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ASSANGE ARRESTED

Assange should be tried for rape charges, not for leaking government data, writes sanjib sinha

ulian Assange is not my hero. were given permission to shoot the running helter-skelter down the steps
The curious case of Chelsea innocent gathering, they rejoiced and to escape the flames and bullets what
Manning is different. Man- burst with joy: “Light ‘em all up”, they was the reaction of the American
ning helped Assange to leak cried in ecstasy. Ghastly laughter and soldiers? “Oh, yeah, look at those dead
J the American secret data cable the indiscriminate shooting followed; bastards,” says one airman. What about
that now enables us to view a it killed several children including the dead children who were burnt like
shocking video where innocent chil- Reuters’ staff Namir Noor-Eldeen and flowers? Someone pointed out from
dren were mercilessly killed by Ameri- Saeed Chmagh. the helicopter and shouted, “Well it’s
can airmen in Iraq in 2007 invasion. When people were screaming and their fault for bringing their kids into
Let me talk about the vid-
eo first. After knowing about
that ghastly affair you will be
in a better position to judge
the whole thing — in a bet-
ter perspective. To judge or
understand anything, con-
text plays a very important
role. The video rocked and
shocked the whole world
when we had first seen it in
2010 after WikiLeaks pub-
lished it on their website.
The recording was filmed
in July 2007, in Iraq. At that
time the US and UK invasion
of Iraq gathered huge mo-
mentum. It was recorded by
two US AH-64 Apache heli-
copters; they were attacking
a building in Baghdad sup-
posed to be occupied by the
terrorists.
However, instead of tar-
geting that building, they
chose a group of people
standing outside. In that
group there were several
children, two journalists;
moreover, they were not
armed, they were not shoot-
ing towards the US helicop-
ter. However, that group of
unarmed, civilian people was
targeted and sprayed with
bullets remorselessly.
When the Americans • Fresh probe Sweden considers reviving rape inquiry against Assange

Tehelka / 30 april 2019 56 www.Tehelka.com