coming up on r t today is the anniversary of the release of the collateral murder video it gave the public a shocking look at the brutality of the iraq war and the human rights abuses that the military covered up we'll revisit that day and speak with one of the soldiers featured in that video. and while questions still loom over the obama administration's drone program activists have begun to protest against the very companies that make these weapons more on that ahead and you've heard about growing tensions in the korean peninsula from the mainstream media but what does this military buildup look like we'll give you a glimpse at the numbers. it's friday april fifth five pm in washington d.c. i'm megan lopez you're watching r t let's get straight to today's top stories well today is the third anniversary of the release of the video known as collateral

murder but it's a video that highlights the brutality of the iraq war showing a helicopter targeting and killing a group of iraqi civilians up until this point we've heard the outcry from the public after seeing this video we've witnessed the manhunt by the government to find the people responsible for leaking the tape but we've never really heard from the soldiers themselves the ones featured in collateral murder that is until now i traveled to kansas this week to sit down with ethan mccord he's one of the ground soldiers and his story is one of regret and heartbreak prepare yourself this report is not pretty. by the way it was the video that put wiki leaks on the map turned the tide of war in iraq and landed private first class bradley manning in military detention but for army veteran ethan mccord it was just another day on duty the helicopters are approximately about a mile and a half away. when they resume his guys. and from looking at it now

you can't see anything when i mean that right there is obviously a camera dangling. if you're to really pay attention. that guy has a k forty seven right there baghdad iraq two thousand and seven two hundred sixteenth battalion was out patrolling a volatile part of the city i was about five blocks away four or five blocks away to the. to the left of the screen this was a battalion wide mission and then the situation turned deadly. we heard the apache was firing. ethan and his infantry squad began running toward the scene to provide support again the apache helicopter opened fire. when he arrived on the scene the apache guns were quiet the accused enemies were dead. one guy's head the top of his head was

completely off and the brains were. on the ground and the smell this now still haunts me. and i don't even know how to describe it when he approached the van a noisy thing wasn't expecting a cry of a little girl and she was four years old. you could tell she had a wound to the stomach and. remember looking at me and. the blood around her eyes made her eyes so ghostly why isn't grabbed a girl and ran into a nearby building he then picks glass out of her eyes so she could blink and handed her off to a medic i went back outside and. was told to take pictures i started taking pictures of the inside of the van and that's when he discovered the little boy and that's me who to her. that is a little boy who i originally thought was dead despite their injuries the children survived but part of ethan changed forever that day i couldn't stop myself from

crying i couldn't stop myself from feeling the way that i was feeling when he did seek mental help he says he was mocked by his commanders and threatened with when i started drinking and metal have given me prescriptions thirteen prescriptions. geodon depakote. prozac and i was i was a zombie but things got worse i started daydreaming of killing my own children and and everybody around me so even took matters into his own hands i had already began drinking pretty heavily and. down all the pills and i drank a fifth of crown row ten o'clock in the morning and

my wife at the time found me that was the first time even tried to take his own life after that he was dismissed from the army i was kicked out with no disability no. no benefits from the army of us whoever he returned to wichita and then even attempted suicide for a second time i actually wrote a poem before i did a. repetition of my mouth and. i don't know if i really want to talk about it. these ten story is tragic yes but he certainly isn't alone tens of thousands of military veterans suffer the effects of p.t.s.d. long after they leave the battlefield and for those who simply can't cope with the stress often times they choose to end their own lives their fathers and brothers sons and soldiers and now they're simply another times will see an american wars

abroad in the past two years alone ethan has lost eight of his veteran brothers to suicide and his outlook on life hasn't improved with time i know that i will never ever ever get better i'll never get over this for the world the collateral murder video was just another black mark on an unpopular war for ethan it was a catalyst that made him question the entire purpose of the iraq war you know america. john wayne you know we were the white. merican they're always out well we're going to try to help people that's all we do is try to spread freedom and democracy the barrel of a gun history will be the ultimate determinant of how the iraq war is viewed but for ethan and so many soldiers suffering from post war stress the future is far and the past is too much to cope with reporting from wichita kansas meghan lopez r.t. now respect despite the fact that ethan and his squad have been lambasted for the

horrific scenes that came out of the collateral murder video he actually supports private first class bradley manning and he wants him to be released even says that bradley manning is a true hero an american patriot and this the third anniversary of the release of the collateral murder video i was for this day i was actually joined earlier by wiki leaks spokesperson christian harassments and to talk about the video itself the aftermath and the current legal battle that julian assange just currently facing i began by asking him what's changed in the three years since the video was released. well the one thing that has not changed that those are victims. you see in that video the clatter of the video have still have not got any justice i mean in my mind there is this is clearly a war crime the killing the shooting of the minivan especially and the killing of the father of the two children and ethan dragged out of the minivan and saved i

