Guest blogged by Ernest A. Canning
Appearing on Democracy Now (video posted below) today, constitutional law attorney and Salon blogger Glenn Greenwald observed:
This is something that takes place on a virtually daily basis in Iraq and Afghanistan and other places where we invade, bomb and occupy, and the reason why there are hundreds of thousands of dead in Iraq and thousands of dead in Afghanistan is because this is what happens, constantly when we are engaged in warfare … This is what war is. This is what the United States does in these countries and that is the crucial point to note along with the point that the military fought tooth and nail to prevent this video from surfacing precisely because it would shed light on what their actual behavior is during war.
During the same remarkable Democracy Now broadcast, Julian Assange, a WikiLeaks co-founder, revealed that even before it exposed this horrific video yesterday, Wikileaks had been targeted in a counterintelligence report [PDF], which describes WikiLeaks as an “information security threat to the U.S. Army.” The report discusses outing the identify of the whistleblowers in hopes of destroying them and to deter others from leaking to the website:
The report states:
But, as revealed by The BRAD BLOG’s extensive coverage of the Sibel Edmonds story — and as discussed by “Pentagon Papers” whistleblower, Daniel Ellsberg in his 2008 BRAD BLOG guest editorial — the real threat to U.S. national security more often lies not with those who expose government lies, but with those who hope to keep them.
Greenwald wrote more about the leaked video yesterday, and later sent out this noteworthy tweet commenting on both that news and word yesterday of a massacre by NATO forces in Afghanistan which U.S. Special Forces attempted to cover up as well:
UPDATE 04/07/10: Democracy Now reported today that the “Obama administration is refusing to call for a new probe into the US military’s killing of twelve Iraqis despite the public release of video footage capturing the attack on tape.”
UPDATE 04/08/10 Rick Rowley, an independent journalist with Big Noise films, who interviewed witnesses one day after this massacre, told Amy Goodman that there was “no reason at all to believe…any of the people in that picture [were] armed insurgents:”
The April 6, 2010 segment of Democracy Now’s coverage of the WikiLeaks video follows below…
“The key thing to remember when watching the WikiLeaks/Iraq video and reading about the Afghan massacre: THEY HATE US FOR OUR FREEDOMS!!!”
Wow, a “three-exclamation pointer … !!!” But it’s true, the “Towel-heads” and the “Hajis” of the world do hate us for our freedoms … or at least the freedom expressed by America’s military to blow their friends and family all to hell in a handbasket, !!!
In the meantime, the pseudo-Christianite culture of America’s religiously insane braindead (who are waiting to be nakedly lifted out of their clothes to sit at the right hand of Jebus) continue to facilitate Satan by insisting that our military expand its genocide against all non-Caucasian children in the Middle East, past Pakistan, and continuing throughout Indonesia and beyond.
In the meantime, stupid America thinks that the things it does to others will never happen to itself. But the world’s anger will be assuaged when Zionland finishes its covert takeover of America’s electronic and digital infrastructure, even as it has already conquered our Federal government. I’m talkin’ about the ability to shut down our nation’s nuclear deterrent.
When that happens, America will in fact be everybody else’s bitch, far beyond even what frequently happens to those young Iraqi preteens that America’s soldiers regularly rape.
Don’cha get it? Even more than Nazi Germany ever was, WE are the bad guys now.
DanD
Yeah, that’s what we call winnin HEARTS and MINDS…not really Creatin Terrists.
Watch LINK TV cuz you won’t see this on NBC, ABC, CBS, or CNN anymore! And don’t get me started on faux news. 🙁
We’re either civilized or we’re not people…they are doing this in our name!
Did it never occur to the helicopter crew that if the men on the ground were hostiles that they might be hiding or taking aim at the helicopter. Surely they were aware of its presence. The continued shooting of unarmed men is incomprehensible. If they really believed they were hostiles, they would have wanted to question them, wouldn’t they?
And, with OUR TAX DOLLARS!
Where is the investigation into the 3.2 TRILLION missing from the pentagon and or dod that was announced by rumsfield 9/10/01?
