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"Video oddities

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 to gush out. But little emerges and when the head was raised – not a drop of blood is seen to fall.

"That's really what cost my son his life, the fact that the United States government saw fit to keep him in custody for 13 days without any of his due process(es) or civil rights"

Michael Berg,
victim's father

In a possible explanation, one discussion room member suggested that Berg was killed and then beheaded later.

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 looked at the site within 90 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."

What crossed my mind is that this beheading was (apart from the cruelty) a very stupid action. All over the world the U.S. was blamed for abusing the Iraqi prisoners. Publicity could not have been worse for the U.S. and more advantageous for Iraq.

And now they behead an U.S. civilian and turn around the public opinion? Are they really that stupid? I can hardly believe this.

Final question

Some bloggers focused on the accent of the purported executioner. Many deny the accent is either Iraqi or Jordanian - while claims the voice is Egyptian or Iranian have been made.

The Jordanian accused of the beheading Berg is himself believed to have been killed in March, according to two Islamist groups.

An eight-page leaflet circulated this week in Falluja said Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in the Sulaimaniya mountains of northern Iraq during a US bombing.

But even if it were the Jordanian, one discussion room member observes his face is so well-known that "why would he bother to cover it?"

Al-Qaeda' Falsely Added to Statement Transcript by US Government

Aired on CNN May 12, 2004 - 12:59 ET

http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0405/12/lol.02.html

O'BRIEN: Responses throughout the Middle East are reflected, of course, in Arab TV coverage. Our senior editor of Arab affairs, Octavia Nasr, who watches Arab the Arab television assiduously, is here to give us a little sense of what's being said and perhaps more important in this story, what is being shown and not shown. The big question is, of course, on this tape, just horrific tape, which is available on the Web, obviously. Are places like Al-Arabiya, Al Jazeera, are they showing it in its entirety?

OCTAVIA NASR, CNN SR. EDITOR FOR ARAB AFFAIRS: No. Arab viewers of the big networks, as well as the local TV stations did not see the actual execution. They did see at the beginning of this tape, just like we saw here on CNN and most Western networks, you saw the beginning of the tape right before the beheading. They reported on it, and as a side story. It certainly isn't playing as a big story or as the story.

O'BRIEN: That's very interesting. When we hearken back to Danny Pearl, "The Wall Street Journal" reporter who was killed in Pakistan in 2002, the entirety of that, which included a beheading, was shown on these outlets. What happened? What changed?

NASR: What changed is the learning. And also the reaction to showing gruesome pictures and atrocities and the reaction from viewers and authorities alike. Also, it has been a few years since then. Back then, there was no Al-Arabiya. Al-Arabiya is brand new. It started a few weeks before the war last year.

Again, it's a learning process. It seems that the networks are responding to their viewers. Remember, Al Jazeera is seen all over the world, the Americas, Africa, Asia, Australia, all over the world. And viewers there are not accepting of these images as people in the Arab world are.

O'BRIEN: Well, let me ask you this. You've had a chance to really listen to this tape and get a sense who might be responsible, just by deciphering, say, accents. And certainly, there in the Arab world, they're very attuned to that. And given the fact of who this may or may not be, does that have some effect on how it is being played?

NASR: Yes, and if you listen to these voices that we're hearing on Arab networks, Iraqis are condemning this execution. And they're saying these are foreigners. These are not Iraqis. They do not represent us and so forth.

Now, of course, the original claim was that Zarqawi is the actual man who performed this execution. Our experts listened to the accent, as you said, and they determined the accent is not Jordanian...

O'BRIEN: He is a Jordanian who is working supposedly, allegedly, at the behest of al Qaeda in Iraq. So go ahead.

NASR: Right, he is very close to bin Laden, and works, you're right, as an agent of al Qaeda in Iraq. Now, the accent is not Jordanian so that takes the Jordanian element out of the story immediately.

O'BRIEN: Interesting. All right, now one final thought here. You did a very careful translation of your own, of the statement. And in it, you see no reference to al Qaeda. And yet the official U.S. government translation does. Explain how that happened.

NASR: Oh, I find it very interesting, because out of the blue, there is a mention of al Qaeda on the U.S. government translation. It says: "Does al Qaeda need any further excuses?" Any speaker of the Arabic language is going to notice a difference between the word al Qaeda, which means "the base," and al qaed, which means "the one sitting, doing nothing."

My translation says: "Is there any excuse for the one who sits down and does nothing?" Basically they're telling people, you have no excuse for not doing anything, for not acting and defending Islam and so forth. Whereas the U.S. government translation has this factual error, I'm sure it's an honest mistake, but basically it sort of adds al Qaeda to the statement, which is not on the statement.

O'BRIEN: All right, Octavia Nasr, we don't know exactly how that got in there. We'll try to get more on that. We appreciate you bringing that all to light and appreciate your insights, of course.

NASR: You bet.

I did see some stuff fall from his head once pulled off, but no where near what I would have expected..

All of this is Psy-ops. On both parts...

I can't help but wonder if were looking at the same video. From what I saw, about a gallon of blood sprut from his neck as it was being cut, and he was clearly trying to struggle---but it was very hard for him, with his hands bound, his feet bound, his body being held down, and his head being pulled back by the hair.

As for him being killed earlier, tell that to his father. His father said that they talked on the phone very recently, since his father talked to him about his jail time, etc.

Rodney

Anyone with a head on their shoulders (seriously, no pun intended) is aware that there is more to this story than meets the eye, but it probably isn't what you think and most definitly isn't what you would suggest (US government conspiracy). Your 'strategy' of re-directing energy is as old and identifiable as the highest mountain and yet, you continue to make yourself look stupid by assuming that we're not aware of it or the fact that you're trying to use it against us. I personally use a similer, more honest and 'hands-on' version of it when I practice two man drills in my fighting class (unlike yourself, I don't just mock, mimmick, and fantasize about the way of the warrior). As soon as the first man has made his attack, it is re-directed, he is thrown off-balance, and is then used as a 'human shield' against the other attacker. This rhetoric sound familiar? It should. Your 'predecessors' have tried to use it on more than one occasion and FAILED!!!!!! You try to use it all the time here and 'you' fail. Do you honestly beleive that the reactions you get on these forums are a result of you being right and the others being wrong and upset about it? Not so. It is your redundant attempts that piss people off. Whether it be your aggressive approach to breeding snakes or your passive-aggressive approach to insulting the US. It's like a little child telling you the same thing over and over again. You don't get angry because the child is right about something or because he/she is challenging you on an intellectual level (the child may like to think that this is the case). You get angry because what they had to say has already been heard and you realize that the childs intention was not to inform you, but to piss you off to the point of not knowing it yourself.
You should reflect on everything. And if and when you do, if you get the feeling that you are loosing your sense of identity ("HERMANN THE GERMAN", go with it. The reaction you get is equal to the action you give. That's why you get sh*t on the forums. Become the right and the left, do not like or dislike, and you 'might' understand a thing or even two.
Back to my topic. Yes, people like yourself (or people that I beleive you admire, I should say) have successfully weakened their oppositions to the point of vulnerability by the use of this "economy of motion", but it is old and, most of the time, ineffective when dealing with a party or parties that don't consist of morons. I don't want, nor do I have the time, to get into any of the subject matter that is being discussed, but I would like to tell you, Hermann, that your implications and innuendos fool only the fools. Your history books should tell you that the true man sees and easily works right through people like you.
Jason
"GERMAN GIRLS RULE"!

ps. I'm sorry if this doesn't read like poetry. I'm in a hurry to scoop poop.