WikiLeaks Communist AGITPROP Escalates: More MSM Outlets Fall in Line; Bravo Company Trooper is Left's Latest ... UPDATED!!!

While highly critical of the Pentagon, Danger Room emphasizes key information that hasn't been reiterated enough elsewhere:

According to an investigation by the 1st Air Cavalry Brigade (.pdf) , the aircrew “accurately assessed that the criteria to find and terminate the threat to friendly forces were met in accordance with the law of armed conflict and rules of engagement.” The report concluded that the attack helicopters positively identified the threat, established hostile intent, conducted appropriate collateral damage assessment and received clearance to fire.

What’s more, the military indirectly blamed the reporters for being in the company of “armed insurgents” and making no effort to identify themselves as journalists. An investigating officer with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team (BCT), 2nd Infantry Division, concluded that “the cameramen made no effort to visibly display their status as press (.pdf) or media representatives” and added that “their familiar behavior with, and close proximity to, the armed insurgents and their furtive attempts to photograph the Coalition Ground Forces made them appear as hostile combatants to the Apaches that engaged them.” A long telephoto lens, the officer says, could have been mistaken for a rocket-propelled grenade.

Meanwhile, the communist AGITPROP campaign continues, with Marxist revolutionary commentators weighing in from all sides. For example, at CounterPunch, "Dracula's Army: The Veils of Illusion":

In Afghanistan and Iraq the invaders have committed numerous atrocities: shooting unarmed locals at check points, on the street, even while they're tilling fields. We've bombed wedding parties, raided homes at midnight and murdered occupants of all ages, lying about it. We've stormed hospitals in Fallujah, unleashed chemical weapons (phosphorous), left a trail of depleted uranium … We've flattened the offices of Al Jazeera (twice), shoved “suspects” in dungeons, hid inmates from the International Red Cross and tortured prisoners to death …. and it’s still happening, day after day, with Drones wiping out remote villages, shredding their families, assassinating anyone we choose.

Actually, as I've repored here, the norm of non-combatant immunity has been universally internalized in the U.S. armed forces, and civilian casualties have been lower in America's current wars than any wars in U.S. history. But "imperialist atrocities" sell on the hypocritical neo-communist left. See also, at Workers World, "Leaked Pentagon Video Reveals Occupation’s Brutality in Iraq":

It is an absolutely chilling demonstration of cold-blooded murder. A U.S. Apache gunship circles a Baghdad neighborhood looking for “targets” — people to kill. A military video shows the intended targets through superimposed crosshairs: a group of men dressed in civilian clothes, no masks, no apparent weapons, casually sauntering along a street and into a small square.

The film is eerily silent except for staccato radio messages between the helicopter, command headquarters and nearby troops on the ground.

This is so poorly informed it'd be laughable, if it wasn't for the fact that the media's enablers won't debunk this communist bull, and the lies will be passed down the proletarian ranks. And from the International Committee of the Fourth International, "Leaked video shows US military killing of two Iraqi journalists." Plus, at the Committee to Protect Journalists, in a backgrounder, "Technicalities: 10 Questions on WikiLeaks," spread the lie that convicted communist Julian Assange is a "journalist.", And at the leftist London Independent, an absurd commentary from Joan Smith, "Now We See What War Does to Those Who Wage It."

Back stateside, CNN's Mohammed Jamjoom, offers a report on the children injured in the attack:

And New York Times' piece is here, "For 2 Grieving Families, Video Reveals Grim Truth."

And the video and illustrated photo are added just for idiot Barret Brown, who like all hardline leftists, denies truth for a manufactured reality. Here he quotes me at my original entry, then responds (highlighted in bold):

I’ve watched the “Collateral Murder” clip above. Seeing the video and listening to the combat audio, the crew in the Apache are engaging an insurgent contingent, and at the distance the transmissions identify the fighters as clearly armed with AK-47s and RPGs.

Except that they’re not clearly armed with RPGs; there were no RPGs. Two of the men, like many Iraqi men living in cities in which violent things happen, are equipped with AK-47s.

No, Barrett, you ignorant prick. Behold:

And god, that's the lefty line du jour, "everyone carried a Kalashnikov." Wake up, Barrett. Even WikiLeaks has moved on. It's not whether there were armed insurgents, but whether the troops observed ROE. And on that point, when ALL the video and circumstances are included, there's no question.

But that doesn't stop the left's useful idiots. At the hard-left Common Dreams, we have the statement from Josh Stieber, who claims he was deployed with Bravo Company 2-16, "whose members were involved in the incident captured in Wikileaks' “Collateral Murder” video":

Josh Stieber, who is a former soldier of the “Collateral Murder” Company, says that the acts of brutality caught on film and recently released via Wikileaks are not isolated instances, but were commonplace during his tour of duty.

Obviously a tool.

In contrast, compare Stieber's statement to the online chat Tuesday with WaPo's David Finkel, who was embedded with the same Army Battalion 2-16 during "the surge" in 2007-2008." Check the link. But on the scope of civilian casualties in Iraq:

What's helpful to understand is that, contrary to some interpretations that this was an attack on some people walking down the street on a nice day, the day was anyting but that. It happened in the midst of a large operation to clear an area where US soldiers had been getting shot at, injured, and killed with increasing frequency. What the Reuters guys walked into was the very worst part, where the morning had been a series of RPG attacks and running gun battles.

And on the troops' adherence to ROE, especially with respect to the "rescue" van:

More context -- you're seeing an edited version of the video. The full video runs much longer. And it doesn't have the benefit of hindsight, in this case zooming in on the van and seeing those two children. The helicopters were perhaps a mile away. And as all of this unfolded, it was unclear to the soldiers involved whether the van was a van of good samaritans or of insurgents showing up to rescue a wounded comrade. I bring these things up not to excuse the soldiers but to emphasize some of the real-time blurriness of those moments.

And on the alleged bestiality and inhumanity of U.S. forces:

I remain in touch with many of the soldiers from that battalion, including one who picked up and held one of the wounded children, and he has been having a difficult time ever since he made the discovery. I won' go into details without his permission, but I can assure you that in his case he is haunted.

And on whether cameramen and insurgents on photography equipment of RPGs:

If you were to see the full video, you would see a person carrying an RPG launcher as he walked down the street as part of the group. Another was armed as well, as I recall. Also, if you had the unfortunate luck to be on site afterwards, you would have seen that one of the dead in the group was lying on top of a launcher. Because of that and some other things, EOD -- the Hurt Locker guys, I guess -- had to come in and secure the site. And again, I'm not trying to excuse what happened. But there was more to it for you to consider than what was in the released video.

I'm editing here for brevity, so readers should go back to the link and get the full context. Clearly, Finkel's not out to excuse the actions of any involved in this firefight. His recollections are extremely damaging to all of the allegations and talking points of the communist media-industrial-complex.

CNN IMAGE CREDIT: Voting Female Speaks!

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UPDATE: Barret Brown has made a correction to his posts on Wikileaks, "WikiLeaks Editor Lies to Stephen Colbert, World; WikiLeaks Necessary Nonetheless."