[2], After the U.S. military concluded that the actions of the soldiers were in accordance with the law of armed conflict and its own "Rules of Engagement", WikiLeaks released the classified Rules of Engagement for 2006, 2007 and 2008, revealing the rules before, during, and after the attacks. 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. It was a scene that had played repeatedly in his mind the last three years, and he knew exactly who the soldier was. I think that the people could have been deterred from doing what they were doing in the van by simply firing a few warning shots versus completely obliterating the van and its occupants.[52][53]. [8] The video, which WikiLeaks titled Collateral Murder, showed the crew firing on a group of men and killing several of them, then laughing at some of the casualties, all of whom were civilians, including two Reuters journalists. I did see a video on YouTube after the Wikileaks [ video ] came out, of the children being interviewed. I was diagnosed with chronic, severe PTSD. McCord, in New York for the festival premiere, told the story of what he experienced while saving two children wounded in the incident. Ethan McCord, a 33-year-old Army specialist, was engaged in a firefight with insurgents in an Iraqi suburb in July 2007, when his platoon, part of Bravo Company, 2-16 Infantry, got orders to. More than a dozen people were killed in three attacks captured in the video, including two Reuters journalists, one carrying a camera that was apparently mistaken for a weapon. I can accept their apology, because they saved my children, and if it were not for them, maybe my two little children would be dead. In an Al Jazeera English interview on April 19, 2010, WikiLeaks' Julian Assange explained why WikiLeaks titled the video Collateral Murder: And you can see that they also deliberately target Saaed, a wounded man there on the ground, despite their earlier belief that they didn't have the rules of engagementthat the rules of engagement did not permit them to kill Saeed when he was wounded. With such pain, friendship might be too much to ask. Please accept our apology, our sorrow, our care, and our dedication to change from the inside out. McCord: I have never seen anybody being shot by a 30-millimeter round before. [92], On February 28, 2013, Manning pleaded guilty to 10 of 22 specified charges. The review was not released in full until 2010, after the video of the incident had been released by WikiLeaks. 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. The soldier, Ethan McCord, has since been discharged from the military and has been an outspoken voice against the Iraq War. We are doing what we can to speak out against the wars and military policies responsible for what happened to you and your loved ones. Two men assisting in the rescue effort were from a group of five standing at an intersection seen in the upper right corner of the video when the Reuters employees arrive in the courtyard reported to Apaches as being a second position combatants were using to attack the Humvee. Ethan McCord describes the moment he realised Sajad Toman was alive In July 2007, 19 people were killed when an Apache helicopter opened fire on a group of Iraqis whom the pilots had identified. McCord added, "I don't say that Wikileaks did a bad thing, because they didn't. And that in turn is what helped me and Josh write the letter, hoping that it would find its way to them to let them know that we're sorry. You are seeing only a very narrow picture of the events". "[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. Personally, I believe the first attack on the group standing by the wall was appropriate, was warranted by the rules of engagement. McCord's courage and integrity has nothing to do with his US army training. [61] The longer video shows the third attack, in which Hellfire missiles were fired into a building.[43]. [56] U.S. forces spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Scott Bleichwehl later stated: "There is no question that coalition forces were clearly engaged in combat operations against a hostile force". The co-pilot/gunner for Crazyhorse 1/9 spotted three individuals near this building get into a red SUV and drive away to the west. He later sought help for psychological trauma, but was ridiculed by his NCO and told that if he were to go to the mental health officer, "there would be repercussions". . Bill Keller of The New York Times wrote, "But in its zeal to make the video a work of antiwar propaganda, WikiLeaks also released a version that didn't call attention to an Iraqi who was toting a rocket-propelled grenade and packaged the manipulated version under the tendentious rubric Collateral Murder. I don't think that [the] big picture is whether or not [the Iraqis who were killed] had weapons. [32], On the day of the attack the U.S. military reported that the two journalists were killed along with nine insurgents, and that the helicopter engagement was related to a U.S. troop raid force that had been attacked by small-arms fire and RPGs. It was nominated as a Documentary Short Subject for the 84th Academy Awards. The owner told him that three families were living in the building and seven residents had died, including his wife and daughter. 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. McCord: She had a stomach wound and she had glass in her eyes and in her hair. Wired.com: Did you try to get information about the two children after the shooting? Wired's Kim Zetter reached McCord at his home in Kansas. