Nick Berg anomalies

by **JerkyLeBoeuf** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 2:46 am

In two short weeks, Nick Berg's murder has sent waves of paranoia rippling through the Undernet. Theories ranging from the plausible to the lunatic are replicating at Tribble-like speed. This is already approaching JFK proportions, and with good reason. The whole mess is simmering in a bad kind of strangeness. Real bad. In today's edition of the Dirt, we will examine as many of these theories as we possibly can. We will debunk when necessary and call bullshit when appropriate. Yer old pal Jerky promises to approach this task with as much objectivity and sensitivity as he can muster, which probably isn't much. So fair warning. Wikipedia has an excellent, scholarly, and completely respectable web page devoted exclusively to Nick Berg's murder. It covers a lot of basic information that I really can't get into here, for space and time reasons. Rense.com also has a Berg-related index up, including most of the more "way out" conspiracy stuff. Needless to say, Rense isn't very reputable. Nevertheless, you should give both of them a look. Now, before we begin, I want to stress that neither yer old pal Jerky nor the Daily Dirt are endorsing any of these conspiracy theories… not even the ones that are probably true. So with that in mind, let's start out by examining some of the… GENERAL WEIRDNESS ABOUT THE VIDEO Some wags have suggested that the tape is a top-to-bottom fake. Yer old pal Jerky doesn't think so. I think it presents a true, brutal murder. But it has definitely been edited, of that there can be no doubt. This thing is a stitched-together mess. During the "attack", at no time do the audio and video elements sync up. Berg's screams continue beyond a point that would seem to be physiologically impossible. And when you consider that the grisly work was begun by someone wearing a black hood, then finished by someone wearing a white hood, it's pretty clear the video was edited. But why? And by who? Whoever edited this thing seems to have excised part of the struggle. An edit occurs immediately after Berg's captors knock him down. The audio track, however, seems uninterrupted. We hear everything. This explains how a dead man can scream. It also explains the lack of arterial spray, and the unseen black-to-white-masked perpetrator switcheroo. All those elements were cut out, and the two remaining halves were squeezed together under an intact audio track, with crude but effective results. But if the terrorists' aim is to induce terror... why hold back? Why remove the most terrifying part? Did they think to themselves: "Holy cripes… That's pushing it!"? Seems odd. On the other hand, it could have been edited for other reasons, like maybe somebody stumbled into frame that wasn't supposed to. This would necessitate a splice. Many of the observations being made are easy to dismiss and of limited value. For example, some have said it is suspicious that the footage is time-stamped using military 2400 time. But any commercial video camera can be set to 2400 time, which is the standard across much of the globe. Some say the wall behind Berg looks suspiciously like the walls of the Abu Ghraib prison. Well, there's a wall in the basement of the building I work in that looks suspiciously like the walls of Abu Ghraib. Also, I would imagine that a lot of the construction in Iraq was done by a small handful of government agencies and contractors. So the idea that two Iraqi basements might have walls of similar color and texture is hardly shocking. Some have said that Berg appears to be sitting in the same kind of white plastic chair being used by coalition forces in Iraq. They're particularly interested in the similarities between the chair Berg is seen sitting in, and the chair seen in some of the photographs depicting the humiliation of detainees at Abu Ghraib (see links above). Of course, those chairs are made in China, and are thus ubiquitous around the world. Are such white plastic chairs available in Iraq despite the decade long trade embargo? Yer old pal Jerky doesn't know, and he's not about to fly to Iraq to find out. Some have suggested that Nick's clothes look like standard issue orange military prison silks. That's what they look like to me. However, even if they are, that doesn't mean he was being held by the American military at the time of his murder, as some have alleged. After all, he'd been in the custody of the Iraqi police for over two weeks prior to being released, after which he was almost immediately kidnapped. Perhaps the prison let him keep or purchase his jumpers as a souvenir. And then, after being kidnapped, perhaps his captors found them in his bags and decided to make him wear them. Perhaps they did this to emphasize the point that his murder was retaliation for the goings-on at Abu Ghraib. I don't know. Check Google News, however, and you'll see that this question is being raised. No answers are forthcoming. On a more fundamental level, there is the question of the video's source. Fox News, CNN, and the BBC simultaneously broke the story of the video's existence, broadcasting censored versions immediately. They reported that they found it on the Dubai-based, Arabic language "Muntada al-Ansar al-Islami" website. When the news broke, Arab journalists searched that site and couldn't find a trace of the video. Shortly thereafter, the website's Malaysian ISP took it down. Some have claimed the video can only be digitally tracked back to London. I have no idea how this could be determined, and I have no way of knowing if it's true. It is merely an example of the kind of rumors that are starting to spread. WEIRDNESS SURROUNDING THE PERPETRATORS A number of questions have been raised about the five men and two cameramen who were present at Nick's murder. Some say they're too fat to be insurgents. That their stances are not typical of the region. That some of them are standing at parade rest. That their hands are pale and white. That the ringleader has a wedding ring on his left hand, which Islam reserves for ass-wiping. That they have non-Arabic accents. That a second cameraman wearing what appears to be a green military cap can briefly be spotted poking into the frame. Individually, these are of little note, easily dismissed. Taken together, they begin raising more substantial questions. As if this editorial wasn't paranoid enough already, this is where the CIA comes in. The Agency claims to have identified the ring-leader as Abu Musad Al Zarqawi, based on "voice" evidence. But some have alleged that, unlike Zarqawi - a one-legged Jordanian terrorist whose activities have increased tenfold ever since he was killed in a bombing raid last year - the speaker on the tape has a thick, non-Arabic accent. Some people hear traces of Russian. And he appears to be standing on two functional, non-prosthetic legs. Also, if Zarqawi claims responsibility for the murder - going so far as to do the deed with his own two hands and give himself top billing in the onscreen credits - why would he be wearing a mask? His face is well known to authorities. Considering all the other "I did it! It's me!" elements, it almost seems as though the only logical reason for the murderer to be wearing a mask would be to hide the fact that he isn't Al Zarqawi. More CIA