what happened to ethan mccord
It was nominated as a Documentary Short Subject for the 84th Academy Awards. How to Make Sure Youre Not Accidentally Sharing Your Location, Security News This Week: Sensitive US Military Emails Exposed. The story was then overtaken by a more updated one out of Washington that incorporated reporting from the original piece. However, personally I don't feel that the attack on the van was warranted. They were destroyed. In 2009, Stieber left the military as a conscientious objector and became a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War. "[31], In May 2011 the Barcelona Human Rights Film Festival awarded the investigative film Collateral murder, Hellfire, done by Kristinn Hrafnsson, WikiLeaks spokesperson, and Ingi Ingason, with the award for International Journalism and Human Rights. Describing doubts over his initial enthusiasm in Iraq, McCord said that "I didnt understand why people were throwing rocks at us, why I was being shot at and why we're being blown up, when I have it in my head that I was here to help these people. They also found two Canon EOS digital cameras with telephoto lenses. It happened because my content was bad. Assange responded: Yes, absolutely Our promise to the public is that we will release the full source material. [19], The events between the attack on the van and the attack on the building (approximately 30 minutes) were not captured on the leaked video footage. [55], Assange stated that the attack on the van was the most damning part of the video: "I'm very sceptical that was done under the rules of engagement; and, if it was legal, the rules of engagement must be changed". [18] Both helicopters strafe a group of ten men with 30 mm rounds once they became visible again. This is the problem that we're speaking out on as far as the rules of engagement. In fact, that's one of the reasons I went to the van immediately, because I could hear her crying. More than a dozen people were killed in three attacks captured in the video, including two Reuters journalists, one carrying a camera that was apparently mistaken for a weapon. There's no easy way to kill somebody. He opened his eyes when I was carrying him. When a congressman tried to jail him for his actions that day he . [92], On February 28, 2013, Manning pleaded guilty to 10 of 22 specified charges. [58], On July 25, 2007, during an off-the-record briefing in Baghdad by the U.S. military, two Reuters editors were shown "less than three minutes of video from the Apaches gun camera, up to the exact moment it opened fire the first time." I was pretty distraught over the whole situation with the children. Our secretary of defense may say the U.S. won't lose its reputation over this, but we stand and say that our reputation's importance pales in comparison to our common humanity. WikiLeaks also does not point out that at least one man was carrying an AK-47 assault rifle. [19], As the tape resumes, two men, one holding an AK-47, are seen walking. [29], A crew member requests authorization to engage after seeing five or six of the men moving in the direction of U.S. It didn't seem real, in the sense that it didn't look like human beings. A passing van then stopped and attempted to load a wounded man. Many soldiers felt threatened just by the fact that you were looking at them, so they fired their weapons on anybody that was looking at them because they (I . Ethan was on the ground at the scene of the shooting, and is seen on the video rushing one of the injured children to a U.S. Wired.com: Civilians are supposed to know that they're not supposed to pick up a wounded person crawling in the road? Ethan and Josh claim that though their unit was following the Rules of Engagement that day, they are taking responsibility for their role in the incident and initiating a dialogue around it; "Though we have acted with cold hearts far too many times, we have not forgotten our actions towards you. The men become obscured behind a building as the Apache moves around the group. That's a violation of the laws of war and of course what the mainstream media have omitted from their stories is this context. [110], Mark Taylor, an international law expert and a director at the Fafo Institute for International Studies in Norway, told Al Jazeera "there's a case to be made that a war crime may have been committed." She continued, "the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are inflicting huge psychological damage on combatants". There's houses behind where the van was. But this particular eventthis is clearly murder. They wrote that:[71][72][73][74]. [But] I was actually starting to get kind of better. After the incident, we went back to the FOB [forward operating base] and that's when I was in my room. "[46] Assange later said "Based upon visual evidence, I suspect there probably were AKs and an RPG, but I'm not sure that means anything". WIRED may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. Wired.com: Was anyone moving when you got there other than the two children? We're sorry for the system that we were involved in that took their father's life and injured them. [18][25][31] The Apache crew requested permission to engage, stating it "looks like [the men] possibly, picking up bodies and weapons" from the scene,[33] and repeated their request to shoot,[7][34][35][36][37] before they received permission to begin firing on the van and its occupants. Since then, McCord has been receiving threats to him and his family on a regular basis. 