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.
In the Berg tape, they literally sawed his head off and it was done with him in a prone position //
Given the surprise tackle, his blood pressure shoulda been very elevated which would make the blood spurt even more.
//and took several seconds to complete and most likely crushed the artery due to the dullness of the knife used.. This was not a quick clean slice of a sharp blade.//
It's the jagged cuts that rip up the arteries and veins the most causiung maximum blood loss.
There was a tarp on the floor and despite that, there was both blood on the floor and dripping from the severed head. If anyone that actually viewed that tape can say with a straight face that it was "faked' they are either lying about seeing the tape or are trying desperately to create a conspiracy theory.
Was there dripping from the head? I'm pretty sure there wasn't so much as one drop.........
You are trying too hard to bolster your case. No it is NOT the case that actually crushing through the artery would cause more blood loss. Nor is it surprising that Berg did not resist more than he did. It is likely that Berg had been sedated in some way in the same manner they tried to sedate Perle. If he was sedated then his blood pressure and heart rate would have both been suppressed.
Then you need to watch the tape again if you did indeed watch it before.
Now I know. {LOL}
someone posted a pic of him in the jumpsuit on FR. It was a shiny material, not cotton looking, but with a sheen. Maybe a mimic of the prisoner jumpsuits?
It may have been Diogynes, but I can't spell his screen name, so I can't check or ask him.
I use to have a video of Muslims beheading a white caucasion. I don't know who the boy was. I say boy, because he looked as if, he was late teens or early 20's. It didn't show all of the beheading, just the knife going thru front of the neck and throat. There was no doubt, it was real. The camera zoomed in on the neck and head. It was horrible.
With the N. Berg video, it didn't show enough to actually prove it was real. No zoom on the video . I don't think it was real.
The guys in the hoods are probably all Democrats.
Oh puh leeze. He had no business being over there. His Dad is a commie. Having said that, let's find the a holes that did this and string them up.
The images were bad but the sound was haunting. I'd be interested in an analysis of the event but I'm not sure I'd want to meet someone who could stomach doing the "work".
I have noticed that since the beheading/murder Zarqawi has made it obvious that he is challenging the stale command structure of al-Qaeda to shift the center of gravity to his al-Tawhid (Unity) gang which is now defined by his actions in the recruiting video.
Looks to me like our "folly" in Iraq is ground-zero for the next holy war if the bad guys can just find enough bodies. Perfect. I hope that any able bodied jihadist hears the call and comes down to the valley of death. Saves us a trip.
Speechless here.
Pravda wants to "stave off a few readers from becoming an easy emotional target and a news puppet". Heh . . .
I did, and I came up with an image of Al Gore.
No not algore the extra 1/2 gallon is kerrys chin
The soldier gets shot (he's unarmed of course) by the Muslims then they cut his head off almost exactly like they did Berg's.
We should never cut these animals any slack.
Islamofascists have become very energetic at playing to the Western Left, particularly the news media. If I were a terrorist operative trying to beat the Great Satan Bush, and I saw how hard the NYT, London Times, et. al. were trying to assist me, I'd sprinkle plenty of red herrings into everything I do in order to give them conspiracy fodder.
Head cut off after death, orange jumpsuit, dubbed audio... call me crazy, but I still trust the CIA and Bush more than I trust al Qaeda.
Hey, I never insulted you! Quit talking about me like that.
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