Wikileaks And Julian Assange Caught In Bias Storm Over Reuter’s Iraqi Journalists ‘Slaughter’
YOU’VE seen the Wikileaks video of Iraq journalists being killed by US gunships. Did you believe what you saw? What did you want to see? Reuters journalists Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmaghand 11 other Iraqis died when on June 12, 2007, a US Apache gunship opened fire on a group in Baghdad’s Sadr City. Two children were wounded.
The Times’ Giles Whittelland Alice Fordham report:
The co-pilot reports seeing RPGs and AK-47 rifles on the ground, though none are visible. There are at least eight bodies in plain view, however.
Here’s the video they saw:
But then, you look again at a less edited version of the tape. The Jawa Report, sasy teh first video is “perverse and evil slight of hand”.
Salon’s Glenn Greenwald said Wikileaks has published the edited and full versions:
From the very beginning, WikiLeaks released the full, 38-minute, unedited version of that incident — and did so right on the site they created for release of the edited video.
But look again. One attacks follows the other.
The soldiers’ report can be read here.
WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange tells Fox News that “it’s likely some of the individuals seen in the video were carrying weapons.”
But it doesn’t matter so long as the cause is furthered and the brand developed:
“Based upon visual evidence I suspect there probably were AKs and an RPG, but I’m not sure that means anything,” Assange said. Nearly every Iraqi household has a rifle or an AK. Those guys could have just been protecting their area.”
Jullian Assange tells CNN yesterday that the 39 minute video is “everything we have. It is a continuous take except for one 20 minute interval.”
So. It is edited. By whom? Why? Says Assange:
“We never censor.”
Good. But who did?
Not the the military help themselves, as AP reports:
Capt. Jack Hanzlik, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said that the military has not been able to locate the video within its files after being asked to authenticate the version available online.
“We had no reason to hold the video at (Central Command), nor did the higher headquarters in Iraq,” Hanzlik said in an e-mailed statement. “We’re attempting to retrieve the video from the unit who did the investigation.”
And:
One soldier can even be heard shouting: ‘Ha, ha, I hit ’em.’ Another says: ‘Look at those dead b******s.’
“Wikileaks has had more scoops in three years than the Washington Post has had in 30,” tweets Clay Shirky.
Good work – in the context of a free press.
Posted: 9th, April 2010 | In: Key Posts, Reviews Comments (4) | TrackBack | Permalink
