Gates: WikiLeaks Video 'Painful To See' But Won't Have 'Lasting' Impact

Defense Secretary Robert Gates acknowledged on Sunday that leaked video showing the 2007 killing by U.S. Army personnel of a gathering of civilians in Iraq is "unfortunate" and "painful to see." But he did not think it would have a long-term affect on U.S. operations in that country.

Appearing on ABC's "This Week," Gates was asked about the video that recently surfaced on WikiLeaks, showing two Reuters journalists (in a gathering with Iraqis) being shot at and killed by U.S. forces in a hovering helicopter

"Does the release of that video, and the fact that that happened damage the image of the U.S. in the world?" host Jake Tapper asked.

"I don't think so," said Gates. "They're in a combat situation. The video doesn't show the broader picture of the firing that was going on at American troops. It's obviously a hard thing to see. It's painful to see, especially when you learn after the fact what was going on. But you talked about the fog of war. These people were operating in split-second situations."

"And, you know, we've investigated it very thoroughly. And it's unfortunate," he added. "It's clearly not helpful. But by the same token, I think it should not have any lasting consequences."

There has been some speculation that the WikiLeaks video would spur an equivalent wave of outrage as did the photos from the detention center at Abu Ghraib. While Gates argues that viewers are left with only part of the story (there is, as he notes, no footage of the apparent firing at U.S. troops), the image of people trying to provide help and provide medical attention to the wounded -- only to be shot at as well -- is jarring. Certainly, it has called into question whether this episode can be dismissed as simply a "fog of war" scenario.

Nevertheless, as Gates's comments suggest, the fallout seems, at this point, rather contained. Part of it may be that few lawmakers have been around Washington D.C. to be asked about the video -- owing to Congress' recess. But mainly it seems to be another byproduct of the secondary status that Iraq and Afghanistan now take in political discourse.

Comments

[politisophical]

01:47 PM on 04/13/2010

this video is sad... but the sad truth is that the soldiers followed the rules of engagement.... the van seemed to have good intentions and i wish that the van could have gotten a warning shot before coming into the battle zone but they didnt...

no rules broken... there really is nothing to remember.. just people and families to be mourned

[mikesw]

12:40 AM on 04/14/2010

I'm not so sure. For example, how was the attack on the two unarmed men helping the bleeding man on the sidewalk justified in the Army’s ROE flowchart?

“Is the unit in contact or acting in self defense?”
NO

“Is target an ROE approved Deliberate Target?”
Well, for the sake of argument let’s assume the Apache thought the two unarmed men were facilitating the “lines of communication” of a DTO. In this case the answer could be YES.

“Is there time for a formal CDE?”
YES

“Is there Positive Identification?”
NO

So what is the conclusion according to the Army’s own flowchart?

“DO NOT ENGAGE. GATHER MORE INFORMATION TO (RE)ESTABLISH PID”
[PID = positive identification]

http://file.wikileaks.org/file/rules_of_engagement_flowchart_2007.pdf

Others have also said the video reveals violations of the roe. LC Schaffer has said he see two such violations.

[Phoenix56317]

12:14 PM on 04/13/2010

What I fail to understand is why everyone here who commented on this is not doing something about it ! You people come here to voice your personal views,thoughts and opinions on this and that BUT yet you fail to do something about it ! WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE AFRAID OF ?

Most of yous come here bring NUMBERS and WHATNOT to the masses but yet you fail to truly understand that the real cost is a HUMAN LIFE !

Many of yous want ACCOUNTABILITY but yet you fail to STAND UP AND SPEAK OUT !

Am 54 yrs old and I gave 21+yrs to the United States in her Defense and in the course of doing so, I left a leg in Iraq due to an IED. I now have a pacemaker and take medication to sustain my life and I have asked myself, WHY ?

The United States has changed dramatically, My Country had disregarded the core values regarding Family,Duty,Honor and Country !

I ask all of yous what are you AFRAID of ? You have only 1 life to give, why give it up to become a COWARD !

You know and believe this is wrong in all accounts ! Do something about it !

[eden4barack08]

05:16 PM on 04/13/2010

Like what? Demonstrate and protest in Washington? What did that get us? NADA! They do not listen, they do not care!
What's your suggestion?

[Phoenix56317]

11:06 PM on 04/13/2010

http://archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html

"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."

