Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Warning: The stills below (particularly the sixth and last one) are deeply upsetting.
The video depicting Nick Berg's decapitation, which was released yesterday, raises many questions.
To begin, we know that Berg flew to Amman and then traveled into Iraq overland - through the back door, so to speak. Shortly before he planned to return to the US, he was detained by the Iraqi police in Mosul. During that period, 24 May to 6 April, he was questioned by the FBI, who were trying to determine why this young man would travel to Iraq, without a visa or job. Satisfied that he was not involved in any "suspicious activities," the Iraqi authorities released him on the 6th, after 13 days of detention. On the 9th he contacted his parents and told them that he was coming home. The following day he checked out of his hotel in Baghdad, and then disappeared for shortly less than a month; his body was discovered on Saturday, 8 May. Presumably he had been decapitated that same day.
First of all, what was he doing during this interim? In the video, he is shown wearing a two-piece fluorescent orange jumpsuit, of the sort worn by inmates at Guantanamo:
Are we to assume that he continued to wear this jumpsuit until he was captured by the people who killed him? He enjoyed at least four days of freedom (from the 6th until the 10th) before disappearing; during this period he would certainly have changed his outfit. Either he was captured wearing this jumpsuit, or he was forced to wear it by his captors. He doesn't appear especially haggard, either, with the exception of the "Amish-Strap" beard growing along the sides of his face. His upper lip and cheeks are smooth. Note also that, contrary to some reports, he is not bound to the chair - rather, his hands are folded in his lap. In the video, he seems calm, collected, and completely unaware of the fate that awaits him, which argues against a long detention or harsh treatment at the hands of his captors.
Second, who was responsible for Berg's death? According to the title of the video, Berg was "slaughtered" by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian whom Americans claim to be al-Qaeda's point man in Iraq (the German intelligence suggests that Zarqawi is an independent agent, and Juan Cole is not certain Zarqawi's ties to al-Qaeda are so close). Zarqawi was the mastermind behind a string of bombings last year which culminated in the car-bomb at Najaf which took Ayatollah al-Hakim's life. Initially, Colin Powell claimed that Zarqawi was fitted with a prosthetic leg in a Baghdad hospital (which, at the time, was touted as being an indication of a connection between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein). Nonetheless, the man wielding the knife in the video clearly has both his legs:
Additionally, the man with the knife wears a black hood; subsequently, after Berg is beheaded, he is shown wearing a tightly-wrapped white hood. I suspect that Berg's killer passed the knife to the man on his right and allowed him to finish the job, and pose with the knife and Berg's head:
The Berg video is a montage of two separate videos taken from two cameras. This is apparent from the time stamps in the lower right-hand corner, which change as the angle of the shot changes. Additionally, the audio may have been redubbed after the film was shot; it is 7 seconds out of sync with the video (the screaming begins at 4 minutes and 30 seconds, but Berg remains sitting complacently until 4 minutes and 37 seconds). Thus, it seems possible that the audio portions were added at a later time. Bolo in the comments section has alerted me to the fact that the delay may also be an artifact of the video's decompression.
What could this possibly mean? It seems that Zarqawi is still in possession of both his legs, as the US government now claims, or perhaps someone else committed this crime in Zarqawi's name. This would not be the first time that Zarqawi's name has been used to stir up trouble in Iraq (see above for more info on the Zarqawi letter, with special reference to the Mandaeans). We can not exclude the possibility that the crime was committed before the Abu Ghraib scandal broke, because the audio may have been redubbed after the initial shooting (Billmon is also skeptical about the Abu Ghraib connection, but for different reasons). Additionally, it does not seem likely that Berg was in custody for very long before these men killed him.
The video depicting Nick Berg's decapitation, which was released yesterday, raises many questions.
To begin, we know that Berg flew to Amman and then traveled into Iraq overland - through the back door, so to speak. Shortly before he planned to return to the US, he was detained by the Iraqi police in Mosul. During that period, 24 May to 6 April, he was questioned by the FBI, who were trying to determine why this young man would travel to Iraq, without a visa or job. Satisfied that he was not involved in any "suspicious activities," the Iraqi authorities released him on the 6th, after 13 days of detention. On the 9th he contacted his parents and told them that he was coming home. The following day he checked out of his hotel in Baghdad, and then disappeared for shortly less than a month; his body was discovered on Saturday, 8 May. Presumably he had been decapitated that same day.
