Posted on 08/07/2004 2:44:28 AM PDT 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???
Convert and you might be spared. Noticed how some (anti-American) Muslims are getting preferred treatment?
By Adriel Hampton
Staff Writer
Monday, May 31, 2004
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 Green Party co-founder Ross Mirkarimi; Michael O'Connor, hipster club owner, who stayed through the start of his own kickoff; Green and former Planning Commissioner Lisa Feldstein; Democratic County Central Committee member Bill Barnes, chief of staff to Supervisor Chris Daly; Rob Anderson, a returning candidate (106 votes in 2000) who was "skeptical of the utility" of the collaborative; a proxy for Green County Councilor Susan King; labor organizer Robert Haaland, late from a house party; and neighborhood activist Tys Sniffen, who's been blogging on campaign issues at www.tyssniffen.com. ... http://www.examiner.com/resources/emailstory/?storyname=053104c_bodypolitic
You don't think a local Dem activist would end up in Iraq do you??
Where did pull THAT from? Good one.
Oh and he was apparently owner or something called record label records
http://www.recordlabelrecords.org/ben/
Your as slow as a... oh..
Nah... unless he was doing recon for Michael Moore.
Didn't General George Patton say: "If our enemies want to be human shields, then we should give them what they want and more."
Or something like that?
I can sure think of a few things I would hope to have the courage to say, but you're right - nobody knows how they'd react until a moment like that comes along. And, of course, even if the victim had told the terrorists to go to hell, we probably never would've seen it.
In fact, anytime an American hostage or soldier is killed while in captivity without audio/video being released of the murder, I think we can safely assume that the terrorists didn't want us to see or hear the final moments. (Either that, or the ignorant pigs forgot to press record.)
Oh the BETRAYAL OF IT ALL!! ha! Let's send Sean Penn back over there...he'll protect those terrorists from our soldiers!! :)
It's likely the same one. ...more at the Fox News site, because we're only supposed to post excerpts from there.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,128314,00.html
"A Ben Vanderford listed at that address has a Web site in which he says he is running for supervisor of San Francisco's District 5. The picture of Vanderford on the Web site closely resembles that of the man on the video."
You'll also see in the news piece that there is a little mystery involved.
Benjamin Vanderford … Smarter than me (not saying a lot, I know) … has great web site and hell of a sense of humor. Fine young writer. A future in politics if he’s serious and could shock everyone if his web site catches on. … 20 to 1
could be him???
Maybe not??
I guess recordlabelrecords.com is his site??
Darn, I wanted to be the one who figured this out =o)
see #32
Fox News may be a bit red in the face if its not him...
Hey, if he's running for office, he'd probably love the free publicity in that case.
If he was taken hostage, shouldn't we have seen news coverage of his family and friends, candlelight vigils, yellow ribbons, etc? Have there been any reports at all that this guy was ever missing in the first place?
Fabrizio Quattrocchi: "Now you see how an Italian dies."
That gesture united, and empowered, an entire country and a prideful people. That's the way I'd want to go too: "I have two requests of my loved ones: Never give in to these 7th century pig f****rs, and feel free to pass my head around between you to take to local bars like it's the Stanley Cup."
That wailing "I don't want to die" guy from Korea was painful to observe. That KBR truck driver from Mississippi was how you want to act. He escaped, and he never gave the punks ONE iota of satisfaction.
I would bet the primary is over. He must have lost. If its him, he RRREEEEAAAAALLLLYY LOST!
pretty strange huh?
I wonder if Drudge will think its the wanna-be politician??
Excuse me? This guy was speaking under extreme duress, quite possibly torture or at least the threat of torture. He just wanted to die quickly without any further pain, so he gave the terrorists the quote they wanted. If he didn't, they probably would have tortured him and waited an hour to do a second (or third) take of the murder scene.
After the Italian murder victim's defiance was caught on tape and broadcast, I think terrorists became sensitive to allowing the victims to look like defiant heroes.
Who knows how many times he defied them before he gave the footage they wanted? The point is, we don't know. It's extremely offensive that you would use what he said as an example of cowardice or to suggest that he deserved his death (that is, after all, the sneering subtext of the "Darwin Awards").
Oh! It's an AP piece. Here's a copy at the ABC site. ...fully post-able, as far as I know.
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20040807_422.html
His family may not even have known he was there. He sounds like another one of these incredibly naive leftists (all we are saaayyyyinnng, is give peeeaaace a chance) who just can't believe our enemy really hates us simply for existing.
There was an article in May 2004 where the guy was mentioned lamenting the loss of video arcades in the city.
If he was doing the independent travel thing like the Berg kid, nobody may have known he was missing.
really strange. He is a leftist who probably went to Iraq to make buddies with these terrorists.
Sounds suspicious to me.
HUH??? They said it SHOWED him being beheaded with a large knife....
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