PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Debra Sweet, 866.973.4463
Elaine Brower, 917.520.0767
Worldcantwait.net
Speakers are available for interviews
Dissident Soldier Ethan McCord and Pardiss Kebriaei of CCR to Speak in New York City:
A Discussion of “Collateral Murder & Targeted Assassination”
When: Wednesday, October 20, 7:00 PM
Where: LGBT Center, 208 West 13th St., NYC
Where: LGBT Center, 208 West 13th St., NYC
This program will also be live webcast at: www.livestream.com/worldcantwait
New York, NY – Former US Army Specialist Ethan McCord, who was a member of Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry, will speak about his experience in the 2007 helicopter attack in Baghdad, shown in a leaked video released last April by WikiLeaks. The video publicized as “Collateral Murder”, will be screened. McCord will recount his story as he was on the ground rescuing civilians in the aftermath of the incident.
Last July, McCord spoke about the video to attendees at a United Nations Peace Conference. "If this video disgusts you, it should," he told the audience. "It happens daily in Iraq. … The rules of engagement in 2007 when this happened was, ‘If you feel threatened by anybody, you’re able to engage that person.’ Many soldiers felt threatened just by the fact that you were looking at them, so they fired their weapons at anybody who was looking at them, because ‘I felt threatened.’"
"We were told that if we were to fire our weapons at people and we were to be investigated, officers would take care of you," McCord continued. "We were given orders for 360 degree rotational fire whenever we were hit with an IED. We were told by our battalion commander to kill every motherfucker on the street. … If you didn’t fire, the NCOs in your platoon would make your life hell."
"We were told that if we were to fire our weapons at people and we were to be investigated, officers would take care of you," McCord continued. "We were given orders for 360 degree rotational fire whenever we were hit with an IED. We were told by our battalion commander to kill every motherfucker on the street. … If you didn’t fire, the NCOs in your platoon would make your life hell."
This week McCord released further videos gathered in Iraq showing systematic abuse of detainees in Iraq.
He states, "I started to ‘acquire’ these videos and some pictures once I realized that what we are doing in Iraq is wrong," McCord wrote on Wednesday in a blog entry at MichaelMoore.com. "These videos are of detainee abuse. Not the type of abuse that’s physical, but the mental, emotional, degrading type."
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/10/whistleblower-reveals-systematic-humiliation/
Pardiss Kebriaei, staff attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights, is challenging the Obama administration’s targeted assassination order on Anwar Awlaki, an American citizen residing in Yemen. The lawsuit brought by Awlaki’s father seeks a court order enjoining the President from assassinating his son with no due process. Ms. Kebriaei will discuss this case, as well as the “state secrets” argument presented by the Obama administration’s continuing justification of the Bush doctrine.
Pardiss Kebriaei, staff attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights, is challenging the Obama administration’s targeted assassination order on Anwar Awlaki, an American citizen residing in Yemen. The lawsuit brought by Awlaki’s father seeks a court order enjoining the President from assassinating his son with no due process. Ms. Kebriaei will discuss this case, as well as the “state secrets” argument presented by the Obama administration’s continuing justification of the Bush doctrine.
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