stuff… their initial, official translation of the murderers' statement included the phrase: "How many more excuses does Al Qaeda need?" Problem is, it was soon determined that this was not the case. Translators say that portion of the statement translates as: "How many excuses do the silent ones need?" It's odd to think that CIA translators would make such a glaring - and glaringly convenient - mistake, considering they had to know that millions of Arab speaking people worldwide would see the tape and contradict their translation. So it's probably just a mistake. Unless, of course, the CIA as a whole don't give a shit if Arab speaking people contradict them. AUDIO ANOMALY? At just over five minutes into the long version of the Nick Berg decapitation video - audible on all versions but clearest on 6 MB version - at the point where the onscreen time-stamp reads 13:46:28, a voice can be heard. Some people have been claiming to hear "Thy will be done" repeated twice. Others say they hear "How will we do that?" Still others think they hear "How will it be done?" I decided to check it out for myself. I couldn't make out any of the above, but as I listened, over and over again, I thought I caught something. To my ears, the voice at 13:46:28 sounds like that of a Black American male, and the words he seems to be speaking are: "I don't believe that." Afterwards, there is muttering, followed by what sounds like another Western voice saying something that sounds a bit like "Thy will be done." Immediately after that, the soundtrack stops. The gruesome video continues in silence. Let me say right here and now that I'm basing my observations on a crap, compressed version of a video that was recorded under crap circumstances. What I'm describing is by no means obvious. Then again, if it had been more clearly audible - and if it's what I'm trying desperately not to sound like I'm implying it is - then they would have caught it and edited it out. But at this point, with what we've got to go on, this can only ever be a game of Chinese Whispers. It could be other Western hostages watching from the sidelines, expressing disbelief. Most likely it's nothing more than Arabic words, misunderstood. Perhaps one of our Arabic-speaking readers could listen and offer their opinion. In fact, I'd like to get the opinions of anyone who's already endured this video. I don't want anybody to feel obliged to watch this thing if they haven't done so already. Here is a high-quality version of the video. Jump ahead to 13:46:27 on the video's time-stamp. One second later, you will hear a voice. What do YOU hear? ************************** Compiling all the weirdness surrounding the Nick Berg incident is turning out to be a task of Sissyphean proportions. And so many other folks are doing such a great job of keeping on top of this, yer old pal Jerky doesn't want to get too bogged down in the specifics anymore. It would take far more space and time than I currently have available to me to list, even in point form, the evidence for and/or against all the new theories/observations/weirdness popping up every day around this subject. So instead of rehashing other people's stuff, I'm going to point out the best of that stuff, hope you read it, then offer some of my own observations based on a holistic absorption of all the available info. A good place to start is here, the nine-part (so far) DailyKos diary by Soj, who has compiled all the news coming out on the topic chronologically, nearly in real-time. His analysis pays special attention to conflicts and contradictions in the "official narrative", which seems to be re-writing itself at an astonishing rate. Reading all nine parts gives you a real feeling for the fog of confusion that has engufled this story. Hell, whoever pulled this stunt botched it so bad, even the moribund "mainstream media" have begun to raise a fuss, albiet in an oh, so delicate manner. Check out this Asia Times story, and this one from the Philadelphia Inquirer. For this next part, I'm going to have to assume you've gone ahead and done most of the same reading as I have. The Wikipedia page, the Rense rundown, the Infowars Berg archive, etc. That way, I can dispense with the details and hope that you approach what I'm about to write in a spirit of holistic understanding. Because, you know... I've got a deadline! First of all, while the timing of the video's release isn't proof of conspiracy, it sure raised some eyebrows, nonetheless. Like the terror attacks of 9/11, the timing simply could not have been more fortuitous as far as the Powers That Be are concerned. And considering public reaction to the Berg tape - with right-wing nuts and their followers labeling as traitors anybody who doesn't think the brutal murder of one individual isn't sufficient grounds for genocide - their bloody ploy worked like a charm. Watching the Nick Berg video over and over again, listening to it, in combination with everything I've read over the past two weeks and written in the last two Dirts... it all leads yer old pal Jerky to suspect that the same private intel and security contractors responsible for the worst of the Abu Ghraib abuses - notoriously brutal South African (and possibly Russian?) mercenaries among them - are quite possibly the people who kidnapped Berg, then videotaped themselves murdering him. They did this, I suspect, to distract from the revelations of their behavior at Abu Ghraib - where Nick Berg worked for a while, despite his name being struck from the contractor books - and to soften the blow of far worse revelations to come, which they were in the unique position to know about. Alone, the clues are worthless, but together, they begin to form an image. Same kind of chair. Same color walls. Same orange prison jumpsuit. The pink hands. The sneakers. The converted firearms. The military cap popping into frame. The western voices saying something that sounds like "I don't believe that." The attackers having the same kind of slovenly, overfed physiques that are on display in the abuse photos. They have the same thug swagger. And then there are the myriad videotape inconsistencies. Perhaps they even used the same video equipment as they did to tape their abuse of Iraqi prisoners. At the very least, I believe any serious investigation of Nick Berg's murder must begin by looking into the possibility that it was perpetrated by American-affiliated personnel at Abu Ghraib, even if only to eliminate that possibility. A good place to start would be to do some video fingerprinting, to find out whether any of the Abu Ghraib prison abuse video footage matches the footage of Nick Berg's murder. Check to see if there are similarities in the sound, settings and other digital markers. Interview all the personnel, both military and mercenary. Do background checks on them to see if they were ever involved in atrocities elsewhere in the world. Get a forensics team to turn that basement upside down, scan for blood residue, etc. But I fear none of this is happening. For a link-heavy version of the above stories, see: <a href="http://dailydirt.pornprofit.com/index.php?page=issues&date=2004-05-23&vsrs_id=pp3211">dailydirt.pornprofit.com/..._id=pp3211</a> <a href="http://dailydirt.pornprofit.com/index.php?page=issues&date=2004-05-21&vsrs_id=pp3211">dailydirt.pornprofit.com/..._id=pp3211</a>

