It took a while for it to happen but CNN finally picked up the WikiLeaks story posted by Huffington Post hours ago.
Calling it a case of “collateral murder,” the WikiLeaks Web site today released harrowing until-now secret video of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter in Baghdad in 2007 repeatedly opening fire on a group of men that included a Reuters photographer and his driver — and then on a van that stopped to rescue one of the wounded men.
None of the members of the group were taking hostile action, contrary to the Pentagon’s initial cover story; they were milling about on a street corner. One man was evidently carrying a gun, though that was and is hardly an uncommon occurrence in Baghdad.
Links inside article quotes lead to full story and video.
The helicopter crew, which was patrolling an area that had been the scene of fierce fighting that morning, said they spotted weapons on members of the first group — although the video shows one gun, at most. The crew also mistook a telephoto lens for a rocket-propelled grenade.
The shooting, which killed Reuters photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and driver Saeed Chmagh, 40, took place on July 12, 2007, in a southeastern neighborhood of Baghdad.
The next day, the New York Times reported the military’s official cover story:
UPDATE: Last night, April 12th, Stephen Colbert interviewed WikiLeaks Julian Assange and it was genius. It’s difficult for us to know where to place the business of WikiLeaks. This interview with Assange only confused the matter more. Assange’s admitted emotional manipulation of the leak in question does not sit well with us at all. When the pure journalist emerged from the depths of the Colbert satire-brain our respect for the knife-edge dance Colbert does four nights a week grew considerably. We have a lot to learn before hitting his level of genius.
Here’s the interview in question.
