I was trying to wash it off in my room. Though we have acted with cold hearts far too many times, we have not forgotten our actions towards you. "[46] Assange later said "Based upon visual evidence, I suspect there probably were AKs and an RPG, but I'm not sure that means anything". [43] He walks into a building which has been identified as the source of fire at U.S. ground troops. The owner told him that three families were living in the building and seven residents had died, including his wife and daughter. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. Iraq war veteran Ethan McCord was one of three US soldiers who were on the ground during the Apache helicopter assault on twelve civilians in Baghdad in 2007 that was captured in a video. The soldier, Ethan McCord, has since been discharged from the military and has been an outspoken voice against the Iraq War. You don't just take somebody's life and then go on about your business for the rest of the day. Ethan McCord: From Atrocities in Iraq to Resisting U.S. Wars Tweet This interview was done by and first appeared in Revolution newspaper Revolution: In the attack shown in the WikiLeaks video, you were part of the unit that was at the scene, on the ground. They were destroyed. You joke about the situations and what's happened to push away your true feelings of the matter. We heard the gunships open up. A unit from Bravo Company 216 was within 100 meters of the individuals that were fired upon with 30mm AH-64 Apache cannons. [45][114], "Cameramen and armed insurgents" (all captions from the Army report), "Cameraman peering around corner of wall", "Pictures taken by ground forces after reaching the site". She had a stomach wound? Ethan McCord, a former US soldier, has shown great courage and integrity by exposing and condemning US war crimes in Iraq. Eamonn McCann Mon Aug 19 2013 - 20:49 Bradley Manning was scheduled to speak yesterday at the sentencing phase of his trial for having leaked 750,000 pages of classified documents and videos to. There is a period of 20 minutes not included on the leaked tape. Forces Clash With Militias", "Reuters seeks U.S. probe into killing of Iraqi staff", "Return to Ward 17: Making peace with lost comrades", "Bradley Manning's statements during his trial", "U.S. gunfire kills two Reuters employees in Baghdad", "WikiLeaks silent on how it broke encryption", "Twitter / WikiLeaks: Have encrypted videos of U", "WikiLeaks posts video of 'US military killings' in Iraq", "Collateral Murder? On April 5, 2010, the attacks received worldwide coverage and controversy following the release of 39 minutes of gunsight footage by the Internet whistleblower website WikiLeaks. "[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. One second later he screams, "He's got an RPG!" McCord: I have never seen anybody being shot by a 30-millimeter round before. Wired.com: Have you heard from any other soldiers since the video came out? It happened because my content was bad. Soldier on 2007 Apache Attack: What I Saw, Ethan McCord had just returned from dropping his children at school earlier this month, when he turned on the TV news to see grainy black-and-white video footage of a soldier running from a bombed-out van with a child in his arms. [118][119], Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}331849N 443043E / 33.3137N 44.512E / 33.3137; 44.512 (Airstrike of 2007-07-12). And cracking jokes is a way of pushing that stuff down. 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. I know the van, I know the faces of everybody that was there that day. Home: Wichita, Kansas, AN OPEN LETTER OF RECONCILIATION & RESPONSIBILITY TO THE IRAQI PEOPLE From Current and Former Members of the U.S. Military. But this particular eventthis is clearly murder. "These people can put out anything they want, and they're never held accountable for it. Both of these men, Chmagh and Tomal, were killed in the second strike, and two of Tomal's children were badly wounded. [59][16] In a personal statement during her court-martial, Chelsea Manning stated that the military had access to the video, and was actively examining it, yet it told Reuters in response to the FOIA request that the information might no longer exist. But youyou talked about the fog of war. They also found 10-year-old Sajad Mutashar and his five-year-old sister Doaha covered in blood in a van. Towards the end of the show, the star actor became an active member of the Screen Actors Guild and after he left "Adam-12." McCord added, "I don't say that Wikileaks did a bad thing, because they didn't. [50] In a later interview on the World Socialist Web Site, Stieber said that the attack "exposes so clearly the fallacy of using war as a tool of foreign policy or as a way to supposedly spread 'freedom and democracy' around the world".[51]. Ahlam Abdelhussein Tuman, the widow of the man who had been driving the van, and the mother of the children McCord had carried out, responded to the open letter in 2010:[75]. It was sent back for more reporting in an effort to incorporate a wider range of experts. Ethan and Josh are available for interviews. How to Make Sure Youre Not Accidentally Sharing Your Location, Security News This Week: Sensitive US Military Emails Exposed. 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. [61] The longer video shows the third attack, in which Hellfire missiles were fired into a building.