This video, from November, shows an interview with Julian Assange, Editor in chief of Wikileaks, in which he discusses the details behind the video entitled 'Collateral Murder'.
A play on the military euphemism 'collateral damage', the video shows the death of 18 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad, including two Reuters journalists, who are fired upon repeatedly by a US Apache helicopter.
In Assange's analysis of the events, he says expresses his disappointment at the behaviour of the soldiers and pilots responsible for the deaths, for whom such actions, it appears, such manoeuvres have become routine.
"It seems to be a type of debasement of war - you expect people to be debased by war, their characters' to be corrupted by engaging in war. But because of the removed nature of the Apache, where they can't hear anyone on the ground....it looks like a video game to them."
"Over time these pilots started thinking it really was a video game. and they got pleasure by getting a high score, and it was also a source of pride to them". Assange goes on to express concern at the manner in which the pilots knew the rules of engagement, followed them, and were later exonerated by an internal investigation which exonerated them of any blame. "Either there's a problem with that review, in the United States military, or those really were the rules, and the review panel was also acting in the right way. Then there's a problem with the rules."
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