Monday, Nov. 29, 2010

The Apache Helicopter Shooting

WikiLeaks has had a pretty notable year, starting with the airing in April of footage from July 2007 that showed a U.S. Apache helicopter shooting and killing Reuters photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen in Baghdad. Noor-Eldeen's driver and 10 others were also killed after soldiers mistook his camera for a weapon and the men for insurgents. The Iraqi Journalists' Union and the New York City–based Committee to Protect Journalists have called for an investigation into the actions of the troops on board the copter. While an early inquiry found no wrongdoing, U.S. military lawyers announced they would review the video once more, though no formal report has been released yet. The military whistle-blower responsible for releasing the classified video to WikiLeaks — 22-year-old U.S. Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning — was arrested in May and later charged with 12 counts of illegally transferring classified data onto his personal computer and then providing it to an unauthorized source. WikiLeaks has hired lawyers to defend Manning but claims they have not been allowed access to him.