Six Year Anniversary of WikiLeaks’ Collateral Murder

[polly7]

A Celebration of Free Speech

by Nozomi Hayase / April 5th, 2016

On April 5, 2010, WikiLeaks published classified military footage of a July 2007 attack by a US Army helicopter gunship in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad. The video titled Collateral Murder depicted the killing of more than a dozen men, including two Reuters staffers. At the time of release, the WikiLeaks website temporarily crashed with a massive influx of visitors, while versions popped up on YouTube, reaching millions.

The importance of The Collateral Murder video has often been talked about from the perspective that it provided visual evidence of unaccounted US military power and brutality. Now, on the 6th anniversary of its publication, we will revisit the emergence of WikiLeaks in the public consciousness and explore the significance of this video release for the advocacy of free speech.

What was brought to life in this grotesque image of horrific death was the voice of dissent, which until that time was suppressed by institutional hierarchies. This was the voice of whistleblower Chelsea Manning, who was sentenced to 35 years in prison for releasing the largest trove of secret documents in US history. At her pretrial hearing in 2013, Manning spoke about the facts regarding the incident in New Baghdad in her own words. After identifying the second engagement in the video of the unarmed bongo truck taking the kids to school and the attitudes of the soldiers in the helicopter as “the most alarming aspect of the video”, she described it as “seemingly delightful bloodlust” and noted how it appeared to be similar to a “child torturing ants with a magnifying glass”.

WikiLeaks as a creative application on the Internet has enabled the right of people to freely speak; speech that challenges authority, speech that questions its legitimacy, especially when such an act has become so dangerous. Through Manning’s brave act of conscience, a lost image was resurrected – true words through which ordinary men and women everywhere can transform the world. This made it possible for people to engage in determining the legitimacy of authority and begin withdrawing consent whenever necessary.

Soon after the video release, Ethan McCord, one of the soldiers on the ground at the scene of the shooting, came forward to write an apology letter to the Iraqi people. With heavy hearts, two former soldiers from the Army unit expressed their deep sorrow and wish to repair the damage their country had caused. Icelandic collaborators on the video release traveled to Baghdad to meet the family of the victims of this attack to seek for justice. Debate and discussion that was sparked began to dissolve apathy and callous disregard, replacing it with genuine interest and concern for others. In the eyes of many, this video came to be seen as having turned the tide of the war in Iraq.

Now, on this six year anniversary, let us celebrate the publication of Collateral Murder as a historical renewal of free speech. In 2010, on the day after Easter Sunday, the act of posting such a video online instigated a free flow of information on the ether, giving an everlasting effect of letting people see the other side of the story that had been buried by the official narrative.

Full article: http://dissidentvoice.org/2016/04/six-year-anniversary-of-wikileaks-collateral-murder/

First published at Common Dreams

Nozomi Hayase, Ph.D., is a writer who has been covering issues of freedom of speech, transparency, and decentralized movements. Her work is featured in many publications. Find her on twitter @nozomimagine Read other articles by Nozomi.