French TV to show images of US helicopters killing Iraqis, one wounded

[Flagg]

FRENCH TV TO SHOW IMAGES OF US HELICOPTER KILLING IRAQIS, ONE WOUNDED
Received Tuesday, 4 May 2004 14:15:00 GMT

PARIS, May 4 (AFP) - The French cable television station Canal Plus on Tuesday will broadcast images, stolen in Iraq, of a US army helicopter killing three Iraqis, one of them wounded, who do not appear to be posing any threat.
The show "Merci pour l'Info" (Thanks for the News) obtained the footage, seen by an AFP correspondent, from what the network described as a "European working as a subcontractor for the US army" who left Iraq two weeks ago.
The European claims to have hidden the tape -- dated December 1, 2003, and filmed at an unidentified location in Iraq -- at the US base where he lived and worked.
A French lawyer and member of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Patrick Baudouin, told AFP that knowingly killing an enemy who is wounded constitutes a war crime under international law.
The three-and-a-half minutes of footage, to be broadcast at 6:40 pm (1640 GMT), was taken from the helicopter firing at the three individuals, who were considered by the US military to be suspicious.
Conversations between the helicopter pilot, the sharpshooter and their commanding officer -- who had a video link and was giving orders in real time -- can be heard on the tape.
The footage shows how the three men are killed one after the other. It begins with a sports utility vehicle driven by a man, who joins another man waiting near a truck.
One of the two grabs a long object, which the US soldiers identify as a weapon, and discards it several meters (yards) away. The two, believed to have weapons, are then joined by a third man aboard a tractor.
"Got auto range on him," the sharpshooter says of the first man, whose arms are down by his side.
"Roger. Hit him," orders the officer in charge.
The second man, who attempts to hide behind the tractor after the shooting of the first suspect, is subsequently shot dead.
After the deaths of his two companions, the third man tries to hide under the truck, but is hit by helicopter gunfire.
"Got the guy right here," says the sharpshooter, as the wounded man is seen crawling on the ground.
"Good. Fire. Hit him," replies the officer.

http://www.ttc.org/200405041415.i44efl111263.htm

[sniffa]

1. damn those french!!

[maddezmom]

2. *pulling hair out*

:argh:

[RebelOne]

3. That's been around a long time.

I'm surprised it has taken this long to get to the French.

[Kellanved]

4. That images were on DU a few weeks ago

:scared:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1020452

And they were shown on German TV, but I don't remember when exactly.


Edit:
http://cop-players.com/cop-media/apache.mpeg

[damnraddem]

11. Ooh, we'll have to go back to eating ...

Victory Cabbage and Freedom Fries!

[fryguy]

5. sounds horrible by the description of events

makes me think of that scene in Full Metal Jacket where the door gunner is shooting all the people (women and children) in the rice paddies.

"Anyone who runs is V.C. Anyone who stands still is well-disciplined V.C"

Substitute V.C. for Iraqi or insurgent and it sounds like something said repeatedly during this war.

[slinkerwink]

6. I've seen those, but weren't the men armed?

[fryguy]

7. unclear from the video - all night scope

but its what the military is claiming....

http://cop-players.com/cop-media/apache.mpeg

[demdave]

10. The film shows them delivering RPG's or AA weapons, it is unclear which.

Different sources of varying credibility have reported on this. I think a relevant point is that the original video includes scenes an dialog at the beginning which has now been edited off.

http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/US/apache_video_040109.html

The video opens with the helicopter tracking a man in a pickup truck north of Baghdad on Dec. 1, one day after the 4th Infantry Division engaged in the bloodiest battles with Iraqi insurgents since the end of major combat.

The pilots watch as the man pulls over and gets out to talk to another man waiting by a larger truck.

"Uh, big truck over here," one of the pilots is heard saying. "He's having a little powwow."

The pickup driver looks around, then reaches into his vehicle, takes out a tube-shaped object that appears to be about 4 or 5 feet long, and runs away from the road into a field. He drops the object in the field and heads back to the trucks.

"I got a guy running throwing a weapon," one of the pilots says. Retired Gen. Jack Keane, an ABCNEWS consultant who viewed the tape, said the object looked like a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, "or something larger than a rifle."

The pilots check in with their operational commander, who is monitoring the situation. When they tell him they are sure the man was carrying a weapon, he tells them: "Engage. Smoke him."

The pilots wait as a tractor arrives on the scene, near the spot where the pickup driver dropped the object. One of the Iraqis approaches the tractor driver.

I have also found still of the above mentioned scenes.

http://www.rense.com/general47/vid.htm


Frame 1 - RPG which is wrapped in a protective gun stocking of some
kind is pulled out of the truck.




Frame 2 - a guy behind the tractor is off screen "left" and picks the RPG up that this guy drops half way between the tractor and the trucks. He seems to know he is in danger and runs to the left, and to the right as if to dodge the unforeseen danger. Most likely they could hear the Apache but not see it and knew they could be shot.



Frame 3 - right after the first guy is hit, this guy behind the tractor throws the stocking off and behind him very quickly which covers the RPG "something a soldier would do in that situation" and is immediately hit.



I have not been able to find the full length version of the video and would appreciate a link if anybody has it. Thanks.

[daleo]

13. I am not saying you are wrong

But frankly those stills are not very convincing. I have seen the video in the past. It is fairly probable that they did have a weapon, but a long way from convincing - they could have been carrying a shovel for all I can tell from the stills or video. Now that the U.S. occupation has lost what little moral basis it could ever muster, this incident looks worse than it ever did.

[jayfish]

15. Probably One Of Those High-Strength...

aluminum tubes used in Iraq's, reconstituted, atomic weapons program. :eyes:

Jay

[0007]

8. This is months old -

I have seen the video and it is appalling.

[Tracer]

9. Yes. It was on CNN.

I saw it and almost threw up.

[Rochambeau]

12. I watch it on France2(public tv) at 20h news (the most important news

show in France) tonight. It is shocking. The journalist said it was on the air on ABC in december and it made no polemic at all in USA at this time....

Other thing, I don't want a debate or to defend the shooter but in the end, I wonder, it seems with the crosshair and the hits that he is not aiming the wounded man but the front of the pick-up truck isn't he ? Your opinion?

[daleo]

14. The audio makes it pretty clear that they were after the people

Destroying the truck was secondary.