I’ve posted this video for two reasons. The first is that during a conversation at work I was assured that within this video we see two Apache helicopters opening up indiscriminately on Iraqi adults and children. I remember ‘hmm-ing’ to myself and saying I don’t remember that being the case. They said because of the aerial nature of the shot it is hard to distinguish heights. After re-watching the video I confirmed myself to be correct which has made me consider the value of information, even the most eye-opening such as Wikileaks, when it is obscured and exaggerated.
The second reason is my sheer disgust and awe at the actions of the soldiers behind that assault in the Iraqi suburb of New Bagdad on July 12 2007 with 30mm cannon fire. During this attack about 12 men were killed and two children wounded. Among them were two Reuters news employees Saeed Chmagh and Namil Noor-Eldeen. A picture of Chmagh’s son holding a picture of his father while crying out in grief and a very short biography of Noor-Eldeen, 22 at the time, coming from a family of journalists and being considered one of the best war photographers at the time in Iraq, brings the personality of the individual to the forefront while watching the recording unfold.
So seeing these men merely milling about on a courtyard square corner while completely unaware that the forces that be were requesting permission for their cold-blooded murder was chilling. Some of these men may have been armed, according to the New York Times, but there was no hostility. No obvious aggression either clear to the viewers eye or mentioned by the US soldiers above them. We see Noor-Eldeen walking confidently with his camera which one soldier mistakes for a weapon: ‘that’s a weapon’. There was no hesitation in this deduction, although to my own eyes it appeared more like a bag than a weapon. We’re told by Steve Crisp, a Reuters Middle East photographer that he still remembers seeing Namir walking out of the Reuters complex with his camera slung over his shoulder and laughing with Saeed on the way to his next assignment.
They open fire, having believed to have seen AK-47’s and an RPG being carried and smoke and flying limbs ensue. The most disturbing thing about this video is the joking language of the killers. They chuckle and laugh at a ‘miss’: as Saeed limps away, escaping the first round, the shooter laughs at having not finished the job and fires again. They admire their result: ‘oh yeah look at all of those dead bastards’ one soldier says. ‘Nice’, replies the other.
Yet, somehow Saeed is still alive and trying to crawl away, obviously in a desperately injured state. The soldiers realise this and set about to distinguish if he is carrying a weapon. I wonder as I watch this if they are trying to make sure he is not a threat to incoming Bradley tanks and nearby foot soldiers who will take pictures of the scene and generally scope it. Then a soldier says: ‘come on buddy. All you need to do is pick up a weapon’. Perhaps not.
A van then appears and the assumption is that they could be there to pick up bodies and recover weapons. The shooters are once again impatient to engage. It becomes clear that they are ‘picking up the wounded’ as one soldier comments. Another childishly says: ‘come on, let us shoot!’ This request was persuasive enough to gain this permission and the van was obliterated.
The opening of the video begins with the quote: ‘Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give the appearance of solidity to pure wind’, a quote from George Orwell. Throughout the video the soldiers and shooters use words such as ‘engage’ and ‘target’ to replace ‘kill’ and ‘possible suspect’. We’re given another quote. This one is from colonel-lieutenant Scott Bleichwehl, a spokesman for the US forces in Baghdad, given to the New York Times, which says ‘there is no question that coalition forces were clearly engaged in combat operations against hostile forces’. A third quote from Mayor Brent Cummings executive officer 2-16, US Army, given to the Washington Post said how no innocent civilians were deliberately killed and ‘great pains’ were taken to avoid this. He also denied knowing how two children could have been killed in this attack when they were clearly retrieved from the very van that the Apache helicopters marked as hostile without due deliberation and gunned down. I have a new found respect for Wikileaks and Julian Assange for bringing to light a story of unjust murder that may have never otherwise surfaced.
