This morning, a U.S. Central Command spokesperson told Greg Sargent that the video might not been sent to Centcom at all, and "might not be retrievable."
Following that report, Reuters contacted Sargent and provided new information that somewhat muddies that account.
Reuters says the Pentagon sent a letter to the news service several years ago claiming that this footage, which Reuters was seeking, was under Centcom’s “cognizance,” raising further questions as to why it can’t be obtained.
Centcom’s inability to retrieve the footage is key. Centcom earlier said it needed to review its own version before commenting publicly on the WikiLeaks video.
Earlier today, Centcom spokesman Bill Speaks said that Centcom didn’t have the footage because it doesn’t have a “repository” for “Apache gun camera footage.” He added that the only people who have the footage are likely members of the unit. Asked if this meant it might never be recovered, he said: “I’m not in a position to rule that out.”
But Reuters officials say that several years ago, after Reuters filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the footage and other documents, the Pentagon’s chief FOIA officer wrote an August 2007 letter back to Reuters saying the following:
The information you are seeking is under the congizance of the U.S. Central Command. Accordingly we sent your request to them, at the address provided below, with the request that they respond directly to you.
While that’s vague, the Pentagon’s chief FOIA officer informed Reuters nearly three years ago that the footage was either in Centcom’s possession, or was Centcom’s responsibility to track down. Pentagon spokesman Speaks declined comment, telling me only that Centcom “did not have possession of the video tape when the FOIA request was sent down to us, nor have we had it since then.”
Sargent also points out that there was an investigation on the incident earlier, completed at the brigade level, and the video was reviewed in that investigation. It stretches the imagination to think that the video, at the center of an investigation in which two employees of a major media organization were killed, doesn't then still exist somewhere in the chain of command. A chain that the Pentagon said in 2007 at least should have included Centcom.
All of which could be moot, as far as Centcom is concerned, as they told Sargent that they are "not planning" a statement on the WikiLeaks footage. Which is precisely the wrong way to handle a situation they've been suspected of covering up for three years.