Former Reuters Bureau Chief in Iraq Dean Yates testifies at the Belmarsh Tribunal in Sydney скачать в хорошем качестве

Former Reuters Bureau Chief in Iraq Dean Yates testifies at the Belmarsh Tribunal in Sydney

Prime Minister Albanese. My name is Dean Yates. I was the Reuter's bureau chief in Iraq when an Apache gunship with the callsign Crazyhorse 1-8 killed 12 men in Baghdad on July 12, 2007. Two of those men were Reuters photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen and Reuters driver Saeed Chmagh - my staff, killed on my watch. The US military usually didn't investigate civilian casualties in Iraq. It did in this case because Namir and Saeed worked for a major international news organization. In an off the record briefing two weeks later, I was told by two American generals that the group of men that included Namir and Saeed were showing hostile intent, and thus could be attacked. I was shown without warning, less than 3 minutes of footage from the gun camera of Crazyhorse. 1-8, up to where it opened fire for the first time. I was told the gunship then attacked the minivan because it was believed to be helping wounded insurgents and picking up weapons. U.S. forces, I was told, had acted in accordance with the rules of engagement. For nearly three years., lawyers from Reuters tried to get a copy of this tape from the Pentagon through Freedom of Information requests, so we could understand what had happened, to better protect our staff in Iraq. The Pentagon repeatedly refused. Then, on April 5 2010, Julian Assange published video of the entire attack. The classified footage had been sent to WikiLeaks by US military whistleblower Chelsea Manning. It was obvious why the US government didn't want to share the tape with Reuters. It showed grainy figures on a Baghdad street, the hellish clack of the Apache’s chain gun firing rounds the size of a small soft drink bottle, the length of a man's hand. Clouds of dust as those cannon shells crashed into men. A wounded man, Saeed Chmagh, father of four, trying to crawl for 3 minutes. Come on, buddy. Says the Crazyhorse 1-8 pilot. All you gotta do is pick up a weapon. That's the gunner. When a Good Samaritan taking his two children to school in his minivan stops to help Saeed, permission to attack is again granted. Crazyhorse 1-8 fires 120 rounds at the van. Oh, yeah, look at that. Right through the windshield. Ha, ha, says the gunner. Informed by soldiers from the second Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment that a wounded child had been found in the van, the gunner says, Well, it's their fault for bringing their kids into a battle. Mr. Assange called the video Collateral Murder. It shocked millions of people around the world. International legal experts call the attack on the minivan a war crime. It is footage instantly recognisable by sight and sound. Prime Minister, the Collateral Murder videotape, more than anything, shows why Julian Assange must be set free.