Video: Collateral murder, or the risks of war zones?
posted at 2:12 pm on April 5, 2010 by Ed Morrissey
Wikileaks released a video today of an engagement in Baghdad in 2007 that resulted in the deaths of two journalists from Reuters in an effort to accuse the US of covering up a war crime. Calling the incident “collateral murder,” Wikileaks says that it wants to promote the safety of journalists in war zones with the release of the DoD video, but the video itself shows why the US forces fired on the group — and on the vehicle that came to their aid. Note that the video itself contains NSFW language and graphic images of death (via John Holowach at TrueHigh):
In the video, starting at the 3:50 mark, one member of this group starts preparing what clearly looks like an RPG launcher, as well as some individuals with AK-47s. The launcher then reappears at the 4:06 mark as the man wielding it sets up a shot for down the street. In 2007 Baghdad, this would be a clear threat to US and Iraqi Army ground forces; in fact, it’s difficult to imagine any other purpose for an RPG launcher at that time and place. That’s exactly the kind of threat that US airborne forces were tasked to detect and destroy, which is why the gunships targeted and shot all of the members of the group.
Another accusation is that US forces fired on and killed rescue workers attempting to carry one of the journalists out of the area. However, the video clearly shows that the vehicle in question bore no markings of a rescue vehicle at all, and the men who ran out of the van to grab the wounded man wore no uniforms identifying themselves as such. Under any rules of engagement, and especially in a terrorist hot zone like Baghdad in 2007, that vehicle would properly be seen as support for the terrorists that had just been engaged and a legitimate target for US forces. While they didn’t grab weapons before getting shot, the truth is that the gunships didn’t give them the chance to try, either — which is exactly what they’re trained to do. They don’t need to wait until someone gets hold of the RPG launcher and fires it at the gunship or at the reinforcements that had already begun to approach the scene. The gunships acted to protect the approaching patrol, which is again the very reason we had them in the air over Baghdad.
War correspondents take huge risks to bring news of a war to readers far away. What this shows is just how risky it is to embed with terrorists, especially when their enemy controls the air. War is not the same thing as law enforcement; the US forces had no responsibility for identifying each member of the group and determining their mens rea. Legitimate rescue operations would have included markings on the vehicle and on uniforms to let hostile forces know to hold fire, and in the absence of that, the hostile forces have every reason to consider the second support group as a legitimate target as well. It’s heartbreaking for the families of these journalists, but this isn’t “collateral murder” — it’s war.
Update: Rusty Shackleford has more thoughts at The Jawa Report.









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Wow that is a poisoned well.
daesleeper on April 6, 2010 at 12:31 PM
As the saying goes, you lie down with dogs, you wake up with fleas. Collateral murder my ass. It’s well documented that Reuters employees were collaborating with the enemy.
infidel4life on April 6, 2010 at 12:53 PM
I wonder if this will have the same effect that the famous picture of ARVN Police commander Nguyen Ngoc Loan shooting the Vietcong soldier in the head in 1968. It may have been legal since the VC was captured not wearing a uniform in a combat zone, but the disturbing image helped to turn public opinion against the war. Some things are beyond our control.
KillerKane on April 6, 2010 at 1:37 PM
How does lame, untruthful garbage like this rub salt in anyone’s wounds?
blink on April 6, 2010 at 1:41 PM
If these were insurgents, then why is the spokesman for the U.S. Central Command saying that it was a camera, not an RPG:
orange on April 6, 2010 at 2:00 PM
Are you sure they weren’t insurgents?
blink on April 6, 2010 at 2:18 PM
Poster Bob Anthony states “War has not solved anything..”
Hey Bob, tell that to your grandfather’s generation who went to war to defeat the nazi scourge. War seems to have solved that problem. I guess it DOES solve some problems, huh?
bannedbyhuffpo on April 6, 2010 at 2:21 PM
Personally, I don’t feel certain of anything. But the military spokesman said they weren’t insurgents, so that’s pretty noteworthy, I think.
orange on April 6, 2010 at 3:05 PM
Newsflash: Insurgents carry cameras too, as do news agencies like Reuters that are
embeddedin bed with them.infidel4life on April 6, 2010 at 3:39 PM
Guess you’re not one of these Libtards upset at Obama over escalating the war in Afghanistan and targeting people with drone strikes in Pakistan?
