Military To Break Silence On Wikileaks Video As Early As Today [View All]

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http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/political-media/military-to-break-silence-on-wikileaks-video-as-early-as-today/

Military To Break Silence On Wikileaks Video As Early As Today


Okay, get ready for this one to heat up big time, perhaps as early as today.

The military will publicly address the veracity of the notorioius Wikileaks video, which apparently depicts an American helicopter killing two Reuters journalists during a July 2007 attack in Baghdad, as early as today, a Centcom spokesman confirms to me.

Separately, a military official confirms (as he did to several other news orgs) that they’ve concluded the footage is genuine. “We have no indication it’s not authentic,” the official says.

As you probably know by now, Wikileaks, a whistle-blowing group, posted a 17-minute video of the killings on YouTube on Monday. It’s graphic and disturbing, but if you’re so inclined, you can watch it right here.

The short version is that the video seems to contradict the military’s earlier version of the event, which is that the coalition forces involved were engaged in combat operations. The video shows no hostile action from the victims, and shows the coalition forces bantering lightly and callously about the killings.

There have been some questions raised as to why the video was edited down to 17 minutes, when a 38-minute version also exists. I’m told by a military official that officials have also examined the longer version, and that a public statement is being worked on right now about these and other matters.

For now, we can only hope that the release of the video will prompt a fuller accounting of what actually happened. It’s also worth noting that this sort of revelation is generally a good thing, since it reveals the true nature of war, as well as what our troops are asked to do by civilian leaders. And, finally, you’d think that the onus is on prominent media figures who specialize in military affairs, particularly pro-war ones, to say something about this whole affair.

Stay tuned.