It’s a good thing noted military expert Glenn Greenwald weighed in.
Isn’t he the one who got the Haditha story all wrong and still has not apologized to the affected parties?
Daleyrocks wrote @7 that Glenn Greenwald “got the Haditha story all wrong.” Proof offered, none!
When are you going to learn, Daleyrocks, that The BRAD BLOG is not Patterico’s Pontifications? If you want to make some absurd wing-nut charge, back it up or shut up!
For those curious about Daleyrocks’ obtuse statement that Greenwald “got the Haditha story all wrong” and who would like to know first what the Haditha story is really about, I would recommend:
“Massacre in Haditha: Eight Marines Charged With Killing 24 Iraqis.”
It appears that our Daleyrocks is relying upon the fact that military judges have dismissed charges brought against those who participated in the massacre.
See, “Haditha Massacre Victims’ Kin Outraged as U.S. Marines Go Free.
While your typical wing-nut will cite such a Pentagon white-wash as “proof” that nothing untoward happened, in actuality, it only underscores the extent of U.S. culpability.
You know what no one’s saying about that Wikileaks video? The shots were from a helicopter, right? Well, the video shows these guys walking casually down the street. They definitely knew there was a helicopter there, if it was within shooting distance they heard it, so therefore they didn’t think the helicopter was going to shoot at them or they would have been running, and they definitely weren’t shooting at the helicopter. Correct?
IE: they heard the helicopter and thought nothing of it. Or they would’ve been running or shooting at the helicopter. Is this correct? So, by walking casually, that shows they weren’t acting like “the enemy” to the helicopter. So why did the helicopter fire on them, then? Walking casually and not running or ducking or shooting at the helicopter tells me they saw the helicopter and/or at least heard it, and thought nothing odd of it or nothing combative about it. And the helicopter opened fire on them!
What made it worse was that when people went to aide those that were shot, they were assumed to be hostiles (since they did not have a red cross or red crescent on their sleeve). Aiding someone that has been shot is not a sign of hostility it is a sign of compassion. It seems that the some in the pentagon and military think nothing of destroying compassion. What will it take to end these wars.
Ernie the Attorney – If you had been reading and commenting on Greenwald’s blog when the Haditha story broke, as I was, you would have understood he blew it. He swallowed the Islamist propaganda about the incident just the way most of the media lapped it up.
The latest Wikileaks video is just another example of the willingness of the left to believe absolutely the worst about our military at the drop of a hat, and guess what, Greenwald is leading the charge again.
Go to Directorblue or Mypetjawa and you’ll set blowup of still frames from the video showing RPGs in the hands of the Iraqis and other evidence confirming they were legitimate targets. This is just another attempted smear job. Congratulations, you fell for it.
So, what are we, the people, going to do to stop it from continuing?
daleyrocks says “The latest Wikileaks video is just another example of the willingness of the left to believe absolutely the worst about our military at the drop of a hat”
So, are you saying the video is a fake? And we shouldn’t believe what we see on the video? What does “left” have to do with this video? Whistleblowers are assumed to be “left”? What are you talking about? If anyone exposes government corruption, they’re “left”?
drocks4brains, is the laughter a “smear job”
the inhuman glee they take in murdering journalists and other innocents, thats a smear job also? Or do u just have a problem when GG says it happens all the time, it’s what we do?
This invasion has been illegal since the first lie of thousands was crafted and fed to the masses.
If the media was not neutered so completely and could cover this horrific crime like they did Vietnam things would be different.
From “Ernie the attorney” to Daleyrocks, the empty-headed wing-nut.
No matter the topic, the question is the factual basis for one’s assertions.
In your comment #7, you made the bald claim that Glenn Greenwald got the Haditha facts wrong. Yet you failed to provide a single “fact” to support that assertion.
