James Foley "beheading" video. For real ...??

[Nordic]

Okay the James Foley video. I just tried to find it and I found the following. On a windy day in the desert, a guy who is about to be beheaded with a knife calmly reads from a script. The sound quality is good enough that both the beheader and the soon-to-be beheaded are apparently wearing lavalier microphones. Then there are some suspicious looking cuts on the tape ....

THEN suddenly the wind has stopped and the scary black clad guy starts to seemingly saw the neck of the supposed victim. I don't see the victim cry out or resist or anything at all.

I haven't killed any people but I have killed a few small animals and one thing that always happens is a struggle, involving an astonishly high level of desperate strength on the part of the victim. I don't see anybod that here. Why no struggle? A fully grown man, apparently in decent physical condition, would require 3 or 4 guys to hold down in order to successfully off his fucking head.

And where did the wind go? It's simply, and suddenly, dead calm here.

Then it cuts to a shot of the headless body with a bloody head sitting on top of it. Looks a lot like something out of Game of Thrones, where they, you know, fake this kind of stuff.

So has anybody seen a video which convincingly actually shows the guy getting his head sawed off?

Because what I've seen thus far is laughable in its staged quality.

[Wombaticus Rex]

For anyone else wondering what a "James Foley" even is: he is a journalist who disappeared in Syria on Nov. 22, 2012.

Yesterday the footage Nordic is referring to was either released or surfaced to the internets general public.

He has been billed as a "freelance war correspondent," and while such absurdities do exist, they're also a pretty common cut-out for all kinds of fun ops. The young homey is from next door in New Hampshire (which frankly makes it all the more believable that he'd just be running around war zones for fun and profit.)

A cursory google dig indicates he was widely published and has covered a lot of wars in the past decade.

[seemslikeadream]

The beheading of an American journalist at the hands of a London-accented extremist prompted deep reckoning among Britons on Wednesday over the particularly vicious role their countrymen are playing in the destabilization of the Middle East.

Neumann said the group probably selected a Brit to carry out the execution both because he was willing and because it knew that his voice would resonate across the West.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/eur ... story.html

[Searcher08]

Hmm...
Many years ago I went through a period of wanting to what actually happens - news footage which is never shown etc. The absolute worst was from a site called ogrish.com which featured uncensored news.
The worst video they had (by general consensus) was of a young Russian conscript, who had the experience on his 19th birthday IIRC of having his head sawn off by a Chechen guerilla. The Russian had his hands tied behind him. The sawing took between maybe five to ten seconds and was accompanied by a lot of gurgling and a monumental amount of blood. The Chechen chatted to his mates while he was doing it and appeared just to kneel on his head.

It set me off wondering how people could treat others like this. I didn't think the Chechen was "evil", but could not grok how he was able to do it.
My answer (found much later) was that his in internal representations, the Russian was an inanimate object, like a chair or fencepost.

[Nordic]

I'm just saying the James Foley beheading looks completely fake to me. Maybe because I work in the business of producing fake media. This one doesn't pass the smell test. At all. Why edit the video? If its real and you're a real scary terrist why not actually show the head being cut off? To spare people's feelings? And what happened to the wind???

[Hunter]

The world has gone completely batshit insane.

[coffin_dodger]

The absolute worst was from a site called ogrish.com which featured uncensored news.
The worst video they had (by general consensus) was of a young Russian conscript

That was one of the most disturbing things I have ever seen. I wish I could unsee it. I've avoided anything like that since. Ogrish was bought out by LiveLeak, iirc.

[semper occultus]

...drugs...?

[stillrobertpaulsen]

I don't agree with everything stated in this article, but I do believe the main question needs an answer.

One Big Question Surrounds The Murder Of US Journalist James Foley By ISIS

Michael B Kelley

Aug. 20, 2014, 6:40 AM

Following the grisly murder of an American journalist by extremist militants, one key question remains: How did ISIS abduct James Foley, who was widely considered to be in the custody of groups loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad?

In the words of Mic politics editor Stefan Becket: "The prevailing assumption was that Foley was being held by pro-Assad forces, or by the regime itself. How did he get from there to ISIS?"

The FBI believes an “organized gang" abducted Foley, who was working for GlobalPost, shortly after he left an internet café on Nov. 22, 2012.

In May 2013, GlobalPost President Philip Balboni released the following statement on behalf of himself and Foley’s parents: “We have obtained multiple independent reports from very credible confidential sources … that confirm our assessment that Jim is now being held by the Syrian government in a prison … under the control of the Syrian Air Force Intelligence service.

"[I]t is likely Jim is being held with one or more Western journalists," Balboni added, "including most likely at least one other American.”

On Tuesday, ISIS released a grisly, 4-minute video apparently showing Foley's beheading. The video, and claims that ISIS also holds American Time contributor Steven Sotloff, are being investigated by U.S. intelligence services, and Foley's family stated that James "gave his life trying to expose the world to the suffering of the Syrian people."

