Bonus: “Cleared by Fire”

Summary

In The Dark: Bonus Episode “Cleared by Fire” – Detailed Summary

Introduction

In the bonus episode titled “Cleared by Fire” of the award-winning investigative journalism podcast In The Dark, host Madeleine Baran engages in a profound conversation with Sam Wilson, the co-director of the interactive documentary project of the same name. Released on September 27, 2024, this episode unveils the collaborative endeavor between In The Dark and The New Yorker to create an immersive visual exploration of the Haditha incident—a tragic event involving the killing of Iraqi civilians by U.S. Marines in 2005.

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Overview of "Cleared by Fire"

Cleared by Fire is an interactive documentary that reconstructs the events of November 19, 2005, in Haditha, Iraq, offering multiple perspectives to present a comprehensive view of the incident. Sam Wilson provides an introduction to the project:

“Cleared by Fire is an illustrated, immersive documentary that takes you through the events of November 19, 2005, through the perspective, statements and words of the people who were there. So the perpetrators, the alleged shooters, the survivors, and the people who witnessed what happened that day.” (01:31)

The documentary employs 3D recreations of key locations, dynamically adjusting visuals to align with the varying testimonies of different individuals involved. This method allows viewers to experience the events from both the Marines' and the Iraqi civilians' viewpoints, creating a nuanced and multifaceted narrative.

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Creation Process and Methodology

Madeleine Baran delves into the intricate process behind the creation of Cleared by Fire, seeking to understand how the team translated extensive data into a tangible, immersive experience. Sam Wilson elaborates on the methodology:

“Our starting point was all of the reporting materials that you all had collected over years. So the photographs, the FOIA documents, the NCIS reports, satellite images, drone footage. And we started by sort of making a big board with all of these different assets that could sort of describe each one of these spaces and help us bring these spaces to life.” (03:32)

The team meticulously gathered thousands of data points, including photographs, official documents, and multimedia footage, to reconstruct the physical spaces where the events unfolded. By building these environments in 3D, they were able to visualize the "intimacy of these spaces and how close the Marines must have had to be to the people that they were shooting" (04:51), creating a visceral representation that traditional formats might fail to capture.

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Humanizing the Narrative: Khalid Jamal's Story

A poignant aspect of Cleared by Fire is its focus on individual stories, particularly that of Khalid Jamal, a 14-year-old survivor. Sam Wilson highlights Khalid's significant role in the documentary:

“Khalid stuck out to me as someone who could really help bring this story up to the present moment. You know, Khalid is still seeking justice. He's still trying to figure out what happened to his three uncles and his father who were killed that day.” (07:37)

Khalid’s personal experiences and his quest for understanding provide an emotional anchor to the documentary, bridging the gap between past events and their lasting impact on individuals. His vivid recollections—such as his desire to stand with his male relatives and the ensuing conflict with his aunt—add depth and humanity to the overarching narrative.

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Intentions and Impact of the Project

The primary objective of Cleared by Fire is to juxtapose conflicting accounts from different perspectives to uncover a more transparent and honest portrayal of the Haditha incident. Sam Wilson articulates this aim:

“You have Marines that are contradicting each other. You have Marines that are contradicting themselves. You have survivors who are saying something completely different than what the Marines had. And in a sort of contradictory way. By juxtaposing these conflicting statements, you can start to find a clearer picture through the comparison of what people said.” (05:56)

Furthermore, the project emphasizes the importance of incorporating Iraqi voices, which have historically been sidelined in such narratives. By centering these perspectives, Cleared by Fire strives to foster a more balanced and comprehensive understanding of the events, facilitating an honest conversation about accountability and the human cost of conflict.

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Engagement and Accessibility

Madeleine Baran encourages listeners to engage with the Cleared by Fire project through various multimedia avenues available on The New Yorker's website:

“If you've listened to the podcast and you want to sort of see. I think that if you went to look at this, you're going to learn something new. It is going to be an incredibly moving and interesting experience.” (09:37)

The interactive documentary not only offers a visual and immersive experience but also provides access to supplementary materials such as photos taken by Marines post-incident and a database of alleged war crimes by American service members. This multi-dimensional approach ensures that audiences can explore the story from different angles, enriching their understanding beyond the auditory narrative.

