147

WATCH: Collateral Murder

Kit Knightly

With yesterdays arrest of Julian Assange, we thought it important to remember WHY he was in the Empire’s crosshairs. The video Collateral Murder (below) is WikiLeaks’ most famous, most shocking release. Footage of US military personnel murdering civilians and journalists and laughing about it.

This is the shortened version, the full unedited footage can be found here, with notes transcripts and accompanying memos and press-releases available here.

Wikileaks has obtained and decrypted this previously unreleased video footage from a US Apache helicopter in 2007. It shows Reuters journalist Namir Noor-Eldeen, driver Saeed Chmagh, and several others as the Apache shoots and kills them in a public square in Eastern Baghdad. They are apparently assumed to be insurgents. After the initial shooting, an unarmed group of adults and children in a minivan arrives on the scene and attempts to transport the wounded. They are fired upon as well. The official statement on this incident initially listed all adults as insurgents and claimed the US military did not know how the deaths occurred.

As shocking as the footage is, it is only a microcosm of the horrors inflicted on Iraq (and other countries of the Middle East), in the name of “freedom and democracy”. Realising the truth, that our leaders have no values, and our much vaunted armed forces can be peopled by violent psychopaths, is an important journey for everyone. A journey that Julian Assange, and WikiLeaks, started for a lot of people.

His reward for that service has been public ridicule, a deprivation of his rights, and now an illegal arrest. Chelsea Manning, who leaked the footage, was held in solitary confinement for years, and was recently arrested again, for refusing to testify against Assange and WikiLeaks. (UPDATE: It is now evident that Assange was handed over as a result of a dirty backdoor deal).

As of April 13th 2019, the people who started that war are not in prison, they are not ostracised or shunned or punished in any way. They are free to make speeches about Brexit, or be branded “adorable” because they hand out candy to other war criminals and their wives.

The criminals run free, the victims are unavenged, and the brave who speak out are savagely silenced.

SUPPORT OFFGUARDIAN

If you enjoy OffG's content, please help us make our monthly fund-raising goal and keep the site alive.

For other ways to donate, including direct-transfer bank details click HERE.