This morning, the
WikiLeaks.org released footage of a helicopter strike from a 2007 attack in Iraq that killed two Reuters employees and several civilians. The footage had been kept secret by the U.S. military, but today, a spokesman confirmed that the WikiLeaks "Collateral Murder" video was authentic.
Reuters photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen and his driver, Saeed Chmagh, died in the helicopter attack. Two children were also wounded.
Wikileaks.org is known for posting video and documents passed along by anonymous sources, typically with political importance. They posted the video of the July 2007 firefight at ''
collateralmurder.com.''
In the WikiLeaks Collateral Murder video, the soldiers can be heard asking for permission to engage. The order is given. Some of the men fall to the ground instantly, and others crawl away.
''Ah, yeah, look at those dead bastards. Nice,'' one soldier says.
In the WikiLeaks Collateral Murder video, the helicopters also shoot up a van that arrives on the scene. A child is carried from the van and a solider says that the child should be sent to a local Iraqi hospital.
''Well, it's their fault bringing their kids into the battle,'' another solider responds.
The U.S. military covered up the helicopter attack for nearly three years. According to WikiLeaks, the military claimed that the Reuters newsmen died during a battle between the Army and insurgents. But the video clearly shows that story is false.
So why did WikiLeaks release this video?
WikiLeaks wants to ensure that all the leaked information it receives gets the attention it deserves. In this particular case, some of the people killed were journalists that were simply doing their jobs: putting their lives at risk in order to report on war.
The mainstream press was initially slow to report on the video – CNN finally put a link up at around 4 p.m. The BBC site has had it up since 9 a.m.
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