by **BajaSur** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 3:06 am

Jerky, That is without a doubt in my mind the most awesome post I have ever seen. Thank You! I will most certainly look at everything you suggest. I had no idea at the depth of this I have to admit. I havn't even seen the video(it feels like I am the only one). Is there alot of blood?<--------------Rhetorical, please dont answer. <edit> I now see that you cut and pasted and didn't type this out in 16 minutes. Still though, excellent post and your blog is very well done.<bookmarked>. Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=bajasur>BajaSur</A> at: 2/13/06 2:09 am

by **Darklo** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 4:36 am

You make some good points. I saw this video a while ago and it made me feel so sick I dont even want to think about it. It was the sound of that man screaming that really did it for me, you just cant make that kind of sound up, this was a real execution and I can accept the editing as it all seemed a bit quick on the whole head cutting routine. I dont think you can prove one way or another from the video whether it was by coalition forces. I have not seen anybody blaming syrian or iranian secret services, and that I find interesting. The coalition forces needed a good story like this to shore up support for the war. At the time the insurgencey was raging along, whilst we can argue whether or not that was planned, its certain that the UK and US public were jittery at the time. So I take the view that its imposible to say, but I keep my mind open to the Psyop side of it, or false flag or whatever you call these things these days. Ah yes, thats right, its called cold blooded murder of a human being.

by **AlicetheCurious** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 4:43 am

That was very well done -- like most thoughtful skeptics, though, Jerky is reduced to highlighting the many important questions that dangle in the air, unanswered. And the reason for that, is that the only people who are in a position to order and/or carry out proper investigations, are the suspects themselves. By the way, for me, one of the most compelling clues that "Abu Musab al Zarqawi" was a fake, is that he is wearing a gold ring (Muslims of course wear wedding rings on their left hand, silly). But Muslim men ARE forbidden by their religion to wear gold. The Americans don't know that, I guess, so in one of the invetigative reports (I don't have the link right now), the "flashing gold ring" is clearly described as a clue. Also, the kaffiyehs worn by the men in the video look like they were just thrown on, which is what you'd expect if they were non-Arabs trying to disguise themselves. The way a Kaffiyeh is worn and folded is a subtle but clear indication of the wearer's geographical and tribal origins.

