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October 6th, 2006 - Anti-U.S.
Attack Videos Spread on Web |
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Anti-U.S. Attack Videos
Spread on Web By Edward Wyatt New York Times October 6, 2006 Los Angeles - Videos showing
insurgent attacks against American troops in Iraq, long available in Baghdad
shops and on Jihadist Web sites, have steadily migrated in recent months to
popular Internet video-sharing sites, including YouTube and Google Video. Many of the videos, showing
sniper attacks against Americans and roadside bombs exploding under American
military vehicles, have been posted not by insurgents or their official
supporters but apparently by Internet users in the United States and other
countries, who have passed along videos found elsewhere. Among the scenes being
viewed daily by thousands of users of the sites are sniper attacks in which
Americans are felled by snipers as a camera records the action and of armored
Humvees or other military vehicles being hit by roadside bombs. In some videos, the troops
do not appear to have been seriously injured; in one, titled Sniper Hit and
posted on YouTube by a user named 69souljah, a serviceman is knocked down by
a shot but then gets up to seek cover. Other videos, however, show soldiers
bleeding on the ground, vehicles exploding and troops being loaded onto
medical evacuation helicopters. At a time when the Bush
administration has restricted photographs of the coffins of military
personnel returning to the United States and the Pentagon keeps close tabs on
videotapes of combat operations taken by the news media, the videos give
average Americans a level of access to combat scenes rarely available before,
if ever. Their availability has also
produced some backlash. In recent weeks, YouTube has removed dozens of the
videos from its archives and suspended the accounts of some users who have
posted them, a reaction, it said, to complaints from other users. More than four dozen videos
of combat in Iraq viewed by The New York Times have been removed in recent
days, many after The Times began inquiries. But many others remain, some
labeled in Arabic, making them difficult for American users to search for. In
addition, new videos, often with the same material that had been deleted
elsewhere, are added daily. Russell K. Terry, a Vietnam
veteran who founded the Iraq War Veterans Organization, said he had mixed
feelings about the videos. Its unfortunate theres no
way to stop it, Mr. Terry said, even though this is what these guys are over
there fighting for: freedom of speech. One YouTube user, who would
not identify himself other than by his account name, facez0fdeath, and his
location, in Britain, said by e-mail that he posted a video of a sniper
attack because I felt it was information the U.K. news was unwilling to tell. I was physically sickened
upon seeing it, he said, adding, I am wholly opposed to any form of
censorship. The video he posted, which
had been viewed more than 33,000 times, was removed earlier this week. Another YouTube user, who
said he was a 19-year-old in Istanbul and who posted more than 40 videos of
Iraq violence, said via e-mail that anti-war feelings and Muslim beliefs (the
religion of peace) motivates me. Neal O. Newbill, a freshman
at the University of Memphis who viewed some of the YouTube videos and posted
comments on them, said in an interview that he was enraged by the recorded
chants of Allahu Akbar, Arabic for God is great, that follow some of the
sniper attacks. But Mr. Newbill added that
he was awed by the size of the blasts from the improvised explosive devices,
or I.E.D.s, used against American vehicles. A son, nephew and grandson of
American veterans, Mr. Newbill said he had sought out the videos, searching
on YouTube for I.E.D., because I like watching stuff blow up. The Web sites also contain a
growing number of video clips taken by American soldiers. One shows the view
from the back of a truck containing several members of a platoon, whose
vehicle then hits an I.E.D. and is turned on its side. A few videos also show
American servicemen or private security guards firing at attackers, and one
shows an American rocket-propelled grenade hitting a building from which
insurgents are firing. A spokesman for United
States Central Command, which oversees troops in Iraq, said the military was
aware of the use of common Internet sites by both insurgent groups and
American military personnel. Centcom is aware we are
facing an adaptive enemy that uses the Internet as a force multiplier and as
a means of connectivity, Maj. Matt McLaughlin, the spokesman, said by e-mail. While posting of Web logs,
pictures and videos by American troops is subject to military regulations,
Major McLauglin said, Al Qaeda uses the Internet and media to foster the
perception that they are more capable than they are. Some of the videos are
obvious propaganda, with Arabic subtitles and accompanying music, while
others simply have scenes without sound or graphics. They appear to be real,
though the results of attacks are not always clear. One frequently posted video
shows individual photographs of several hundred American soldiers allegedly
killed by a Baghdad sniper referred to as Juba. But a television news report
from the German weekly Der Spiegel that also has been posted on the video
sites shows an interview with one American soldier whom the insurgent group
claimed to have killed but whose protective vest stopped the snipers bullet. Geoffrey D. W. Wawro,
director of the Center for the Study of Military History at the University of
North Texas and a former instructor at the United States Naval War College,
said the erosion of the command structure of terrorist and insurgent groups
had led them to increase their reliance on the Internet and videos to gain
recruits. American troops, too, have
always sent snapshots home from the front, Mr. Wawro said, and digital
pictures and video are simply a new incarnation of that. This is how the new
generation does things, he said. It results in a continued
trivialization of combat and its effects, Mr. Wawro added, but no one feels
completely comfortable saying, Don’t do it. YouTube does feel
comfortable saying so, however, as does Google Video. Both have user
guidelines that prohibit the posting of videos with graphic violence, a
measure that spokeswomen for each service said was violated by many of the
Iraq videos. Julie Supan, senior director
of marketing for YouTube, said the company removed videos after they were
flagged by users as having inappropriate content and were reviewed by the
video service. In an e-mail message, Ms.
Supan said that among the videos removed were those that display graphic
depictions of violence in addition to any war footage (U.S. or other)
displayed with intent to shock or disgust, or graphic war footage with
implied death (of U.S. troops or otherwise). David Gelles and Omar
Fekeiki contributed reporting from Berkeley, Calif. Copyright 2006 The New York
Times External link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/06/technology/06tube.html |