Clues From Graphic Tape of Beheading Could Help Identify Killers

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/GMA/Investigation/nick_berg_clues_040513-1.html

May 13, 2004 — Crucial clues into the masked men seen in the videotaped beheading of American Nicholas Berg may come from the tape itself, as well as Berg's body, federal investigators involved in the case say.

After analyzing the audio of the tape, the CIA has concluded with "high probability" that the masked speaker, who also carried out the beheading, is Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the top al Qaeda figure in Iraq. Zarqawi is also believed to be behind a wave of suicide bombings in Iraq against American targets.

<snip>

A close examination of the tape shows none of the five masked men is wearing gloves, so federal officials are trying to determine if there are any tell-tale tattoos on their hands. One of the clues the FBI and CIA is studying is the large gold ring Zarqawi is wearing on his right hand, giving off a glare several times during the six-minute tape.


Umm, aren't fundamentalistic Islamic men prohibited from wearing gold and silk?

Ask him.

I love how they are ID'ing a DUBBED IN voice.

The audio may be out of synch with the video, but that isn't proof that the voice was added later or from another source. It's possibly just skewed due to editing, but is still from the same original.

One poster in another thread claimed he manipulated the tape to where the audio and video synched perfectly.

I admit that I have extremely limited experience editing video, but one thing I was told repeatedly in editing classes was to MAKE SURE you keep one untouched copy of your original, because it is virtually impossible to redub audio to match video exactly; there will always be some off-synch along the line.

Which suggests that if the other poster -- I forgot who it was and which thread -- was able to match the audio and video, they were originally from the same event.

Just something to keep all the 'hatters honest.

Anybody ever used a digital video camera?

When you do a low-budget, single camera video like the one in question (why would these guys not just do like most of us casual users would do?), you simply use the microphone built into the camera to record the audio. The video and audio signal would be synchronized automatically by the camera. You then plug the three RCA-style plugs into your sound-card, hit 'record' using your soundcard driver software, press 'play' on the video camera, and your computer generates a SINGLE .avi (or .mpg) file for you, with the video and audio both contained within the file, synched perfectly, just like when you playback one of your own digital homemovies through your tv/stereo system at home, or record it to the VCR. You don't have to f*** with any such 'synchronizing' when you do it yourself, do you?

If there is ANY evidence of 'dubbing', or the video is not synch'ed to the audio, the most logical conclusion to jump to is that this file has been manipulated by someone besides the killers. This type of thing requires MORE thought and effort than the original creators would have thought/known/been inclined to do, IMHO. They aren't making Titanic here for godsakes!

Again, IMHO, if the audio is not synched to video, then someone has DUBBED IN the sound. Even if the whole sound piece can be made to synchronize perfectly with the video, as another poster said a friend of theirs did do, the very fact that the two are 'off' at all means the original video was put through some sort of editor and manipulated. That means that 'zaqwaris' little speech could have been added in later. If you can't see his mouth moving due to a bandanna, then there's no way you be sure of what the guy REALLY said, only that what you hear takes up the same LENGTH of time that his body language suggests that he's talking.

But if Al-qaeda's true masters are the bush cabal (as I personally suspect), then none of this even matters. The video could be 100% legit, it's just the motives and the story behind it that are not...

This wasn't just shot on a consumer camera and compressed raw.

someone who knew what they were doing could have come up with the results seen.

,...merely by the time indicator and the cut aways.

I also agree that the motives and story behind the video are the objective of examining it along with all other information relating to young Berg.

One leg or two. :shrug:

Providing the Government Departments responsible for analysis won't be enlisted, silenced or misdirected by Dimbo's re-selection effort.

the cia investigating this would be like letting john gotti pick his own jury, the cia killed this man, i habe no doubt about it

just askin'.

Valerie Plame worked for the intelligence gathering part of the cia. This is the legal authorized work that is funded by congress. It is responsible for knowing what is going on in the world so we know how to respond.

There is another, more secret part of the cia that does the covert, "wet" work. There is absolutely no oversight or control of this group. It doesn't take a psychic to figure out that they could very well be controlled by people within the administration.

As such he would definatly be involved with both parts.

..

Why would the FBI and CIA be looking for those? I thought Islam prohibited tattoos.

they know muslims didnt kill him our own cia did. They just need to make sure they covered up that fact real good.

Islam prohibits BEHEADING FUCKING INNOCENT PEOPLE, too.

Can you provide us with proof? And he would have to be innocent under Islamic law... probably just being Jewish is enough for an execution for these nutcases, if it even was Islamic people who did the killing.

http://brainbuttons.com/home.asp?stashid=13

My cousin was married to a man with the last name of Berg. He was from Norway.