by **JerkyLeBoeuf** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 11:36 am

Thanks to everyone for their kind words and very friendly criticisms.

by **Qutb** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 12:56 pm

I don't feel like watching the video again, though.

by **nashvillebrook** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 2:24 pm

at first -- yeah -- i didn't want to. but as the story revealed holes the size of lake okeechobee, i figured that viewing it *critically* wouldn't suck too bad. so, first observation. people don't WANT to look at this stuff. they might see a little thru clinched eyes -- but for the most part, our brains want to FILL IN THE BLANKS and just get past it. as a former marketing communication schlep, the next thing i noticed was all the collage editing. it resembled a commercial with all sorts of other artifacts included on top of the video footage itself. so, second observation: the producer wasn't confident the video spoke for itself. next -- the beefy arabs with their beefy hands and military stance. the big kahuna -- the jugular vein in the neck should have spurted blood all across the room... on the camera... there should have been all sorts of physical reaction in addition to REACTION OF THE PEOPLE IN THE ROOM. there should have been mess and struggle. anyone ever kill a chicken? it's not just 'lop' and off to dinner. there's all sorts of post-headed drama. our little monkey brains that don't want to watch this video have filled in all the blanks. we're hardwired to do that. this man was already dead. period. this video is manufactured. this was a great post, jerky!

by **JerkyLeBoeuf** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 4:08 pm

Your kind words make it hard for me to differ with you, Nashville, and I hate to ask anyone to watch the video again (the Ogrish.com is the highest quality version), but you can clearly see Berg's face cringing and un-cringing as his murderer (the second one to have a go at him) saws away at his neck. His head is half cut off at this point, and you can see the blood spreading with disturbing rapidity on the floor. Maybe the arterial spray happened in the few seconds that were cut from the video. But I believe that's a real live murder on tape.

by **nashvillebrook** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 4:21 pm

that could be for a number of reasons all having to do with manufacturing this video. he could have been tortured, bleed, mostly unconscious, barely alive or drugged. skin is a single organ. you move something somewhere and something somewhere else moves giving the illusion of emotion. think joan rivers. whether or not it was 'live' on tape killing, seems beside the point to me. i see a corporate-military execution ritual framed to impact americans. what's the significance? it's okay to differ. i have no dog in this fight.