Why do you stand in fear ? What if I may ask, are you afraid of ? Your life being taken away from you ? OPEN YOUR EYES ! It already has been taken away, your a slave !

I think your afraid of STANDING UP AND SPEAKING OUT because your like any other school student in class and the teacher ask the class a question and YOU know the answer but are AFRAID of raising your hand to answer because of being Ridicule !

YOU FEEL YOUR ANSWER TO THE QUESTION IS RIGHT BUT YOUR AFRAID !

Your all alone and very much afraid of being classed as the schools laughing stock.

I used to be very PROUD of being an American ! I gave my country 21+yrs and now that I looked back on what I had done, I was only becoming more of an ANIMAL caged up so that the keepers can unleash me once more.

[MrMcX]

11:51 AM on 04/13/2010

.....of every dollar you send to the IRS, 53 cents will be going to pay for blowing stuff up, fattening the wallets of colonels admirals and generals, bloating the portfolios of investors in military industries, and of course funding the bonuses paid to executives of those companies, and the campaign chests and expense accounts of the members of Congress who vote for these outlandish budgets.

Your money will also be going to pay for the salaries and the bullets of those brave heroes over in Afghanistan who are executing kids, killing pregnant women (and then digging out the bullets and claiming they were stabbed by their families), and for the anti-personnel weapons that are creating legions of legless Afghani kids.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/04/13-4

[tailgateshirts]

10:52 AM on 04/13/2010

If you watch the Wikileaks Founder interview on Colbert last night, he noted that they edited the video on purpose for maximum impact and cut out the scenes that actually show the weapons and whatnot.

He also noted that only 10% of people actually watched the undoctored video they put out a day later.

It was deceiving and misleading meant for headlines, not sure I am ok with that if they are supposed to be a trusted source of government misdoings, in my book, they end up being just as bad because they skew it the other direction as opposed to allowing you to make your mind up.

[Thabor]

03:45 PM on 04/13/2010

Its propaganda, and very successful propaganda just as Colbert pointed out. At least you have the opportunity to see the full video though.. Too bad so many are too mindless to even look for it, content to echo others propaganda.

[mikesw]

12:44 AM on 04/14/2010

You're being deceptive here in your own language when you suggest the edited version has been "doctored". It hasn't. The edited version shows the 11+ minutes of the attack uncut, unedited, undoctored.

I would invite you to compare the two videos. You'll see that it would be more accurate to say the "edited" one is "abridged" and perhaps "annotated". No honest appraisal could say it was "doctored". Such a claim would indeed be propaganda.

[tailgateshirts]

09:21 AM on 04/14/2010

Doctored, edited, you're playing semantics.

It was modified to fit a narrative,

If a photo of a chick in a magazine is touched up, it was also doctored and/or edited to fit the perception of her being hot.

[jajenkins]

05:16 AM on 04/13/2010

Just think - these jumped-up vulgar creeps could be your neighbors!

Do you want them near your kids?

[jojobinx]

12:59 AM on 04/13/2010

Won't have a lasting impact? What an arrogant assumption.

[Madbunny]

02:18 AM on 04/13/2010

He's probably right.
It won't matter to us in a year. We'll have forgotten all about it. Meanwhile, it's a good thing those kids didn't have their parents killed by armor peircing rounds right in front of them. Because if that happened, that might have a lasting impact.

[mikesw]

02:48 AM on 04/13/2010

Fav'd

[mikesw]

11:34 PM on 04/12/2010

Here's one of those questions that none of the apologists of this atrocity will answer:

Why have several of our men and women in uniform risked their careers and possible courts martial to leak this video and the related documentation?

[Mass Hysteria]

11:39 PM on 04/12/2010

because they listen to MSNBC??

[mikesw]

11:41 PM on 04/12/2010

It's comic just how apologists refuse to deal with this question straightforwardly. Thanks for the chuckles Mass Hysy.

[OpusIsUnderTheBed]

06:49 AM on 04/13/2010

It was a bad shoot.

[OpusIsUnderTheBed]

06:49 AM on 04/13/2010

It was a bad shoot.

