Posted on 05/18/2004 12:17:44 PM PDT by presidio9
Given the incomprehensible jungle of information, the very first question, when viewing this video of an American civilian, N. Berg"s execution, should be whether it is even true? There appear to be a few problems with it, casting doubt on its authenticity. If these questions aren"t answered, one should be wary of the entire matter and be advised not to give in to the patriotic blindness brought on by the emotional charge this video packs.
Consider these inconsistencies with the video before making up your mind:
1) CIA claims it has examined the video and concluded that the hooded figure is Zaqrawi, a high level al-Qaeda operative. However, anyone who has seen the video will attest to the fact that there is no way to identify anyone from it, including the victim. Second, according to an US military report in April "03, Zaqrawi was killed in the bombing of Falluja. CIA does not elaborate whether Zaqrawi has magically sprung back to life or whether the April report was wrong.
2) The US media claimed that Zaqrawi lost a leg in 2001. Now, it says that he did not lose his leg after all. This flip flop seems too coincidental as the purported figure in the video doesn"t appear handicapped. The US does not elaborate on which intelligence is wrong.
3) The US media says the audio says that N. Berg was executed in retaliation to the US prison abuse. The reaction of the media was far too quick. It moved straight to using it in making a comparison between prison "humiliation" and a "beastly killing" saying to the shocked public "Look, we only humiliated them in the prison and look at what the animals do to us." It was quick to point out that what the terrorists do to Americans is far worse than what the US is doing to the Iraqis.
There are several problems with this. First, there have been numerous reported deaths in the US prisons caused by severe beatings so comparing "humiliation" to a death is the wrong comparison. Second, the tortures and abuses have gone on for over a year. If al-Qaeda were in the business of avenging prison abuse, it would have already done it and probably on several occasions. Otherwise it means that al-Qaeda gets their information from CNN or that it just happened to be a coincidence matching Abu Ghraib prison pictures with this video. It"s very unlikely that al-Qaeda would and could engage in this synchronized US media play. The timing of the video release and the media attempts to whip up an anti-Islamic frenzy suggests a media ruse timed perfectly to deflect the mounting outrage and condemnation of the US military.
4) The voice on the video says that an offer was made to the US military to exchange N. Berg for "some of the prisoners in Abu Ghraib". The US has not commented on this.
5) The Bergs claim their son was detained by the US and are blaming their son"s death on the US military but the US says that N. Berg was never detained and instead was offered a free plane ride from Iraq. It does, however, seem that in order to offer a plane ticket, the US military must have had some dealing with N. Berg. In any case, N. Berg disappeared when in US custody.
6) The victim in the video is wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, the kind seen in pictures of Guantanamo inmates. It"s hard to believe that al-Qaeda terrorists would be supplying their victims a regulation outfit. None of the recently kidnapped hostages in Iraq (Japanese and Italian) wore any uniform outfits whatsoever.
7) [WARNING: Reader"s discretion advised] A human head contains 1.5 gallons of blood yet the freshly decapitated head shown in the video is leaking none. Neck artery would squirt a foot long geyser of blood. There is no evidence of that either. Only one answer lends itself here: the video was doctored. Either a portion was clipped out or the beheading never took place as shown, with the possibility of the victim being already dead.
8) The victim never resisted the killing. Even when on the ground, only one person sufficed to completely subdue N. Berg.
This article aims at proving or alleging nothing. The point is to provoke doubt and hopefully stave off a few readers from becoming an easy emotional target and a news puppet.
Pravda is going back to the old tactics-- make up the lie and repeat it often enough and it will become truth. They're outlining the road map for the conspiracy crowd to follow, who will never use their critical thinking to question the 'troubling questions.' Propaganda.
Sure it could have been a fake. He could have lost his head in a nasty laundry accident. But I'm thinking probably not.
I feel like Dan Rather using trite sayings to describe the situation, but anyway....
Pravada - The more things change, the more they stay the same.
The barbaric decapitation - None are so blind as those who will not see.
Actually the hooded individuals in the video were Penn, Teller, David Copperfield and David Blaine.
Nick Berg's father said that he was Jewish, that's good enough for me.
Berg's father said his son was Jewish and had a fringed religious cloth with him, but he did not think Berg wore the clothing in public. Still, "there's a better chance than not that they knew he was Jewish," Michael Berg said. "If there was any doubt that they were going to kill him that probably clinched it, I'm guessing.
Why was his funeral held at a conservative Jewish synagogue?
A hot and hazy afternoon became momentarily cool Friday when a gentle breeze blew clouds over Kesher Israel Congregation and the surrounding land. The clouds themselves weren’t unusual, but their appearance moments before a memorial service for murdered West Chester resident Nicholas Berg made it seem as if nature itself was calling for a moment of silent reflection.Berg, the 26-year-old whose beheaded body was found along a Baghdad road last weekend, was buried Friday morning. His memorial service mid-afternoon drew hundreds of mourners to Kesher Israel, located off Pottstown Pike in West Goshen.
'Course it was fake! It was only a movie, don't you know? Only a movie.
His business was named after Prometheus the original hero image presented by Greek mythology. Prometheus brought fire to earth from the Heavens.
He pursued contacts with Muslims at every opportunity and he considered himself invulnerable and safe with them.
He wanted to talk their talk, that's why he studied anti-Jewish literature.
His delusional sense of power was also demonstrated by his weight lifting and boldness in approaching Muslim society. Finally, he made one contact too many.
when the body was found, someone here asked if it was found in two parts? (i.e. the head, and the body) Do we know whether it was just the body found w/o the head? If so, how can one identify the body only as Nick Berg? Also, just because a video is released on the internet of "someone" being decapitated, and then finding a decapitated body doesn't mean that the person on the video is necessarily the same person who was found decapitated, especially in an unstable and violent 3rd world country where decapitations would be fairly widespread... to a degree. Unless DNA testing confirmed it was nick berg, because you surely can't use dental records.
Also, the orange jumpsuit is kind of strange, I don't know what to think about that one.
Although the quality of the video was bad, I would expect more blood than what was shown on the video.
Anyway... I think i'm sounding more like a paranoid conspiratoriologist, than a clear-headed, rational American...
the whole thing is screwed up!
--erik
The orange jumpsuit was odd as he was found in his original street clothes. That may have been an anti-escape tactic.
You mean because he would have had a hard time hiding or blending-in in an orange jumpsuit? That seems like a pretty good angle.
I wonder if may have been to reinforce the message that the beheading was retribution for the US's treatment of Iraqi prisoners. They put Berg in an outfit that many people would recognize as US prison garb, thereby hammering that connection home.
I saw on anther thread where the timer is explained. There are 2 cameras...I post you the link.
This article is lame and not worth responding to point by point.
That's what I've been saying. I saw the tape and I now suspect there's more than one "version" floating around because on mine, I didn't see any blood on the floor, on the jumpsuit, spurting across the room, on the bad dudes' hands, and the face was clean as a whistle when it was placed on the body. Let me repeat that - THE FACE WAS CLEAN AS A WHISTLE WHEN IT WAS PLACED ON THE BODY. The only time I saw what might have been something that might have been blood was when the head was lifted into the air. Of course the "something" could have been skin, hair, or even a dust bunny but it was just a single something rather than a stream, spurt, or dripping blood. My theory, since I obviously wasn't there, is he was already dead and they thought later it'd be a great bit of Hollywood and bragging rights to add a beheading to the video.
"This article aims at proving or alleging nothing. The point is to provoke doubt and hopefully stave off a few readers from becoming an easy emotional target and a news puppet."
That's all I have to say about that.
I did, and I came up with an image of Al Gore.
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