Questions on the Nick Berg video
Questions are growing about just how authentic the decapitation video is.
Note: I took my copy of the file offline. 6400 people downloaded it on Monday 5/17, which is way too much bandwidth for me to handle.
Bloggers doubt Berg execution video
Even at first glance, internet bloggers were asking on Thursday why Nick Berg was wearing an orange jumpsuit – just like US prisoners wear.
Other net-surfers point to the unlikely timing of the executioner’s dubbed announcement that Berg was to die for “Iraqi prisoner abuse”.
There are plenty of questions raised concerning the video too. The body is completely motionless even as the knife is brought to bear – not so much as an instinctive wriggle.
More graphically, some claim that cutting the throat’s artery would cause a significant amount of blood. But little emerges and when the head was raised – not a drop of blood is seen to fall.
Indeed. I have viewed the video, and the above points are quite valid. Also, the actual cutting of the throat is not shown, which is something I find odd.
However, the circumstances of the video release are also strange. A Reuters journalist in Dubai first named the Muntada al-Ansar al-Islami website as the source for the video – at www.al-ansar.biz.
Although the site has now been shut down, Aljazeera.net had looked at the site within ninety minutes of the story breaking – and could find no such video footage.
But Fox News, CNN and the BBC were all able to download the footage from the Arabic-only website and report the story within the hour.
More ‘anomalies’ about the video
Fishy circumstances and flawed timelines surround American’s beheading
Among their points:
Berg mysteriously captured by Al-Quaeda (still wearing jumpsuit). Either he escaped from U.S. captors or U.S. let him out — with orange suit and all — to be immediately apprehended by Al-Quaeda (before he had a chance to
change).
Tape obviously spliced together and heavily edited. Goes from a) Berg sitting in chair talking about family, to b) Berg sitting on floor with hooded “militants” behind, to c) blurry camera movement, to d) almost motionless Berg on floor as head cut off.
Audio clearly dubbed in.
Berg’s body didn’t move while on the ground. Although held down, Berg would have tried to instinctively wiggle and writhe away from captor’s grip.
Camera angle made it impossible to see if Berg’s eyes were even open.
Alleged “scream” from Berg sounded to be that of a woman and was clearly dubbed in.
Did Free Republic hurt Berg’s chances to leave Iraq?
The family firm of beheaded American Nick Berg, was named by a conservative website in a list of ‘enemies’ of the Iraq occupation. That could explain his arrest by Iraqi police –a detention which fatally delayed his planned return from Iraq and may have led directly to his death.
The site is FreeRepublic.com, where a reader posted the entire list of 2,000 endorsers for the ANSWER March 20 nationwide demos in a comment, saying this is the enemy. However, much as I think Freeps (as they are known) are a bunch of loonies, it’s a serious stretch to say they somehow alerted Iraq to stop Nick Berg (who supported the war) because his father endorsed an antiwar demo.
But the other issues are important, and need to be investigated. Something about the video ain’t right…
PS Jerusalem Post: 4th paragraph from end.
Though <Nick> Berg was a fervent supportive of Bush’s efforts to build a democracy in Iraq, his father opposed the war and was listed as an endorser of an anti-Iraq war coalition called Act Now to Stop War and End Racism.