The WikiLeaks 'attack video': Is it murder?

WikiLeaks' bombshell video shows a U.S. helicopter killing an unarmed Reuters journalist in Iraq. Did our soldiers cross a line?

WikiLeaks "Collateral Murder" video still
(Image credit: WikiLeaks)

The Iceland-based whistle-blower site WikiLeaks has released a graphic 38-minute video showing a U.S. Army helicopter attacking and killing 12 Iraqi men, including a Reuters photographer and his driver. (See embedded video below.) The video is a live feed from an Apache gunship helicopter as it circles and periodically shoots at the men, who were gathered on a Baghdad street. While the U.S. military maintains that the soldiers were facing an armed enemy, WikiLeaks says it's clearly "murder"—a case of Army pilots treating human beings like video game targets. What does the explosive video really show?

This was murder: The WikiLeaks video shows an unlawful act of "murder" by U.S. forces, says national security analyst Bernard Finel in his blog. Even if you accept the U.S. military's questionable excuses—a few of the men were armed, there was fighting nearby—the U.S. has an "affirmative duty" to protect civilians. Killing several unarmed men, when there's no self-defense motive, is "inexcusable."

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