by **JerkyLeBoeuf** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 5:04 pm

Like most of you, yer old pal Jerky woke up one day last week to learn that an American had been beheaded in Iraq, that the murderers had videotaped their crime, and that an uncensored, digital version of the video was available on the Internet. After a minimum amount of searching, I found it on Ogrish.com, a site exclusively devoted to bringing exactly this type of footage to the masses. Just as millions of others did, I went to the site and downloaded the video. At the time, I'd seen ABC's coverage of the lead up to that slaughter, including footage of a young man by the name of Nick Berg speaking to the camera, followed by the reading of a statement by his soon-to-be murderers as he sat quietly in front of them. Ogrish dispensed with all that, offering only the final, horrific minutes. The "money shot". I wish I'd known their version offered no time to prepare for the wide-awake nightmare it presents. The video starts immediately. Five hooded men stir as one of them pulls a knife from his vest. They pounce on the pale figure at their feet. A chaotic jumble of bodies flashes across the screen. The camera jumps and shakes, as though the cameraman was having second thoughts. The murderers chant glory to their god, and as one of them begins to saw off his head, Nick Berg howls in panicked, animal confusion. Nine times. My blood froze. I went numb. These clichés remain in use for a reason. They offer an accurate approximation of the physiological reflexes that constitute horror. I wanted to stop the video, but something inside wouldn't let me. Whatever that something was, I hereby curse it to hell. Ogrish's motto is "Can you handle reality?" Apparently, I can't. Unfortunately, it took having my brain raped by the most callous and brutal act I've ever had the misfortune of witnessing to reveal this sorry fact. When it was over, once the blood began working its way through my veins again, it was time for another cliché. My heart sank. Realization dawned hard. There were no significant barriers to seeing this footage. No esoteric peer-to-peer hoops to jump through. This thing was easier to find than a McDonald's restaurant. It's quite possibly the most disturbing footage ever caught on camera… and everybody's watching it. The repercussions of this ubiquity were not long in coming. Immediately, the organized American Right seized this golden opportunity to minimize the impact of the growing Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, vilify Muslims in general, and galvanize the wartime resolve of an American public that was growing ever more weary of Bush's Iraqi distraction. Listing every example of the Right's shameless exploitation of this atrocity would be impossible. The few included in this essay are a fair representation of the rhetoric and tactics at play. Syndicated simpleton Sean Hannity kicked off the festivities on day one, playing the audio portion of the snuff vid on his radio show. He sanctimoniously defended this ghoulish exploitation by declaring: "I think people need to know what we're dealing with - it's evil right before your eyes." Indeed. The notorious Michael "Savage" Weiner echoed 19th century sentiments in his jeremiad: "Smallpox in a blanket, which the U.S. Army gave to the Cherokee Indians on their long march to the West, was nothing compared to what I'd like to see done to these people… Doc Savage recommends as an antidote to this kind of poison coming out of the Middle East from these non-humans." Former satirist Phil Hendrie used his radio show to stoke the fires of hate, declaring it was time to "take out this Muslim garbage… this subhuman filth." And, in his most recent editorial, talk radio "personality" Neal Boortz hit on all the common themes: "Suddenly the pictures of what happened in the Abu Ghraib prison don't seem to be quite so horrific, do they? … These are the people we are fighting. They are vicious relentless Muslim animals who will not stop killing innocent Americans and who will not abandon their dream of a world dominated by Islam until they are utterly and completely destroyed. … The retaliation for this vicious act must be firm, it must be swift, and it must have a violent finality. These inhuman Muslims must learn that these actions against Americans will not go unanswered ... and the answer will have a terrible finality." There you have it. The cold-blooded murder of a single American has been transformed into a blanket justification for genocide. This is not an uncommon sentiment. People calling in to these shows and posting on their message boards, by and large, concur. Never mind that the vast majority of Muslims around the world found this murder as reprehensible as we. Never mind that even the leaders of the extremist Hezbollah and Hammas movements decried it's Satanic travesty. The hysteria among a certain segment of the American population reached pathological levels long ago. Now, it's nearing apocalyptic levels. Nuke 'em all. Let Allah sort 'em out. But conservatives didn't limit their finger pointing to those who cleave to the Mohammedan faith. Karen Pittman wasn't expressing an unpopular idea when she wrote: "If anyone in America 'caused' the beheading of Nick Berg, it was those few sanctimonious, cynical Congressmen (like Teddy Kennedy) who were looking to 'decapitate' Donald Rumsfeld and General Richard Myers - they are the ones with blood on their hands." Yet another favorite target found itself back in the sights… the so-called liberal media. Log cabin paradox Andrew Sullivan claimed