Que o amigo seja para vós a festa da terra

07 abril 2010

Para além dos bastidores da propaganda (relações públicas)



Assassínio no Iraque em 2007 de um fotojornalista da Reuters e do seu motorista, entre crianças e outros.

Collateral damage??!?!!?!!!? Depois de ver matar uma série de pessoas inocentes a partir de uma metralhadora num helicóptero americano levanta-se uma núvem de poeira. Quando a poeira assenta e começam a ver-se os corpos estendidos no chão, ouve-se dizer «Oh, yeah, look at those dead bastards.» E de seguida a resposta... «Nice!»

A versão posta acima, do WikiLeaks, está gentilmente editada para promover uma leitura precisa das posições das vítimas, e uma noção realista da disposição psicológica dos intervenientes no assassínio de Namir Noor-Eldeen e Saeed Chmagh, entre muitos outros inocentes. É preciso ver este filme com atenção! No entanto, o Skapsis alerta para o facto de que este video, captado no ponto de vista do agressor, é um potencial elemento de perturbação, susceptível de abalo psicológico para os mais sugestionáveis.


A 6 de Abril de 2010 na PDN.

Graphic video footage showing US soldiers taking aim at an Iraqi photojournalist from a helicopter and shooting him to death has shown up on the wikileaks.org web site. The footage also shows the shooting death of the photographer's driver, another Reuters employee. The
video was recorded on July 12, 2007 from the helicopter from the point of view of the gunner.


Reuters has been asking for the release of the footage as part of its investigation of the deaths of the photographer, 22-year-old Namir Noor-Eldeen, and his driver, Saeed Chmagh, 40. Two children were also wounded in the attack. According to a pre-amble added to the video, the military had initially claimed that the victims died in a battle between US forces and Iraqi insurgents. The military concluded after an investigation that the the soldiers had acted according to the rules of military engagement.


The video includes an audio recording of the helicopter crew reporting a group of men walking down the street with "weapons." They identify those weapons at first as AK-47s, and ask for permission from their base commanders to "engage." Permission is granted. "Just fuckin, once you get on 'm just open 'em up," a voice on the recording says after one helicopter crewman reports that the men are behind a building.


Soon the helicopter crew sights the men milling around the street, ignoring the helicopter and making no apparent effort to hide. One of the men holds a camera with a long lens, which is quickly misidentified by the crew as an RPG. The man holding the camera appears to be talking on a cell phone. With the men in view, a commander says,"Light 'me all up." The gunner hesitates, and someone else says, "Come on, fire!" The gunner fires, and as the men go down, a voice says, "keep shoot'n, keep shoot'n." One crew member reports that they
had "engaged" all eight individuals on the ground, but another says "we see two birds and we're still fire"--indicating that two of the men were on the run. A commander swears at the gunner, who opens fire again and then says, "All right, hahaha, I hit 'em."


The helicopter continues to circle around, directing ground crews to the scene. One of the injured men attempts to get up, but the helicopter crew refrains from shooting him because he doesn't have a weapon. Before US military ground crews arrive, a van arrives to pick
up the injured man, who is identified in the released video as Saeed Chamagh. The helicopter crew presses for--and finally gets--permission to fire upon the van and the people around it. When US military ground crews finally arrived, they found two wounded children inside the van, and 12-15 other people dead, including the two Reuters journalists..


In a statement, David Schlesinger, editor-in-chief of Reuters news said, “The video released today via Wikileaks is graphic evidence of the dangers involved in war journalism and the tragedies that can result.” Calling the deaths of Namir and Saeed "tragic," he said, "We continue to work for journalist safety and call on all involved parties to recognise the important work that journalists do and the extreme danger that photographers and video journalists face in particular."

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