Bradley Manning's Legal Duty to Expose War Crimes

[think]

99. In both the edited and unedited video

they fire upon unarmed people helping the wounded. I guess only stupid people feel it is wrong to fire on unarmed people helping the wounded.

But hey when the rules of engagement are classified and the rules opened up so killing civilians isn't a high priority I also guess nothing can be considered a war crime. This must be how you justify the killing of the unarmed men assisting the wounded as well as the children getting wounded.

February 05, 2008
Did Rumsfeld Authorize War Crimes?
The Secret Rules of Engagement in Iraq
by STEPHEN SOLDZ

Wikileaks has obtained the long kept secret Rules of Engagement (ROE) for U.S. troops in Iraq. This document sets out the rules guiding authorized U.S. troop actions in that occupation. While the Wikileaks document dates from 2005, as these ROEs generally change slowly the rules for today are likely similar, though we can’t be sure, of course, to what extent more recent ROE’s differ.
Among several interesting nuggets in the ROE, it provides indications that U.S. attacks likely to result in civilian deaths required authorization at the top of the Pentagon, by the SECDEF (Secretary of Defense). Thus, the ROE states repeatedly; "If the target is in a HIGH CD [collateral damage] area, SECDEF approval is required." And what is the definition of a High Collateral Damage area? The ROE contains a set of explicit definitions of its terms. There we find High Collateral Damage Targets defined as:

"Those targets that, if struck, have a ten percent probability of causing collateral damage through blast debris and fragmentation and are estimated to result in significant collateral effects on noncombatant persons and structures, including:

(A) Non-combatant casualties estimated at 30 or greater;

(B) Significant effects on Category I No Strike protected sites in accordance with Ref D; (

C) In the case of dual-use facilities, effects that significantly impact the non-combatant population, including significant effects on the environment/facilities/infrastructure not related to an adversary’s war making ability; or

(D) Targets in close proximity to known human shields."

~snip~

As we have seen repeatedly, from the numerous roadblock killings of civilians to the Haditha massacre, this ROE authorization to use force can be used to provide cover for virtually any civilian killings. The ROE suggests that preventing such deaths was low on the priority list of those officials writing the rules of engagement for the occupation. Even so, a military study found that less than half of US occupation soldiers would report a unit member for violating an ROE.

Full article:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2008/02/05/the-secret-rules-of-engagement-in-iraq/