[43]. He looked at me, then his eyes rolled back into this head. I do know that there was a teenage girl [in there], just because I saw the pictures when I was there, that one of the soldiers took. According to Tom Raju, a reporter at CNN, "the soldiers of Bravo Company, 216 Infantry had been under fire all morning from rocket-propelled grenades and small arms on the first day of Operation Ilaaj in Baghdad". Josh states that these casualties demonstrate the impact of U.S. military policy on both the civilians and the soldiers on the ground. After attending to the girl's wounds and handing her to a medic, McCord was ordered to take position on the roof but he returned to the van to find the boy moving his hand. These people were operating in split second situations.". "The first thing I thought of was my children at home". The video doesn't show the broader picture of the firing that was going on at American troops. [81], Publicity of the incident ballooned following the release of the footage. Was it reasonable for the Apache soldiers to think that maybe the people they attacked were part of that insurgent firefight? Killing of Reuters Employees", "Dealing With Assange and the WikiLeaks Secrets", "Iraq war files: Apache Hellfire victims", "US soldier on aftermath of WikiLeaks Apache attack", Leaked U.S. video shows deaths of Reuters' Iraqi staffers, "Notes from the Courtroom: Alexa O'Brien's Transcript of Pfc. He said that the debate should be re-framed, that it is more appropriate to ask "questions of the larger system" that teaches "doing these things is in the best interests of my own country". [43], Assange responded to the investigation report released by the Army in an interview with Democracy Now!, stating that "the tone and language is all about trying to find an excuse for the activity. They're smoking you, they're making you tired. There had been a lot of RPG, grenade fire and so on, and they were doing what journalists do. Reuters responded, "It is absolutely untrue that this story was spiked. [92][93] The Internet chats between Manning and Lamo were revealed to the public by Wired. We have been speaking to whoever will listen, telling them that what was shown in the Wikileaks video only begins to depict the suffering we have created. 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. [18] The report recommends encouraging journalists in Iraq to wear special vests to identify themselves, and to keep the U.S. military updated about their whereabouts. I don't think that people really want to see this, though, because this is war. I've lived with seeing the children that way since the incident happened. [19], The events between the attack on the van and the attack on the building (approximately 30 minutes) were not captured on the leaked video footage. Our government may ignore you, concerned more with its public image. Lying dead on a street were inanimate objects that turned out to be. As the ground troops advanced, a wounded Chmagh was seen crawling and attempting to stand. [19] This account of first bringing the wounded children to the Combat Support Hospital appears to be contradicted by orders by radio that form part of the video record, which forbids it and orders that the children be handed over to local police. [62] At a February 2013 pretrial hearing, Manning stated that Finkel "was quoting, I feel in verbatim, the audio communications of the aerial weapons team crew". I wasn't thinking about it as much. US soldiers Ethan McCord's Eyewitness Story of coming across the aftermath of the infamous Wikileaks Collateral Murder in which over a dozen innocent civilians, 2 of which were Reuters journalists, were 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". Ethan McCord pulled your daughter and son from the van, and when doing so, saw the faces of his own children back home. As the pilot positions the helicopter to attack the building, two unarmed men walk towards, and perhaps into, the building. There's no front lines here. [16] The military reported that it could not find its copy of the video. [17] Julian Assange said "permission to engage was given before the word 'RPG' was ever used". [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. So I just sucked it up and tried to move on with everything. McCord: It was random sporadic spurts. A Pentagon spokesman said the video did not contradict the official finding that the helicopters' crew acted within the rules of engagement and said that the inquiry backed the assessment that the group of men were carrying a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG). The WIRED conversation illuminates how technology is changing every aspect of our livesfrom culture to business, science to design. "[32][77] He said that WikiLeaks "does not point out that at least one man was carrying an AK-47 assault rifle. The company was charged with clearing their sector of any small armed forces, and had been under fire from small arms and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs). The flood of emotions came back. They were stating that these people had no weapons whatsoever, that they were just carrying cameras. But the time is long overdue that we say that the value of our nation's leaders no longer represent us. I have a huge place in my heart for children, having some of my own. McCord was captured in a video shot from one helicopter as he ran frantically to a military vehicle with Sajad in his arms seeking medical care. McCord, in New York for the festival premiere, told the story of what he experienced while saving two children wounded in the incident. "[88] In this interview, McCord reports that repercussions for seeking mental health help could include being labeled as a "malingerer", a crime under U.S. military law. The review was not released in full until 2010, after the video of the incident had been released by WikiLeaks. [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. Wired.com: But you had been in combat before. Major Brent Cummings claimed they took great pains to prevent the loss of innocent civilian lives. There's houses behind where the van was. As the killing goes on, you obviously would see the killing of men who are lying on the ground in an operation where ground troops are approaching and perfectly capable of taking those people captive, but meanwhile you're murdering before the troops arrive. [94], WikiLeaks said they were unable to confirm whether or not Manning was the source of the video, stating "we never collect personal information on our sources", but saying that "if [Manning is the] whistleblower then, without doubt, [s]he's a national hero"[95] and "we have taken steps to arrange for [her] protection and legal defence". The missile hits the building, and the man is