EXCLUSIVE: One Day After 2007 Attack, Witnesses Describe US Killings

[G_j]

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/4/8/exclusive_witnesses_describe_deadly_2007_us

EXCLUSIVE: One Day After 2007 Attack, Witnesses Describe US Killings of Iraqi Civilians

As the US Central Command says it has no plans to reopen an investigation into the July 2007 helicopter attack that killed a dozen people in Baghdad, including two Reuters news staff, we play never-before-seen eyewitness interviews filmed the day after the attack.

Rick Rowley, independent journalist with Big Noise Films. He has traveled to Iraq frequently as an unembedded journalist since the 2003 invasion. He was at the site of the 2007 helicopter attack the next day.

U.S. Military Releases Redacted Records on 2007 Apache Attack

JUAN GONZALEZ: We begin today with a Democracy Now! exclusive. As the US Central Command says it has no plans to reopen an investigation into the July 2007 helicopter attack that killed a dozen people in Baghdad, including two Reuters news staff, we’ll play never-before-seen eyewitness interviews filmed the day after the attack.

Military lawyers have reportedly been reviewing the classified video of the air strikes released by the website WikiLeaks on Monday. But Rear Admiral Hal Pittman, director of communications at Central Command, which oversees the war in Iraq, said in a statement to Reuters, quote, “Central Command has no current plans to reinvestigate or review this combat action.”

However, CENTCOM did make public a redacted series of records on the case, including investigations days after the attack by the air cavalry and infantry units that were involved in the incident. According to an investigation by the 1st Air Cavalry Brigade, the military concluded the aircrew, quote, “accurately assessed that the criteria to find and terminate the threat to friendly forces were met in accordance with the law of armed conflict and rules of engagement.”

..more..

[Mike K]

1. This is a goddam shame!

This, and presumably a lot more of the same, has been done in our names. America is doing this.

[Echo In Light]

2. And the world knows it. Now if more Americans would give a shit

[boston bean]

3. Come on Apologists, look at it, LOOK! nt

[Junkdrawer]

5. For the last two days, the apologists INSISTED that the victims were "insurgents"...

but the day after the event, witnesses (whose story, unlike official military accounts, match the video) tell us that the victims were residents of the neighborhood whose only crime was that they were complaining about their oil rations to an independent journalist.

[G_j]

8. "that's what they get for being in a war zone" (their own neighborhood!)

:sarcasm:

[arthritisR_US]

14. +1! n/t

[G_j]

20. KICK

[unapatriciated]

4. Sadly K&R

[boston bean]

6. Kick

No way should this post drop like a stone.

[Mari333]

7. K

[elocs]

11. Which is why kicking usually means much more than a Rec.

2 or 3 days from now you could still kick this thread to the top of the forum, but you couldn't Rec it.

[we can do it]

9. If I Hear "You'd Have To Be In Combat To Know" One More Time I Will Scream

Its total bullshit. If you have judgement that poor, you should not be holding a gun.

[FiveGoodMen]

10. K&R

[bobbolink]

12. beyond words

:cry:

[tekisui]

13. knr.

[gratuitous]

15. Gee, CENTCOM appears to have had some records at one time

But they don't have them anymore. But I'm sure there's a perfectly innocent explanation for the loss of evidence. Did I say "evidence"? I meant records.

[bananas]

16. k&r nt

[Junkdrawer]

17. Kick

:kick:

[EFerrari]

18. He was still alive when the Bradley drove over him and cut him in half.

USA!

[Junkdrawer]

19. I think it's the same mindset (on Steroids) that has police attacking photographers.....

Embedded journalists are OK, but independent journalists are considered the enemy. And the numbers back that up:



http://cpj.org/reports/2006/12/killed-06.php

[disillusioned73]

21. Kick..

I still am unsure of what kicks means - but it sound like the right thing to do...

[TorchTheWitch]

22. replying without anything further to say

when replying just to get the OP back onto the first page. In other words, if you want to get the OP back to the first page so more people will see it but don't really have anything to say in making a reply post, you can just say "kick" so people know that's what you're doing (since making a reply to an OP automatically sticks it back to the top of the first page). Make sense?