Is Wikileaks Being Over Zealous or Is It A Deliberate Skewing Of Reporting?

The famous whistle blowing site, Wikileaks, posted a video Monday showing an Apache crew engaging and killing eight Iraqis, two of whom were Reuters cameramen. After it was released, questions are being raised as to how much of the story is actually being told and shown.

Watch the video below. Please be aware that it contains graphic images.



The video shows two men carrying what appears to be cameras. However, later in the video you see two men walking behind the group, one is clearly carrying an AK-47 and the other is carrying a rocket propelled grenade (RPG).





Called "Collateral Murder" by Wikileaks, they accuse the Army of killing innocent Iraqi civilians during a July 27, 2007 attack on New Baghdad and claiming that "It's another day at the office." for the U.S. Army. According to Wikileaks, the civilians shown in the video did nothing to provoke the attack and mistook their cameras for weapons, killed everyone in sight and then tried to cover it up.

The problem comes when you notice that the video contains selective editing. Notice that the video slows down when the two Reuters cameramen appear in the video. Yet, does not slow down when it clearly shows the two men carrying an AK-47 and an RPG and Wikileaks fails to mention these two men carrying the weapons.

What this video does is give the viewer a narrow  and deliberately skewed perspective of events. What they also fail to mention is that fighting was heavy in the area all day, considering this, these men were walking freely in the streets raising the flag of suspicion. In other words, why would anyone in their right mind wander the streets when heavy fighting was going on in the area.

According to FoxNews, Wikileaks editor, Julian Assange admitted that "it's likely some of the individuals seen in the video were carrying weapons." But, ultimately felt "unsure" after producing a draft copy of the video and ultimately omitted the reference to the two men carrying the weapons.

Although it is widely known that many Iraqi households have at least one AK-47, they do not have an RPG.

Another issue raised in the video later shows a van with two men inside being fired upon by the Apache, which arrived to carry one of the wounded men away from the scene; which turned out to be one of the cameramen. Wikileaks tries to make the weak argument that the Apache crew failed to follow the ROE (Rules of Engagement). This argument is quickly defeated when it's considered that they were not wearing any clearly defined markings and the heavy combat that had ensued earlier that day.

In conclusion, I am of the opinion that Wikileaks deliberately altered the video to skew the story. Considering the title that Wikileaks editors have  given to the video tells me the whole story.