In your comment #13 you again fail to offer a single “fact” to back up your original bald assertion. Instead, you back up the first bald assertion with a second — the unsubstantiated claim that what Greenwald did was accept “Islamic propaganda.” You offer not one “fact” to support this new “claim” but instead, without providing a link, claim that two sites with pictures of Iraqis holding RPGs somehow confirms that the 24 civilians killed in Haditha were “legitimate targets.”
The only thing you “proved,” Daleyrocks is that you did not read Massacre in Haditha: Eight Marines Charged With Killing 24 Iraqis, despite the fact that I spoon-fed you with the article/video by providing the link in comment #9.
Had you done so, my blinded-by-the-right friend, you would have understood how foolish it is to rely on still photos of Iraqis with RPGs in hand as against direct evidence that the Marines had gunned down scantily clad, unarmed civilians inside their homes.
As revealed by Aparishim Gosh, chief international correspondent for Time magazine who went to the site of the slaughter shortly after the Haditha massacre and interviewed a 9 year old survivor:
A video revealing that there were no bullet holes visible on the outside of the homes; “lots of signs of bullets inside” is, Daleyrocks, what we call in law “evidence.” It is not “Islamic propaganda.”
Then there is the following colloquy:
Is your prejudice against Muslims so great, Daleyrocks, that you would dismiss the words of a 9-year old girl about the death of her grandfather as “Islamic propaganda”?
Both Directorblue or Mypetjawa are gatekeeper Zionist sites where the internet trolls of Zionism’s war-criminal state go for comfort and technical support.
With the millions of stock photo closeups created during this (as well as other) conflict’s for appropriate replacement available — AND the magic of photoshop at their beck-n-call — I wouldn’t trust ANY of the propaganda posted on these sites.
A Google description of MYPETJAWA:
Apr 7, 2010 … A weblog comparing Muslims to Jawas and containing criticism and satire of Islamic traditions and beliefs.
DanD
Thanks, DanD. It is truly revealing that Daleyrocks relies upon a pro-Zionist, Islamophobic propaganda site as the source of his misguided information.
Elsewhere, Daleyrocks sought to refute a Cornell University study on the increase in lethal strains of E coli in corn-fed cattle by relying upon a beef industry magazine.
Daleyrocks is an an ideologue. His world view is based not on facts but beliefs. It matters not to Daleyrocks whether the source of his information is tainted. If it squares with his belief, it is true. If not, it’s a lie.
What I find especially disturbing is that you will never see the likes of a Daleyrocks expressing concern about the very real threat of right-wing terrorism.
What a sad state of affairs: our mercenary army is nothing but a bunch of cowardly, cold-blooded murderers, guys so dumb thdey think they’re just playing some video game, and it goes all the way to the top – in fact, I suspect that it’s a top-down phenomenon, starting, even more sadly, with our CINC. I weep for our once at-least-not-too-barbaric land
“the “Obama administration is refusing to call for a new probe into the US military’s killing of twelve Iraqis despite the public release of video footage capturing the attack on tape.”
Does this really surprise anyone? That Barack O’Bilderberg, the marionette of Wall Street tycoons and a warmonger who is just picking up where Bush and Cheney left off, would quash further investigation into it? He’s already invoked the state secrets privilege to cover up for his predecessors. He’s left the CIA plenty of loopholes to still torture. He’s not moving forward on closing Gitmo. He’s in favor of keeping the Patriot Act. He’s stated openly that the CIA still has the “right” to kidnap whomever it wants. He’s ramped UP the gas pipeline war in Afghanistan.
Face it America: You were bamboozled. This guy is just a whore for the wealthy ruling elite and his purpose is to take the genuine desire for a change and a break with past government corruption, harness it and then run it straight into the ground. He does what he’s told, period. And he’s laughing all the way to the bank. America, you’re only allowed to vote for conservatives.
Whether they’re openly conservative or just a conservative in a very thin, unconvincing disguise like Obama, that’s all the Big Money elite will let you choose between. Because for them it’s all about continuity and NOT getting heartburn every four years worrying that the country will finally elect a radical that will upset their applecart.
Doesn’t sound like a genuine democracy? That’s because it isn’t.