Posted on 12/29/2001 3:48:31 PM PST by NativeNewYorker
| THE video begins innocently enough: a wildlife documentary presented by Sir David Attenborough shows him raving about rare insects and exotic plants against the backdrop of an active volcano. There is no sign of Al-Qaeda’s evil here, nor at the end of the tape, which features Princess Diana and Prince Charles at the start of a visit to Kuwait more than a decade ago, writes Mark Franchetti. Sandwiched incongruously between them, however, is a macabre insight into the gruesome world of Osama Bin Laden’s disciples: a group of Arab soldiers, somewhere in the mountains of Afghanistan, are tossing a severed head around for the camera. They taunt the bloody skull, shaking it by the hair, lift an eyelid to simulate blinking, and throw stones at it, while chanting a chorus in praise of Allah. The film is just one among a surreal video library collected from the caves of Tora Bora, Bin Laden’s underground redoubt in the White Mountains of eastern Afghanistan, and from Al-Qaeda safe houses nearby. The innocuous beginning and end appear to have been added to fool anyone who might have stumbled across the tapes. The videos were stolen by villagers before American special forces could retrieve them, and are now quietly traded on the backstreets of Jalalabad — with audio cassettes, documents, CD-Roms, and several passports of suspected Bin Laden supporters. It is the videos, though, that offer the darkest insight into the psychology of Al-Qaeda members, revealing for the first time what they were watching — as well as producing — for propaganda and educational purposes. One film, entitled Preparing for Martyrdom, is a lengthy weapons training video recently shot by Arab terrorists at an Al-Qaeda training camp at Durunta, a few miles west of Jalalabad. Arabic-speaking instructors, their faces blacked out, demonstrate how to use weapons ranging from handguns to anti-aircraft guns. The same video includes footage of Abdullah Azam, a Jordanian Palestinian extremist revered by Bin Laden as a father figure, who was assassinated in Pakistan in 1989. Azam is shown delivering tirades against America and Israel before a crowd of worshippers. “Our leaders are wasting time with public works,” he rants, in a clip between demonstrations on a grenade launcher and a sniper rifle. Other tapes feature news reports from recent conflicts involving Muslims, including Bosnia, Algeria, Israel, Chechnya, Lebanon and Afghanistan. Religious music has been taped over the original commentaries. The grisly highlights include the beheading with a knife of a hostage in Chechnya and a prisoner being tortured with a sizzling piece of metal. Another close-up shows a victim’s tongue being cut out. It is not clear how much of the collection was made inside Afghanistan, and how many of the tapes came instead from supporters in Pakistan and further afield. Under Taliban rule, ordinary Afghans faced public floggings and up to three months in jail if caught watching television, but members of Al-Qaeda had free access to satellite television. “As soon as the Arabs left all hell broke loose,” said one trader. “In Jalalabad, neighbours went through the safe houses and took whatever they could, and in Tora Bora it was the same. I took four tapes but had to destroy two because my father is a very religious man and became terribly angry. I have no idea what was on the tapes I burnt. Who knows, maybe Bin Laden himself.” |
I tried reloading quicktime, but that did not help.
Perhaps we should be grateful...
I challenge your assertion that the US has not been supporting the Chechnyans in a variety of ways--some overt, some covert. Furthermore, the corporate media, which any thinking person realizes is merely a courtier to the government (crabby but always submissive) has been cheering for the Chechnyan "freedom fighters" since the fall of the Berlin Wall. And, of course, those ubiquitous NGOs--nobody is going to seriously claim there is an NGO in operation that by some strange coincidence isn't working the will of the US government--are they?
But let's pretend for a moment that the US government wasn't supporting the Chechnyans in multitudinous ways. It makes the argument more spicey. Almost no one would believe you.
Why not?
Could it be because every American Administration since FDR has seen The Law as nothing more than a crack in the sidewalk--something to nimbly step over? The sacred "Rule of Law" is something to sell to the rubes and hayseeds during the election cycle; certainly not something sophisticated people should concern themselves with.
American administrations--democrat and republican--have funded and/or armed moslem jihadists all over the planet in contravention of US law.
So you see, even if your assertion were true--which it is not--the corrosive contempt that the American governing class has for The Rule Of Law and Telling The Truth and all that other nonsense has come home to roost. Only the most devoted party hacks believe what the government says now. And then only when their party is steering the Gravy Train.
And here's something interesting you thought you could sneak by us simple folk:
"..No doubt that would have been justified any time from 1928 to 1955, but in more recent times, it was not, and no such financial aid was extended....
What part of the Constitution of the United States Of America would have justified granting aid to Chechnya between 1928 and 1955?!!?
Or did you mean the unwritten constitution--the one we simple folk are too unsophisticated to understand and must allow Our Betters to interpret while we wave our flags on the Fourth Of July and other innocent peasant revels?
Agreed. I saw it right after Sept. 11. It definitely stays with you.
The absolute truth. When I see stuff like that I know its not violent american movies that make cold blooded murders out of our children. Evil makes them do it. If you don't believe in evil watch the clip.
Although this is supposed to be a russian soldier, I do think the idea of making death penalty opponents watch it is a good one. Make them see what murder is, and why its the murderers fault, and why they should be put to death for their crimes.
Low rumbling growl
Brian
I don't see how there is any that video was faked. Note that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach as you watch it....least when I watch it. Thats your bodies response to seing a flesh and blood human brutally murdered. Can't fake that.
Graphic warning!
The web site of RAWA has a lot more.
There are tons of Chechnyan radicals in Al Qaeda, and alot of them are/were fighting us in Afghanistan. This is an outrage, Chechnya can go get bent!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.