that mainstream media outlets refused to air uncensored footage of Berg's decapitation because they only want to run stories that harm Preznit Dubya. As proof, Sullivan and other right-wing pundits say that search engine data shows people are more interested in Nick Berg's decapitation than they are in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. The media ran the Abu Ghraib photos, but didn't run the uncensored footage of Berg getting his head sawed off. Therefore, the media are serving their own agenda, rather than meeting the needs of their constituency. Never mind that nothing in the tiny fraction of prison abuse photos so far released comes anywhere near the horror of the Berg tape. Never mind that no mainstream media outlet has EVER aired completely uncensored footage of a murder this gruesome. Never mind that the BBC and CNN - both paragons of communist indoctrination, according to the Right - broke the story in the first place, making a de facto farce of Sullivan's specious/facetious contention. Never mind that those search engine results are indicative of nothing more noble than human prurience, the voyeuristic desire to see someone's head cut off. I mean, for fuck's sake. The second most popular search engine topic after Berg's murder is Paris Hilton's nookie tape! But no... according to the Right, the media's refusal to air uncensored footage of Berg's murder must be a liberal plot to deny Americans the information they so righteously desire, because that's what liberals do! They try to manipulate people's emotions by controlling information, thus distorting the dialogue to suit their own sick and twisted agendas. Somehow, that old saying about "the pot calling the kettle black" just doesn't seem strong enough. I am reminded of a story currently unfolding in Norway, where a family of polar bears - a mother and two cubs - have become stranded on an isolated Arctic island. The ice melted before they could retreat inland. Now, with the seals gone, the bears face certain starvation. Animal loving Norwegians have urged authorities to launch an emergency rescue mission. After all, if they can get a news helicopter out there, why not a rescue chopper? Government official Sissel Aarvik cut the discussion short. "In nature most animals after all generally don't survive their first year," she said. "We currently do not have any plans to intervene." With that in mind, consider the following. In Fallujah, four heavily armed mercenaries were recently ambushed and killed by Iraqi insurgents, their bodies dragged through the streets by celebrating civilians. When this happened, the media presented it as both spectacle and warning. We were expected to be shocked and awed by the sheer barbarity of it all. When we were treated to grisly footage of the Fallujah ambush aftermath - charred corpses hanging from a train trestle like salamis in a deli window - the usual suspects shrieked their predictable outrage. Interestingly, they mostly concentrated on the desecration, and not the killings. "How dare Iraqis not be as squeamish about dead bodies as they should be? Those filthy animals!!!" It was seen as justification. As validation. As confirmation of the moral superiority of the WAR NOW! crowd. So how did America prove its moral superiority to the "animals"? By threatening an overwhelming response, and following through on that threat. They reduced schools, mosques, and hospitals to smoldering rubble. They avenged the deaths of four individuals by killing over six hundred people, most of them innocent of any crime. Only a year ago, coalition forces leveled Iraq with "shock and awe" and "decapitation strikes." They filled the streets with corpses. Nearly 30,000 Iraqi civilians - I repeat, that's CIVILIANS - have been killed so far in the Bush administration's manifestly criminal war of first resort. And now, we're all expected to go ballistic over the murder of poor Nick Berg by persons unknown. But let's leave all that for tomorrow, when the Dirt will present a complete rundown of the myriad mysteries surrounding Berg's life, his death, and all the things that don't add up about that tape. I leave you with some final thoughts. The reason governments use propaganda is because it works. Propaganda works because it seeks not to convince with reason, but to blind with emotion. The murder of Nick Berg and the mutilation of those four mercenaries were not, in and of themselves, enough to cause massive shifts in public opinion. Truth is not as powerful as photographs and video. That's why more attention was paid to the post mortem desecrations in Fallujah than to the murders, themselves. Because we saw the desecration on tape, but the murders happened off camera. That's why so much attention is being paid to Nick Berg. Unlike the more than 800 coalition soldiers killed so far in Iraq - for whom we feel only fleeting, mathematical sympathy - we got to watch the terrible last moments of Nick Berg's life. Unlike the 600 citizens of Fallujah, who were blasted into pulp with weapons of mass destruction, we got to see the charred, hanging corpses and Iraqi children smiling at the sight. And unlike the hundreds that starve to death under the exact same circumstances each and every year, Norwegians have been following the story of those doomed polar bears on their TV news. So they want the government to do something. In fact, they insist that the government do something. And therein lies the image's power to override reason. Therein lies an explanation for the success of propaganda. When you get right down to it, it's all about polar bears.

