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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Dear all</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>This video has actually been available on BushFlash
for several months. If you visit BushFlash's 'Media' page at <A
href="http://bushflash.com/media.html">http://bushflash.com/media.html</A>, you
can view it, as well as another interesting video that shows an American soldier
joyfully killing an already wounded Iraqi. There are also other videos that are
worth a look.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Cheers</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Tony</FONT></DIV>
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style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=david.miller@stir.ac.uk href="mailto:david.miller@stir.ac.uk">David
Miller</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=media-watch@lists.stir.ac.uk
href="mailto:media-watch@lists.stir.ac.uk">media-watch@lists.stir.ac.uk</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, May 13, 2004 3:59
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [Media-watch] Smoke Them: Video
Shows Wounded Iraqis Being Shot byUS Helicopters </DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><A
href="http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm?itemID=5472&sectionID=15">http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm?itemID=5472&sectionID=15</A><BR><BR><FONT
size=5><FONT face=Times><BR></FONT></FONT><FONT face=Arial>
<H3>ZNet | Iraq<BR></H3>
<H1><BR>Smoke Them<BR></H1>
<H3>Video Shows Wounded Iraqis Being Shot by US Helicopters <BR></H3><FONT
size=4><B>by Robert Fisk; May 06, 2004</B> <BR></FONT></FONT><FONT
size=5><FONT face=Times><BR><BR></FONT></FONT><FONT size=4><FONT
face=Arial>The pictures are appalling, the words devastating. As a wounded
Iraqi crawls from beneath a burning truck, an American helicopter pilot tells
his commander that one of three men has survived his night air attack.
"Someone wounded,' the pilot cries. Then he received the reply: "Hit him, hit
the truck and him.' As the helicopter's gun camera captures the scene on
video, the pilot fires a 30mm gun at the wounded man, vaporising him in a
second.<BR><BR>British and most European television stations censored the tape
off the air last night on the grounds that the pictures were too terrible to
show. But deliberately shooting a wounded man is a war crime under the Geneva
Conventions and this extraordinary film of US air crews in action over Iraq is
likely to create yet another international outcry.<BR><BR>American and British
personnel have been trying for weeks to persuade Western television stations
to show the video of the attack. Despite the efforts of reports in Baghdad and
New York, most television controllers preferred to hide the evidence from
viewers. Only Canal Plus in France, ABC television in the United States and
the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation have so far had the courage to show the
shocking footage. UK military personnel in the Gulf region have confirmed that
the tape is genuine.<BR><BR>The camera, mounted beside the 30mm cannon of a US
Apache helicopter on patrol over central Iraq on 1 December, first picks up
movement on a country road, apparently several hundred metres from an American
military checkpoint. A lorry and a smaller vehicle, probably a pick-up, come
into view and a man--apparently unaware of the hovering helicopter-- is seen
moving to a field on the left of the screen. <BR><BR>He is carrying what seems
to be a tube with a covering; it may be a rocket-propelled grenade. One of two
helicopter pilots is heard to say: "Big truck over here. He's having a little
pow-wow.' The driver of the pick-up looks around, reaches into the vehicle,
takes out the tube-shaped object and runs from the road into the field. He
drops the object and returns to the truck. The pilot then radios:<BR><BR>"I
got a guy running, throwing a weapon.' Another pilot, or a ground controller,
instructs him: "Engage...smoke him.'<BR><BR>At this point, a tractor arrives
close to where the man from the lorry dropped the object in the field. One of
the Iraqis approaches the tractor driver. The Apache pilot opens fire with his
30mm cannon, killing first the Iraqi in the field and then the tractor driver.
The camera registers the bullets hitting the first man. All that is left is a
smudge on the ground.<BR><BR>The pilot then turns his attention to the large
truck, opens fire and waits to see if he has hit the last of the three men.
The third man is then seen crawling, obviously badly wounded, from his cover
beneath the blazing truck.<BR><BR>The pilot reports: "Wait. Someone wounded by
the truck.' An officer replies: "Hit him. Hit the truck and him.'<BR><BR>The
video tape shows that the incident took four minutes, during which the two
helicopter pilots--whose names are listed as Nager and Alioto--expended 300
high-velocity cannon rounds at their targets. The tape shows that the first 15
rounds missed the men. One of the pilots says: "Fuck, switching to range
auto." The tape then documents the firing of four bursts of 20 rounds each at
the three men.<BR><BR>The pictures, apparently taken through thermal-imaging
cameras, leave no doubt that the pilot knew his third victim was wounded and
crawling along the ground--and that whoever gave him the order to hit him also
knew this.<BR><BR>Coming only days after the appalling photographs of Iraqis
being tortured and humiliated by US troops at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad,
the new pictures can only further inflame Arab opinion throughout the Middle
East.<BR>It is common Israeli practice to kill wounded enemies from the air; a
devastating helicopter assault by Israel on a Hizbollah training camp in
Lebanon 10 years ago was accompanied by a series of attacks in which pilots
sought out wounded guerrillas as they hid behind rocks in the Bekaa Valley and
then fired at them.<BR><BR>The film, while it shows men acting in an
apparently suspicious manner, does not prove they were handling weapons. The
occupation authorities in Baghdad chose to keep the incident secret when it
occurred in December. Watching the video images, it is easy to understand
why.<BR><BR> <BR><BR></FONT></FONT><FONT size=5><FONT
face=Times><BR><BR></FONT></FONT>
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