[CFL68]

09:15 PM on 04/12/2010

Just for kicks, what do you guys think of the militia scout on the scooter? Is that an rpg launcher hanging over front of scooter (1:45). See? It is parallel to front forks/stem at 45 degrees from ground.

http://www.vespausa.com/scooters.php#/home/Vespa LX 50

http://www.g2mil.com/Rpg7.gif

Any military guys? Maybe it isn't, but it isn't part of the scooter. It is some long tube with two handles sticking out perpendicular to tube similar to rpg trigger and shoulder stock.

Two bad they don't release second gun cam for more perspective.

[crazycloud14]

08:25 PM on 04/12/2010

Music to shoot by

O Superman. O judge. O Mom and Dad. Mom and Dad.
Hi. I'm not home right now. But if you want to leave a
message, just start talking at the sound of the tone.
Hello? This is your Mother. Are you there? Are you
coming home?
Hello? Is anybody home
? Well, you don't know me,
but I know you.
And I've got a message to give to you.
Here come the planes.
So you better get ready. Ready to go. You can come
as you are, but pay as you go. Pay as you go.

And I said: OK. Who is this really? And the voice said:
This is the hand, the hand that takes. This is the
hand, the hand that takes.
This is the hand, the hand that takes.
Here come the planes.
They're American planes. Made in America.
Smoking or non-smoking?
And the voice said: Neither snow nor rain nor gloom
of night shall stay these couriers from the swift
completion of their appointed rounds.

'Cause when love is gone, there's always justice.
And when justice is gone, there's always force.
And when force is gone, there's always Mom. Hi Mom!

So hold me, Mom, in your long arms. So hold me,
Mom, in your long arms.
In your automatic arms. Your electronic arms.
In your arms.
So hold me, Mom, in your long arms.
Your petrochemical arms. Your military arms.
In your electronic arms.

Laurie Anderson

[OpusIsUnderTheBed]

06:52 AM on 04/13/2010

Whoa.

[Aarky]

07:01 PM on 04/12/2010

If those chopper pilots were turned loose anywhere near a gun show in Tulsa or Little Rock, they would have a field day and then the idiots in the US would wake up.

[justiceranger]

06:33 PM on 04/12/2010

WAR IS NOTHING BUT STATE-LEGALIZED MURDER! I have been living in Panama since Oct. 2009 with my wife and kid. The reason I left is because I am against the Fascistoid foreign wars being waged by the U.S. government against “browns” and “blacks”—having now murdered 1.4 million people. I’ve also concluded—along with countless hundreds of thousands of other Americans—that the 911 terror attack on America was an inside job. I am not alone here in Panama, thousands of other “gringoes” are living here. The Wall Street Journal correctly reported last year how 250,000 Americans are moving out of the U.S. every month and “millions more are preparing to do so.” I will never return to the U.S.—unless Ron Paul is elected President in 2012. One other note about Central America, a predominantly Catholic region…a Church sits at the center of every town…but, in American, a Courthouse is the center of every town. This alone says a lot! http://www.tedgunderson.net/About_Clarence_Malcolm

[eden4barack08]

07:08 PM on 04/12/2010

Aw shucks.... you lost me at Ron Paul.

[OpusIsUnderTheBed]

06:54 AM on 04/13/2010

Keep your eye on those priests.

[Basilio]

05:51 PM on 04/12/2010

Let's have the video from the government, so we, the people, can know the truth and see if the Pentagon is correct. Aren't we entitled to accountability? Gates could be right. But, prove it.

[eden4barack08]

06:27 PM on 04/12/2010

They conveniently "lost" it years ago, because Reuters was demanding to see it under FOIA.
This case is conveniently dead and buried, no chance of reopening and re-investigating, all thanks to a "lost" dvd. Just like the disappeared CIA torture tapes.

[CFL68]

08:37 PM on 04/12/2010

It wasn't 'lost' because someone leaked it - right?

But honestly can you imagine how many videos they have? How many ops each day. Each aircraft and many ground transports have cameras. That is a lot of video to keep track of. Is storage centralized? Does each unit maintain their own library?

I wish they would find/release the second apache's gun cam video.

Man our guys suck at propaganda. Wikileaks was sloppy and obvious propaganda. They undermine many of their key claims with links on their own site (kids were treated at US hospital). I understand they don't expect their 'target market' to do much digging, but its still sloppy.

With US dominance of the battle space, drone video feeds, apache video feeds, etc., they should be able to cobble up a compelling narrative of their own. But no. Nada.

The loons have the keys to the car.

