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.” |
Ditto.
perhaps I am the lucky one to be unable to view it, but I hate having tech problems. Could it be Zonealarm interfering?
I know, it's IE 4.72, right?
I'm glad our soldiers have the weaponry to blast these sick barbarians from a distance. God help any who are captured.
Reading between the lines, given the context, this particular writer, LaBelleDameSansMerci, seems to be suggesting that the United States has been financing the Chechnyan rebels - which is untrue!
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.
I do recall, though, that there were some who blamed the Russian secret police for blowing up the apartment building. By now probably everybody has reconsidered that one. In fact, it most likely wasn't done by Chechnyans, but rather by Arabic members of AlQeada as a test of what happens to large buildings when they blow up. Think of it as a test for 9/11.
That little clip did both. Horrible. Absolutely horrible.
Only animals could do such a thing. Animals. Not humans. Animals.
Dear God............I can only pray that this poor man's family never see this....................
It is worse than you can imagine, even given the extreme warnings here.
I watched through squinted eyes and clicked it close as a knife plunged into a living mans throat...I did not see the rest and I don't want to.
Death penalty opposers should be REUQIRED to watch this before they open their BIG FAT MOUTH
I have seen and read enough other things, though, to feel that these people are like rabid animals. And you surely don't argue with, negotiate with, or have mercy on a rabid animal ..... you just kill it before it can kill you.
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.