This morning at an event at the National Press Club, WikiLeaks screened a video depicting a missile strike on a van in Baghdad that killed a Reuters driver and photographer in 2007.
WikiLeaks is a non-profit supported entity that offers those with undisclosed documents and records a safe space for their anonymous dissemination.
Reuters editors were shown the video in an off the record briefing shortly after the killings, and the news agency reportedly filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the video, which apparently went unfilled.
Wikileaks promises to have the video more widely available this afternoon. In the meanwhile, its contents have been described by former New York Times reporter Jennifer 8. Lee, who saw the video at the conference and offered some tweets, including this one:
Wikileaks video offers unusual view of casual banter of attack pilots when killing people: “sweet” “look at that bitch go” “nice missile.”
This was not the video depicting a 2009 air strike in Afghanistan that may have killed approximately 100 civilians, which Lee reports WikiLeaks has but is not yet prepared to release.
In the run up to the release of this video, WikiLeaks principal Julian Assange claimed that his organization had come under “an aggressive US and Icelandic surveillance operation,” charges that CJR found the Icelandic media have been unable to substantiate. WikiLeaks later signaled it might no longer fully stand behind elements of the alleged surveillance stemming from the arrest of a Icelandic teenager who had volunteered with the site.
The WikiLeaks Twitter account offered this warning on March 23: “If anything happens to us, you know why: it is our Apr 5 film. And you know who is responsible.”
Update: And the video is now available on YouTube, in short and long versions.
Further update: I’d like to warn you that this footage has a relatively tight field of vision, and is quite a bit more graphic than some bombs-bursting style aerial attack video you may have seen before. Also seems worth noting that the pilots, if WikiLeaks’s annotations are correct, confused the camera held by Namir Noor-Eldeen, the 22-year-old photographer killed that day, for an rocket propelled grenade.
Further update, #2: It also seems worth noting that the video credits a “Jenny Lee” for help with publicity. I’ve emailed Jennifer 8. Lee to see if it’s her.
Further update, #3: OK. Jennifer 8. Lee, in both an e-mail and a phone call, declined to comment for the record on whether or not she is the “Jenny Lee” noted in the credits.
Further update, #4: Just after 1pm, Jennifer 8. Lee acknowledged to CJR that she had helped WikiLeaks plan the roll out strategy, including working with YouTube to obtain an exemption for WikiLeaks to the site’s standard 10 minute video length limit. She added that she had not seen the video before this morning’s press conference.
I hope somebody publishes the gunner's name and address on the Net....It'll be the ONLY justice that those dead and wounded people EVER get.....
#1 Posted by jake starling, CJR on Mon 5 Apr 2010 at 01:37 PM
The gunner(s) is doing his job. Yes, his job involves killing people from the safety of the air, but every man and woman in the military has the job description of 'kill the people that the politicians tell us to kill'. If you think this is wrong, it is just as wrong for the guy who loads the bombs and they guy who fills the fuel tank, they are all part of the murder.
#2 Posted by Jeremy, CJR on Mon 5 Apr 2010 at 04:27 PM
So what’s the story here?
Was it “murder” as Lee and Assange are trying to impress upon its audience or was it a mistake? Were the rules of engagement followed, and if so is this just a casualty of the “fog of war”?
If you were the pilot patrolling an area which had insurgent activity hours earlier and saw a group of armed men congregating when Noor-Eldeen pulled out his camera, would you thing that it was a camera or an RPG?
Would you further believe that the good Samaritan was, in fact, a good Samaritan and not a getaway vehicle that the insurgents are well known to use?
The pilots acted in good faith and unfortunately innocent people died. That’s war.
#3 Posted by Mike H, CJR on Mon 5 Apr 2010 at 04:36 PM
"...every man and woman in the military has the job description of 'kill the people that the politicians tell us to kill'...." That [your] description is totally contradictory to the ROE.
Is "good faith" best demonstrated by the following statements:"“sweet” “look at that bitch go” “nice missile.”?
Did you see any evidence of any "offensive" maneuver by anybody on the ground, at any time?
While there was a helicopter circling above, would an insurgent, walk openly with a weapon strapped over his shoulder, muzzle pointing downwards?
#4 Posted by not so gullible, CJR on Mon 5 Apr 2010 at 05:09 PM
"While there was a helicopter circling above, would an insurgent, walk openly with a weapon strapped over his shoulder, muzzle pointing downwards?"
you cant be serious.. american solider using his brain.. you cant expect that
I see next call of duity or some similar bullshit game with a special bonus level where you can kill civilians for extra xp.