by **StarmanSkye** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 5:23 pm

Since the controversy over the Berg beheading video seems to have dropped off the edge of the world, I haven't found anything further on the apparant revelation that portions of the berg video contain an identical pixelated code-stamp with Abu Ghraib video -- which of course was an 'official' US military production. IF this video-fingerprint ID is factual, the conclusion that Berg's beheading was a military psyop is enexcapable. I find it a bit odd, Jerky, that you didn't follow-up on this aspect yourself -- surely you had to have encountered this detail yourself at some time? (I get that you wrote this post some little time after the Berg video was released, eh?) Anyway -- Thanks for the refresher on this horrid bit of history, apparently triggered by your seeing the white plastic chair on one of the video-frame photos of UK troopers beating two Iraqi children. I too was struck with the impact of sudden recollection on seeing the chair -- but I'd guess these plastic chairs are an ubiquitous part of the Iraqi urban-military background landscape, probably flooded into the country by the tens of thousands either during the Saddam-regime era and/or post-invasion. I can't see a similiar chair here in the states without unconsciously 'remembering' the Berg beheading (which video BTW I never had a burning desire to personally witness -- I've only ever seen select video-frame photos on alternative-info websites and a few mainstream 'news' media). Nevertheless, -- I can't help wondering whether the chair as an incidental artifact detail wasn't deliberately included in the Berg video by the psyop choreographers as a subconscious coded signifier to subtly 'remind' Americans that the US is in Iraq to 'oppose' and fight terrorism. As to WHY the Berg video would seem to be so bungled, ie. having so many apparant flaws and errors that suggest it isn't authentic -- is that due to the poor 'professionalism' of the participating actors and technicians resulting from the resticted pool of talent due to the ultra-deep-covert nature of the project? It would seem on that level of amateur covert-ops, it wasn't recognized that (some, many?) video cameras are built with a unique digital watermark feature to aid copyright protection. Apparently (if true -- I don't know that this has been reliably confirmed) this feature was a rather closely-held secret not disclosed via public press release or announcement or other technical bulletin -- so the amateur videographers at Abu Ghraib and of the Berg beheading --and their bosses-- didn't know the images could be traced to a single camera. (Of course -- Al Zarqawi, or the Imposter -- COULD have borrowed a camera from the US military at Abu Ghraib -- or both Zarqawi/clone and the US Military could have borrowed or rented the same camera, or hired the same amateur videographer? ie., 'Wedding and Torture videos our specialties -- Volume Discounts to Occupying Military Forces and Terrorists -- Same Day Service' listed under 'Photography Services' advertised in the Iraqi Yellow Pages or in the Baghdad Times? <heh!>). So it goes ... Starman ****** <a href="http://www.codecomments.com/message205093.html">www.codecomments.com/message205093.html</a> Re: big whoops Robert Wagner wrote: "There has been a semi-secret government initiative to add digital signatures to various digital consumer products. Photocopiers and digital cameras store an encrypted signature to identify the unit that made the video. This digitial signature is totally inique to each device and is more unique than a fingerprint. Today new pictures were released of prison torture at Abu Ghraib prison. But not just still pictures. Today video was released showing prisoners being tortured by Americans. Aparently Kodak film experts at Kodak Park in Rochester New York have compared the digital watermarks of the turture video and the beheading video and have determined that one of the cameras used in the Nick Berg beheading is THE SAME CAMERA that took the prison torture video." <a href="http://marc.perkel.com/">marc.perkel.com/</a> *** Also: <a href="http://www.apfn.org/NickBerg/alive.htm">www.apfn.org/NickBerg/alive.htm</a> There are unofficial reports by workers at Kodak film labs in the US that the video has been examined and the digital watermark recorded on all digital video as a ‘fingerprint’ for authenticity, has been linked to video of the Abu Ghraib Prison. These digital watermarks are different on every camera and video and are as unique as a fingerprint. If these claims can be proven true then it’s safe to say that at least one camera used to film Nick Berg was the same camera used to film Iraqi abuse, this would be the smoking gun. <a href="http://news.messages.yahoo.com/bbs?.mm=&action=m&board=37138445&tid=apprisonerabusephotos&sid=37138445&mid=12296&thr=12296&cur=12296&dir=d">news.messages.yahoo.com/b...2296&dir=d</a> ***** quote: Kodak Invisible watermarking: With this technology, every screening of every digitally projected movie could have its own unique code. This code, which is buried in the pixels, is invisible to the audience but is copied into the pirated version. These 'watermarks' provide the 'fingerprints' for tracing where and when the movie was stolen. ...the watermark can survive the actual process of capturing a projected movie with a camcorder. Moreover, the amplitude of the Kodak watermark is such that it is invisible to the viewer in the theater, thus maintaining the image quality that is such an important part of the movie-going experience. In the ShoWest demo, 16 bits of information were embedded in each frame of the movie, and it took less than 15 frames (0.5 sec) of captured video to extract the 16 bits with 100% reliability. Often, the watermark was successfully extracted using fewer than 15 frames, sometimes only one or two frames. <a href="http://www.kodak.com/country/US/en/corp/researchDevelopment/productFeatures/cinema.shtml">www.kodak.com/country/US/...nema.shtml</a> C.I.A. cut Nick Berg's head off? <a href="http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/article.php?id=2785">kavkazcenter.com/eng/article.php?id=2785</a> Video Timeline <a href="http://www.libertyforum.org/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=news_international&Number=1471708&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=21&part=1">www.libertyforum.org/show...=21&part=1</a> Berg decapitation video was filmed inside the Abu Ghraib prison <a href="http://aztlan.net/berg_abu_ghraib_video.htm">aztlan.net/berg_abu_ghraib_video.htm</a> *** *Here's something else VERY odd about the Berg beheading video that I never thought about: <a href="http://www.apfn.org/NickBerg/alive.htm">www.apfn.org/NickBerg/alive.htm</a> OFFICIAL STORY: The man with the knife was reported as being Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi – a known terrorist who is very high on the most wanted list. FACT: the US have already said that they believed Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi was killed in early bombing raids on Iraq, lets first assume they got that wrong and he is alive. Why then title the video ‘Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi shows killing of an American’ (as the Arabic letters at the start of the video read), talk loudly on tape identifying yourself as Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi BUT cover your face to hide your identity? (This really strikes me as esp. bizarre. All together -- there are so many holes in the Berg video that IMO it's most likely a sloppily-done put-up job that nevertheless seems to have worked as intended -- seems most Americans fell for it and the 'news' media cooperated in keeping most American's ignorant about the numerous flaws suggesting psyops. --S)

by **professorpan** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 7:37 pm

Other odd facts: Michael Moore interviewed Berg. Berg worked nights on the radio towers at Abu Ghraib. His father, an antiwar activist, was outed by freepers weeks before the murder. I blogged about the murder extensively as it was going down -- in fact, the Berg case was what inspired me to start my own blog. My old posts are still mostly intact here, although some of the links to articles no longer work (damn me for not archiving everything): <a href="http://www.charm.net/~profpan/2004_05_01_archive.html">www.charm.net/~profpan/20...chive.html</a> And an excellent summary of the Berg anomalies can be found here: <a href="http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/5/15/22827/0477">www.kuro5hin.org/story/20...22827/0477</a>

by **seemslikeadream** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 9:50 pm