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Conclusion and Future Engagements

As the episode wraps up, Madeleine Baran highlights the significance of Cleared by Fire as a pioneering project in journalistic storytelling. She invites listeners to explore the interactive documentary and participate in upcoming bonus episodes where they can engage directly with the creators by submitting questions:

“You can email us your questions by writing to [e-mail] and thanks, as always, for listening.” (10:57)

Cleared by Fire stands as a testament to the evolving landscape of journalism, where interactive and immersive storytelling methods enhance the depth and impact of investigative reporting. By meticulously reconstructing events and amplifying marginalized voices, the project not only commemorates the victims but also challenges audiences to confront the complexities and moral ambiguities inherent in conflict.

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Final Thoughts

The bonus episode “Cleared by Fire” of In The Dark offers listeners an in-depth look into a groundbreaking project that redefines how stories are told and experienced. Through thoughtful reconstruction, personal narratives, and a commitment to unveiling the multifaceted truths of the Haditha incident, In The Dark continues to illuminate the shadows of untold stories with integrity and innovation.

Transcript

[Madeline]

Hey, in the dark listeners. I wanted to take a moment to tell you about something I'm really excited about that we're releasing online today. For the past year, a team at the New Yorker has been working alongside us on a visual exploration of what happened that day in Haditha. It's an interactive documentary called Cleared by Fire. You can find [e-mail] Season 3. This project is a totally different way to look at this story. It's fascinating. It unfolds almost like a movie. You can watch and immerse yourself in the stories of what happened that day from different perspectives, like the perspective of the squad leader Frank Wuderich, or the perspective of 11 year old SAFA. And it's all done in a way that's sensitive, not overly graphic. It's an incredible work of journalism and I'm excited to bring in one of the key people behind it to tell you a little bit more about it. His name is Sam Wilson and he's the co director of the project along with his colleague David Kofall, and he joins me now. Hi, Sam.

[Sam Wilson]

Hi, Madeline.

[Madeline]

So glad to have you with us. Can you explain for people listening what it is you do with the New Yorker?

[Sam Wilson]

Sure. So I'm the interactive Visual Features editor at the New Yorker, which basically means I work on web interactives or virtual reality documentary storytelling or something like this. What we're going to talk about today.

[Madeline]

So tell me a little bit more about this project. So if people go to the New Yorker's website, what are they going to see there?

[Sam Wilson]

Right. So Cleared by Fire is an illustrated, immersive documentary that takes you through the events of November 19, 2005, through the perspective, statements and words of the people who were there. So the perpetrators, the alleged shooters, the survivors, and the people who witnessed what happened that day. And at each of these locations. We recreated these sites in 3D. And as we present these statements, we actually change the visuals to the perspective of the person who is telling us what happened. So for instance, you might have a Iraqi say that this Marine came to my house and they were really aggressive and threatening us. And we have the visuals that sort of correspond to that. And then we, we might have a Marine, say in the exact same scene, in the exact same setting that actually I came to this house and we had a very calm discussion and we just asked a couple questions and we left. And the visuals were sort of conformed to each of those different statements.

[Madeline]

Yeah, it was so striking to see all of this all of a sudden, like you say in 3D, just illustrated, because when we were looking at it, we either had statements, which you can kind of imagine in your mind, or of course we had photos. But in those photos, we don't see them. Those photos are taken hours after the killing, after everyone is already dead. And so what you're showing is this moment that really we're seeing when we look at these visuals for the first time, like the moment that these Marines encounter the people that they would kill, and then what happens next? And then. And for me as a reporter, it was so helpful to see this. And I have to ask you kind of a reporting question about this, which is, how did you do this? How did you put this together? Like, how did you determine? Determine. I'm going to show this living room. What does this living room look like?

[Sam Wilson]

Right. So our starting point was all of the reporting materials that you all had collected over years. So the photographs, the FOIA documents, the NCIS reports, satellite images, drone footage. And we started by sort of making a big board with all of these different assets that could sort of describe each one of these spaces and help us bring these spaces to life. And these things could be a photograph of a corner of a room showing, like, a bullet in a wall or an NCIS document that shows the width of a room, or it could be images of violence. But what was really interesting and sort of counterintuitive in some ways is although we had these thousands of sort of data points, it wasn't until you started bringing all of these pieces together and connecting them that a fuller picture started to emerge. And when you start constructing these things in 3D, you finally sort of start seeing the intimacy of these spaces and how close the Marines must have had to be to the people that they were shooting. And it brings it together in this really visceral way that I think is really hard to get in a lot of other formats.