caught in the explosion. [57], Reuters reported that it could locate no witnesses who had seen gunmen in the immediate area. It wasnt like a cry of pain really. We did unto you what we would not want done to us. Advertisement. That's why so many soldiers come back home and they're no longer in the situations where they have other things to think about or other people to joke about what happened and they explode. Soldier on 2007 Apache Attack: What I Saw", "Redacted internal US Army report: "Investigation into Civilian Casualties Resulting from an Engagement on 12 July 2007 in the New Baghdad District of Baghdad", "WikiLeaks releases video of slaughter in Iraq", "Military shooting of Reuters men online", "Joan Smith: Now we see what war does to those who wage it", "US soldier on Baghdad airstrike: "Not out of the ordinary in Iraq", "2 soldiers in 'Collateral Murder' video apologize. The ground troops that secured the site of the first two strikes then receive small arms fire from nearby buildings. There's also some soldiers who joke about it [as a] coping mechanism. On the video, it is then seen that Army soldiers establish a perimeter around the site and extract the children from the burning van. This is urban combat and we're taking the war to children and women and innocents. How is this guy supposed to [decide] should I stop and pick them up, or is the military going to shoot me? [110], Mark Taylor, an international law expert and a director at the Fafo Institute for International Studies in Norway, told Al Jazeera "there's a case to be made that a war crime may have been committed." Their request was denied at the briefing and they were told to seek access under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. You can see in this particular image he is lying on the ground and the people in the van have been separated, but they still deliberately target him. [18][25][31] The Apache crew requested permission to engage, stating it "looks like [the men] possibly, picking up bodies and weapons" from the scene,[33] and repeated their request to shoot,[7][34][35][36][37] before they received permission to begin firing on the van and its occupants. A school district is mourning the loss of a 13-year-old student who was found dead along with 3 other family members after a "potential murder-suicide" in Clermont County.It happened around 9:41 a . China Is Relentlessly Hacking Its Neighbors. Soldier Ethan McCord speaking about the civilian massacre documented in WikiLeaks's April 2010 vid. I've had nightmares. 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. More and more Americans are taking responsibility for what was done in our name. I'm guilty of it, too, myself. ", The letter, which they hope to get to the family who lost their father and whose children were injured in the attack, states that they "are acknowledging our responsibility for bringing the battle to your neighborhood, and to your family. 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. Wired.com: At the time you arrived on the scene, you didn't know what had happened, is that right? 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. And where the soldier said [in the video], "Well, you shouldn't take your kids to battle." 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. The ground controller responds, "If you've [positively identified] the individuals in the building with weapons, go ahead and engage the building". Gabriel Schoenfeld, Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, said of the airstrike: It is precisely the presence of weapons, including RPGs, that goes a long distance toward explaining why cameramen for Reuterspointing television cameras around corners in a battle zonewere readily mistaken by our gunships for insurgents. [21], The Air Weapons Team (AWT) of two Apache AH-64s from the 1st Cavalry Division had been requested by the 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment (216), 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Kauzlarich, before July 12 to support Operation Ilaaj. When he is rescued, suddenly that belief changed. [104][105][106][107] Pursuant to a commutation by President Obama, Chelsea Manning was released on May 17, 2017. Seven men were killed, including Noor-Eldeen and Chmagh, with three others being wounded. [29], A crew member requests authorization to engage after seeing five or six of the men moving in the direction of U.S. Assange said that Finkel had seen the video and that at least one individual at the offices of The Washington Post had a copy of the video for at least a year, prior to its release by WikiLeaks. "[90], James Spione made a short documentary film about the airstrikes called Incident in New Baghdad, featuring a first-person account from Ethan McCord. But you guys did have a firefight a couple of blocks away. I did see a guy moving from a rooftop from one position to another with an AK-47, who was firing at us. After the incident, we went back to the FOB [forward operating base] and that's when I was in my room. I grabbed the medic and we went into the back. But you're not supposed to do that in Iraq. [18] Al Jazeera stated that the Army had received "reports of small arms fire", but were unable to positively identify the gunmen. Knowing that I was part of the system that took their father away from them and made them lose their house it's heartbreaking. Part of Banksy's, This page was last edited on 20 February 2023, at 21:26. I just kept telling him, "Don't die; don't die." WikiLeaks identified the leak's source as "a number of military whistleblowers". Ethan McCord: Right. [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." On 19 April 2010, Ethan McCord, who appears on the ground in the video, and Josh Steiber, a member of the same company who was not present on the day, wrote an open Letter of Reconciliation & Responsibility to the Iraqi People apologising for the events in the video. Longer video shows the third attack, in which Hellfire missiles were fired into a building. [ ]. 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