Posted on 08/25/2014 10:16:07 AM PDT by marthemaria
THE VIDEO of a British jihadist beheading an American hostage was probably staged, with the actual murder taking place off-camera, according to forensic analysis.
Footage of James Foley’s death at the hands of a man with a London accent provided a powerful propaganda tool for Islamic State when it was uploaded on to the internet and broadcast around the world last week.
Now it has emerged that the Briton might be a frontman and not the killer. His identity has almost certainly been established by the security services, but they have yet to act for fear of endangering the lives of 20 western hostages still being held.
A study of the four-minute 40-second clip, carried out by an international forensic science company which has worked for police forces across Britain, raises a number of questions about what really happened on a patch of desert land, thought to be somewhere in northern Syria.
No one is questioning that the photojournalist was beheaded, but camera trickery and slick post-production techniques appear to have been used.
“I think it has been staged,” said one expert in visual forensics, after he was commissioned by The Times to examine the footage. “My feeling is that the execution may have happened after the camera was stopped.”
Aymenn al-Tamimi, a fellow at the Middle East Forum think-tank, suggested that “they show it’s an English guy because he is English-speaking for an English-speaking audience”.
He said: “It sends a message to both the UK and the US who are intervening at this stage in some way in the conflict. I think it sends a powerful message that it doesn’t matter where you are from, your allegiance is with the Islamic State and one day the Islamic State will encompass the entire world in terms of their thinking.”
He added: “Islamic State really revel in beheading. They have definitely improved the production quality of their videos over the past couple of years.”
KILLER: Spies know jihadist’s name
The analysis highlights a number of discrepancies that could indicate that the beheading scene broadcast to the world was not the genuine killing.
Firstly, no blood can be seen, even though the knife is drawn across the neck area at least six times. Secondly, sounds allegedly made by Foley do not appear consistent with what may be expected. The forensic analysis expert said that no incision could be seen on Foley’s neck, though the right hand of the jihadist partially blocked the shot.
The commentary provided by the forensics company, which requested anonymity, did not reach a definitive answer. It concluded: “No one is disputing that at some point an execution occurred.”
The video begins with a clip of President Barack Obama raising the prospect of US air strikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq. This footage appeared to have been downloaded directly from the White House website. Interference was imposed on to the picture, making it look dated and old-fashioned.
Footage of Foley, 40, with his head shaven and kneeling upright in a bright orange robe, is filmed from two cameras running at the same time. Foley’s words, which run for one minute and 24 seconds, appear to have been scripted. The analysis highlighted a blip in the imagery that could indicate the journalist had to repeat a line. Scrutiny of the subsequent speech by the masked jihadist, in which he warns the US of attacks, indicate that the words are spoken by the militant even though his mouth is obscured by his headscarf.
Next comes the beginning of the supposed beheading. The militant wraps his right arm around the journalist’s head, holds his chin in his right hand and makes quick slicing movements with the knife in his other hand.
“After enhancements, the knife can be seen to be drawn across the upper neck at least six times, with no blood evidence to the point the picture fades to black,” the analysis said. The next shot is of Foley’s decapitated body, with his severed and blood-covered head on his upturned back.
The video concludes with the jihadist standing next to Steven Sotloff, a second kidnapped US journalist. Analysis raised the possibility that this clip was filmed before the footage of Foley.
It has also emerged that Foley wrote a last letter to his family, saying he hoped to be back in the US for his sister’s wedding. He was banned from sending it but a Danish photojournalist, who spent 13 months imprisoned with Foley, committed the words to memory. When Daniel Rye Ottosen, 25, was released in June his first call was to Foley’s mother, Diane. He dictated every word.
The Times
Maybe they should have been watching Dexter.
why is “murder” worse than “execution”? If you’ll notice, all the rabble rousers are saying Michael Brown was “executed”. Which implies he was sentenced and killed by the police officer.
Mr. Foley was executed. ISIS pronounced his sentence, and carried it out. No PC is involved.
...who benefits? The global impact of the video has been enormous. It presents the IS jihadis as beasts, sub-humans who must be stopped. The consequences of this video will be profound.
Yeah, funny movie.
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EVERYONE knows the video and photos was taken on Mars. Ask Sheila Jackson Lee, who was also in the video planting the flag.
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ISIS or ISIL/Ask how OBAMA is going to bring them to justice.
On the 16th hole?
Guess ValJar is really working for her living right now - after all, she is really the 1st female American president. Unless you count that other lady - was it Wilson's wife?
Dear “experts”, whether the execution was staged or not Mr. James Foley is STILL dead. At this point, what does it matter (to paraphrase Hillary!).
ISIS can then claim they edited it to spare his family and the left and the MSM will laud ISIS for their compassion...
I can see this happening...
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Yes, a COMPASSIONATE BEHEADING...
[ ...who benefits? The global impact of the video has been enormous. It presents the IS jihadis as beasts, sub-humans who must be stopped. The consequences of this video will be profound. ]
No doubt they will use this to attack Syria and whoops... They will “accidentally” attack the strong man Assad...
Which will destabilize everything even more...
Terrorists are saying it was in order to attempt to hide the identity of the murderer. We know who he is. Period. Soon he'll be just as dead as Foley is.
BFL
I have many problems with this video. It looks fake, like a parody, until the final shot of him dead. And the quality is many times better than what they have previously used. It is like they were at a movie studio and this was “take 13” and they were only pretending to behead him each time. Why else would he sit there and take it? Even with Nick Berg, it took several of them holding him down. No way is this scrawny british rap punk going to be able to hold me and cut off my head without the fight of his life.