traveled to about was there just two days before the release of the the collateral murder video and i met these two children. door and saeed they were eight and twelve years at the time and their father had much harsher marl his only crime was to be driving them to special tutoring and stopping when he came up on the scene to save the site smartly reuter employee he was bleeding to death on the sidewalk. it was a heart breaking to meet them they still have the scars of that incident and of course the cycle of the logical attacks of being shot out and losing their father is terrible. god it just says this event has not been investigated properly as a war crime should be. just as. it is and in my mind this is a very symbolic thing this video because it was not

a unique when we released the iraq war logs in october twenty eighth ten there were so many of them they were similar to this one and actually the field report a bug to the collateral murder incident on july twelfth two thousand and seven was only eight or ten long it was in the general scheme of things very insignificant in the. iraq and christian that i think that's something to bring up is the fact that this as i was talking to even the core of the soldier that was featured in the video before you know this is just one example of so many examples the war was that so many years along so can you talk about this can you talk about some of the documents that you have found some of the documents that wiki leaks has released and talk about what were some of the things that surprised you the most. well i mean it was the cold blooded killing often with reference to

legal aspects rules of engagement i can tell you about what the iraq war documents gave us as well it was one incident where people were surrendering to a helicopter that might have been insurgents but they had thought away their weapons and the crew of the apache gunship the helicopter basically radioed back to headquarters and said what shall we do and the headquarters or we'll have to we'll call up the lawyers and they came back to the crew and so will we have talked to the lawyers and the lawyers so that technically you cannot surrender to on aircraft so spoken there was what happened in the iraq war and it was a very the same thing happened with the collateral murder video incident it was a. superficial investigation done at the time and it was a total brush over all was within the laws of war and rules of engagement it is extremely brutal picture that all the information that we have revealed about the

iraq war has brought to light that it's a terrible chapter and a dark one in our history and question if you and your organization are the only ones to express but those are the same as sentiments that question also excuse me that if and also. in my talks with him now as i understand it. the collateral murder video in many people's opinions was supposed to have ended the war it was really the turning point is that all your organizations say is that. well i mean the information that we have revealed had an effect of actually bringing the war to an end. if you if you look back there were plenty to keep. keep soldiers in iraq or u.s. soldiers for far longer than. actually happened and it was because of the information that came out in the diplomatic cables concerning the iraq war graves

the iraqi population. that actually work for them so really a leaky government could not give immunity to the u.s. soldier. and obama decided to pull out all the troops far earlier than expected and we have a short amount of time left but i do want to get julian a sauna and find out what his current status is can you ivan and talk about what what joy i thought was up to these days. well i mean he's still doing the work that he has been doing that throughout all this time that he has been in the house arrest or in the ecuadorian embassy in london still doing his work as a good internet connection and we are continuing our work and we have actually a press conference on monday and wasn't on to see to announce. a new project and this is all of. but shouldn't you know sort of we hope that the two situations will change and you could walk free hopefully very soon and finally your

organization was lambasted for leaking this video and arguably the largest document drop in american history with these leaks has anything that you have done change the wars in your opinion. change the wars on the war of the change the world i think it has changed the perspective people have on the information sharing in the power that information can have in making historical changes and i think that we have contributed to a very very important change that it is. nobody argues against the fact that the diplomatic cable release started to in the towards the end of the year two thousand and ten did have a catalyst to go for the arab spring and the tremendous changes we have seen in the region. there are so many stories that have come out that have changed our views on the world and have changed history yes it's always in the years afterward that we discover the most about the war from the present question her often said what he

likes pokes person thank you for joining us thanks for having me so we have heard from one of the soldiers on the ground that day of the collateral murder video we just heard from the wiki leaks spokesperson talking about his take on the aftermath of the video and the iraq war now let's hear from some of the other players who were involved the people whose lives were affected far beyond that of the children and the people that were actually in those vans it extends way beyond that and soldiers themselves first stop wiki leaks founder julian assange watch who has been holed up in the ecuadorian embassy in london for almost nine months he is attempting to escape extradition to sweden r.t. was the first news organization to speak with a songe after he released the collateral murder video here's what he told us. this is a case i believe where you can see that the internal mirror military mechanisms do not work to bring justice or accountability and so it is the court of public you

