On 5 April 2010, in a room at the National Press Club in Washington, a small organisation most reporters had never dealt with played a US military video to the world's press. This section covers how that happened and what followed: the war logs, the diaries, and the argument about whether any of it should have been published at all.
WikiLeaks and the Release
How the footage got out, how it was published, and what it did to the idea of a government secret.
11Articles in this section
9,416Words, all sourced
10Distinct sources cited
1People covered here
Where to start in this section
A reading order that makes sense
If you are new to the subject, these in this order will give you the whole of it. The main pages come first because everything else refers back to them.
- How WikiLeaks Decrypted and Released the Video Between receiving an encrypted file and holding a press conference, a small group spent months decrypting it, checking … 4 min
- The National Press Club Release, 5 April 2010 A small organisation booked a room in Washington, played a US military video to the press, and changed what the public … 4 min
- The 38-Minute Video and the 17-Minute Edit WikiLeaks published a full recording and a shorter captioned edit on the same day. Almost everyone watched the short on… 4 min
- Julian Assange: Hero or Villain? The question in the title is the wrong one, and the reason it is wrong explains most of what went strange about this case. 4 min
- Julian Assange’s Influence on Digital Activism The release did not invent online activism, but it demonstrated something new: that a handful of people with a server c… 4 min
The people this section is about
Names the record holds for this part of the story.
All 11 articles in wikileaks and the release
Everything filed under this topic, newest work first.
WikiLeaks and the Release
How WikiLeaks Decrypted and Released the Video
Between receiving an encrypted file and holding a press conference, a small group spent months decrypting it, checking it and sending peopl…
WikiLeaks and the Release
The National Press Club Release, 5 April 2010
A small organisation booked a room in Washington, played a US military video to the press, and changed what the public expected to be able …
WikiLeaks and the Release
The 38-Minute Video and the 17-Minute Edit
WikiLeaks published a full recording and a shorter captioned edit on the same day. Almost everyone watched the short one, and the differenc…
WikiLeaks and the Release
Julian Assange: Hero or Villain?
The question in the title is the wrong one, and the reason it is wrong explains most of what went strange about this case.
WikiLeaks and the Release
Julian Assange’s Influence on Digital Activism
The release did not invent online activism, but it demonstrated something new: that a handful of people with a server could put a governmen…
WikiLeaks and the Release
Wikileaks and Its Global Impact: A Comprehensive Overview
One video in April 2010 was the start of a year that produced hundreds of thousands of documents and changed how several governments handle…
WikiLeaks and the Release
The Iraq War Logs: What Wikileaks Revealed
Nearly four hundred thousand field reports from the Iraq war, published in October 2010. What they contained, and the one finding that coul…
WikiLeaks and the Release
The Iraq War Diaries: Insights from Wikileaks
The field-report releases are often confused with one another. Here is what each set covered, what they showed, and why the second was hand…
WikiLeaks and the Release
How Collateral Murder Influenced Digital Transparency and Government Secrecy
The release pushed hard on the door of government secrecy. The door held, but the shape of the argument about it changed permanently.
WikiLeaks and the Release
WikiLeaks: A Force for Good or a National Security Threat?
Both descriptions have been used by serious people in good faith. Here is the strongest version of each, and the question that actually dec…
WikiLeaks and the Release
The Legacy of Wikileaks in Modern Media
The organisation faded. Its methods did not. Almost every practice it introduced in 2010 is now ordinary newsroom equipment.
Questions this section answers
Short answers, with the long version linked
Each answer below is the summary; the link goes to the page that sets it out against the record.
Where did WikiLeaks prepare the release?
Largely in Iceland, in early 2010, with a small team working on decryption, verification and research. Read How WikiLeaks Decrypted and Released the Video.
Did they check the footage was real?
Yes. They established the date, location and units, cross-read the existing public record, and sent researchers to Baghdad. The authenticity was never seriously disputed afterwards. Read How WikiLeaks Decrypted and Released the Video.
Why publish two versions?
The full recording was published for completeness and a shorter captioned edit for reach. Both went online the same day. Read How WikiLeaks Decrypted and Released the Video.
Where was the video released?
At the National Press Club in Washington DC on 5 April 2010, at a press conference presented by Julian Assange. Read The National Press Club Release, 5 April 2010.
Did the US government say the video was fake?
No. Officials confirmed it was genuine and pointed to the 2007 internal investigation that had cleared the aircrew. Read The National Press Club Release, 5 April 2010.
Was the full recording released too?
Yes. The full version of roughly thirty-nine minutes went online the same day as the shorter edited version. Read The National Press Club Release, 5 April 2010.
Other topics in this archive
The rest of the archive, and where each one picks up.
The Incident
What happened in the sky and on the street in New Baghdad on 12 July 2007, phase by phase.
Whistleblowers and Journalists
The people who were killed doing journalism, and the people who risked everything to make the footage public.
Courts and Consequences
Court-martials, indictments, extradition hearings and the question nobody has answered: who was held responsible?
Ethics and the Media
What a camera in a gunsight does to an audience, and what news organisations owe the people in the frame.
The War Around It
Baghdad in 2007, the surge, the counting of the dead, and why one morning in one district looked the way it did.
The 2026 Iran War
The war that began on 28 February 2026, and the strike on a girls' school in Minab that became its defining atrocity.
Collateral Killings in History
The incidents that set the terms for how civilian deaths in war are counted, argued about and answered for.
