Posted on 8/7/2004, 9:44:28 AM by familyop
The hostage said he was from San Francisco and urged American troops to leave Iraq, it is reported.
The man named himself as Benjamin Ford on the video.
The video then showed him being beheaded.
The other article said the name was Benjamin Danforth
OK, so they don't seem sure about the last name.
I'm just having a hard time imagining someone from San Francisco, in Iraq...unless he was a soldier.
Darwin Award Winner #94123
If accurate, this is a really strange quote from the beheading victim. It implies that he knew for sure he was about to be killed. If you're an American who knows you're about to be beheaded, do you spend your last moments on this planet blasting your own country? Maybe he was afraid of being tortured if he didn't say what the terrorists wanted him to say before his death?
Or maybe he actually believed what he said? If that's the case, the terrorists may have just murdered someone who was actually on their side.
Or a member of the fringe left who went to show solidarity with the bad guys. Bechtel is one of the big rebuilding contractors in Iraq, they are based in San Fancisco.
If he was not an Arab Muslim he was their infidel enemy
I'd figure he hoped they wouldn't kill him if he co-operated. Survival instinct will make you do a lot of things.
That's as bad as the human sheilds that went over to protect Sad-damn..they didn't stay long did they? :)
Only a girlie man would want to be a human shield instead of the point of the spear. whatever that means.
But in the quote, the victim says that everyone will be "killed in this way" if America doesn't leave Iraq. So him saying that on camera would be of no use to the terrorists unless they actually went ahead and killed him, which they apparently did. This just doesn't sound right. Of course, initial news reports are often inaccurate, and we've already seen two different names for the American so far.
Fox says it "sounds like Benjamin Vanderford."
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,128314,00.html
Being that he was from San Fransisco, maybe he was expecting 72 virgin drag queens for being a anti-war martyr...
So now we have 3 different names. wonderful.
He was in a very stressful situation, it is hard to anticipate what you or I might say in a similar circumstance.
It was kind of funny how Saddam was so eager to take up the human shields on their offers only to have them be shocked and outraged when he wanted to position them in places that practically had the word "TARGET" written all over them! LOL!
A DOZEN DISTRICT 5 candidates gathered Thursday night at the Park Branch Library, not to size each other up, but to hash out common goals. The unique "Candidates Collaborative" is the brainchild of poet and candidate Diamond Dave Whitaker, and was MC'd by Stanford philosophy student and candidate Julian Davis. The array of serious candidates (neither Whitaker nor h brown, who also attended, are in to win) agreed on two basic principles: minimize personal attacks and focus on increasing turnout. Gathered around the room were Francis Somsel, a clean-cut progressive Democrat; Benjamin Vanderford, 22-year-old political independent, musician and video-game programmer; California
maybe the same guy???
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