Posted on 08/07/2004 4:59:15 AM PDT by Former Military Chick
CAIRO (AP) — New video aired Saturday purportedly shows a San Francisco man being depacitated moments after he urges the United States to end its occupation of Iraq. The man on the tape identified himself as what sounds like Benjamin Vanderford, from San Francisco. He sat on a chair in a dark room, his hands behind his back, trembling and rocking back and forth.
There was no way to immediately determine the authenticity of the tape and the U.S. military in Iraq and the U.S. Embassy said they were unaware of the video and had no immediate comment. There was no record of a man by that name traveling to Iraq.
The tape showed a hand with a knife cutting at the motionless man's neck, but did not show his head actually removed from the body.
The man on the tape says he lives at 1510 Eddy Street in San Francisco. A Ben Vanderford has a Web site in which he says he lives at that address. The picture of Vanderford on the Web site closely resembles that of the man on the video.
"We need to leave this country alone. We need to stop this occupation," he said on the video, adding that he had been offered for exchange with prisoners in Iraq.
"We need to leave this country right now," he said. "Everyone's going to be killed this way."
Unlike in previous videos of hostage killings, no militants were seen on the footage. He was clad in a t-shirt, not the orange jumpsuit that other hostages have been dressed in.
The video was titled "Abu Musab al-Zarqawi Slaughters an American" and had no indication of when, or where, it was made. Zarqawi is an al-Qaeda linked militant whose group, Tawhid and Jihad, has claimed responsibility for numerous deadly attacks across Iraq, including the beheadings of U.S. businessman Nicholas Berg, South Korean translator Kim Sun-il and a Bulgarian man, Georgi Lazov.
Their beheadings were filmed and the video posted in the Internet.
There is no mention on the Vanderford Web site of him traveling to Iraq — and no record anywhere else that anyone by that name has been captured.
On the Web site, Vanderford says he is 22 years old, and is running for supervisor of San Francisco's District 5. It also says he makes music for the label Record Label Records and is an independent video game programmer.
The video of the apparent killing also showed images of disfigured and injured people in Iraq. A recording of the Quran, Islam's holy book, played in the background.
Militants have abducted over 70 foreigners, many of them truck drivers entering Iraq with supplies for the U.S. military or contractors involved with Iraqi reconstruction efforts. At least eight of them have been killed, some by beheading.
The kidnappings are apart of an insurgent campaign aimed at forcing coalition forces out of the country and scaring foreign companies away.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
There was an earlier post on it.
I just heard on the radio this story is a hoax. The information was obtained from the person who was supposedly beheaded,
Hope the little fella gets penalized in some way for doing it.
I did a search looked at front page news, and nothing came up with this.
I hope he gets penalized a lot. Why in the world would anyone do something like this? If it's really his picture, he can't possibly claim he knew nothing about it. And how would the terrorists have gotten hold of the video to post it (assuming they were the ones who did it)?
It's a campaign video for Benny's run at office. He was in SF on May 31st and I don't see any reason for him to have gone to Iraq.
Gads! Who does he think his constituency is? I mean, I know it's San Francisco, and all that, but...
MSNBC Breaking news
They say it was a hoax.
A peacenik strategy from Baghdad...by the Bay.
A campaign video??? Maybe this works in SF. Who knew?
Ooooohh...we're skeeered!
Please, Mr. Liberal Drama Queen Guy, come get me out! I have seen the error of my ways.
{/sarcasm}
He just got himself noticed. It's a packed field and he was a previous unknown from what I can gather. This will play in in SF, the message on the video was get out of Iraq. Ends justify the means in the liberal world.
It has to be a hoax.
Even middle eastern terrorists would know not to draw that much blood on a San Francisco man without wearing rubber gloves.
Apparantly, it is. And the AP fell for it. HAA-HA!!!!
LOL! Herb Caen didn't know how right he was!
The phone number works :D
Ben Vanderford
Email: vanderford2004@yahoo.com
Phone: 510-825-0387
Mail:
1510 Eddy St. Apt #1311
San Francisco, CA 94115
The AP fell for it, because they wanted too. AP is a bunch of "Chicken littles".
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