The executive council of The Newspaper Guild last week called on President Obama to investigate the deaths of a dozen Iraqis, including journalists, captured in a video recently made public by Wikileaks.org.

The 17-minute clip, posted by WikiLeaks.org on Monday, April 5, includes footage of Apache helicopters opening fire on several people as they stand and walk along a Baghdad street, along with audio of the pilots’ conversation. Among those killed in the 2007 incident were photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and his assistant, Saeed Chmagh, 40. Other casualties included two children, plainly visible in a window of a van that was shot after it stopped to assist the wounded. A military investigation, however, concluded that U.S. forces had acted properly and no disciplinary action was taken.

“The video is shocking in its display of a callous disregard for human life,” said Guild President Bernie Lunzer. “The 17-minute video shows no Iraqi provocation or evidence that U.S. forces came under fire. The Pentagon has claimed otherwise. The American people deserve to know the truth, and the U.S. military’s role should be fully investigated.”

Wikileaks.org has provided the full video and a short version, along with a transcript, timeline, and supporting resources.

According to Wikileaks.org:

WikiLeaks obtained this video as well as supporting documents from a number of military whistleblowers. WikiLeaks goes to great lengths to verify the authenticity of the information it receives. We have analyzed the information about this incident from a variety of source material. We have spoken to witnesses and journalists directly involved in the incident.

WikiLeaks wants to ensure that all the leaked information it receives gets the attention it deserves. In this particular case, some of the people killed were journalists that were simply doing their jobs: putting their lives at risk in order to report on war. Iraq is a very dangerous place for journalists: from 2003- 2009, 139 journalists were killed while doing their work.

News coverage of the video, and the military actions shown, drew criticism from the media watchdog group FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting), which says the video received “only cursory treatment in the mainstream press”.

On CNN’s Situation Room (4/5/10), the network decided not show any of the shots that were fired “out of respect for the families of the two Iraqi employees of the Reuters news organization that were killed,” explained Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr. (The photographer’s father was quoted in the April 7 Times: “God has answered my prayer in revealing this tape to the world…. I would have sold my house and I all that I own in order to show this tape to the world.”)

The Telegraph newspaper reports Wikileaks is preparing to release another video, this time of a U.S. air strike in Afghanistan in which a number of civilians were also allegedly killed.