jury of public opinion that will try these soldiers and commanders and to the people who decided the action was within the rules of engagement as long as so afraid of extradition because sweden in the us have such friendly times he says being extradited to sweden could land him in an american prison to suffer the same fate as private first class bradley manning the man behind the leak now manning himself has surpassed one thousand days in pretrial detention and has yet to have his day in court here's what manning said in a pretrial hearing recently listen closely. and finally p.j. crowley he is the former united states assistant secretary of state for public

affairs who resigned after he made critical comments about the harsh pretrial treatment of bradley manning his comments cost him his job he recently came on our team to talk about the iraq war here's part of that interview i'm actually a firm believer in the case against bradley manning his release of hundreds of thousands of documents some of them classified you know to wiki leaks has done serious damage to the united states national security and the national interest you know that said in a pretrial setting where anyone is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law i did think that his treatment was excessive. three men with three very different points of view on the iraq war and the collateral murder video these men certainly weren't to go only ones whose lives have changed after the leak of this video but on this the anniversary of its release it's important to look at how

far reaching the costs of one video really are and to think about the impacts of almost a decade of war on the global community and to find out what's next for wiki leaks our team will be attending a news conference this monday here in washington d.c. we'll be broadcasting the events live on our web site that's our t.v. dot com so be sure to tune in. now today marks another important day for the american military efforts nine years ago today the u.s. siege of fallujah began began this was mere days after four americans working for blackwater were beaten and killed in the streets of fallujah their corpse a suspended from a bridge and their images broadcast globally in response the siege of fallujah to the siege of lucia a city of more than three hundred thousand people west of baghdad and actually brought the full strength of the american military to the city gates scientists suspect that the u.s. used depleted uranium and white phosphorus as a weapon against the people there

a claim that the pentagon still denies now those living in the city are dealing with the consequences since october of two thousand and nine the flu shot general hospital confirmed congenital anomalies in fifteen hundred fifty eight children eleven hundred fifty eight children excuse me the current rate of birth defects in fallujah is higher than those in nagasaki and hiroshima at the end of world war two both birth defects and miscarriages are higher than the rest of the world and higher than rates before the conflict just another lasting legacy of the iraq war. well it is only now in the years since the iraq war ended that we were truly beginning to get a clearer picture of the tactics that the u.s. used to fight its enemies some of the methods were innovative others were inhumane we learned terms like waterboarding and enhanced interrogation as more of american military secrets came to light artie's the resident takes

a look at another dark mark in the iraq war and gives her opinion on the matter. tonight. fact that there was a secret u.s. military base in baghdad where very bad things happened after the u.s. invaded iraq this it shot exactly zero of you but hopefully you aren't numbed to the point where you can't be outraged anymore because this is pretty outrageous the name of the base this camp and it was housed in baghdad international airport it was run by a special forces unit with the code named task force one twenty one which was

comprised of military personnel from both the u.s. and the u.k. but the latter had only played a very minor role in the campaign it was first established to detain people with information on hussein's weapons of mass destruction we all know where those turned out to be right know where lay and so the task force was then retest with detaining people who could help find defames out and his henchmen and al qaeda leaders detainees were treated to some of the most serious human rights abuses ever to occur in iraq they were subjected to electric shocks routinely put it caged in cells the size of a dog kennel subjected to various humiliations made to endure mental torture with things like strobe lights and loud music and more they were used as target practice with paintball. one of its interrogation rooms had books in the feelings and that can never be good honestly the list goes on and on and shows that the task force

was very creative about coming up with new ways to torture that. hell out of people it was pretty horrific and many people who witnessed it tried to report it but the whole thing was kept long to look we were britain's ministry of defense refuses to acknowledge it ever existed photography was forbidden they can't comment which might explain why it is public scrutiny like abu ghraib went on there which was only a few miles away it was extremely secretive and portable plainly put at the end of two thousand and three the pentagon national investigator painted a visit and determined that blow things were really screwed up there and needed to be reined in so more than thirty members of the task force were disciplined so that the story folks there was an absolutely horrible u.s. military base called camp nama and baghdad where absolutely in you may police read think events happen where human beings did horrible things to other human beings in

the name of war and no one knows about it people aren't walking around going oh i can't not that was crazy what happened there right now don't the truth is that there are probably a lot more secret horrible things will happen here about two that our government has done in the name of national security and the worst part of it all for me is that there are a lot of people who believe this is ok that say well there are a lot of bad people out there and we have to do we have to do to protect ourselves to write off evil inhumane disgusting behavior like that behavior that is beneath animals as unnecessary is not a place for society to be in my opinion and for that story tonight let's talk about that i probably on twitter as.