Don’t you have a Crimean War protest or something to go to while your parents have the basement fumigated?
Dr. ZhivBlago on April 6, 2010 at 3:44 PM
They couldn’t hear the Apaches, moron.
The Apaches were too far away.
How do we know this?
Cannon fire. Note the cannon fires then seconds later the rounds hit.
Caliber 30x113mm
Action Chain gun
Rate of fire 625 rpm
Muzzle velocity 805 m/s (2,641 ft/s)
Effective range 1,500 m (1,640 yd)
Maximum range 4,500 m (4,920 yd)
Do the math, idiot. If it took 1 second for the round to hit the target after being fired then the Apache was 2,641 ft away!
Time it, round fired to round hit tells you the distance. This is 3rd grade math!
DSchoen on April 6, 2010 at 3:53 PM
Did he?
blink on April 6, 2010 at 3:58 PM
Didn’t war solve slavery, too?
blink on April 6, 2010 at 3:58 PM
Um, even 3rd graders can clearly hear Apaches half a mile away. In fact, it would be impossible not to hear them.
blink on April 6, 2010 at 4:00 PM
Well, it appears we have a lot of monday-morning quarterbackers.
(1)
If it was a camera, why would the journalist right now want to take a picture of that helicopter that is 1/2 mile away?
(2)
there is no way you can see there were children in that van. Iraq people aren’t the tallest and when most of the body is hiding in a van, there is no difference. May be if they had used some super camera from a not moving position they could have seen some infant teeth but last time I checked they don’t have those camera’s in those wobbly choppers.
(3)
if it was a photographer (it was NOT), he should have known better. If you aim a toy gun at a police guy from around the corner in a location where other people have AK47′s , the police guy would shoot to defend himself. And for sure if someone is pointing something that looks like a rocket launcher at you.
(4)
this whole video is actually proof to me that Reuters employs terrorists or people helping and propagandize terrorism.
The only thing that really amazes me is the incredible calm those soldiers show while waiting for orders and while they know that every second they can be killed by those terrorists. Not only from the terrorists they are looking at but also from some sneaky guy they had not yet spotted.
those reuters guys were aiding and abetting the terrorists. Too bad they were not captured alive so the new Iraq government could do some interrogation on them.
mooseburger on April 6, 2010 at 4:32 PM
Military spokesman Turner said that during the engagement, the helicopter mistook a camera for a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.
This was AFTER the guy with the RPG disappeared behind the wall. When some guy poked out around the corner of the building with something long, that was ID as an RPG.
We know an RPG was present cuz we all have seen it.
Bottom line don’t hang out with insurgents armed with Ak’s and RPG’s in a fire zone during a firefight, you will get killed.
DSchoen on April 6, 2010 at 4:33 PM
Absolutely true. I agree with the earlier commenter who said that carrying a camera does not give you automatic immunity in a war zone.
However, you’re not addressing what the military spokesperson actually said:
In other words, he’s saying that there was no RPG at all. So that weakens the case that it was legitimate to fire on these people.
Don’t misunderstand me: I’m not making a definitive judgment. Lots of people are pouncing on this or that to proclaim that either the guys in the chopper are either angels or devils. I don’t feel like the information is clear enough to say for sure.
But when the military actually gives an official response that says there was no RPG, then I think that’s important.
(especially in response to a post in which Ed Morrissey definitively claims that there was an RPG. Perhaps he will update the post with this information.)
orange on April 6, 2010 at 4:34 PM
Hi, mooseburger. Are you seriously calling the official spokesperson for the US Central Command a monday-morning quarterback?
orange on April 6, 2010 at 4:35 PM
I don’t mean this to sound like anything other than a basic question: you say that you know an RPG was present because we all have seen it. Do you mean on the video? I didn’t see anything that I feel certain was an RPG.