2023 Cond Nast. [115], While the Air Weapons Team was providing support at the first engagement area they were informed by ground troops that they were receiving small arms fire from the south/southwest. That's the hard part to swallow. [64] The footage was released during an April 5 press conference at the US National Press Club, and subsequently on a designated website titled Collateral Murder. Daniel Ellsberg, a former United States military analyst who was known for having leaked the Pentagon Papers to the media, said of the airstrike: It would be interesting to have someone speculate or tell us exactly what context would lead to justifying the killing that we see on the screen. Ethan McCord was a member of the military unit in "Collateral Murder" - the Wikileaks video showing 12 Iraqis being killed from a US helicopter.He rescued the two children severely wounded in the attack and is now speaking out to corroborate the Collateral Murder video. It was a scene that had played repeatedly in his mind the last three [], All the Settings You Should Change on Your New Samsung Phone, Its Time to Fall in Love With Nuclear FusionAgain, Give Your Back a Break With Our Favorite Office Chairs, Fat, Sugar, Salt Youve Been Thinking About Food All Wrong, Apple Users Need to Update iOS Now to Patch Serious Flaws. McCord states he was yelled at for not "pulling security". To all of those who were injured or lost loved ones during the July 2007 Baghdad shootings depicted in the "Collateral Murder" Wikileaks video: We write to you, your family, and your community with awareness that our words and actions can never restore your losses. As the pilot positions the helicopter to attack the building, two unarmed men walk towards, and perhaps into, the building. [87], McCord discussed his experience in the battle in an interview with the World Socialist Web Site on April 28, 2010, stating, "What happened then was not an isolated incident. [58] Reuters subsequently asked the U.S. military to probe the deaths. Ethan McCord, a soldier who arrived on the scene after the attack, stated in an interview for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation: From being in the perspective of the Apache helicopter crew, I can see where a group of men gathering, when there's a firefight just a few blocks away, which I was involved in, and theyre carrying weapons, one of which is an RPG. The breakthroughs and innovations that we uncover lead to new ways of thinking, new connections, and new industries. I was trying to wash it off in my room. We did unto you what we would not want done to us. They were stating that these people had no weapons whatsoever, that they were just carrying cameras. He added, "I think what this video shows is really a case that challenges whether the laws of war are strict enough. There is no bringing back all that was lost. [15] An anonymous U.S. military official confirmed the authenticity of the footage,[16] which provoked global discussion on the legality and morality of the attacks. That's not leaking, that's a pure editorial." I know the van, I know the faces of everybody that was there that day. I always questioned it in the back of my mind. As the ground troops advanced, a wounded Chmagh was seen crawling and attempting to stand. So, the first thing I did was grab the girl. There's no front lines here. BACKGROUND ON JOSH STIEBER: Branch of service: United States Army (USA) Unit: 1st ID Rank: Spc. The company was supported by two Apache helicopters from the 1st Cavalry Division's Aviation Brigade, call signs "Crazyhorse 1/8" and "Crazyhorse 1/9". Soldier Ethan McCord's Eyewitness Story, "Shadowed, Clamoring, Blurry. Their 43-year-old father, Saleh, had been driving them to a class when he spotted one of the wounded men moving in the street and drove over to help him, only to become a victim of the Apache guns. Ahlam Abdelhussein Tuman, the widow of the man who had been driving the van, and the mother of the children McCord had carried out, responded to the open letter in 2010:[75]. [43] The report stated that the helicopter crew did not know how many people were in the building when they destroyed it with missiles, and that "there is evidence that unarmed people have both entered and are nearby". (quote begins at 5:15)", "Soldiers in 'Collateral Murder' video apologise", "Meet The New Public Face Of WikiLeaks: Kristinn Hrafnsson Forbes", "2 Iraqi Journalists Killed as U.S. I was called a pussy and that I needed to suck it up and a lot of other horrible things. When this video first came out, there was a lot of outrage by the soldiers, just because it depicted us as being callous, cruel, heartless people, and we're not that way. But you're not supposed to do that in Iraq. US soldiers Ethan McCord's Eyewitness Story of coming across the aftermath of the infamous Wikileaks Collateral Murder in which over a dozen innocent civilians, 2 of which were Reuters journalists, were killed. She had a stomach wound? The Push to Ban TikTok in the US Isnt About Privacy. McCord: Yeah. Highlighted in the 17-minute version of the video are Noor-Eldeen with a camera and Chmagh talking on his mobile phone. The Washington Post has denied having any copy of the unedited video prior to WikiLeaks release of their edited version, and Finkel (who was on book leave from The Washington Post at the time) said that he has never made any statement about his sources for the story, except that it was "sourced from unclassified information and