His Dad, Michael Berg, says he was, and that's good enough for me.

I just thought it odd that they'd be looking for tattoos on someone they claim is Islamic.

In another thread or on another site, I read that al-Zarqawi has three dots tattooed on his hand, according to CIA/other intelligance agency records.

Whether or not he's a strict Islamic fundamentalist isn't relevant at this point: they're trying to determine if the killer in the video has the same three dots tattooed on his hand as al-Zarqawi.

I'm not a logician, so someone help me out if this is wrong, but doesn't it go something like this --

CIA knows al-Zarqawi has tattoos on hand.
If killer in video has similar/identical tattoos, chances are good he's al-Zarqawi.
If killer in video does not have similar/identical tattoos, chances are good he's not.

whoever was responsible for this outrage.

Or am I missing your point here?

Because I certainly hope you aren't saying that your faulty conclusion allows you to disregard any and all of your faulty premises.

proof that several of them did have him?


HaHa

This guy was some kind of spy. For what country or corporation is a matter of conjecture.

He fucked up somehow, and he paid the price.

JetCityLiberal

,...than what was posted. Moreover, as a poster indicated, Islam generally prohibits tattoos. On the other hand, boy O', you'll sure find tattoos very popular with "pale-skinned" folks.

Apparently other kinds of rings and jewelry are ok, but I would think that fundamentalist Muslim males would not be wearing gold rings.

"All the scholars have agreed that it is forbidden for men to wear gold rings, however they are permitted for women. The blessed Prophet (saw) said about silk and gold: 'These are forbidden for the males of my Ummah, but they are permitted for the women.'"

http://www.empiremuslim.com/ringofgold.html

#2 You don't KNOW it's Zarqawi
#3 In another thread you were shown several photographs of Muslim leaders in the Arab world (Qadafi, Osama etc) wearing what APPEAR to be gold rings.

The ring looked silver and the guy didn't look like any of the other four or five Osamas we've been recently subjected to.

The ring is the least of the problems. Now the chair that Berg sat in looks like a similar chair to the one the US soldier sat in.

... has spawned a ("don't tell me about it - just do it") vigilante team that did Berg. One of the "interest groups" in Iraq is the collection of corporations (public and private) providing mercenaries for interrogation, 'security,' translation, and probably "wet work." What did we read somewhere - there're over 10,000 people with charters to wield deadly force?

Iraq is, in effect, lawless. I remember enough about the various factions operating in Viet Nam ... including organized crime, smuggling, black market, contractors of a very wide variety of 'specialties,' semi-legitimate business interests, each of the three major geopolitical forces (US, South Vietnam, North Vietnam) of both the in-power party/faction and the political opposition groups, etc. etc.

I guess what I'm saying is that Iraq is even more FUBAR at this point. The insanely simplistic notion that it's only a choice between the US, the general Iraqi population, and some loosely affiliated 'terrorist' consortium is ridiculous. The insane amount of money (far more than just the billions we're pumping into the dirt) and power up for grabs is enough to make Viet Nam look like a simple board game.

Berg's decapitation video just didn't serve al-Qaeda interests and wasn't at all consistent with their MO. I don't buy it. I furthermore doubt that it served various Palestinian interests or that of other other (Islamic) 'terrorist' organizations. No matter how much these interests are painted with words like insane or crazy, their actions have been chillingly rational. This one just doesn't map.



One side observation: One thing a military/governmental force does is decorate, furnish, and equip people and places in a very uniform way. Some mention has been made of the similarities between things depicted in the Berg snuff video and the Abu Ghraib abuse photos. Well, there are many other detention facilities all around Iraq. I'd be willing to bet they use the same paint, plastic chairs, orange jump suits, plastic-weave sandbags (a la Viet Nam), etc. I'd also be willing to bet that there're quite a few folks able to masquerade as just about any "type' of person they want to -- and get paid well to do so.

Berg did some subcontracting work on transmission towers at Abu Ghraib. At that point, he may have came in contact with some folks (mercenaries?) who didn't like something about him ... maybe because he objected to something he learned?

in any country, and in the most remote areas imaginable. The chairs are already there, you don't have to bring your own. I am confident that identical white plastic chairs were ubiquitous in Iraq before Halliburton shipped in however-many-thousands that they brought in at US tax-payer expense.

Yes, I believe that the killers were CIA or the like. I doubt that I could be convinced otherwise.

I wonder why Zarquawi would post his name at the video introduction, declare his name during the video, and then wear a MASK.

I wonder why Zarquawi would post his name at the video introduction, declare his name during the video, and then wear a MASK.

OMG, that's priceless. You're absolutely right, and I feel like a fool for not having seen it.