First of all, what was he doing during this interim? In the video, he is shown wearing a two-piece fluorescent orange jumpsuit, of the sort worn by inmates at Guantanamo:
Are we to assume that he continued to wear this jumpsuit until he was captured by the people who killed him? He enjoyed at least four days of freedom (from the 6th until the 10th) before disappearing; during this period he would certainly have changed his outfit. Either he was captured wearing this jumpsuit, or he was forced to wear it by his captors. He doesn't appear especially haggard, either, with the exception of the "Amish-Strap" beard growing along the sides of his face. His upper lip and cheeks are smooth. Note also that, contrary to some reports, he is not bound to the chair - rather, his hands are folded in his lap. In the video, he seems calm, collected, and completely unaware of the fate that awaits him, which argues against a long detention or harsh treatment at the hands of his captors.
Second, who was responsible for Berg's death? According to the title of the video, Berg was "slaughtered" by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian whom Americans claim to be al-Qaeda's point man in Iraq (the German intelligence suggests that Zarqawi is an independent agent, and Juan Cole is not certain Zarqawi's ties to al-Qaeda are so close). Zarqawi was the mastermind behind a string of bombings last year which culminated in the car-bomb at Najaf which took Ayatollah al-Hakim's life. Initially, Colin Powell claimed that Zarqawi was fitted with a prosthetic leg in a Baghdad hospital (which, at the time, was touted as being an indication of a connection between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein). Nonetheless, the man wielding the knife in the video clearly has both his legs:
Additionally, the man with the knife wears a black hood; subsequently, after Berg is beheaded, he is shown wearing a tightly-wrapped white hood. I suspect that Berg's killer passed the knife to the man on his right and allowed him to finish the job, and pose with the knife and Berg's head:
The Berg video is a montage of two separate videos taken from two cameras. This is apparent from the time stamps in the lower right-hand corner, which change as the angle of the shot changes. Additionally, the audio may have been redubbed after the film was shot; it is 7 seconds out of sync with the video (the screaming begins at 4 minutes and 30 seconds, but Berg remains sitting complacently until 4 minutes and 37 seconds). Thus, it seems possible that the audio portions were added at a later time. Bolo in the comments section has alerted me to the fact that the delay may also be an artifact of the video's decompression.
What could this possibly mean? It seems that Zarqawi is still in possession of both his legs, as the US government now claims, or perhaps someone else committed this crime in Zarqawi's name. This would not be the first time that Zarqawi's name has been used to stir up trouble in Iraq (see above for more info on the Zarqawi letter, with special reference to the Mandaeans). We can not exclude the possibility that the crime was committed before the Abu Ghraib scandal broke, because the audio may have been redubbed after the initial shooting (Billmon is also skeptical about the Abu Ghraib connection, but for different reasons). Additionally, it does not seem likely that Berg was in custody for very long before these men killed him.
Comments:
First off: please put a warning to people before they reach those last photos.
Second: it *is* possible that he is simply incapable of growing a mustache.
Second: it *is* possible that he is simply incapable of growing a mustache.
# posted by 
: May 12, 2004 5:20 PM
: May 12, 2004 5:20 PM
Granted, it is possible, but Nick Berg was 26, and has clearly grown everything out but the mustache and the imperial. The "Amish Strap" look isn't unknown among people his age, especially those into the grunge scene.
As far as the audio being off... that probably has to do with the video compression. I work in an AV lab on my campus and sometimes have trouble with audio breaking away from video when compressing video footage for the internet. So, the audio lag is probably just an artifact of processing.
However, the other questions that you have brought up are very intriguing. Why is he still wearing an orange uniform? Why does the timecode change? How exactly is it that one man begins cutting his throat but another comes up with the head (video is choppy here, so its hard to tell)?
Post a Comment
However, the other questions that you have brought up are very intriguing. Why is he still wearing an orange uniform? Why does the timecode change? How exactly is it that one man begins cutting his throat but another comes up with the head (video is choppy here, so its hard to tell)?
