There are weapons visible at various points in the video and an RPG was found at the scene, these people were not all unarmed. That the journalists were killed is tragic and may very well be due to mistakes or incompetence or even malice, but none of that is clear from this video.
What is clear is that the journalist and his driver were in the presence of armed Iraqis carrying AK-47s and RPGs at the wrong time and in the wrong place. It was common practice for Iraqi stringers for news agencies like Reuters to embed themselves with insurgents in the hope of being extremely close to the story and getting pictures they would not otherwise have been able to obtain, but it was a very risky thing to do. If soldiers have already seen the people around you carrying guns and RPGs, they're a whole lot more likely to misinterpret your camera lens as an RPG when it peeks around a corner.
There were also two Apaches at the scene, but it's not entirely clear which crew is making each comment on the radio and what they can see as we only have one viewport into this event, which comes from the gunner's sight of only one of the Apaches. It is entirely plausible that the other Apache crew did clearly see weapons and that, outside the field of view of the camera we're looking at, they saw the black van picking up weapons. Further, each helicopter also has a separate sight for the pilot which can be slewed on its own axis and which we cannot see.
In short, the video lacks context and it's difficult to make a conclusive judgement without that context. We are given only one limited viewport into this event and expected to pronounce judgement on four guys who at once had a much broader and more detailed view of the situation but who also, unlike us, had to process that information in real-time, not from a video which could be rewound and played back. Whatever happened here, I'm not as ready to call it murder as WikiLeaks and some of the commenters here have been.
"There are weapons visible at various points in the video and an RPG was found at the scene, these people were not all unarmed."
The official military statement about the incident was as follows:
"The Apache crew fired because militants 'were endangering the stability of Iraq' and because they had positive identification that the militants 'had weapons and were using them against coalition and Iraqi security forces.'"
There aren't any coalition or Iraqi security forces in the area, and none are ever mentioned in the video. So while it's possible that an RPG was found at the scene, it's just as possible that the military was lying about both.
The second-to-last photograph [1] taken by Namir Noor-Eldeen shows an American Humvee and the radio calls make it clear that there is a ground force in the vicinity which was reporting a contact with the individuals on the ground, was able to see the individuals at various points in the action and was close enough that it took only 8 minutes for them to mount up and arrive on the scene. This group (apparently "Bushmaster element") appears to be the one which radios "Yeah, we had a guy shooting. And now he's behind the building" at 04:22.
Your assertion that there were no Iraqi or coalition ground forces in the area is not supported by the video.
They need to drive 8 minutes to get to the scene, when they are "near"? Even when halving the time for mounting and going by 20kmh they were 1km around 1.5km away. Near? What does "in the area mean"? Bagdad?
If you read the official documents on the investigation of the incident, including the sworn affidavits, the ground forces were 100-200 meters away throughout the entire thing.
Merely halving the time for mounting and assuming a 20km/h travel speed without any stops (bearing in mind this is a combat zone) seems a bit arbitrary. In any case, the radio calls seem to affirm that the ground element was in visual range of the people before the gunships even opened fire and Namir's photo, if it was indeed taken at the scene as we assume, shows the ground force as being pretty close, perhaps no more than 100-300 m away.
If they were 100m away, why did it take them several minutes to arrive while the helos circled? Even when crouching (from my exp in the the army), looking for ambushes during house fighting you're faster going down a street than this.
Maybe they had soldiers spread out and it took a while to call them back and mount up? Maybe one of the vehicles had mechanical problems? Maybe they even decided to hold for a few minutes to wait and see if any more surprises would show up? We can't know.
Regardless, this discussion is now irrelevant, as it has been confirmed elsewhere that the photo I posted above was taken at this scene, presumably while Namir was peeking around the corner. That photo shows US troops no further than 200 m away, if I recall that lens's capabilities correctly.
Your argument seems to basically be "we can't know what the other helicopter saw, so we have to assume they saw weapons."
Leaving aside your argument, don't you find the voice track coming from the gunner shocking? The man actually had glee in his voice as he was gunning down people that obviously had no possible chance to defend themselves or harm him. An AK-47 vs. an Apache helicopter is no threat.
As others have stated, at the range from the gunner's PoV, an RPG, even if he had one, cannot hit the helicopter.
The fact that there are cold-blooded killers in the cockpit of a helicopter, that take joy in killing innocent civilians should shock each and every one of us.
Aren't you sick of being an apologist for an unjustified killing in an unjustified war?