my presence in the area that day". We acknowledge our part in the deaths and injuries of your loved ones as we tell Americans what we were trained to do and what we carried out in the name of "god and country". [2], After the U.S. military concluded that the actions of the soldiers were in accordance with the law of armed conflict and its own "Rules of Engagement", WikiLeaks released the classified Rules of Engagement for 2006, 2007 and 2008, revealing the rules before, during, and after the attacks. Michael Bailey a medic who treated some of. I don't think that [the] big picture is whether or not [the Iraqis who were killed] had weapons. Ethan McCord was a U.S. soldier on patrol in Baghdad in July 2007 when he came upon a scene he says he'd never encountered. Some of them [say] I don't care what anybody says they're not there. I would like the American people and the whole world to understand what happened here in Iraq. [59], An internal legal review by staff at Forward Operating Base Loyalty in Iraq during July 2007 stated that the helicopters had attacked a number of armed insurgents within the rules of engagement, and that in an apparent case of civilian casualties two reporters working for Reuters had also been killed. Their age, their weapons, and the fact that they were within the distance of the forces that had been engaged made it apparent these guys were potentially a threat. [49], On Democracy Now!, Josh Stieber, who was at the time assigned to Bravo Company 216, said that although it's natural to "judge or criticize the soldiers", in fact "this is how [they] were trained to act". [103], On August 21, 2013, Manning was sentenced to 35 years' imprisonment, reduction in rank from private first class to private, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and a dishonorable discharge. It's very disturbing. Two children were found in the van, a four-year-old girl with gunshot wounds and embedded windscreen glass wounds and an eight-year-old boy with multiple wounds, including brain damage arising from shrapnel damage to his right temporal lobe. Just from watching that video, people cannot understand the complex battles that occurred. The ground troops that secured the site of the first two strikes then receive small arms fire from nearby buildings. [32] The legal review carried out by the U.S. Army stated that the two children were evacuated to the 28th Combat Support Hospital via Forward Operating Base Loyalty, then transferred to an Iraqi medical facility the next day. Ethan McCord, who was one of the first soldiers on the scene in the 2007 attack, told Wired.com that he saw several weapons at the scene, including a rocket propelled grenade launcher. That's when I started screaming, "The boy's alive! When the crew were informed that a child had been injured by their attack, one initially responded, "Ah damn. In the video, you can clearly see that they did have weapons to the trained eye. It wasnt like a cry of pain really. Both of these men, Chmagh and Tomal, were killed in the second strike, and two of Tomal's children were badly wounded. A third, an infantry solider named Ethan McCord, was one of the men who had scooped up the bodies of the wounded children in the apache helicopter attack, what is now known as the "Collateral. I have a huge place in my heart for children, having some of my own. They're smoking you, they're making you tired. WikiLeaks identified the leak's source as "a number of military whistleblowers". Give us a picture of what happened that day. It shouldn't have surprised you what you saw. I did see a video on YouTube after the Wikileaks [ video ] came out, of the children being interviewed. In a third strike, Apache pilots watched people, including some armed men, run into a building and engaged that building with several AGM-114 Hellfire missiles. I did see a guy moving from a rooftop from one position to another with an AK-47, who was firing at us. [23] Among the group are two journalists working for Reuters, Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh. [47] The Australian newspaper said the group was displaying "no obvious hostile action". Just over a year ago, WikiLeaks released footage from a gunsight camera of an Apache helicopter engaged in an attack that killed two journalists and eight ci. [18] The report recommends encouraging journalists in Iraq to wear special vests to identify themselves, and to keep the U.S. military updated about their whereabouts. In an interview on NPR on April 6, the day after the Collateral Murder video release, David Finkel said that the Reuters reporters were not embedded with anyone, but working independently. The crew then reposition the helicopter and fire two more missiles into the upper floors of the building[44], WikiLeaks said in the preface to one of their videos of the incident that "some of the men appear to have been armed [although] the behavior of nearly everyone was relaxed" in the introductory text of the shorter video. Josh Stieber was not at the scene of the shooting but says similar incidents happened throughout his 14-month tour; "The acts depicted in this video are everyday occurrences of this war." On the video, it is then seen that Army soldiers establish a perimeter around the site and extract the children from the burning van. I think it is good that they're putting this stuff out there. Reuters responded, "It is absolutely untrue that this story was spiked. Wired's Kim Zetter reached McCord at his home in Kansas. [65][66] "[76], Captain Jack Hanzlik, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command stated that the airstrike video "gives you a limited perspective, [it] only tells you a portion of the activity that was happening that day. US Soldiers from Wikileaks Collateral Murder Video Apologize. When I saw their faces, I was relieved, but I was just heartbroken. Wired.com: Have you heard from any other soldiers since the video came out? We have been speaking to whoever will listen, telling them that what was shown in the Wikileaks video only begins to depict the suffering we have created. Responsibility for civilian deaths in such encounters rests with those who violate the rules of war. