The fact that the journalists’ cameras were misidentified as weapons is a red herring, because they were still with a group of people armed with assault rifles and at least one rocket launcher, and engaging the group was justified. WikiLeaks focuses on the single (irrelevant) misidentification and also frames the engagement as “murder,” neglecting to point out the weapons that the others were carrying.
In my view, the government version is not factually wrong—nine insurgents and two journalists were killed, after all, and the other engagements mentioned were not shown in that video—and the WikiLeaks version is. If that means I have an unreasonable definition of ‘truth,’ so be it, but the case seems fairly clear to me.
Yes.
The fact that the journalists’ cameras were misidentified as weapons is a red herring, because they were still with a group of people armed with assault rifles and at least one rocket launcher, and engaging the group was justified. WikiLeaks focuses on the single (irrelevant) misidentification and also frames the engagement as “murder,” neglecting to point out the weapons that the others were carrying.
In my view, the government version is not factually wrong—nine insurgents and two journalists were killed, after all, and the other engagements mentioned were not shown in that video—and the WikiLeaks version is. If that means I have an unreasonable definition of ‘truth,’ so be it, but the case seems fairly clear to me.