Posted on 05/24/2004 12:43:07 AM PDT by manwiththeplan
A videotape has been broadcast which purports to show before-and-after footage of a wedding which Iraqis say the US attacked, killing about 40. The film, broadcast by Associated Press Television News, knits together a home movie of a wedding and APTN video of the aftermath of Wednesday's attack.
Some victims and survivors of the air strike appear to be present in the footage of the wedding celebrations.
The US has insisted its target was not a wedding but foreign fighters.
It says that its soldiers were responding to fire and there was no evidence of a wedding.
The incident occurred in the early hours of Wednesday at the village of Makr al-Deeb, in desert near the Syrian border.
Associated Press has stressed that it cannot confirm the authenticity of the video of the wedding celebrations.
'Traditional wedding'
The agency says the material broadcast was taken from several hours of footage allegedly filmed by Yasser Shawkat Abdullah, hired to record the festivities.
He was among those killed, it says.
The film opens with gleaming pick-up trucks - some decorated with ribbons - speeding through the desert apparently en route to the wedding.
They arrive at the celebrations to the sounds of guns being fired in the air - a traditional celebration - and ululating.
The film then shows men dancing along to the music of Hussein al-Ali, a popular wedding singer also hired for the occasion.
Ali and his brother Mohamed were buried in Baghdad on Thursday, mourners said.
Clearly visible on the wedding footage is a man playing electric organ.
The footage is spliced with APTN film of the face of a corpse after the attack. It appears to be the same man, wearing the same shirt.
AP says a reporter and a photographer who interviewed more than a dozen survivors a day after the bombing were able to identify many of them on the wedding party video.
It also says its footage of the scene following the attack shows remnants of musical instruments, pots and pans, and brightly coloured beddings used for celebrations, scattered around a bombed-out tent.
Survivors of the attack have told journalists the wedding party had ended and guests were in bed when bombing began.
When people ran out of their homes, they allege they were shot at by Americans.
They say over 40 people died, including at least 10 children.
But these allegations have been vehemently and repeatedly denied by US forces in Iraq.
'No evidence'
"There was no evidence of a wedding: no decorations, no musical instruments found, no large quantities of food or leftover servings one would expect from a wedding celebration," Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, the chief US military spokesman in Iraq, said on Saturday.
"The men were almost all military-aged, no family elders that one would expect to see at an event of this type," he said.
He has denied any children were killed in the attack.
Gen Kimmitt said the site looked "somewhat of a dormitory. There were more than 300 sets of bedding gear in it and about 100 sets of pre-packaged clothing.
"It's suspected that when foreign fighters come in from other countries they change their clothes into typical Iraqi clothing sets."
He said ID-making machines and "the capability to make exit visas for Iraq" were among suspicious items found.
There has been no specific response as yet to the footage released by APTN.
Hmm, I think there was a wedding celebration going on at the safehouse... Bad timing for a wedding.
Did anyone see The Battle of the Algiers? The revolutionist group was having a wedding ceremony early in the movie, claiming that the wedding was now under their, and not France's authority. I immediately thought of that when this story came up. I believe it was conducted in a safehouse in the movie as well.
As there were 300 beds..100 clothing outfits packaged, ID printing equipment for fake IDs, arms, satellite phone with calls to Afghanistan ,etc...there was more than a wedding occurring...
I checked and found we were accused of bombing 3 wedding parties in Afghanistan....I am not saying there was no wedding..only that the place we bombed was obviously NOT a wedding chapel.
Poor BG Kimmitt. He should retire before his inevitable nervous breakdown during a press conference in the near future.
Now, there is no doubt in my mind that we got some really bad guys in this air attack, but when a general in the US Army says "What kind of people hold wedding receptions in the middle of the desert??," as Kimmitt did last week, I respond, "Let me think, sir,...ARABS maybe???" He lost his credibility with me when he asked that stupid question.
The other senior military leadership over there appears substandard, as well. Sorry, folks, if this upsets you.
Where is the corroborating evidence that this is THE wedding? Where is the press vetting this information?
So the man in the video is seen at the "wedding", then in spliced footage of a supposed "corpse" at the "wedding" - I could do that in my own house. Where is the individual corraborration of the presence of videographers at the attack? The press would require that of ANYONE else who submitted video...
When the Pentagon submits a video to the press, they have to have outstanding evidence that the video was not manufactured as "propaganda". If not, the press wouldn't show it, or would provide a disclaimer that "it was shot by the pentagon, perhaps as propaganda".
Where is that outstanding evidence that this video was not manufactured as propaganda by our enemies? Where is the disclaimer by the press?
Oh, wait - maybe the press doesn't consider those who fight us to be our "enemies"...
I am at the point that I don't even care if it truly was a wedding party. Big damn deal! People at this thing should not have been firing at our troops. They got what they deserved.
Really sorry?..Truly and sincerely sorry?
Lotsa wedding videos are made in Las Vegas too. Don't mean there's no hanky panky goin' on...
They could splice in the Tonya Harding wedding video and the left would still eat it up as real news.
Let me run that through the Media-to-English translator...
AP stressed that they know the video is a damn forgery, but they do not give a damn...
There. Much better.
I need to run this by Jason Blair and see what he thinks.
Geraldo R. interviewed Kimmitt about this last night, and the General did a rather poor job of defending our troops. With the exception of one short "there are inconsistencies with the video," he spent the whole segment talking about investigations and potential compensation.
What are the chances we have Predator video of this? If so, and it shows our troops being fired upon and/or something else un-wedding-like going on, we should release it.
Occam, A nice beard you have there.
Looks like a duck to me
I have no idea. But in my view, we don't need it. We sent ground troops in at 0300, they were fired on, and they called in air support. Later we discovered foreign passports, and as I recall millions in Syrian and Iraqi currency, 35 military-aged males, 6 military-aged females, no older folks - not exactly the demographics one would expect at a wedding.
Only among fruit loops.
Throw a tape into the discussion that could have been made anytime anywhere and you can cloud anything?
Give me a break!
It should be on snopes any day now.
I can't wait to see the Micheal Moore fake-u-mentary. I want to see how it's done professionally.
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