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C 107. I've had nightmares. McCord: I've spoken with one of the medics who was there. Gates said that the video provides the public with a view of warfare "as seen through a soda straw". http://www.mediasanctuary.orghttp://www.wikileaks.org U.S. Plus: Irans secret torture black sites, hacking a bank account with AI-generated voice, and Lance Bass unhinged encounter in Russia. [Then] we were just told to move to this [other] location. You joke about the situations and what's happened to push away your true feelings of the matter. On June 7, 2010, The New Yorker reported that Kristinn Hrafnsson, an investigative reporter who worked on the Collateral Murder video and later became a spokesman for WikiLeaks,[54] said he had found the owner of the building involved in the incident. [18][25][31] As the U.S. soldiers moved towards the site of the attack, a van stopped near Chmagh. [32], U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates criticized WikiLeaks for releasing the video without providing any context. Since then, McCord has been receiving threats to him and his family on a regular basis. You Cant Trust App Developers Privacy Claims on Google Play, Mozilla researchers found that apps often provide inaccurate data use disclosures, giving people a false sense of security., Batteries Are Ukraines Secret Weapon Against Russia. I was trying to wash it off in my room. [43] It concluded that an investigating officer would want to know how the armed men were identified as combatants from the earlier engagement; would question the nature of the collateral-damage estimate carried out by the crew before the missiles were launched; and would wish to determine whether a missile attack was a proportionate response to the threat. Wired.com: Was anyone moving when you got there other than the two children? Just from watching that video, people cannot understand the complex battles that occurred. In an interview on NPR on April 6, the day after the Collateral Murder video release, David Finkel said that the Reuters reporters were not embedded with anyone, but working independently. The missile hits the building, and the man is caught in the explosion. "When I did come up on the scene, there was an RPG as well as AK-47s there," he said. They also found two Canon EOS digital cameras with telephoto lenses. However, according to the co-pilot for Crazyhorse 1/8 they failed to positively identify the occupants as combatants and returned to the previous engagement area. Wired.com: Civilians are supposed to know that they're not supposed to pick up a wounded person crawling in the road? She concluded that command structures need to be in place to identify "combatants with serious psychological problems". I know the van, I know the faces of everybody that was there that day. She draws parallels with soldiers who suffered post-traumatic stress disorder in earlier wars. It is the essential source of information and ideas that make sense of a world in constant transformation. [113], The report states that at least two members of the group which were first fired on were armed, that two RPGs and one AKM or AK-47 rifle could be seen in the helicopter video, and that these weapons were picked up by the follow-up U.S. ground troops. All rights reserved. However, the long version of the video shows that this van had already been targeted by one Apache (Crazyhorse 1/8), prior to the second strike, as it traveled south toward the Reuters employees who were simultaneously targeted by the other Apache (Crazyhorse 1/9) as they walked with the group of men north on the same road toward the van. I think it is good that they're putting this stuff out there. [18][19] The crew estimates the group is twenty men. [55], Assange stated that the attack on the van was the most damning part of the video: "I'm very sceptical that was done under the rules of engagement; and, if it was legal, the rules of engagement must be changed". McCord: My platoon sergeant knew that I was having a hard time with it and that same night he came into the room and he told me, hey, just so you know, both of the children survived, so you can suck it up now. [47] Greenwald called the second airstrike a "plainly unjustified killing of a group of unarmed men carrying away an unarmed, seriously wounded man to safety". There's no easy way to kill somebody. [20] According to a military review, soldiers in that company "had been under sporadic small arms and rocket propelled grenade fire since" the operationdescribed as "clearing their sector and looking for weapons caches"began. I was up on a rooftop at that time. We were engaged in our own conflict roughly about three or four blocks away. We heard the gunships open up. You can make out in the video [someone] carrying an AK-47, swinging it down by his legs. And as far as the way that the soldiers are speaking in the video, which is pretty callous and joking about what's happened that's a coping mechanism. As the gunner fires the first missile, another man is seen walking along the street in front of the building. It was a scene that had played repeatedly in his mind the last three [], All the Settings You Should Change on Your New Samsung Phone, Its Time to Fall in Love With Nuclear FusionAgain, Give Your Back a Break With Our Favorite Office Chairs, Fat, Sugar, Salt Youve Been Thinking About Food All Wrong, Apple Users Need to Update iOS Now to Patch Serious Flaws. So, the first thing I did was grab the girl. [18][19][25] Once the group is eliminated, the Apache pilots direct the ground troops to move up to the position of the attack to clear the area. The soldier, Ethan McCord, has since been discharged from the military and has been an outspoken voice against the Iraq War. 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 . The Apache crew then alerted the ground troops that they believed that they could see an injured child moving around inside the destroyed van. According to the U.S. Army investigation report released by the United States Central Command, the engagement started at 10:20 Iraqi local time and ended at 10:41. [30], Assange stated that some of the press had not reported on the third airstrike, in which three Hellfire missiles were fired onto an apartment complex, which only appears in the longer unedited version of the two videos.[31]. When the cameraman on the ground aimed his camera in the direction of Bravo Company 216, a pilot remarked "He's getting ready to fire". We lost our country and our lives were destroyed. He kept saying, we were there, we know the truth, they're saying there was no weapons, there was. