The following news report, which exposes yet another of the heinous acts of
the US military in foreign lands is nothing short of shameful. Between
incidents like this, the crimes committed at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, the
treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the policy of extraordinary
rendition and secret US torture camps in foreign lands, and the many
thousands of innocent civilians who have died needlessly under American
fire, how can any American honestly say that they are proud of the US
military?

These acts and incidents are clear proof of what I have been saying for
years; and that is that the US military turns men into heartless killing
machines and blood-thirsty animals who revel with delight when they torture
and kill people.

I find it all sick, sick, sick!

Blessed are the peacemakers, and NOT the warmongers! One of these days
America will reap what she has sown, because our God is a righteous God, and
He hears the cries of the poor and of the afflicted, including those who are
unjustifiably afflicted and murdered by the blood-thirsty US military!


Video Shows American Killing of Photographer

By ELISABETH BUMILLER - NYT

April 5, 2010


WASHINGTON -- The Web site WikiLeaks.org released a graphic video on Monday
showing an American helicopter shooting and killing a Reuters photographer
and driver in a July 2007 attack in Baghdad.

A senior American military official confirmed that the video was authentic.

Reuters had long pressed for the release of the video, which consists of 38
minutes of black-and-white aerial video and conversations between pilots in
two Apache helicopters as they open fire on people on a street in Baghdad.
The attack killed 12, among them the Reuters photographer, Namir
Noor-Eldeen, 22, and the driver, Saeed Chmagh, 40.

At a news conference at the National Press Club, WikiLeaks said it had
acquired the video from whistle-blowers in the military and viewed it after
breaking the encryption code. WikiLeaks edited the video to 17 minutes.

David Schlesinger, the editor in chief of Reuters news, said in a statement
that the video was "graphic evidence of the dangers involved in war
journalism and the tragedies that can result."

On the day of the attack, United States military officials said that the
helicopters had been called in to help American troops who had been exposed
to small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades in a raid. "There is no
question that coalition forces were clearly engaged in combat operations
against a hostile force," Lt. Col. Scott Bleichwehl, a spokesman for the
multinational forces in Baghdad, said then.

But the video does not show hostile action. Instead, it begins with a group
of people milling around on a street, among them, according to WikiLeaks,
Mr. Noor-Eldeen and Mr. Chmagh. The pilots believe them to be insurgents,
and mistake Mr. Noor-Eldeen's camera for a weapon. They aim and fire at the
group, then revel in their kills.

"Look at those dead bastards," one pilot says. "Nice,"
the other responds.

A wounded man can be seen crawling and the pilots impatiently hope that he
will try to fire at them so that under the rules of engagement they can
shoot him again. "All you gotta do is pick up a weapon," one pilot says.

A short time later a van arrives to pick up the wounded and the pilots open
fire on it, wounding two children inside. "Well, it's their fault for
bringing their kids into a battle," one pilot says.

At another point, an American armored vehicle arrives and appears to roll
over one of the dead. "I think they just drove over a body," one of the
pilots says, chuckling a little.

Reuters said at the time that the two men had been working on a report about
weightlifting when they heard about a military raid in the neighborhood, and
decided to drive there to check it out.

"There had been reports of clashes between U.S. forces and insurgents in the
area but there was no fighting on the streets in which Namir was moving
about with a group of men," Reuters wrote in 2008. "It is believed two or
three of these men may have been carrying weapons, although witnesses said
none were assuming a hostile posture at the time."

The American military in Baghdad investigated the episode and concluded that
the forces involved had no reason to know that there were Reuters employees
in the group. No disciplinary action was taken.

Late Monday, the United States Central Command, which oversees the wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan, released the redacted report on the case, which
provided some more detail.

The report showed pictures of what it said were machine guns and grenades
found near the bodies of those killed. It also stated that the Reuters
employees "made no effort to visibly display their status as press or media
representatives and their familiar behavior with, and close proximity to,
the armed insurgents and their furtive attempts to photograph the coalition
ground forces made them appear as hostile combatants to the Apaches that
engaged them."



Jeff Snyder, SysOp - Armageddon BBS  Visit us at endtimeprophecy.org port 23
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your Download Center 4 Mac BBS Software & Christian Files.  We Use Hermes II


--- Hermes Web Tosser 1.1