Pentagon Considers Court Martial For Soldier Who Leaked Iraq Video Showing Civilian Massacre Of Journalists And Children

  Posted by - July 6, 2010 at 8:30 pm - Permalink - Source via Alexander Higgins Blog
Apache Attack Helicopter Kills Journalist Namir With Camera
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Pentagon Considers Court Martial For Soldier Who Leaked Iraq Video Showing Civilian Massacre

The pentagon is considering charges against a soldier who leaked a classified video showing the US Military in Iraq slaughtering civilians, including two journalists and children.

The fact that the video was classified in the first place just screams coverup.

The video shows the US Military lying to their commanders making false claims that civilians on the the ground were carrying AK-47′s and RPGs and further making false claims that those civilians who were firing on the Apache attack helicopter.

In my opinion the soldier should be awarded a metal for revealing the cowardice of blood thirsty soldiers which the Pentagon tried to sweep under the rug until the video was leaked on the web site wikileaks, a website that offers a “public service designed to protect whistleblowers, journalists and activists who have sensitive materials to communicate to the public”.

Here’s the CNN scoop on the story.

U.S. soldier charged with leaking classified information

Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) — The U.S. military has charged a soldier in Iraq who is suspected of leaking a helicopter attack video that shows civilian deaths, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

Pfc. Bradley E. Manning, 22, of Potomac, Maryland, is being detained in Kuwait and faces charges on eight violations of the U.S. Criminal Code for allegedly illegally transferring classified data, according to a charge sheet released by the military.

It accuses Manning of “wrongfully introducing a classified video of a military operation filmed at or near Baghdad, Iraq, on or about 12 July 2007, onto his personal computer, a non-secure information system.”

The footage shows an Apache helicopter gunship attack that killed a dozen civilians, including two journalists from the Reuters news service. Their deaths gained the incident international notoriety.

I like how CNN conveniently leaves out the fact that children were also victims of the massacre in addition to the innocent journalists.

Reuters photographer Saeed Cmagh survived an initial strafing by the Apache gunship’s 30 mm machine gun, but he apparently died when the gunship opened fire on people attempting to get him off the sidewalk where he lay, according to the video.

Now CNN again committing the fact that the soldiers in the attack helicopter radioed a lie into headquarters that the people trying to help him were trying to help him were trying to collect weapons off the ground, which is how the helicopter received permission to open fire on the van and the children inside.

The aerial footage was posted in April by the Web site WikiLeaks, which said the video remains classified and “clearly shows the unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers.”

Clearly that is the case. This is a further escalation of the Government’s move to revoke Miranda rights, Habeas Corpus corpus, and even American citizenship for just being an alleged terrorist.

Is this a sign of things to come to America?

The Government just murdering people without consequence just for being in the vicinity of an alleged terrorist.

Even if there were enemy combatants in the group there was no way to determine everyone in groups was carrying a weapon or was a combatant and hence there is no justification to give the entire group a death sentence.

They crowd could have easily been surrounded by soldiers on the ground and given the opportunity to surrender.

If the Government is committing some horrible actions over seas what prevents them from engaging in such behavior on American soil against innocent American civilians?

WikiLeaks is a site that publishes anonymously submitted documents, video and other sensitive materials.

The military said it detained Manning, a U.S. Army intelligence analyst deployed with the 10th Mountain Division’s 2nd Brigade, in June. The website Wired.com identified Manning as the one who had leaked the video of the helicopter assault.

Wired.com reported that Manning confessed to the leak in a series of online chats with a former computer hacker. He allegedly owned up to leaking other items to WikiLeaks, including the classified Army document assessing the threat level of the website, as well as State Department cables, according to the article.

The military considering the threat level of a web site clearly practicing constitutional liberties such as Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Press.

Oh, I almost forgot we no longer have our constitutional rights in America. Those civil liberties were revoked last week while all sat quietly and said nothing.

It is sad that we now live and a country where the rights of a greedy corporations to cover up crimes against America and the environment take precedent over the civil rights that our founding fathers gave blood to give us.

This truly is an insult to the millions of Americans who have died in the many wars we have fought to protect those rights which we are so willing to give up to the Government without question.

Public airing of the video forced the Pentagon to defend the actions of its troops in a report that concluded the Apache crew had no way of knowing the Reuters journalists were among suspected insurgents on the street.

Pentagon documents on the investigation

What video are they watching?

There appears to be no reason to expect the people on the ground were even doing anything wrong besides the fact the soldiers in the helicopter clearly lied to headquarters and said they were being fired upon.

The military said Tuesday that it will appoint an officer to preside over Manning’s Article 32 investigation, which is similar to a civilian grand jury hearing. The military will then decide whether Manning should be court-martialed.

It is very sad that the people who committed senseless murder walk free and are defended by our Government while the Government decides to persecute and prosecute those who tell the truth.

Another important note to further shed light on the leaked document that assessed the so called “threat” of the wikileaks site.

The pentagon plans on waging a propaganda war to destroy the credibility of the site so people will not longer trust the site the next time a video like this is leaked.

According to this document that is exactly what the plan to do.

“trust as a center of gravity by protecting the anonymity and identity of the insiders, leakers or whistleblowers, the report recommends “The identification, exposure, termination of employment, criminal prosecution, legal action against current or former insiders, leakers, or whistleblowers could potentially damage or destroy this center of gravity and deter others considering similar actions from using the WikiLeaks.org

This is outrageous. The Government willfully engaging in a war against the the Freedom of Press and Freedom of Speech.

Has our nation truly turned into a 1984 Orwelian-Stalinist state of oppression?

It seriously appears that is the case.

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