well human rights activists from new york to san diego kicked all. off a month long nationwide protest against the use of drones both abroad as well as right back here at home is all part of the april day of action demonstrations the drone industry has provided a huge boost for san diego's economy the area has now been dubbed the drone hub because of its technical and manufacturing expertise and that is where the protesters staged their demonstration are to correspondent among the lindo was there and brings us this report we're in san diego where demonstrators here are speaking out against drone warfare and secret surveillance is part of a nationwide drone campaign going on throughout this month there outside of the offices of general tall mix the defense contractor in charge of making predator drones and reaper drones for the air force and cia in the war on terror they're also in charge of making the drones for customs and border protection to surveil the us mexico border now defense contractors have been

a large part of the economy here in southern california for decades but many people that we spoke to here today say that there's a major problem with making so much money off of warfare and secret surveillance to think that you know the workers here either ignore or don't care about what they're doing in the c.e.o. of this company general atomics neal blewett is making a lot of money and of a technology that's killing people in a lot of places and making the u.s. hated around the world we wanted to hear this message one of the things that i think is important is building our lives within the military industrial complex and i think that we really need to look hard at that because these people need to work they need to figure out how they're going to go about change transitioning into a green job into transportation into something where they can take their skills be retrained and create something that's life affirming not death affirming i love my

country in the freedoms that we have and i feel that. these drones are infringing upon our freedoms and they're already being used in parts of the united states up on the washington canada border and some law enforcement agencies are using them and i believe it's a slippery slope and we need something in place to curtail this technology and what they're using it for top government officials including former cia director leon panetta has said that drones are here to stay regardless of the different views about him here in california and in other states around the nation legislators are proposing laws that would restrict the use of drones here domestically despite that the drone industry says that in the next decade we could see tens of thousands of drones in u.s. airspace despite those odds and drone demonstrators like these to fight on and will be will continue to see protests like these nationwide in san diego. or.

tensions between the u.s. and north korea are at unprecedented levels this week news reports have come out saying that north korea has prepared two missiles for a launch the country also sent out an advisory to foreign diplomats and killing yang warning them that it cannot guarantee their safety and the safety of embassies in the capital city if a conflict ensues both north korea and the u.s. are talking strategy now our chief correspondent margaret how takes a look at the chessboard so back in two thousand and two then president george w. bush had some strong words for a certain group of countries in a state of the union address north korea is a regime arming with missiles and weapons of mass destruction. while starving its citizens. iran aggressively pursued these weapons and exports terror while an unelected few repressed the iranian people's hope for freedom. irak and ten years to flaunt his hostility toward america and to support terror states like these and

their terrorist allies constitute an axis of evil arming to threaten the peace of the world. now that designation the axis of evil still continues today now almost eleven years later tensions with one of those countries north korea are possibly coming to a head so as reports of u.s. military build up around that region what exactly does this mean logistically speaking well in response to north korea's contend you hostilities and nuclear threats the u.s. has of april first moved at least one more ship capable of intercepting a missile should north korea decide to launch an attack now this ship the u.s.s. fitzgerald sits just off the coast about region also on the map twenty eight thousand troops on the korean peninsula and sixty seven thousand troops stationed in japan also on the table a high altitude area defense program known as the which is the landing base system developed by lockheed martin now this base uses truck mounted launchers to

intercept these missiles the u.s. sent these to guam last week in addition of the troops on the ground rounding l.p.'s resources two navy destroyers deployed in the western pacific region now the name of this game is battleship which is now underway and despite not knowing whether this blistering rhetoric will ever turn into war these troop movements give us an idea of what it just might look like and washington. r.t. well companies pay a pretty penny for advertising and just like real estate the key is location location location meet host gator dot com he sold his face to porn websites for a nominal fee he will tattoo the u r l's of websites on his body even his name is an advertisement for a website called you guessed it host gator dot com according to vice the web site paid him fifteen thousand dollars to change his name from billy giving dot com who

lives in alaska gets paid about four thousand dollars per website have tattoos on his faced so why does he do it well a man has a a wife. and five children to take care of after losing his job his family was facing eviction could he end tattooing advertisements on his body but quickly found that the real money was in selling off space on this face and now he is trying to sell enough advertising space for the rest of his body so that he can actually afford laser surgery to remove the porn sites to on his face the story of host gator dot com reminds us of a certain petition making its rounds on president obama's we the people web site this white house petition asks lawmakers to wear the logos of their financial backers all of their clothes similar to nascar drivers who currently has more than thirty three thousand signatures but in a post citizens united world this kind of disclosure is about as likely as mitt romney is that winning twenty sixteen.