Was The Berg Video A Cover-Up?

[The Jacket]

Conspiracy Theory

As many of you know, a video was recently released in which Islamic radicals brutally decapitated an American man by the name of Nick Berg.

This video was released just after images of Iraqi prisoners being abused were leaked and brought embarrasment to the United States government.

The argument has been presented that there is a conspiracy involved with the decapitation video. Some believe that the United States government may have had the video created to help take attention away from the ongoing fiasco concerning Iraqi prisoners. The argument presented by the man in the link I provided is rather weak and he later recanted several of the points.

But there are a few of them that stick in my mind. Mainly the fact that the men wear masks in the video. If these men stand up for their beliefs in such a radical fashion, why are they wearing masks as though ashamed of their actions or scared of their identities being known?

As of right now, my position is that the tape is legitimate but I'm open to the idea that it could have been a fake or diversion by the government.

I'm interested in hearing your opinions on the matter, so please share.

[Maxy]

I took the time to read the article, to watch the uneditted video and to read the subsequent pages of responces. I was very surprised by the complete and total rejection of these points by the forum users; it was a well written piece with some thought-provoking points. What struck me the most is that, should the responces be indicative of public opinion in the US, the American people flat-out refuse to take criticism of their country. Mike27 made valid criticism of his nation, but, of course, it was rejected. In Britain we are free to criticise our government, the actions of our representatives and anything to do with our nation - and we do just that. Whilst America flaunts its right to free speech it seems that its citizens censor themselves, removing or ridiculing anything under the bracket of "unpatriotic". I do not believe there is anything wrong with being proud of a national identity, but it grieves me that a country that is so proud of its supposed tolerance despises any action that is deemed un-American.

The British are American's closest ally, and unsurprisingly so. A great deal of American culture has found its way across the Atlantic and through media, food and fashion, the UK is slowly being assimilated into Americanism. For me this isn't a concern, these aspects of America are desirable - it is the extreme nationalism, legal system and political framework that perturbs me. The farcical nature of the legal system, in which members of the public can sue individuals or organisations for such nonsense as burning themselves with coffee which, for some reason, the company had neglected to inform the custom, would be hot, has began to crop up on these shores. Personal accident claims adverts are on the rise, an indication that ridiculous law suits are becoming popular in this country. As of yet the nationalism and political system of the US has not become part of British culture, but these aspects are of a concern to us and are the main differentiaters between our societies. Since the Iraq war these problems, particular relating to the attitude of the current US government, have been highlighted and a great rift is opening in our relationship. The UK government is in full co-operation with America, but popular opinion in our country is that the US is wrong in almost every respect concerning Iraq and this will be the downfall of our Prime Minister. The public has lost faith in our American allies and our "special relationship" seems only to apply to the current ruling parties.

With our lack of nationalistic pride - the idea of which we find almost amusing - we can subjectively assess the situation in Iraq without fear of recrimination. I personally did not support the war in Iraq in the first instance - no-one believed there were weapons of mass destruction and our government failed to sell the idea to us. I also did not support the regime change excuse - I did not fall under the illusion that the Iraqis would rise up and fight with the coalition - and it would be fair to say that most Britons had similar reservations, but this is not to say they didn't support the 'liberation' of Iraq.

Having said that, I am also not anti-American, a growing trend in the UK, only anti-Bush. I have heard of many conspiracy theories surrounding recent events, the War on Terror, such as 9/11 being orchestrated by the US government, Donald Rumsfelt personally instructing prisoner abuse and now this (don't forget the moon landing being fake). Mike27 raised some points that grabbed my interest but did not persuade me that this was perpetrated by the United States. I find the idea that the US could commit these atrocities at all, especially to themselves, to be somewhat paranoid.

The two points Mike27 presented that did rouse my attention were that concerning the gold ring and the Russian spoken. Yet, should this be the work of hired mercenaries, as suggested, these are obviously huge oversights. No matter how quickly this tape could have been made to distract attention away from American abuses, speaking in Russian is a massive mistake that would not go unnoticed.
In conclusion, I do not agree with Mike27's theory, but do find it disturbing that many Americans are not willing to analyse the evidence presented.




On a semi unrelated note, but still conspiracy theory based, anyone who doesn't believe the moon landing was real has been the victim of another hoax. Aside from the so-called "evidence" against the moon landing being disproven, I know numerous individuals who were present at Jodrell Bank, a radio telescope sight which assisted in tracking the moon landing, and can confirm it actually did land on the moon.

Also, my tutor was present at Roswell during the "alien landing" and kindly told us what really happened. Since he is English he never had to sign any official secrets papers. That's another story though

[The Jacket]

Woah. All this time, close to 40 views and just one reply. Crap.

Thanks for your opinion Maxy, good read.

Also, my tutor was present at Roswell during the "alien landing" and kindly told us what really happened. Since he is English he never had to sign any official secrets papers. That's another story though

Anyway you could PM me the story?

[Zheil]

Weird... This is all just weird...

I believe this seems to be a cover-up of sorts, and that there are many flaws in the video (Yeah, I just watched it, and it seemed unreal, and I don't mean in a horrified way).

One thing, when the person with the knife goes for him, why does he not panic or budge? There was no struggle at all. And whenever you cut someone's throat, you usually hit an artery that causes blood to spurt out, though when he is beheaded there is barely plasma of any sort. All I saw was some *cough* loose tissue *cough*.

Also, I read on the English Aljazeera site with the topic(english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/4FFA61A3-9C33-4597-A8D9-8079E91F2784.htm) that some people have looked closely and noticed that the person being executed doesn't look remotely familiar to Nick Berg (And it's not just the facial hair).

Finally, I noticed one thing. Throughout the five minutes of talking in the video, Berg doesn't budge one bit, and his body looks as though it were superimposed or something, because the pixels of his person on the video didn't move one bit over at all. Plus, the only motions he made were shrugs of his shoulders, which he appeared to do about every 30 seconds or so, and the motions practically looked the same to me every time. I don't know why, but it seemed fake for some reason.

And yes, what's with the masks? Here's a quote from the Aljazeera site:

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

"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?"

All I know, in my opinion, is that it's either a big cover-up for the Iraqi abuse or it's a fake video.