Family of Beheaded U.S. Man Releases Statement <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=547956">www.democraticunderground..._id=547956</a> Body found on Baghdad overpass identified as that of <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=547236">www.democraticunderground..._id=547236</a> CNN Transcript On Nick Berg Murder <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=550541">www.democraticunderground..._id=550541</a> FBI Saw Berg During Iraq Police Detention <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=550119">www.democraticunderground..._id=550119</a> Pa. family angry with American government over son's brutal death <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=547830">www.democraticunderground..._id=547830</a> Parents blame Bush for son's execution <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=549188">www.democraticunderground..._id=549188</a> Body found on Baghdad overpass identified as that of American <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=547236">www.democraticunderground..._id=547236</a> Arab media disagree on story of beheading <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=551805">www.democraticunderground..._id=551805</a> Reporter says Berg held in custody entire time by US authorities <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=551660">www.democraticunderground..._id=551660</a> <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=551186">www.democraticunderground..._id=551186</a> Bush Condemns Execution of Berg in Iraq <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=550095">www.democraticunderground..._id=550095</a> Beheaded hostage 'had been warned to leave Iraq' <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=549507">www.democraticunderground..._id=549507</a> FBI Saw Berg Before Beheading <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=550573">www.democraticunderground..._id=550573</a> Berg worked at night on a Abu Ghraib tower <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=550780">www.democraticunderground..._id=550780</a> CBS: Bizarre New Link in Berg Murder (Berg and Moussaoui) <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=553244">www.democraticunderground..._id=553244</a> CNN: Was Berg in U.S. custody? Answers conflict <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=554749">www.democraticunderground..._id=554749</a> Diplomat's E-Mails Show Berg in Custody <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=552638">www.democraticunderground..._id=552638</a> E-mails from U.S. consulate to Bergs <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=553391">www.democraticunderground..._id=553391</a> Spokesman Says Berg Never Held by Forces <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=549641">www.democraticunderground..._id=549641</a> The victim: More than work drew him to Iraq <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=551848">www.democraticunderground..._id=551848</a> Diplomat's e-mails show Berg in custody <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=552645">www.democraticunderground..._id=552645</a> Berg died for Bush, Rumsfeld 'sins' - father <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=552677">www.democraticunderground..._id=552677</a> U.S.Iraq Consular Officer Payne)Diplomat's E-Mails Show Berg in US custody <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=552989">www.democraticunderground..._id=552989</a> Al-Zarqawi Murdered Berg, CIA Concludes <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=553143">www.democraticunderground..._id=553143</a> FBI told police to hold Berg <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=553087">www.democraticunderground..._id=553087</a> Beheading not linked to Iraq prison scandal: White House <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=549888">www.democraticunderground..._id=549888</a> Berg beheading: No way, say more medical experts <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=571473">www.democraticunderground..._id=571473</a> CNN Breaking: 4 arrested in the Berg Murder (2 released)... <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=571514">www.democraticunderground..._id=571514</a> Beheaded man named on Free Republic's "Enemies List" <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=551264">www.democraticunderground..._id=551264</a> Bush: Berg's killers must be found <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=557156">www.democraticunderground..._id=557156</a> Last days of Nick Berg a mystery <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=559749">www.democraticunderground..._id=559749</a> US Gov't Disavows E-Mails About Berg's Detention <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=559647">www.democraticunderground..._id=559647</a> EXECUTION: FOUR ARRESTED <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=563009">www.democraticunderground..._id=563009</a> BERG MET WITH SHADY IRAQI (Berg's business partner was a Chalabi wannabe) <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=560487">www.democraticunderground..._id=560487</a> Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=seemslikeadream@rigorousintuition>seemslikeadream</A> at: 2/13/06 7:01 pm

by **sunny** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 10:03 pm

Fantastic, slad! thank you.

by **JerkyLeBoeuf** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 10:07 pm

Hey, remember how Bush offered to tear down Abu Ghraib after the pictures of inmates being tortured were released -- wich just so happened to be around the time questions were popping up about Berg looking like he was killed at Abu Ghraib? Smelled like panic to me.

Nick Berg anomalies

Nick Berg anomalies

I'm Speechless

Re: Who benefits?

Re: Wonderful analysis

Re: Wonderful analysis

Very good post

i watched it many times...

Re: i watched it many times...

if it was... he had quite a low blood pressure prob

The first thing I wrote about Berg...

Re: Nick Berg anomalies

Re: Nick Berg anomalies

Re: my Nick Berg links

Re: my Nick Berg links

Re: my Nick Berg links

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