#5 Posted by marijan, CJR on Tue 6 Apr 2010 at 07:31 AM
Just a point of clarity. In the beginning of your article you described "a video depicting a missile strike", when in fact there were no missiles fired. Part of your "strong press" should be not misreporting facts.
#6 Posted by justin, CJR on Tue 6 Apr 2010 at 07:40 AM
@ justin:
Thanks. At that point, I hadn't seen the video (it hadn't been posted yet), and was relying on Lee's tweets to describe its content. She accurately quoted the pilots using the word missile. But the missile strike came later in the sortie, after the Reuters employees and the van with children inside were struck by conventional rounds.
Still, you are right: the video doesn't show a missile strike on a van, so I've stricken "missile" in that sentence.
You can see WikiLeaks's tape transcript here.
#7 Posted by Clint Hendler, CJR on Tue 6 Apr 2010 at 10:46 AM
THE PEOPLE THAT PROSCUTE AND MORDER THAN ANY OTHER PEOPLE BY WHITE
AND EUROPEAN ARE THE ISRAELI . THIS GENOCIDE CONTINUE TODAY . THE ACTION
OF THIS EUROPEAN CONTINUE TODAY . THE ARENOT ANY MORE PHICHAL . THE SAME
AS THEY DID IN THE PAST .BUT A PRPAGANDA BY NEWS AGENCY COME TO MY
ATTENTION ONE . THE NAME OF THIS NAZI TERRORIST ORGANIZATION .IS RUTERS .
ISRAEL IS FREE COUNTRY RUTERS COME TO ISRAEL INSTEAD OF REPORTING THE
NEWS AS IS THE ENCOURAGE AND SUPPORT TERRORIST AND LAW BREAKING .
ITS OBVIOUS TO ME THIS IS SAME WAY THIS KIND OF ACTION THAT THE NAZI AND
OTHER DID . 2000 YEAR RUTERS IS TERRORIST AND MURDER WITH CAMERA .
EXMPALE TWO ARAB STRIKE ISRAELI SOLDIER WITH KNIFE . THE REPORT IN THE WAY
THAT ISRAELI ARE IN FAULT . ????? NOT REPORTING ONLY THE FACT . REUTERS AND
OTHER NEWS AGENCY INFLATING THE PROBLEM THREFORE I THINK THEY ARE
CRIMINAL AND HELPING TERRORIST WITH THE PROPAGANDA . AND ARE PART OF
NURDERING ISRAELI .
THE GOVERMENT OF ISRAEL ARE SILIENCE AT THE TIME THAT AMERICAN TERRORIST
COMING TO ISRAELI AND USING ISRAELI COURT TO ATTACK . THE ISRAELI
GOVERMENT LET THEM . I SUUPRT THE MOTION THAT ISRAEL AND ISRAELI PEOPLE
DESRVE COMPENSATION FOR 2000 YEARS FROM THE EUROPEAN . MORE THAN THAT
ISRAELI DESREVE COMPANSATION FROM TERRORIST CRIMNAL ORAGNZATION AS
RUTERS . THAT REPORT THE NEWS AS PROPGANDA . AND SUPPORT DEATH .
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I KNOW THAT REUTERS WILL NOT STOP THE ILL FATED BEHAVIOR SAME LIKE HITLER DIDNT STOP UNLESS ISRAELI WILL TAKE THEM TO COURT SAME WAY THE TRY TO DESTROY US
#8 Posted by greenfeld, CJR on Wed 7 Apr 2010 at 12:50 PM
I find an ill-humor in the over-emotional criticism from those who think this video is so damning. You are making a large number of assumptions to reach that conclusion. This video was delivered by someone with an agenda who uses it as a catalyst to incite emotionally ignorant responses from the uninformed and inexperienced masses.
"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."
#9 Posted by John, CJR on Wed 7 Apr 2010 at 10:24 PM
The Missile strike Which happened later in the day is interesting. Could Missiles have been used to cover up the evidence of what had happened? From the video it looked like the soldiers on the ground had the area secured? What is the WHite House saying about this?
#10 Posted by Frederick Hartray, CJR on Fri 9 Apr 2010 at 01:54 AM
John: "You are making a large number of assumptions to reach that conclusion." I'm not making any assumptions. I am watching and listening to American soldiers enthusiastically kill unarmed civilians. There is no "humor" in this horror show, or people's honest reactions to it.
Frederick: No doubt our courageous White House will respond: "No comment."
#11 Posted by Dylan, CJR on Thu 10 Feb 2011 at 04:29 PM