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Ethan McCord: Right. [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]. They arrived on station in New Baghdad at 9:53a.m., where sporadic attacks on coalition forces continued. Plus: Microsoft fixes several zero-day bugs, Google patches Chrome and Android, Mozilla rids Firefox of a full-screen vulnerability, and more. [Then I] took my children to school one day and I came home and sat down on the couch and turned on the TV with my coffee, and on the news I'm running across the screen with a child. These people were operating in split second situations.". But for Army veteran Ethan McCord, it was just another day on duty. [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. There's houses behind where the van was. As Russia has accelerated its cyberattacks on its neighbor, it's barraged the country with an unprecedented volume of different data-destroying programs. The WIRED conversation illuminates how technology is changing every aspect of our livesfrom culture to business, science to design. Josh . ", 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. 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). I had blood all down the front of me from the children. The majority of us aren't. [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. Wired.com: How much sniper fire were you getting? Major Brent Cummings claimed they took great pains to prevent the loss of innocent civilian lives. The promise we make to our sources is that not only will we defend them through every means that we have available technologically, legally and politically but we will try and get the maximum possible political impact for the material that they give to us. Bradley Manning acquitted of aiding the enemy, convicted of six counts of espionage", "Bradley Manning acquitted of aiding the enemy for giving secrets to WikiLeaks", "BBC News Bradley Manning guilty of espionage in Wikileaks case", "Manning Gets 35 years for wikileaks disclosures", "Bradley Manning Sentenced To 35 Years In Prison For WikiLeaks Disclosures", "Bradley Manning sentenced to 35 years in prison live updates", "Judge sentences Bradley Manning to 35 years", "Obama commutes Chelsea Manning's prison sentence", "Obama's final press conference: Chelsea Manning commutation is 'appropriate', "The WikiLeaks Video and the Rules of Engagement", "Exclusive: Reuters Chief Spikes Story on Killing of His Own Staffers In Baghdad", "US 'reviewing' Iraq killing video posted on WikiLeaks", "Ingi Ingason Ragnar and Kristinn Hrafnsson awarded International Journalism and Human Rights Award at Barcelona Human Rights Film Festival", "Verleihung des Whistleblower-Preises 2011", Whistleblower-Preis 2011 geht an Kernforscher, Collateral Murder: U.S. They're trained as soldiers to go into a building and clear a building. But you're not supposed to do that in Iraq. The video doesn't show the broader picture of the firing that was going on at American troops. Their request was denied at the briefing and they were told to seek access under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. Just from looking into the van, and the amount of blood that was on the boy and the father, I immediately figured they were dead. [43] He walks into a building which has been identified as the source of fire at U.S. ground troops. The soldier in the video said that your husband shouldn't have brought your children to battle, but we are acknowledging our responsibility for bringing the battle to your neighborhood, and to your family. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. "Our forces were engaged in combat all that day with individuals that fit the description of the men in that video. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. 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. Our secretary of defense may say the U.S. won't lose its reputation over this, but we stand and say that our reputation's importance pales in comparison to our common humanity. I always questioned it in the back of my mind. In fact, that's one of the reasons I went to the van immediately, because I could hear her crying. Two former soldiers from the Army unit responsible for the Wikileaks "Collateral Murder" incident have written an open-letter of "Reconciliation and Responsibility" to those injured in the July 2007 attack, in which U.S. forces wounded two children and killed over a dozen people, including the father of those children and two Reuters employees. One second later he screams, "He's got an RPG!" There had been running gun battles. I went back outside to the van, and that's when the boy took, like, a labored, breath. [57], Reuters reported that it could locate no witnesses who had seen gunmen in the immediate area. We did unto you what we would not want done to us. Our heavy hearts still hold hope that we can restore inside our country the acknowledgment of your humanity, that we were taught to deny. Seven men (including Noor-Eldeen) were killed during this first strike; Saeed Chmagh, who was injured, later died in a hospital. The boy's alive!" He condemned and reported the massacre as soon as it happened. [19], As the tape resumes, two men, one holding an AK-47, are seen walking. Oh well", and a minute later continued, "Well, it's their fault for bringing kids into a battle". 2023 Cond Nast. We've been there for so long now and it seems like nothing is being accomplished whatsoever, except for we're making more people hate us. [32] Assange also said "it's ludicrous to allege that we have taken anything out of context in this video". Description of the building and clear a building. [ 43 ] he walks into a red SUV drive... The events '' going on at American troops # x27 ; s and! `` our forces were engaged in our own conflict roughly about three or four blocks.. Out what happened to ethan mccord of the reasons i went back outside to the west view of warfare `` seen... Eos digital cameras with telephoto lenses without providing any context big picture is whether or not [ Iraqis... 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