If the spokesman admits that they mistook a camera for an RPG, doesn’t it follow that there was no RPG?
orange on April 6, 2010 at 4:40 PM
Dude, you’re making a huge assumption and might be making inaccurate statements as a result.
Just because a helicopter crew may have mistook one suspected RPG for a camera doesn’t definitively mean that no RPGs were present.
You’re must have been really, really bad at that children’s game, telephone.
blink on April 6, 2010 at 5:22 PM
Look where you are told to look and you will be a good dupe for propaganda.
Now, look at this blow up clip.
You might not be certain, but you certainly must have your doubts.
blink on April 6, 2010 at 5:32 PM
If there were definitely RPGs present, wouldn’t that be worth mentioning? I think if I was a military spokesperson, I would want to make that abundantly clear. Why would he leave out this vital fact?
orange on April 6, 2010 at 5:32 PM
WHY WOULD WIKILEAK MENTION IT??????
THEY’RE TRYING TO MAKE THE MILITARY LOOK BAD!
YOU SHOULD ASSUME THAT THEY WOULD OMIT CERTAIN DETAILS! LEARN HOW TO READ BETWEEN THE LINES UNLESS YOU WANT TO KEEP MAKING A FOOL OF YOURSELF!
Pretend you’re an adult with reasonable capacity to think on your own.
BTW, the military has definitively determined that they were insurgents AND that RPGs and Ak-47s were present (read it all at JAWA). Maybe someday day you’ll stop jumping to bogus conclusions.
blink on April 6, 2010 at 5:42 PM
I have to ask one more thing.
Why do you definitively state that he left out this vital fact? Was it just because it wasn’t quoted for you, or did you watch the entire briefing or read the entire report?
blink on April 6, 2010 at 5:44 PM
As I said earlier (and maintain)
(and “not being certain” and “having doubts” are pretty much synonymous, aren’t they?)
orange on April 6, 2010 at 5:49 PM
orange, go over to the Jawa Report.
They have the entire investigation document which pretty much confirms that Wikileak disingenuously cherry-picked statements made by individuals as PART of the report. These were not the conclusive from the investigation.
I’m sure Wikileak will be crushed by public opinion for having misled so many gullible idiots. Try not to be a gullible idiot next time.
blink on April 6, 2010 at 5:51 PM
I didn’t quote a wikileaks article. I quoted a Washington Post article with the comments from the US Central Command spokesperson.
Perhaps you would have noticed that if I’d put it in caps.
orange on April 6, 2010 at 5:51 PM
You had said,
Now, let’s discuss your doubts.
Were your doubt reasonable? Or beyond reasonable? Or beyond a shadow of any doubt? Or were they preponderous doubts?
Whatever. I’m happy I was able to teach you a value life lesson. Now, remove the hook from your mouth.
blink on April 6, 2010 at 5:55 PM
Well, again, this is what he said:
I guess it’s possible that he meant “We thought we were engaging armed insurgents… and we were!” But surely that’s a very odd way of saying it. Surely the more likely interpretation is that they mistakenly thought they were engaging armed insurgents.
If you have the spokesman’s full comments, please pass them along. I agree that it would be more useful to have the entire statement to go off of.
orange on April 6, 2010 at 5:56 PM
Not a big difference between the Washington Post and Wikileak.
Regardless, I’m sure you’ve learned your lesson regarding selective quoting.
Again, read between the lines. In other words, take note of what is NOT stated.
blink on April 6, 2010 at 5:58 PM
It sounds to me that he was responding to a question asked specifically about the photographers being engaged as if they were insurgents.
It sounds to me like CENTCOM Public Affairs Officer was giving these guys the benefit of the doubt that they WEREN’T insurgents.
Why don’t you go over to the Jawa Report and download the full investigation report? They have pictures of the weapons found and screen clips of the weapons in the video.
blink on April 6, 2010 at 6:02 PM
So wait, I should ignore what the spokesman said and instead make up what I think he might have meant? That seems like a terrible idea.
I would like to see the full statement from the spokesman. If you can find it, please link it. I haven’t been able to.
orange on April 6, 2010 at 6:08 PM
No, junior. I didn’t even come close to saying that. You should ONLY consider what the spokesman said. Don’t jump to conclusions. This isn’t rocket science.