A literal example of the ol' cover-up, perhaps?

He has changed his appearance since the last mug shot we have of him?

I cannot believe that this is even influencing peoples' opinion regarding the validity of this tape.

ironically, I think they have. And I don't think the WH will be able to stop the rumours this time.

and I have learned a lot from reading the threads for the last few days.After reading the media accounts,listening to the family and friends on TV and DU, this is my gut feeling ...

Mr.Berg was an extremely bright man, gifted in Science
He went to Iraq as a do gooder and to make money.
They say he supported Bush.
While in Iraq, he liked to hang out with a variety of people.
He was not afraid to meet new situations.

Sounds like a CIA agent to me! Call me crazy but that is what I believe.
Somehow, HE KNEW TOO MUCH and he had to go!

Listen to the CIA, FBI, friends, people he met in Iraq. He sounded like somebody that may have been the best neighbor in the world but he could just as well have been a CIA agent.

Listen to the way our government as flip flopped on who had him in custody- wooo.

It is a cover up folks. Call me crazy but those men with the hoods were not all from Iraq. Yesterday, when I first heard that idea raised I said, "no way."

Today, after seeing those pictures again, I would not put anything pass these neocons.

Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction and I believe that is what we have here.

suddenly went from anti-Bush and ready to bring the whole cabal down for outing Valerie Plame to pro-Bush and killing American businessmen as grotesquely as the rioters in Fallujah killed four others?

Or do we have two CIAs, one "good" and one "bad"?

I don't get it.

but you have NSA's and all sorts of other alphabet agencies, private companies and political cliques that could get their kicks from this kind of crap.

All we need to concentrate on is identifying the individuals.

may NOT be anti Bush with this. Think how virilent Bergs Father has been against the cabal.This could be what sinks Bush.Remeber what Berg said about the fate Bush would leave our children to?

There is the public, authorized part that simply gathers information. That's the part that Plame worked for.

Then there's the super secret, covert part that originated in WWII with the OSS. This is the group responsible for the "wet work". The obfuscation evident in the video is a sure clue to them.

One commitment the administration made immediately after 911 that is credible was that we should expect heavy and extensive use of covert means.
Bergs fate at the hands of ruthless terrorists pigs certainly goes a long way in demonstrating how much more evil Al Quada is than the US Military on a bad day when it comes to treatment of prisoners.
Without a doubt the terrorists pictured did great service to the administration in repairing damages from the POW leak.
If they continue to be this stupid in their strategy we should be able to catch them before the election if we haven’t caught them already.
Covert action turns the whole Idea of "News" into some weird surrealist movie where nothing is fantasy and nothing is real and the two are inter changable. Viet Nam, Cambodia, Laos, ----- Libya?? Iran Contra ,Sandanista, Colombian "Drug" wars and on and on it goes. All the work of UFOs over Mexico mind you.
I doubt that Bergs Dad stands much of a chance of getting to the bottom of the specifics surrounding bergs detention by the US and subsequent release, capture, and execution.
I’m thinking this one is pretty much a dead end.
Whether it was or wasn’t a done deal is redundant. Any thing regarding this that might be classified wouldn’t stand a chance in hell of leaking out of the security involved in a covert action as dark and cloistered as that, if that is what it was.
It appears to me Berg was perhaps a little over sympathetic with the Iraqi on the street.
Had it not been for this perhaps he would have not been detained in the first place and been home safe by now.
Sad unfortunate situation all the way round no matter how you look at it.

http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=5/16/2004&Cat=2&Num=029

The terrible death of Nick Berg in Iraq — beheaded in front of a video camera — has taken place in such strange and suspicious circumstances that it raises deeply troubling questions. Among them is whether American agencies had a direct or indirect hand in the young man’s murder.

....

Were Berg’s murderers being directly paid by the American government, they could not have performed a more timely service for the Bush White House....

....
Further questions....
....


Anyone who believes it is unthinkable or outrageous to suggest that the American government would sanction having one of its citizens murdered to shore up its fortunes is underestimating the political situation.

The Bush administration and elements of the American military hierarchy, media and corporate establishment are indictable war criminals.... To them, the life of 26-year-old Nick Berg would have meant nothing. (By courtesy of WSWS.org)

I didn't know that.

",...suicide bombings at Shiite mosques in Karbala and Baghdad were blamed on what the US now calls the “Zarqawi network.”"

I didn't know that either.

Interesting article.

Al Jazeera claims that the Arabic Web sight that released the video would not down load for them in the time frame that it was down loading for FOX and CNN.

The low down on where we might expect the blame for detainee abuse will finally come to rest.

http://newyorker.com/fact/content/?040524fa_fact