Murders in "video game" mode

Disturbing, graphic violence shot from an actual Apache helicopter gun-site.

WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad -- including two Reuters news staff. Reuters has been trying to obtain the video through the Freedom of Information Act, without success since the time of the attack. The video clearly shows the unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers. Two young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded...
http://www.collateralmurder.com/

Warning: The following linked videos contain material which may offend and may not be distributed, circulated, sold, hired, given, lent, shown, played or projected to a person under the age of 18 years.

Link to Part 1 (short version).

Link to Part 2 (short version).

Full video (39:14)

A few photos by the Namir Noor-Eldeen (Reuters photographer killed in the incident).
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19746262/displaymode/1107/framenumber/1/s/2/

A statistical profile of media deaths and abductions in Iraq 2003-09
http://www.cpj.org/reports/2008/07/journalists-killed-in-iraq.php

Military's official cover up story on NYTimes the day after the incident, 2007/07/13.

The American military said in a statement late Thursday that 11 people had been killed: nine insurgents and two civilians. According to the statement, American troops were conducting a raid when they were hit by small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades. The American troops called in reinforcements and attack helicopters. In the ensuing fight, the statement said, the two Reuters employees and nine insurgents were killed.

“There is no question that coalition forces were clearly engaged in combat operations against a hostile force,” said Lt. Col. Scott Bleichwehl, a spokesman for the multinational forces in Baghdad.

Human were slaughtered in "video game" mode at war; it was chilling to hear the conversations among soldiers. Either some trigger-happy soldiers simply could not tell the difference of a camera with long lens and a RPG (Rocket-propelled grenade) from a magnified view of a digital video device with poor resolution in a split second; or they simply exaggerated to even lied about what they saw, so they were permitted to shoot and finish every "villain" within the video screen to complete a stage, much like a bunch of kids drooling for candies and asking for more.

This is more disturbing to see the trend of the increasing use of drone aircrafts to further remove the grittiness of war. Executing a mission soon become a virtual experience for some soldiers.

"Since 2006, drone-launched missiles allegedly had killed between 750 and 1,000 people in Pakistan, according to the report. Of these, about 20 people were said to be leaders of Al Qaeda, Taliban, and associated groups. Overall, about 66 to 68 percent of the people killed were militants, and between 31 and 33 percent were civilians." The Christian Science Monitor

This event was ignored by mainstream US news outlet; it was not shown on Google news, but Yahoo news linked to a Time article. Other international media that covered the leak were BBC and CBC on the internet.