Always assume that you might be getting fed a selective quote.
Hey, Genius. It seems as if the WaPo reporter was quoting from a conversation that transpired privately between them and the spokesman. The spokesman may have said much, much more to clarify, etc, but the WaPo reporter probably gave you all you’re gonna get (since the rest didn’t fit the narrative).
blink on April 6, 2010 at 6:26 PM
Eh, whatever. You’re more interested in namecalling than a useful discussion. Thanks anyway.
orange on April 6, 2010 at 6:34 PM
Here’s what I submitted to the “Committee to Protect Journalists”:
Too bad they won’t understand.
-Brennan
Brennan on April 6, 2010 at 6:35 PM
<blockquoteMALKIN, YOU AND YOUR NEOCON WAR MONGERING CRONIES HAVE BEEN CALLED OUT!
Do they realize that MM doesn’t own HA anymore?
thomashton on April 6, 2010 at 6:53 PM
You’re welcome. I’m happy I could help.
(See how selective quoting works?)
blink on April 6, 2010 at 7:00 PM
Worth restating:
‘Collateral Murder’ in Baghdad Anything But
From the Foreword of “To Set The Record Straight”:
The America-haters have been using this tactic for as long as there has been an America, and they will continue to use it until America is long gone — or until THEY are gone.
opaobie on April 6, 2010 at 9:56 PM
Lol. I don’t think the fine folks over at prison planet have ever heard of standoff distance. The guys on that street likely had no idea there were even any aircraft watching them.
BadgerHawk on April 6, 2010 at 10:02 PM
Don’t forget about the jooooooos.
You’re precious.
BadgerHawk on April 6, 2010 at 10:06 PM
No, he said the photographer with a camera wasn’t an insurgent. He didn’t claim that the guys holding AKs or the individual in another part of the video holding what appeared to be a rocket launcher weren’t insurgents.
Don’t be dishonest.
BadgerHawk on April 6, 2010 at 10:08 PM
Lots of cameras have 4 foot long lenses on them. We call them telescopes.
BadgerHawk on April 6, 2010 at 10:15 PM
Last post for orange. From the actual report, which is posted at Jawa:
BadgerHawk on April 6, 2010 at 10:19 PM
Or as Wikileaks director Julian Assange puts it, “Why would anyone be so relaxed with two Apaches if someone was carrying an RPG and that person was an enemy of the United States?”
————————————————
They couldn’t hear the Apaches, moron.
The Apaches were too far away.
How do we know this?
Cannon fire. Note the cannon fires then seconds later the rounds hit.
Caliber 30×113mm
Action Chain gun
Rate of fire 625 rpm
Muzzle velocity 805 m/s (2,641 ft/s)
Effective range 1,500 m (1,640 yd)
Maximum range 4,500 m (4,920 yd)
Do the math, idiot. If it took 1 second for the round to hit the target after being fired then the Apache was 2,641 ft away!
Time it, round fired to round hit tells you the distance. This is 3rd grade math!
DSchoen on April 6, 2010 at 3:53 PM
———————————————-
Right on, DSchoen!
Libtartd fail to understand this subject for several reasons:
-they got a public school education from teachers who are card-carrying NEA members.
-”guns are iccky”. The only muzzle velocity they’ll ever understand is how fast my bitter, clingy dachshund bites ‘em on the ass if they show up on my doorstep with another lame-ass leftist petition.
-research-challenged Libtards have no idea that Apaches have a much reduced sound signature compared to old-style AH1-Cobra
gunshipspeace & relaxation transports.CatchAll on April 6, 2010 at 10:33 PM
That is disgusting.
Did you really have to put that in there?
justltl on April 6, 2010 at 10:39 PM
On an unrelated note, Springtime has finally arrived here and I’m looking forward to firing up the grill.
I’m going to do a brisket my first weekend off.
Dry rub.
Cole slaw.
Baked beans.
Ice cold beer.
justltl on April 6, 2010 at 10:42 PM
BTW, that was a righteous shoot.
Ooh! And roasted corn on the cob.
