Berg decapitation video a fake

[miriam_e]

patchworkkid recently asked if "normal" media sources have analysed the possibility of the Berg decapitation video being a fake. In my reply I mistakenly thought he meant that Berg wasn't really decapitated. Now I know what he meant.

http://www.aztlan.net/berg_abu_ghraib_video.htm

It looks like the video was created to enhance hatred of the Muslims and divert attention from Western mistreatment of prisoners. Another dirty deed that will blow up in the faces of the perpetrators.

At least it is reassuring that the bad guys are so damn stupid.

Comments

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

I must admit I didn't check the rest of the site. Quite amusing titles. I wonder if the articles are as deranged as the titles would make them appear.

But that is beside the point. You wouldn't expect the article to show up on a mainstream site, given the political climate; it is most likely to end up on a borderline nutjob site.

In any case the article poses some important questions. Even if you are willing to pass over the white plastic chair, similar to those in the prison, and the color and general appearance of the walls being like those in the prison... even if you disbelieve the military look of the clothing caught on some frames or the crew-cut side of an onlookers head in some frames... you have to wonder why Neck Berg is in US prison gear if he is being held captive by islamic nutters.

Then there are some other things that the article didn't go into:
- the Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi who supposedly did the dirty deed may have died back in March, but even if it is him, his face is sufficiently well known that it is hard to believe he would bother to disguise himself -- especially after he is identified on the video. He also had one leg. His prosthetic leg was ill-fitting and made it difficult to walk or stand properly.
- Berg was being held prisoner by the the US military prior to the killing (his parents are suing the govt for that).
- The screaming is dubbed onto the unmoving victim.
- The speaker's voice has been dubbed over the footage of the executioner speaking.

Those and many other things make me very suspicious of taking the video at face value.

[iphinome.livejournal.com]

There are no thought police in the US, they're not needed most Americans already don't think so I don't really see anything that would stop reputible news outlets from running this if they thought it was true. I never meant to say though that you should take the video at face value, if I wanted you to blindly accept what you were shown or told I'd have suggested you move here and live in one of our southern states instead of questioning why you accetped the writings of a nutjob.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

There does seem to be a thought-control process in the US, as in most countries, to a greater or lesser extent. Admittedly there might not be much in the way of explicit thought police, but if your diet of information is carefully regulated then there is no real need for them, and that is exactly why I doubt "reputable" news outlets would run this anytime soon. Even if they didn't self-censor but really wanted to pursue it I doubt they would be allowed to. New rules in the US prevent display of such "inflammatory" pictures under the reasoning of safeguarding US lives in Iraq.

It is common, in this and previous times, to believe that most people in US (or anywhere) don't think, but there is evidence all around that the general intelligence of the human race is increasing and people everywhere are becoming more humane and compassionate. It wasn't so long ago that women had no rights and were considered as owned by their men; children were the property of their parents and to be used or abused as they saw fit; animal rights was a contradiction in terms. The Flynn Effect documents the inexorable rise of intelligence in each new generation. I'm not all dewey-eyed and thinking that everything is good (the posting that started this shows that), but I am optimistic that the internet is circumventing the control on information that the powers-that-be use to harness the population. Their big fear is precisely that most people DO think -- those who have a control fetish work very hard at filtering what people think about.