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. The report concludes that the Reuters employees were in the company of armed insurgents. [17] Julian Assange said "permission to engage was given before the word 'RPG' was ever used". McCord, who served seven years in the military before leaving in the summer of 2009 due to injuries, recently posted an apologetic letter online with fellow soldier Josh Steiber supporting the release of the video and asking the family's forgiveness. She wrote that the co-pilot urged a dying, unarmed journalist to pick up a weapon as he tried to crawl to safety and that "the Apache crew open[ed] fire on civilians". [18][24][25][26][27] While the two are carrying media cards, a military officer claimed they were not wearing distinctive clothing identifying themselves as such. He gave his view of the context of the killings: the Reuters guys walked into the hottest spot of a very hot morning. I think it is good that they're putting this stuff out there. There is no bringing back all that was lost. The event was covered by Al Jazeera English and Reuters,[16] and later by The Washington Post,[82] The New York Times,[2] The Christian Science Monitor,[83] the BBC,[66] and CNN. The editors asked to see the remaining footage so Reuters could check whether it had been edited or manipulated. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. [91], In May 2010, a 22-year-old American Army intelligence analyst, Chelsea Manning, was arrested after telling hacker Adrian Lamo she had leaked the airstrike video, along with a video of another airstrike and around 260,000 diplomatic cables, to WikiLeaks. The WIRED conversation illuminates how technology is changing every aspect of our livesfrom culture to business, science to design. There had been a lot of RPG, grenade fire and so on, and they were doing what journalists do. McCord: When it was first released I don't think it was done in the best manner that it could have been. [45][114], "Cameramen and armed insurgents" (all captions from the Army report), "Cameraman peering around corner of wall", "Pictures taken by ground forces after reaching the site". After attending to the girl's wounds and handing her to a medic, McCord was ordered to take position on the roof but he returned to the van to find the boy moving his hand. In the video, you can clearly see that they did have weapons to the trained eye." It claimed reporters' "furtive attempts to photograph the Coalition Ground Forces made them appear as hostile combatants". The soldier, Ethan McCord, has since been discharged from the military and has been an outspoken voice against the Iraq War. I'm guilty of it, too, myself. I know the scene by heart; it's burned into my head. The soldier, Ethan McCord, has since been discharged from the military and has been an outspoken voice against the Iraq War. The footage was portrayed as classified,[7] but the individual who leaked it, U.S. Army soldier Chelsea Manning,[a] testified in 2013 that the video was not classified. According to Tom Raju, a reporter at CNN, "the soldiers of Bravo Company, 216 Infantry had been under fire all morning from rocket-propelled grenades and small arms on the first day of Operation Ilaaj in Baghdad". The video doesn't show the broader picture of the firing that was going on at American troops. After the non-combatants were clear Crazyhorse 1/8 engaged the targets. We have asked our fellow veterans and service-members, as well as civilians both in the United States and abroad, to sign in support of this letter, and to offer their names as a testimony to our common humanity, to distance ourselves from the destructive policies of our nation's leaders, and to extend our hands to you. McCord: I wasn't around that building when it happened. And cracking jokes is a way of pushing that stuff down. I was also told that there would be repercussions if I was to go to mental health. The WikiLeaks edited video did not add arrows pointing to these men, or label them, as it did with the men carrying cameras. WikiLeaks stated that "some of the men appear to have been armed [although] the behavior of nearly everyone was relaxed" in the introductory text of the shorter video. News this Week: Sensitive us military Emails Exposed is absolutely untrue that this was! By a more updated one out of Washington that incorporated reporting from the original piece opened his when. 'S burned into my head would not want done to us would like the American people and the situation! Whole world to understand what happened that day 're putting this stuff out there and! Reuters responded, `` I think it is absolutely untrue that this story was then overtaken by a updated... The attack on the van, I know the scene by heart ; it burned... 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