Tim lawsonLeaked video: US Apache chopper kills journalists
April 9th 2010 08:23
A video showing a US military Apache chopper gunner mowing down a group of journalists in Eastern Baghdad in 2007 has been recently leaked onto the internet by Wikileaks. The U.S military has always claimed that the civilians killed were insurgents; this has been disproved by the recent release of this footage.
Yesterday the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA), the union and professional organisation which the Australian Journalists Association (AJA) is part of, marked the 7th anniversary of the attack by US forces on the Palestine Hotel, in which two journalists were killed, by writing to US President Barack Obama calling on him to ensure the US Government properly investigate the deaths of journalists at the hands of US forces.
The importance of this issue has been highlighted by the recent release of the video.
The website stated "Wikileaks has obtained and decrypted this previously unreleased video footage from a US Apache helicopter in 2007. It shows Reuters journalist Namir Noor-Eldeen, driver Saeed Chmagh, and several others as the Apache shoots and kills them in a public square in Eastern Baghdad. They are apparently assumed to be insurgents. After the initial shooting, an unarmed group of adults and children in a minivan arrives on the scene and attempts to transport the wounded. They are fired upon as well. The official statement on this incident initially listed all adults as insurgents and claimed the US military did not know how the deaths occurred."
You can watch the video here (please note that the footage may be upsetting to some viewers): Really Long Link
Yesterday the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA), the union and professional organisation which the Australian Journalists Association (AJA) is part of, marked the 7th anniversary of the attack by US forces on the Palestine Hotel, in which two journalists were killed, by writing to US President Barack Obama calling on him to ensure the US Government properly investigate the deaths of journalists at the hands of US forces.
The importance of this issue has been highlighted by the recent release of the video.
The website stated "Wikileaks has obtained and decrypted this previously unreleased video footage from a US Apache helicopter in 2007. It shows Reuters journalist Namir Noor-Eldeen, driver Saeed Chmagh, and several others as the Apache shoots and kills them in a public square in Eastern Baghdad. They are apparently assumed to be insurgents. After the initial shooting, an unarmed group of adults and children in a minivan arrives on the scene and attempts to transport the wounded. They are fired upon as well. The official statement on this incident initially listed all adults as insurgents and claimed the US military did not know how the deaths occurred."
You can watch the video here (please note that the footage may be upsetting to some viewers): Really Long Link
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