Nothing beats roasted corn on the cob.
That’s what I always say.
justltl on April 6, 2010 at 10:48 PM
New video of U.S. military gunning down civilians in Iraq.
They had no RPGS, no weapons, and were not insurgents.
Spathi on April 7, 2010 at 2:15 AM
Saddam Hussein was NEVER worth the lives of so many American Marines, sailors and soldiers. He wasn’t worth the life of one U.S. service member. Wasn’t our problem. Why are we the world police???
RightXBrigade on April 7, 2010 at 3:58 AM
Correct.
Correct.
So because your ignorant of what an RPG looks like, you concluded that NO RPG was there?
WOW!
Ahhhhhh no it doesn’t.
I believe what they are talking about as a “mistook a camera for an RPG” happened when the guy popped out from that corner.
It’s also completely irrelevant.
If you watch the tape AND listen to the radio conversation it is CLEAR once the RPG and AK were confirmed the aircrew requested permission to engage (kill them) and the request was approved AS the insurgents crossed the street and were behind the wall.
It didn’t matter what the guy at the corner of the building had in his hand as the aircrew were lining up to make the shot.
That’s why the pilot said he had to go around to shoot them.
DSchoen on April 7, 2010 at 4:31 AM
What he is saying is the Apache engaged a group of insurgents.
They had no idea that “news staffers” were with the insurgents.
You do know that in the video, that arrow that shows up pointing at the reporters by name was added to the video AFTER the fact?
The Apache cannot read someone’s DNA and id them with arrows and text saying this is “so and so”
You do know that right?
DSchoen on April 7, 2010 at 4:55 AM
Actually, they did have RPGS, weapons, and they (however, maybe not all) were insurgents.
blink on April 7, 2010 at 9:49 AM
Many people believe that Saddam Hussein became our problem in several ways.
First, many people believed that Saddam Hussein became our problem when he invaded Kuwait and almost invaded Saudi Arabia (the Iraqi military attacked across the Saudi border on two occasions). Do you disagree that it became our problem then?
Second, many people believed that Saddam Hussein became our problem when the United Nations wanted us to enforce the trade embargo they instituted against Iraq in order to prevent excessive military buildup. Do you disagree that it became our problem then?
Third, many people believed that Saddam Hussein became our problem when the Iraqi military’s slaughter of Kurds in the north created a massive refugee problem in the southern mountains of Turkey during the winter – a problem that was resulting in hundreds of thousands of freezing and starving Kurds. Do you disagree that it became our problem then?
Fourth, many people believed that Saddam Hussein became our problem when the United Nations wanted us to enforce the no-fly zones that they instituted against Iraq in order to prevent them from slaughtering the Kurds in the north and the Shiites in the south. Do you disagree that it became our problem then?
If you answered NO to any of the questions above, then you’re one of the reasons that Al-Qaeda was chartered and repeatedly attacked the United States.
Pull the the references from the below section of Wikipedia.
Now, remember, the Saudi government continued to harbor American troops because of the threat of invasion, the support of the UN trade embargo, the support of the no-fly zones, and the support of the Kurds in the north. These are all issues that many believed, rightly or wrongly, that became our problem.
So, do you still think that Saddam Hussein wasn’t our problem? If so, then how would you have handled above issues? Allow Saudi Arabia to have been conquered? Allow the Kurds to be slaughtered in the north? Allow Kurdish refugees to freeze and starve? Allow the Shiites to be slaughtered in the south?
I’m just curious. Don’t be shy about answering. There are no wrong answers.
blink on April 7, 2010 at 10:11 AM
http://husseinandterror.com
our problem, the civilized non-Sharia world’s problem.
jp on April 7, 2010 at 4:33 PM
No. Why would it be OUR problem? Saudi Arabia was and is as tyrannical a regime as Saddam’s. Why be allied with tyrants against other tyrants? That’s like voting for the lesser of two evils in a president election. Furthermore, ARE NOT AND SHOULD NOT BE the world police! Worry about our own country. How can you be for limited government if you are for intervention in affairs abroad which massively increase the size of OUR government?
