Wikileaks US Apache helicopter

[Doktor Howl]

Just watched the videos.

Fuckers. They opened fire on
1. Civilians
2. Civilians trying the recover the dead bodies of the inncocent men they just killed.

Laughing all the way, treating it like a fucking Counterstrike game. Chances are they'll get medals and an honourable discharge, although all they deserve is a bullet in the brainstem.

Innocent?  The lead guy DID have an RPG, and I counted at least two rifles while the dudes on the ground were walking.

[Remington]

Just watched the videos.

Fuckers. They opened fire on
1. Civilians
2. Civilians trying the recover the dead bodies of the inncocent men they just killed.

Laughing all the way, treating it like a fucking Counterstrike game. Chances are they'll get medals and an honourable discharge, although all they deserve is a bullet in the brainstem.

Innocent?  The lead guy DID have an RPG, and I counted at least two rifles while the dudes on the ground were walking.

Alright, but what about the guys in the van who came to pick the bodies?

[Doktor Howl]

Just watched the videos.

Fuckers. They opened fire on
1. Civilians
2. Civilians trying the recover the dead bodies of the inncocent men they just killed.

Laughing all the way, treating it like a fucking Counterstrike game. Chances are they'll get medals and an honourable discharge, although all they deserve is a bullet in the brainstem.

Innocent?  The lead guy DID have an RPG, and I counted at least two rifles while the dudes on the ground were walking.

Alright, but what about the guys in the van who came to pick the bodies?

Like I said, I wouldn't have authorized that shot.  The guys on the ground were closing in, there was no reason to shoot.

On the other hand, from a legal pov, there was no wrongdoing.  The guys in the air could reasonably assume the people in the van were trying to rescue buddies, not just help some injured strangers.

[Faust]

Just watched the videos.

Fuckers. They opened fire on
1. Civilians
2. Civilians trying the recover the dead bodies of the inncocent men they just killed.

Laughing all the way, treating it like a fucking Counterstrike game. Chances are they'll get medals and an honourable discharge, although all they deserve is a bullet in the brainstem.

Innocent?  The lead guy DID have an RPG, and I counted at least two rifles while the dudes on the ground were walking.

I didn't watch the whole thirty five min vid, but people are saying that there were no weapons, there was a nicam camcorder, a tripod and a case.
To be fair they did radio it in
waited for confirmation on the weapons (whoever confirmed it is a tool)
and asked if they should proceed with firing.

Quote from elsewhere:
*kills a dozen people holding cameras, tripods, boom mics, curtain rods, fishing poles, golf bags, etc*

[Doktor Howl]

Just watched the videos.

Fuckers. They opened fire on
1. Civilians
2. Civilians trying the recover the dead bodies of the inncocent men they just killed.

Laughing all the way, treating it like a fucking Counterstrike game. Chances are they'll get medals and an honourable discharge, although all they deserve is a bullet in the brainstem.

Innocent?  The lead guy DID have an RPG, and I counted at least two rifles while the dudes on the ground were walking.

I didn't watch the whole thirty five min vid, but people are saying that there were no weapons, there was a nicam camcorder, a tripod and a case.
To be fair they did radio it in
waited for confirmation on the weapons (whoever confirmed it is a tool)
and asked if they should proceed with firing.

"People are saying?"

I watched the whole thing.  I saw 2 rifles, and what looked a whole lot like an RPG.

[Faust]

Just watched the videos.

Fuckers. They opened fire on
1. Civilians
2. Civilians trying the recover the dead bodies of the inncocent men they just killed.

Laughing all the way, treating it like a fucking Counterstrike game. Chances are they'll get medals and an honourable discharge, although all they deserve is a bullet in the brainstem.

Innocent?  The lead guy DID have an RPG, and I counted at least two rifles while the dudes on the ground were walking.

I didn't watch the whole thirty five min vid, but people are saying that there were no weapons, there was a nicam camcorder, a tripod and a case.
To be fair they did radio it in
waited for confirmation on the weapons (whoever confirmed it is a tool)
and asked if they should proceed with firing.

"People are saying?"

I watched the whole thing.  I saw 2 rifles, and what looked a whole lot like an RPG.

could be, I cant tell, as I said speculation. There are no responses from the army
http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/security/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=223900094
there probably wont be.
The names of the reporters who were shot dead however are confirmed, but they could well have been with armed people.

[Doktor Howl]

Just watched the videos.

Fuckers. They opened fire on
1. Civilians
2. Civilians trying the recover the dead bodies of the inncocent men they just killed.

Laughing all the way, treating it like a fucking Counterstrike game. Chances are they'll get medals and an honourable discharge, although all they deserve is a bullet in the brainstem.

Innocent?  The lead guy DID have an RPG, and I counted at least two rifles while the dudes on the ground were walking.

I didn't watch the whole thirty five min vid, but people are saying that there were no weapons, there was a nicam camcorder, a tripod and a case.
To be fair they did radio it in
waited for confirmation on the weapons (whoever confirmed it is a tool)
and asked if they should proceed with firing.

"People are saying?"

I watched the whole thing.  I saw 2 rifles, and what looked a whole lot like an RPG.

could be, I cant tell, as I said speculation. There are no responses from the army
http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/security/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=223900094
there probably wont be.
The names of the reporters who were shot dead however are confirmed, but they could well have been with armed people.

Sure.

Also, that house they nuked at the end was bullshit (reporters could have been there, too).  The one dude just walking down the street?  They didn't need to use a hellfire in an urban area, when they had the better part of a company of infantry right there.

So, yeah, having watched it again, I will qualify my statement.  I saw nothing I'd call evil until the last 5 minutes.

[the last yatto]

wheres that other wikileaks vs american government thread...

AE, I think.

i was talkin about the other one not the double

[Triple Zero]

Don't anyone click my twitter status about this

fuck. I supposed this was some shock site or browser bomb Opera would be oblivious to. But then it wasn't , oh well I guess you warned me.

[Cramulus]

[Cramulus]

Colbert interviews Julian Assange... really good interview, Colbert hits him with a few good punches

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/260785/april-12-2010/exclusives---julian-assange-unedited-interview

[Triple Zero]

I wouldn't call them punches More like "you need an opportunity to explain XYZ to the public? catch!"

[Cramulus]

I dunno.. prior to that interview, I thought WikiLeaks was a bit more objective source of information. I did not realize that they frame the information so as to get maximum political blowback.

Colbert's shtick is that he's an idiotic bad guy - whenever he's congratulating somebody on a job well done, it's really a dis. There are a number of times in that interview where he says something like, "Congratulations! You've done an excellent job at misleading 2 million people."

[P3nT4gR4m]

Can't help agreeing with the doc here - pointing a camera (if it was a camera) at a fucking helicopter, in the middle of a warzone, is about as asking for it as you're going to get. From the video I'd sure as hell have waxed his ass if I saw him hiding round the corner of the building pointing that thing at me. Bear in mind that, in all probablility, the last time they saw that particular sight, they may well have narrowly missed being shot out of the sky.

War isn't about protecting journalists - it's about killing bad guys and trying to get as many of your own side back to base to fight another day. Blame Reuters if you have to blame someone - they're the ones who decided the best place for those journos was in the sights of an apache minigun, waving a big black weapon-like thing at it. 

[LMNO]

I heard it suggested that one of the reasons for the furor over this can be traced back to the Bush Administration's policy of witholding all footage and pictures of the Iraq war... We only see images of humans killing each other sporadically and covertly.  If we had been subjected to footage like this since 2002, we would have the reaction most military people did, which was, "looks justified."