The sickening video released today of U.S. troops slaughtering
innocent civilians, including two Reuters reporters in Baghdad
in July 2007, clearly indicates why the Pentagon was intent
on destroying Wikileaks, the whistleblower website that it now
has little chance of putting out of business.
Last month, the notorious truth-seeking website leaked a
secret report, authored by the Army Counterintelligence
Center, that condemned Wikileaks as a danger to national security.
“Wikileaks.org, a publicly accessible Internet Web site,
represents a potential force protection, counterintelligence,
operational security (OPSEC), and information security (INFOSEC)
threat to the US Army,” the report states.
"The leakage of sensitive and classified DoD information
also calls attention to the insider threat, when a person or
persons motivated by a particular cause or issue wittingly provides
information to domestic or foreign personnel or organizations
to be published by the news media or on the Internet."
the report continues.
No matter that the "particular cause or issue" in
this case was revealing the sadistic murder of innocent civilians
by laughing military forces and the cover up that ensued when
they realised what had really transpired.
The 2008 Army document suggests that the person (or persons)
responsible for such leaks should be hunted down and prosecuted,
mentioning Wikileaks by name and advocating its destruction
in order to deter other whistleblowers.
"Web sites such as Wikileaks.org have trust as their most
important center of gravity by protecting the anonymity and
identity of the insider, leaker, or whistleblower. Successful
identification, prosecution, termination of employment, and
exposure of persons leaking the information by the governments
and businesses affected by information posted to Wikileaks.org
would damage and potentially destroy this center of gravity
and deter others from taking similar actions."
Wikileaks also claimed last month that it was under
aggressive surveillance from the Pentagon, indicating
that it's imminent release of a ‘Pentagon Murder Cover-up’
at the National Press Club in Washington on April 5, was the
specific reason.
Reports
at the time assumed that Wikileaks was referring
to a different video to the one released yesterday, specifically,
footage of a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan dating from May 7
last year that killed 97 civilians. That video still remains
unreleased.
The way the Baghdad incident was originally reported in 2007,
proves that the U.S. military lied about the attack and that
a cover up was enacted.
Clashes in a southeastern neighborhood here between the American
military and Shiite militias on Thursday left at least 16
people dead, including two Reuters journalists who had driven
to the area to cover the turbulence, according to an official
at the Interior Ministry.
Baghdad Soldiers, with their Iraqi Security Force counterparts,
killed nine insurgents and detained 13 more after coming under
fire July 12 in the New Baghdad District of eastern Baghdad.
Soldiers of 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, and the
2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, both operating in eastern
Baghdad under the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry
Division, along with their Iraqi counterparts from the 1st
Battalion, 4th Brigade, 1st Division National Police, were
conducting a coordinated raid as part of a planned operation
when they were attacked by small arms fire and rocket-propelled
grenades.
The leaked video clearly shows that the forces did not come
under fire.
The statement continued:
“There is no question that Coalition Forces were clearly
engaged in combat operations against a hostile force,”
said Lt. Col Scott Bleichwehl, spokesperson and public affairs
officer for MND-B.
In addition to the release of the video, Wikileaks has also
provided
more research obtained by reporters that traveled
to Baghdad. This provides more much needed context, without
which the leaked video could have been somewhat passed over
by the mainstream media.
Among the material is a photograph from Reuters reporter Namir
Noor-Eldeen's camera, taken by soldiers after he had been killed
by the U.S. military.
The Wikileaks investigators also spoke to eyewitnesses who
were able to identify the two Reuters journalists, and track
down the two children injured in the attack, as well as their
mother, now a widow.
Watch the video from Wikileaks:
Clearly, Wikileaks, which has been facing extinction through
lack of funding for some time, is set to be elevated to new
heights following its brave exposure of this tragic event. It
was able to obtain information and footage that Reuters had
been unable to get hold of for two years.
The Pentagon's agenda to "destroy" the organisation
has failed and, along with the clear proof of duplicity surrounding
this incident, it should serve as evidence of deception against
the American people, not to mention as evidence of the unprovoked
murder of innocent civilians.
Julian Assange, editor and co-founder of WikiLeaks, appeared
on Russia Today earlier to defend the release of the video and
discuss the difficulty of bringing U.S. military personnel to
account for crimes carried out by the armed forces.
Related reading:
The way the Baghdad incident was originally reported in 2007,
proves that the U.S. military lied about the attack and that
a cover up was enacted.