Yesterday I noted that the Wikileaks tape purportedly showing U.S. troops “murdering” Iraqis in Baghdad in July 2007 appeared to begin in mid-stream. A New York Times article confirms that the tape has indeed been cut. There are 21 additional minutes of tape:
So why hasn’t Wikileaks shown the whole tape? Wikileaks prides itself on releasing full classified documents, so it is curious that it decided to show only a selective portion of this tape.
The U.S. military maintains that there was a unit nearby that was under fire. In fact, the AR 15-6 (the investigation into the incident) said that a U.S. unit was under fire “approximately one city block away” before the Apaches began observing the Iraqi fighters gathering. Wikileaks should release the tape in full, and not just selective portions, and put this controversy to rest.
Update: The New York Times notes that Wikileaks had in fact released the 39 minute version of the video. The extended video does not alter anything in this analysis. We regret the error.