What about that troops on the ground that were being shot at by insurgents in the area that the armed camera crew was in? Do you think that the helicopter crew might have been thinking that they, the troops on the ground, were in danger. They did call in the gunship because they were getting shot at from that area. How about a little less hyperbole.
Your argument seems to basically be "we can't know what the other helicopter saw, so we have to assume they saw weapons."
No. My argument is that we are lacking a huge amount of context by virtue of having only a single narrow view into this event, through the targeting device of only one of the crewmen in only one of the Apaches, so it's foolish to assume that the statements made over the radio are fabrications based on what we're seeing in this video alone. There are at least six separate viewpoints here; those of Bushmaster 06, Hotel 26 and each of the four crewmen in the Apaches; we only have access to a portion of one of those. Just because something mentioned over the radio is not seen in this video does not mean it did not exist. Of course, it doesn't mean it did exist either, but that should go without saying.
I am convinced, based on what I did see in this video, that some of the men were armed. But I can't say that the crew of both Apaches were entirely in the right in the way they behaved or that they were entirely in the wrong, because I don't think it's possible to make such a definitive judgement without having additional context.
Leaving aside your argument, don't you find the voice track coming from the gunner shocking? The man actually had glee in his voice as he was gunning down people that obviously had no possible chance to defend themselves or harm him. An AK-47 vs. an Apache helicopter is no threat.
As others have stated, at the range from the gunner's PoV, an RPG, even if he had one, cannot hit the helicopter.
If you think that all soldiers shoot their enemies with grim remorse and regret, you're naive about the realities of war. Those pilots & gunners were convinced those guys are all insurgents (which some appear to have been) and they were pumped with adrenaline which tends to produce a slightly euphoric feeling. It has always been like this; do you really think that bomber crews and fighter-bomber pilots in World War II didn't whoop with joy when they scored a direct hit and wiped out a bunch of enemy soldiers? Of course they did. The quiet introspection comes later, when the adrenaline wears off and they're alone with their thoughts back at base.
Your comments about there being no threat to the helicopters are irrelevant, because the perceived threat was obviously to the vehicles of Bushmaster element, less than 100 m from the street corner where the action took place. The Apaches were also flying in a hostile area, where RPGs had brought down Apaches before, so that would have amped the adrenaline up even further.
The fact that there are cold-blooded killers in the cockpit of a helicopter, that take joy in killing innocent civilians should shock each and every one of us.
It's very clear from the video and the investigation that the crew did not think they were killing civilians, so that's a false premise.
Aren't you sick of being an apologist for an unjustified killing in an unjustified war?
That's hardly a fair or honest question. I have made no statements about the Iraq War as a whole and it's your assumption, based on limited evidence, that the killing was unjustified. A reasonable case can and has been made that the killing, at least of the journalists, was excusable when considering the context.
I have not come down on either side of the argument, but I have on principle sought to oppose some of the more knee-jerk reactions that have made unjustified assumptions about the event based only on this video. This is an exceptionally explosive issue so it's very important that the debate which surrounds it is conducted in a careful and logical manner without excessive emotion. Posts like yours, with emotional arguments and inflammatory language, aren't helpful.
What is clear is that the journalist and his driver were in the presence of armed Iraqis carrying AK-47s and RPGs at the wrong time and in the wrong place. It was common practice for Iraqi stringers for news agencies like Reuters to embed themselves with insurgents in the hope of being extremely close to the story and getting pictures they would not otherwise have been able to obtain, but it was a very risky thing to do. If soldiers have already seen the people around you carrying guns and RPGs, they're a whole lot more likely to misinterpret your camera lens as an RPG when it peeks around a corner.
There were also two Apaches at the scene, but it's not entirely clear which crew is making each comment on the radio and what they can see as we only have one viewport into this event, which comes from the gunner's sight of only one of the Apaches. It is entirely plausible that the other Apache crew did clearly see weapons and that, outside the field of view of the camera we're looking at, they saw the black van picking up weapons. Further, each helicopter also has a separate sight for the pilot which can be slewed on its own axis and which we cannot see.
In short, the video lacks context and it's difficult to make a conclusive judgement without that context. We are given only one limited viewport into this event and expected to pronounce judgement on four guys who at once had a much broader and more detailed view of the situation but who also, unlike us, had to process that information in real-time, not from a video which could be rewound and played back. Whatever happened here, I'm not as ready to call it murder as WikiLeaks and some of the commenters here have been.