Obama's Defense Chief Backs Actions of Troops in WikiLeaks Video
Does this mean that the official Obama administration position condones the Bush-era 'Collateral Murder' done in the infamous WikiLeak video?
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A video showing U.S. Apache helicopters killing 12 people, including two Reuters news staff, is painful to watch but an investigation into the attack was very thorough, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Sunday.
"It's unfortunate. It's clearly not helpful. But by the same token, I think -- think it should not have any lasting consequences," Gates said of the 2007 videotape when interviewed on the ABC News "This Week" program.
The U.S. forces involved were in combat, he said, and were operating in "split-second situations."
The stark helicopter gunsight video of the July 12, 2007, attack has been widely viewed around the world on the Internet since its release on April 5 by the group Wikileaks, which promotes leaks to fight government and corporate corruption.
Some international law and human rights experts say the Apache helicopter crew in the footage may have acted illegally. The video includes an audio track of a helicopter crew conversation. Many have been shocked by the images and some of the fliers' comments.
"It's obviously a hard thing to see. It's painful to see, especially when you learn after the fact what was going on. But you -- you talked about the fog of war. These people were operating in split-second situations," Gates said.
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earlier:
"We Were Told to Just Shoot People, and the Officers Would Take Care of Us"
Hearings provide a platform for veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan to share the reality of their occupation experiences with the media in the US
On Monday, April 5, Wikileaks.org posted video footage from Iraq, taken from a US military Apache helicopter in July 2007 as soldiers aboard it killed 12 people and wounded two children. The dead included two employees of the Reuters news agency: photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen and driver Saeed Chmagh.
The US military confirmed the authenticity of the video.
The footage clearly shows an unprovoked slaughter, and is shocking to watch whilst listening to the casual conversation of the soldiers in the background.
As disturbing as the video is, this type of behavior by US soldiers in Iraq is not uncommon.
Truthout has spoken with several soldiers who shared equally horrific stories of the slaughtering of innocent Iraqis by US occupation forces.
"I remember one woman walking by," said Jason Washburn, a corporal in the US Marines who served three tours in Iraq. He told the audience at the Winter Soldier hearings that took place March 13-16, 2008, in Silver Spring, Maryland, "She was carrying a huge bag, and she looked like she was heading toward us, so we lit her up with the Mark 19, which is an automatic grenade launcher, and when the dust settled, we realized that the bag was full of groceries. She had been trying to bring us food and we blew her to pieces."
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