One, we shouldn’t even be a member of the U.N. It is an anti-American body that continuously threatens our sovereignty. Furthermore, the trade embargo resulted in millions of Iraqi deaths and didn’t hurt the regime at all.
Unfortunately, liberty is not a prevailing concept in the history of mankind, nor now. Tragic as it is, there are many other options such as offering our solidarity with the Kurds and empowering them and other Iraqi resistance groups to rise up, if they were inclined.
Why must we constantly be the U.N.’s errand boy? What about the great nation of Saudi Arabia helping their fellow Muslims? What about all the nations around Iraq, where were they? Why must America sacrifice OUR lives for these countries who will never be like us, who don’t want to be like us?
If you answered NO to any of the questions above, then you’re one of the reasons that Al-Qaeda was chartered and repeatedly attacked the United States.
RightXBrigade on April 7, 2010 at 5:27 PM
What people like poster Bob Anthony don’t like about war is that war can and will stop people like poster Bob Anthony.
Woody
woodcdi on April 7, 2010 at 6:18 PM
You didn’t mention Kuwait.
Um, that is what happened and the very reason why both groups were slaughtered. But it’s good to see that you would have contributed to their slaughtering without helping them after the slaughtering started. Great solidarity that you’re showing.
You didn’t answer the question. Nobody else could or would do it. Now, what’s your answer?
blink on April 7, 2010 at 7:04 PM
If we would follow our Constitution, stop being the world police and stop following the progressives and neo-cons who are the old school Democrats, we would be much better off and not have the debt that we currently have accumulated not just from obnoxious spending on entitlement programs and the welfare state but on unnecessary wars to “help” people that don’t want our help and others who we don’t need to help which contributes to the warfare state.
The difference between me and you, blink, is that, although I wholeheartedly disagree with these stupid “wars”, (that weren’t even declared by Congress) I still have served and fought in them multiple times since 2003 and continue to go over there to shoot these savages living in the 7th century and see my boys get shot at, hit w/ IED’s and come home w/ mental problems. It’s bullshit with no clear mission and completely ridiculous ROE’s. F*** these people, let them kill each other off if they want to. They can have their sand and oil. Lets open up ANWR and be done w/ it.
RightXBrigade on April 7, 2010 at 9:50 PM
Last question(s).
Do “these people” include the Kurds? Would you you be ok if genocide completely wiped them out?
My response to your answer might really surprise you.
blink on April 7, 2010 at 11:08 PM
No I wouldn’t be okay if there was a genocide. However, if there was, and we wanted to go to war, let’s do it the RIGHT way and DECLARE WAR THROUGH CONGRESS. By the way, where were we during the genocide in Rwanda and Darfur??? How come we can bomb the shit out of the Iraqis but leave Sudan alone?
RightXBrigade on April 8, 2010 at 4:56 AM
Ouch. There’s your consistency problem. I was almost going to agree with you until that part.
Prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, I was against the war and believed that we should simply pull all military elements out of the middle east. I believed that this was the right move despite possible genocide caused by our lack of support to the embargo and the no-fly zone.
I wasn’t a hypocrite about it.
Puuleeze! What’s the difference between a congressional declaration of war and a congressional authorization to use force? All three branches of government were on the same page – the constitution wasn’t subverted.
Um, I served 8 years in the military despite your assumptions to the contrary. Part of my life was spent helping Rwandans during genocidal crisis. The US might not have been there from the start, but don’t claim we weren’t there at all.
Not that it matters since, unlike you, I’m fine with ignoring genocide.
Um, Iraq wasn’t just about genocide. It’s obvious you have an overly sophomoric understand of how the world works. I’m done with you.
blink on April 8, 2010 at 11:28 AM
To be clear. You are a hypocrite for saying on one hand that it wouldn’t have been ok to allow genocide of the Kurds and saying on the other hand that we had NO business invading Iraq.
Until you can state that genocide, while unfortunate, would not have been our problem if we had withdrawn all military forces from the region in early 2003 then you can’t blame anyone for invading Iraq. You may have made the same decision at the time if the choice had been yours.
blink on April 8, 2010 at 3:56 PM
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