I suspect there is an actual video with several muzzies holding him down and finishing the job.
why is “murder” worse than “execution”? If you’ll notice, all the rabble rousers are saying Michael Brown was “executed”. Which implies he was sentenced and killed by the police officer.
Mr. Foley was executed. ISIS pronounced his sentence, and carried it out. No PC is involved.
And, the mail message sent to me said:
Re: James Foley execution video staged: experts From XXXXXXXX | 08/25/2014 11:17:43 AM PDT replied
tarheelswamprat: They are NOT committed by “militants”; they are done by terrorists.
What terrorist acts have they committed? Seems to me they are a militant group that executes prisoners. I see them killing civilians because they want the civilians dead, not that they are trying to instill “terror” to gain anything.
Doesn’t make them any better. But it does mean you can’t stop them by just giving into their demands.
Both your post and that of my mail correspondent demonstrate the degree that we have allowed our enemies, the Left and the Islamists, to shape and manipulate people's ability to even think about things by their perversions of language and the definitions and meanings of words. Words mean things, and if you allow your adversaries to redefine and twist those meanings then you lose the ability to even discuss things coherently.
First, murder and execution are not the same thing. Execution is the lawful taking of life by a legitimate, duly-constituted authority under the rule of law and with due process. ISIS is NOT a legitimate authority, government, nation state, member of the United Nations, etc. All they are is a group of men who have momentarily gained control over certain geographical areas and the people who inhabit them by force of arms and killing those who resist them. When they kill it is not execution because they have no legitimate authority to do so. It is murder. It matters not if they "pronounce" a "sentence" on someone before they kill them because they have no legitimate authority to do so, only the power.
Remember this: The reason that ISIS or the rabble rousers in MO want to use the term "execution" is to claim a legitimacy they do not merit. When you allow yourself to be suckered into using their unmerited terminology you enable and strengthen that dishonest and incorrect perception.
That other mind-boggling question of "What terrorist acts have they committed?" denotes a willful blindness to face reality. For example:
1. Beheading small children and putting their heads on poles for public display IS TERRORISM. These children were not executed, they committed no crimes, they couldn't even comprehend why they were being killed. They simply were terrified as they died and their killers put their heads on poles to frighten others into submission. These actions are the very definition of terrorism, and those who killed them are terrorists and murderers.
2. The crucifixion and beheading of captured Iraqi soldiers and displaying their bodies along the roads in order to frighten others into submission IS TERRORISM. Terrorism IS the deliberate use of violence to frighten and compel the surrender and submission of others.
3. The calculated raping of captured women and girls in order to frighten others into submission IS TERRORISM. That sort of terrorism has been used by conquerors throughout human history to instill fear and terror into defeated peoples.
4. The posting online of beheading videos is done in part in order to frighten opponents into submission. That IS TERRORISM.
I could go on, but the truth is that those who wish to evade facing the ugly reality of who and what our enemies are will continue to hide behind word games, twisted meanings and semantic sophistry. As long as we continue letting them redefine the terms of the debate to suit their agendas we'll continue to handicap ourselves and give them the advantage.
It’s because they (our so-called leaders) act as if this is a matter for the courts, instead of the military or the intelligence services.
I think they told him if he said lots of nasty stuff about Americans and infidels that they would spare him. That’s why he didn’t fight. They lied.
Executed... Murdered.... whats the difference? Mr. Foley has his head chopped off by a religious fanatic. No one is implying that it was legitimate, or carried out under the rule of law. I think the differentiation between those terms is the least of our problems. You really need to find some more serious PC things to get worked up about.
re: No one is implying that it was legitimate, or carried out under the rule of law.
ISIS and millions of Muslims around the world are claiming exactly that.
You are simply wrong. Human beings cannot even have conceptual thought without language and words; they shape how we perceive reality. The proper use of language and the meanings of words is vitally important in the war of civilizations in which we are embroiled.
That doesn't make sense.
What I found interesting is why was this Foley video immediately taken down from the internet? Websites being threatened, some websites like Documenting reality were even taken down for 4 days for posting it. Documenting reality which one of the most graphic websites on the net They have tons of beheading videos on that site that are 100s of times more graphic than the Foley video. Something weird is going on here, as if somebody doesn’t want people analyzing it too much. These websites were taken offline. If its so easy to do that, then why don’t they shut down pirate sites like Piratebay?
This is a statement released by Documenting Reality:
“As you may know, due to the recent downtime, we were forced to remove the James Foley video. This is the first time in the sites history that the server plug was pulled due to content. We were down 4 days because of that video.
For some reason, that video has caused a government shit storm across the web, they are removing it as fast as people put it up.
I have never seen a video cause this much of a stir inside governments across the world and I have been doing this since the mid 90’s.
The site also took a financial hit, so for those that care, we need to try and regain some of the traffic lost over those last 4 days. So if you would like to help, all you need to do, is pick something off DR then go post it to your Facebook account, your twitter account, or somewhere online will people will see it, that way we can start to regain some of the traffic that was lost over this. That would help a lot.
Anyway, sorry about the downtime, yet with the nature of some of the things we host, this can happen from time to time.”
http://www.documentingreality.com/forum/f2/we-were-forced-remove-james-foley-video-146500/
You know something, considering the psychopath we have in the White house, I’m starting to believe that we are being played here.
Could be Global Warming...
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