(Thumbnail Image: CNN)

BY TRACY PFEIFFER

Former CNN war correspondent Michael Ware says the network censored footage of what he calls a “war crime” that occurred in Iraq in 2007.

In an interview with Australian network ABC, Ware describes the incident:

“It was in... a village that had pretty much been owned by Al Qaeda. A young man... like so many Iraqis had a weapon to protect himself, approached the house we were in and the soldiers who were watching our backs, one of them put a bullet right in the back of his head. Unfortunately it didn't kill him. We all spent the next 20 odd minutes listening to his tortured breath as he died.”

In a statement CNN says the footage was deemed too graphic for viewers, but the Young Turks' Cenk Uygur argues even if that’s the case, the news network should have reported the incident.

“I don’t know if it’s because you’re so obsessed with access, you’re obsessed with your advertisers, you’re obsessed with whatever you might be.  But here’s what you don’t do, you don’t do news.  If you’re a news organization, at the very, very, very least, you tell people that happened.  Even if you’re worried about upsetting people by showing the images, you at least report the news that it happened, you don’t bury it.”

But a writer for Care2 says there are possible justifications for CNN’s decision.

“The key in this debate is whether or not the boy at issue is an insurgent or simply an Iraqi villager.  If he's an insurgent, then CNN's editorial decision, while controversial, is a bit more understanding.  But if he's just a boy, then they have evidence of a crime and that changes everything.”

Finally, the Brisbane Times quotes a friend of Ware who says the footage--and the incident--have been haunting the journalist ever since.

“He was watching it over and over and over again...  Part of him was like ‘how could I just stand by and watch that happen’. It was a really horrible stark moral choice that he faced and he still wrestles with that.  People really need to understand what Mick’s been through.”

Ware left CNN in April after being denied time off to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder.  Since CNN owns the footage, Ware cannot release it himself.