What is unclear is if previous investigations into Foley's whereabouts were inaccurate, if ISIS militants somehow captured Foley from some of the regime's most elite security, or if the Assad regime provided Foley to ISIS.

[stillrobertpaulsen]

Specifically what I'm objecting to in the Business Insider link is the characterization that Assad created ISIS to foment a fake dichotomy and the delusion that there is a moderate or "mainstream" rebel force operating separately in Syria. I'm not sure if this story has been posted on another thread, but I hope it suffices to refute those lies.

Isis & Al Nusra Merge & Announce Islamic Caliphate - Obama to Send them $500 Million
30.Jun.2014 | SCG



ISIS and Al Nusra have decided to join forces, and have announced the formation of an Islamic Caliphate covering much of Iraq and Syria. As if to congratulate them (or as a housewarming gift), the Obama administration is planning to send them an additional $500 million dollars.

Sound like an exaggeration? It's not.

ISIS began as a branch of Al Qaeda. In February of 2014 the official leadership of Al Qaeda disavowed the group in an attempt to distance themselves from the bad press ISIS attracts for itself (ISIS does after all have a predilection for mass executions), however by merging with Al Nusra ISIS has effectively nullified this. Al Nusra pledged their allegiance to Al Qaeda in April of 2013 (Al Nusra is often referred to as Al Qaeda's official branch in Syria), which means that ISIS and Al Qaeda have effectively reunited (to reverse this Al Qaeda would have to cut all ties with Al Nusra).

Now the Obama administration is seeking an additional $500 million dollars for what they are referring to as the "moderate" Syrian rebels. Trouble is, the so called "moderate" rebels regularly conduct joint operations with Al-Nusra, and refuse to classify Al Qaeda as an enemy. By the way, isn't it technically a crime to provide material support to a terrorists organization?

It's a little tricky to keep up on who is on whose side, but for now ISIS, Al Qaeda, and the Syrian Revolutionary Front (aka FSA) are working together, and that means that any weapons or money that the U.S. government sends to the Syrian rebels are going to end up helping ISIS.

There has been been a lot of talk about "vetting" the rebels to insure that U.S. support doesn't end up in the wrong hands, but this is just public relations. The idea that Washington can control the flow of weapons and money after it enters a war zone dominated by Islamic extremists is almost as ludicrous as the claim that this support will stabilize the region. As pathetic as the official line may be, what else could we expect? It's not like they can tell the truth.

[Metric Pringle]

I also am not convince by the tape's authenticity. Due to that other beheading video which seems to be an obvious fake (I can't remember the name), I decided to have a look. There is absolutely no blood whatsoever when the knife starts to cut his throat, and cuts after a little but to the dead body and decapitated head. Considering all the other extremely violent and uncensored ISIS videos that were doing the rounds, I find it very suspicious that this one is so censored. Surely their aim is to shock, why take away the most shocking moment. Strange.

[Nordic]

Exactly. To me that makes it clearly bogus. Along with all the other stuff I mentioned. It's like they filmed it for an "R" rating. The last shot of the dead body with the disconnected head would be so easy to fake any semi talented high-school filmmaker could pull it off. In short, there is zero evidence here that anyone actually had his head cut off!! Zero!!

[MayDay]

I can't understand why some of you are actually watching this. confused sad and angry.

[Nordic]

Why are you feeling that way? I try to inspect all the Psyops bullshit in the media especially the stuff that happens at oh-so-convenient times as to justify military action/spending/killing.

That's what we do here, why should that bother you? If I knew it was real I wouldn't watch it. But I wanted to see if it was fake and honestly I'm really surprised at how dubious it is, and equally surprised at how many people are simply accepting it as something real. B

See, that's what amazes me, is how people can watch modern day movies and tv shows where such things are portrayed and we know they're fake (like Game of Thrones) yet when we are shown something that isn't done convincingly at all, but we're told by authority figures in advance that it's real, people tend to believe it!

It amazes me, how this works. It's like a parlor game, a trick. "I'm going to show you _______" said in advance makes such a difference in perception.

It reminds me of the "Fat Osama" video, which is equally dubious, but which had the result of millions of people thinking they had witnessed OBL confessing to 911.

[seemslikeadream]

David Cameron rushed back from vacation today



'Likely' that UK citizen beheaded US journalist

The beheading of an American journalist at the hands of a London-accented extremist prompted deep reckoning among Britons on Wednesday over the particularly vicious role their countrymen are playing in the destabilization of the Middle East.

Neumann said the group probably selected a Brit to carry out the execution both because he was willing and because it knew that his voice would resonate across the West.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/eur ... story.html

deep reckoning among Britons on Wednesday over the particularly vicious role their countrymen are playing in the destabilization of the Middle East

hey what about this guy?