[Steggy321]

07:56 PM on 04/12/2010

Uhhh.. The video is out. Why do you think theres been all the hubbub?

http://www.collateralmurder.com/ shows the gun cam of one of the helicopters involved. The case has already been investigated and closed, with no reason to reopen it.

Anyone familiar with the Rules of Engagement, and a basic knowledge of insurgent tactics can watch the video and see that the Pilots were acting in accordance with the ROE, and that they were convinced the group were about to engage troops on the ground. Is it shocking to watch? Yes. Is it terrible that innocents were killed? Yes.

News flash: War isn't pretty.

This story sickens me. The pilots, and all of our troops, put their lives on the line on a daily basis. They're put in impossible situations where hesitation can mean death or worse, the death of a friend. As if that wasn't bad enough, now they have to listen to Armchair Generals and the Media trash their efforts with 20/20 hindsight?

If you think you can do better, get your ass to a recruitment office. Otherwise, keep your ignorant, naive views to yourself.

[mikesw]

11:32 PM on 04/12/2010

How was the attack on the two unarmed men helping the bleeding man on the sidewalk justified in the Army’s ROE flowchart?

“Is the unit in contact or acting in self defense?”
NO

“Is target an ROE approved Deliberate Target?”
Well, for the sake of argument let’s assume the Apache thought the two unarmed men were facilitating the “lines of communication” of a DTO. In this case the answer could be YES.

“Is there time for a formal CDE?”
YES

“Is there Positive Identification?”
NO

So what is the conclusion according to the Army’s own flowchart?

“DO NOT ENGAGE. GATEHR MORE INFORMATION TO (RE)ESTABLISH PID”
[PID = positive identification]

http://file.wikileaks.org/file/rules_of_engagement_flowchart_2007.pdf

[Livemike]

10:44 PM on 04/13/2010

If the troops are so great why do you have to lie to defend them? The pilots weren't in a situation where hesitation could mean death to anyone, as demonstrated by the fact that they asked permission to engage. None of the men shot at were in range of any ground forces if they were and they were hostile then they'd have taken cover. Even after the attack is over it takes time for armored vehicles to even get to the turnoff to the square, so clearly they weren't in line of fire for anything but the choppers themselves, which they appear to be unaware of. There is no reason to expect that this group of men either were insurgents or were about to attack anything, specifically they have no weapons and only two have anything that could be mistaken for a weapon. Since when do insurgents go into battle with less than 30% of their troops armed? If you murder people we're going to "trash your efforts" because murder is bad. The fact that the troops put their lives on the line is irrelevant, if you can't do you job right under the pressures it entails quit.

[Basilio]

05:49 PM on 04/12/2010

Most American troops are decent people. No organization is without corruption. The police force will have people who abuse the law, but corrupt cops and soldiers should be held accountable. Based on the rules of engagement, one is not supposed to fire on a wounded person fleeing or leaving an area of combat. That would apply even if this was an insurgent. He was, actually, a reporter. Thus, it's clear that the rules of engagement and international law was violated,but for the God of American Empire brought to you by the GOP and supported by Obama and for the God of blind patriotism so many crimes have been committed. The pilot falsely said the van was a bongo truck, exaggerated the number of people he saw, and fired on a wounded man and didn't care when children were hurt. A medic cared, but the pilot didn't. He wanted to kill a wounded man. How does it fit with the rules of engagement? I think Gates is just trying to justify a violation of the rules. If we do that, then how can we believe in our government or military officials? We need to clean up government.

[mikesw]

11:36 PM on 04/12/2010

"Most American troops are decent people."

Yes. We should support our troops who are serving with courage and honor. Not those that go out of their way to kill unarmed civilians.

[Livemike]

10:37 PM on 04/13/2010

If by "decent people" you mean someone who doesn't murder people unless told to I guess so.
What we see in the video is that US troops can murder someone with premeditation and nothing happens to them. If you work for an organization like that and you're not trying to change that, or at least trying avoiding working with the specific criminals, you're not a decent person. If the troops were decent we'd hear reports of ostracism of people who commit atrocities and calls for them to be removed from the military. We do not.

[Bcasey11]

03:12 PM on 04/12/2010

murder is not justified

[Bcasey11]

03:05 PM on 04/12/2010

GET RID OF GATES!!!!!!!!