2009 due to injuries, recently posted an apologetic letter online with fellow soldier Josh Steiber supporting the release of the video and asking the family's forgiveness. We heard the gunships open up. 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. 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 . [81], Publicity of the incident ballooned following the release of the footage. I have a huge place in my heart for children, having some of my own. McCord added, "I don't say that Wikileaks did a bad thing, because they didn't. I was up on a rooftop at that time. It claimed reporters' "furtive attempts to photograph the Coalition Ground Forces made them appear as hostile combatants". It could be that since he and Amelia (Sigrid Thornton) have quit. "[112], On April 5, 2010, the same day as the release of the video footage by WikiLeaks, the United States Central Command, which oversees the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, released a collection of documents including two investigative reports. McCord's courage and integrity has nothing to do with his US army training. [97] On July 30, Manning was acquitted of the most serious charge, that of aiding the enemy, for giving secrets to WikiLeaks. [21][79], The New Yorker praised its release, calling it "a striking artifactan unmediated representation of the ambiguities and cruelties of modern warfare".[3]. [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. Bill Keller of The New York Times wrote, "But in its zeal to make the video a work of antiwar propaganda, WikiLeaks also released a version that didn't call attention to an Iraqi who was toting a rocket-propelled grenade and packaged the manipulated version under the tendentious rubric Collateral Murder. (quote begins at 5:15)", "Soldiers in 'Collateral Murder' video apologise", "Meet The New Public Face Of WikiLeaks: Kristinn Hrafnsson Forbes", "2 Iraqi Journalists Killed as U.S. There's houses behind where the van was. Soldier Ethan McCord's Eyewitness Story, "Shadowed, Clamoring, Blurry. [59], An internal legal review by staff at Forward Operating Base Loyalty in Iraq during July 2007 stated that the helicopters had attacked a number of armed insurgents within the rules of engagement, and that in an apparent case of civilian casualties two reporters working for Reuters had also been killed. The Washington Post has denied having any copy of the unedited video prior to WikiLeaks release of their edited version, and Finkel (who was on book leave from The Washington Post at the time) said that he has never made any statement about his sources for the story, except that it was "sourced from unclassified information and my presence in the area that day". You joke about the situations and what's happened to push away your true feelings of the matter. "[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. I based the account in my book on multiple sources, all unclassified". If there's anything I can to do help, I would be more than happy to. It's very disturbing. However, I don't feel that the attack on the [rescue] van was necessary. [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". When the crew were informed that a child had been injured by their attack, one initially responded, "Ah damn. Just over a year ago, WikiLeaks released footage from a gunsight camera of an Apache helicopter engaged in an attack that killed two journalists and eight ci. We did unto you what we would not want done to us. The men become obscured behind a building as the Apache moves around the group. He is seen swinging the weapon below his waist while standing next to the man holding the RPG. And where the soldier said [in the video], "Well, you shouldn't take your kids to battle." I think that the people could have been deterred from doing what they were doing in the van by simply firing a few warning shots versus completely obliterating the van and its occupants.[52][53]. Colbert asked "So 'Collateral Murder' is to get political impact?" One second later he screams, "He's got an RPG!" He's no longer in the Army. Though we have acted with cold hearts far too many times, we have not forgotten our actions towards you. [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. I wasn't thinking about it as much. [57], Reuters reported that it could locate no witnesses who had seen gunmen in the immediate area. Wired.com: Have you heard from any other soldiers since the video came out? McCord: I have never seen anybody being shot by a 30-millimeter round before. Two men were identified by Crazyhorse 1/8 as carrying an RPG launcher and an AKM or AK-47. In refusing to recognize this, the US military fails both its own soldiers and their victims. Gates said that the video provides the public with a view of warfare "as seen through a soda straw". More and more Americans are taking responsibility for what was done in our name. I just kept telling him, "Don't die; don't die." The ground troops that secured the site of the first two strikes then receive small arms fire from nearby buildings. "[60], Early in 2010, the Internet whistleblower site WikiLeaks made a public request for assistance in decrypting a video it described as "US bomb strikes on civilians", specifically requesting access to supercomputer time. Reuters also stated that local police described the attack as "random American bombardment". For instance, the Web site takes special care to slow down the video and identify the two photographers and the cameras they are carrying. Daniel Ellsberg, a former United States military analyst who was known for having leaked the Pentagon Papers to the media, said of the airstrike: It would be interesting to have someone speculate or tell us exactly what context would lead to justifying the killing that we see on the screen. Wired.com: At the time you arrived on the scene, you didn't know what had happened, is that right? The military said that the van was "fair game under Army rules" , because it had no visible markings to suggest it was an ambulance or a protected vehicle. Wired.com: But you had been in combat before. McCord states he was yelled at for not "pulling security". We lost our country and our lives were destroyed. Wired.com: The first thing you saw was the little girl in the van. [58], On July 25, 2007, during an off-the-record briefing in Baghdad by the U.S. military, two Reuters editors were shown "less than three minutes of video from the Apaches gun camera, up to the exact moment it opened fire the first time." But youyou talked about the fog of war. 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. The boy's alive!" Home: Laytonsville, Maryland Served in: Baghdad (Rustamiyah) 07-08 Fort Riley, KS 06-07, 08-09, BACKGROUND ON ETHAN MCCORD: Branch of service: United States Army (USA) Unit: 1st ID Rank: Spc. WikiLeaks stated that "some of the men appear to have been armed [although] the behavior of nearly everyone was relaxed" in the introductory text of the shorter video. [But] I was actually starting to get kind of better. I know the scene by heart; it's burned into my head. 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. It's very clear that that is the approach, to try and find any mechanism to excuse the behavior, and that is what ended up happening. Ethan McCord who says he scooped up the children and at least one of his comrades say the incident revealed the bankrupt brutality of the war. Captain James Hall stated they couldn't drive in Bradleys in fear of running over bodies. I was trying to wash it off in my room. In July 2007, McCord, a 33-year-old Army specialist, was engaged in a firefight with insurgents in an Iraqi suburb when his platoon, part of Bravo Company, 2-16 Infantry, got orders to investigate a nearby street. Josh Stieber was not at the scene of the shooting but says similar incidents happened throughout his 14-month tour; "The acts depicted in this video are everyday occurrences of this war." She continued, "the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are inflicting huge psychological damage on combatants". For bringing kids into a battle '' without providing any context our name and Afghanistan are inflicting huge damage... [ 81 ], U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates criticized Wikileaks for releasing the came. He is seen swinging the weapon below his waist while standing next to the man the. 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