Military Can’t Find The “Collateral Murder” Video? Well That’s B.S. Too

12:39 am EST April 7th, 2010 | National Security | 13 Comments

So to wade once again into the issue that took up so much time on Tuesday, as I noted, the military needs to be subject of a full independent investigation of what happened both in the events around the so-called “collateral murder” video and the ensuing Pentagon coverup. They’re off to a horrible start, claiming that they can’t find the video.

The U.S. military said Tuesday it can’t find its copy of a video that shows two employees of the Reuters news agency being killed by Army helicopters in 2007, after a leaked version circulated the Internet and renewed questions about the attack.

Capt. Jack Hanzlik, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said that the military has not been able to locate the video within its files after being asked to authenticate the version available online.

‘We had no reason to hold the video at (Central Command), nor did the higher headquarters in Iraq,’ Hanzlik said in an e-mailed statement. ‘We’re attempting to retrieve the video from the unit who did the investigation.’

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13 Responses to “Military Can’t Find The “Collateral Murder” Video? Well That’s B.S. Too”

  1. FreeRepublik says:
    April 7, 2010 at 1:37 am

    Even if you justify the killings as a Fog of War tragedy, the cover up is outrageous and unacceptable.

  2. El Cid says:
    April 7, 2010 at 6:14 am

    I’m afraid that I would see it as unreasonable to assume that such evidence of military operations with negative potential exposure for the chain of command would be preserved so that they may be available for outside investigations later. I’m sure there are rules against ‘losing’ such evidence, maybe, but that is not a predictor of outcomes.

  3. Sully Fick says:
    April 7, 2010 at 10:37 am

    Mr. Willis, I agree.

    I’d take things further in this investigation. Certainly, we need an investigation around the events depicted in the video and the Pentagon coverup. However, I think there is also value in examining the ROE (both at the time the video was taken and our current ROE – in Iraq and Afghanistan). I’d particularly like an investigation of the ROE and the Geneva Conventions (Common Article 3 for starters).

    The Afghanistan “honor killings” coverup (murders?) that has recently come to light is much more worrisome to me. There was much more premeditation – on the part of the soldiers involved AND the Pentagon.

    While these may have been isolated incidents, I think you and I would both agree that the knee-jerk response from the Pentagon has been to coverup, and this needs to be changed. Immediately.

  4. JuanLobo says:
    April 7, 2010 at 11:24 am

    In addition to the cover up, the aspect of this video that I found disturbing was the gleeful eagerness to shoot on the part of the Army personnel in light of the fact that their target’s behavior and appearance did not appear to be furtive or cautious as one would expect insurgents to be.

    The impression I got was that these were ill-trained and/or inexperienced soldiers who couldn’t wait to “get some” trigger time.

    At least one of the people down there was carrying a weapon (foreigners typically hire bodyguards in Iraq) but it was obvious that the Apache pilots saw what they wanted to see and chose to imagine a reporter peering around a corner with a camera as an insurgent with an RPG.

  5. Indeed says:
    April 7, 2010 at 11:31 am

    As The Medium Lobster says with typical wisdom:

    Now, is this video disturbing? Of course. Were atrocities committed, innocents slaughtered, corpses desecrated and children maimed? Absolutely. But was it all done according to proper procedure? Ah, now, that’s the question. We should all certainly be willing to support a full and complete investigation into the possibility of an official recommendation for preliminary motions toward an investigation, looking into the matter of whether or not the people here were properly murdered in triplicate, signed twice on the goldenrod form, in accordance with the Code of Canon Law. And we shouldn’t rest until any guilty parties have been found, and strongly-worded disciplinary Post-Its firmly applied to their personnel files.

    (more at Fafblog, natch)

  6. Frank DiSalle says:
    April 7, 2010 at 11:48 am

    Juan : If you have to kill people, you can’t do a very good job of it if you wrestle with metaphysical angst over every bullet – you will be a very dead moralist.

  7. Crusty Dem says:
    April 7, 2010 at 1:40 pm

    Come on, Oliver, the soldiers at the Pentagon covering this up are the good guys. We need to remember that they serve to protect us and honor that, even if that means they have to cover up evidence of civilian casualties, violation of the ROE, or murder by our brave soldiers in the field. If you don’t understand that, you’re an America-hating liberal.

    Isn’t that the reductio ad absurdum to your response to the wikileaks video?

  8. JuanLobo says:
    April 7, 2010 at 2:28 pm

    Frank the point is you can’t win an insurgency with trigger happy troops unless you’re willing to depopulate the entire country. What worked for Ghengis Kahn probably wouldn’t work today for, what should be, obvious reasons.

    Every innocent bystander killed in this type of conflict generates many times that number of potential recruits for the insurgency.

    Even you should be able to understand the math.

  9. Crusty Dem says:
    April 7, 2010 at 2:39 pm

    You’d think so, but generally the Righty types tend to argue that the insurgency isn’t a response to anything we’re doing, just that there are a lot of bad people who need to die. Our own actions could never cause them to become terrorists. They’re terror calvinists…

  10. Frank DiSalle says:
    April 7, 2010 at 2:44 pm

    you can’t win an insurgency with trigger happy troops unless you’re willing to depopulate the entire country.
    The British did in Malaysia, and the Americans would have done it if the war in Vietnam had been run from Saigon, instead of Washington, D.C.

    Every innocent bystander killed in this type of conflict generates many times that number of potential recruits for the insurgency.
    I’d like to see that math, not as a cliche, but in the form of reputable research.

    Even you should be able to understand the math.

    “Even you” is not how we win friends and influence people. If you wish to be condescending and patronizing, I will become cranky and hostile.

  11. JuanLobo says:
    April 7, 2010 at 4:07 pm

    The British did in Malaysia

    Sure they only had to forcibly relocate about half a million Chinese Malays to “guarded” camps and then follow a policy of starvation tactics against remaining rural villagers all to defeat a rebel force that never exceeded 8000 or so. And it still took them twelve years.

    Apples and Oranges.

  12. mk says:
    April 8, 2010 at 4:03 pm

    More “aberrations” from the “good guys.”

    http://www.truthout.org/obamas-war-death-women-and-children-cover-ups-protect-us-killers58391

  13. Frank DiSalle says:
    April 9, 2010 at 6:07 pm

    I thought you said they’d have to kill everybody.
    Moving the goalposts.