[Madeline]

Yeah, I mean, I think thinking about the. Of Safa's house is where I think about this the most. Where, of course, we know the story from Safa of what happened there, that her mother was on a bed surrounded by her siblings, and the Marines came in and opened fire. But to see what you've done, which is so extraordinary, like, here is the size of the bed, here is the size of the dresser. Here is the size of this other large piece of furniture. And what does that mean then when we put people in there, like when we put the Iraqi civilians in there, but also put the Marines? And where would the Marines had to have been standing in this room and just you get this kind of sense of, like you said, how close everything is. And then as a reporter, of course, what's a huge finding out of that is how close the Marines were the shooters were to the people that they were shooting at, which you kind of know. But it's not until, at least for me, it wasn't until you see it all together. There's something so powerful about that, seeing.

[Sam Wilson]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Madeline]

What was your hope with this project? What were you hoping you would be able to show by telling the story this way?

[Sam Wilson]

Yeah, I think one of our intentions with diving into this material was that it, you know, ultimately, in a lot of ways, it was sort of. It's a big mess when you end up looking at it. And I think you probably know that better than anyone. You know, you're basically presented with a bunch of statements that often contradict each other. You have Marines that are contradicting each other. You have Marines that are contradicting themselves. You have survivors who are saying something completely different than what the Marines had. And in a sort of contradictory way. By juxtaposing these conflicting statements, you can start to find a clearer picture through the comparison of what people said. And I think another thing that was really important for us in telling this story was that, and again, through your reporting, it's made this so clear how the Iraqi survivors and voices throughout this process were completely pushed to the side, which is just a huge. I don't even know how you can begin to understand this story without including those voices. So finding a way to center the Iraqi perspectives in the story, it felt like the only way to sort of start to evaluate and have a more honest conversation about what took place.

[Madeline]

Yeah. And you spent a lot of time in particular on the story of one of Those survivors, the 14 year old boy, Khalid Jamal. Can you talk a little bit about that?

[Sam Wilson]

Yeah, absolutely. So Khalid stuck out to me as someone who could really help bring this story up to the present moment. You know, Khalid is still seeking justice. He's still trying to figure out what happened to his three uncles and his father who were killed that day. And he wants to know these sort of minute details. And it felt like, you know, urgent in this really important way. And I think as well, you know, I was just so captivated by listening to Khalid describe, in addition to his aunt and his mom, what happened when Khalid's father and three uncles got killed. And beyond sort of the description being really, really similar between his mom, his aunt and Khalid over time, over years, there was also These incredible details that felt so human and identifiable through that process. So there's this description of, you know, Khalid talking about how the Marines came to their house and they divided up the men from the women, and Khalid decided to go into the line with the men because he felt like a man. He wanted to be with his uncles and with his dad and his aunt pulling him out of that line, saying, what are you doing there? You're not a man. Like, they're gonna arrest them. And Khalid talking about this. This feeling that has just stuck with him his entire life since that moment where he felt angry, he wanted to be in that line, and he wanted to feel like a man, and he was upset with his aunt for pulling him out of the line. And there's just something. So, you know, I think I identified with that moment so much in sort of the gauntlet of this horrible, you know, violence that's about to unfold. Right after that. He still remembers that, such this adolescent feeling. And it was moments like that that just really made Khalid Jamal so valuable to this story.

[Madeline]

Yeah, I mean, just all of the conversations that we've had with the survivors have been so illuminating. And I think our mutual challenge here with this way that we're trying to tell this story is that this is something that happened nearly 20 years ago. It happened in another country. It happened during a war that is no longer going on. It happened to people who don't necessarily speak the same language that we speak. And so I think that it's what I hope people can find in this are two different ways to engage with the same story that offer different, like, complimentary things to each other. I mean, I think that if you've listened to the podcast and you want to sort of see. I think I would highly encourage people to go look at this, because you've maybe seen in your mind as you've listened what has gone on. But I can guarantee you, because I went through the same experience myself, when you look at this, you're going to learn something new. It is going to be an incredibly moving and interesting experience. And then I think if you haven't engaged with the material at all yet, this is a great way to first encounter the truth, really, and the competing truth about what happened that day.

[Sam Wilson]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Madeline]

Sam. This is just such a remarkable project, and I am really excited for people to be able to see it today for the first time. You can find the interactive documentary Cleared by [e-mail] Season 3. That's also, of course, where you can find the photos we published that Marines took in the hours after the killings and where you can see the database that we compiled of alleged war crimes committed by American service members. All of that [e-mail] season three and one more thing. We're thinking about doing a bonus episode where we answer your questions about the season. You can email us your questions by writing to [e-mail] and thanks, as always, for listening.