Thursday, June 03, 2004

Execution video 'doctored'

PV Vivekanand

The infamous, revolting video showing the
decapitation of American Nicholas Berg by alleged Al
Qaeda members is a complete fraud and it was shot
inside the US-controlled Abu Ghraib prison outside
Baghdad. This is a contention put forward by experts
who made a frame-by-frame analysis of the footage.
The inference in the contention that the footage is
fraud is that the US military, reeling back from
allegations of gross abuse of Iraqi detainees by US
soldiers and interrogators under contract, wanted to
hit back by showing that Al Qaeda members were inhuman
executioners. The footage, which was put on an
Islamic website, drew worldwide condemnation of Al
Qaeda, and by inference Arab Muslims.
"The hastily released and shoddy video showing five
phoney Al queda members participating in the
decapitation of Nicholas Berg twas intended,
exclusively, to defray attention from the scandalous
sexual abuses of Iraqi PoW's that took place at the
Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad," says the
California-based La Voz de Aztlan, a news service.
"Evidence in fact shows that the Berg decapitation was
filmed inside the walls of the notorious Abu Ghraib
prison, this cursed dungeon where probably Satan
himself roams its corridors."
La Voz de Aztlan says many of its subscribers saw the
footage and raised doubts about its authenticity.
US intelligence officials have claimed that al Qaeda
assciated Abu Musab Al Zarqawi was the masked person
shown decapitating Berg with a large knife, but the
officials have not explained by the masked man did not
show any sign any handicap (whereas it is believed
that that Zarqawi lost one leg in an explosion).
According to La Voz de Aztlan, the features that
expose the footage as fraud are:
1. The white plastic chair in which Berg is shown
sitting in the video is identifical to the chair in
which an American female soldier is sitting with a US
Marine in fatigues standing behind her in one of the
infamous abuse photographs that came from Abu Ghraib.
The same chair is seen in at least four other
photographs that showed American abuse of Iraqi
detainees.
2. The orange prison overall that Berg is shown
wearing is exactly the same given by the US
authorities to prisoners taken in Afghanistan and
detained at Guatanamo Bay, Cuba.
There is no explanation why the same uniform was worn
by Berg if his captors and executioners were Al Qaeda.
3. Three of the five captors and executioners are
shown wearing bullet-proof vests that are of standard
US military supply. There has never been any
indication ever that Al Qaeda fighters anywhere in
the world ever used bullet-proof vests at all. And how
did they end up with American standard supply vests
which are not available in the market?
Furthermore, the one "Al Qaeda fighters" on the
extreme right in one of the video shots is pudgy and
is wearing very clean tennis shoes. This will not be
the case with an Al Qaeda fighter.
4. In one of the shots in the video showing Berg being
executed, a head wearing an American military cap of
the same type used by Abu Ghraib wardens is seen
poking into the right hand frame for a split second.
This could be seen only in slow motion review of the
footage. There cannot be any mistaking the similarity
between the Abu Ghraib cap and the cap seen on the
video. The man could be carrying a second video camera
as seen in slow motion.
5. The colour and texture of the wall as shown in the
frames taken from the video as shown in several
photographs of the Abu Ghraib abuse.,
The video footage of the "Berg execution" was uploaded
from London, England to a now defunct website in a
server located in Malaysia on May 11. Berg's body was
found near a highway bypass outside Baghdad on May 9.
According to La Voz la Aztlan, the website at
http://www.al-asnar.biz was shut down as soon as
"conservative news outlets like CNN and Fox News were
notified. These two news services wasted no time in
coming out with headlines like 'Islamic Terrorists
Decapitate an American in Iraq.' Within minutes, local
news services from New York to Los Angeles were
screaming 'Muslim Animals Chop Off the Head of an
American' and were showing only short segments of the
fake video. Pro-Zionist radio stations in Los Angeles
have spent literally days since then talking about the
Muslim barbarians and why it is so important to
support the war in Iraq. "
Additionally, Berg's family has said that they had
learnt that Berg, a former soldier who was trying to
sell a communication technology in Iraq, was in
American military custody at the time of his death.
His body was found outside Baghdad two days before
the videotape surfaced, but it was never explained the
body was decapitated.
"The real Nick Berg may or may not be dead, but the
heavily edited video is nothing but a fake," says La
Voz de Aztlan.
"For the time being, the mainstream media is totally
ignoring the above evidence," it says. "Hopefully soon
some brave mainstream publisher will dare to bring
this important information to the American people."

For related images, see
http://www.aztlan.net/berg_abu_ghraib_video.htm

Saddam not 'brainwashed'

June 3, 2004

Saddam not 'brainwashed'
PV Vivekanand

Saddam Hussein is suffering from fatique but has not been "brainwashed" during his detention since December last year. He has retained full control of his faculties and, if anything, has sharpened his argumentary skills, and one could expect to see verbal tirades from the ousted Iraqi leader during his trial at an Iraqi court on charges of crimes against humanity.
This much was from the 30-minute session where an Iraqi court formally read out the charges against him and he refused to sign a paper acknowledging that he understood the charges and proceedings.
While he was shown on television making his argument, his voice was not broadcast and Salim Chalabi, the man in charge of prosecuting him, said later hearings may not be broadcast live for fear of acting as a rallying call to insurgents.
Judging from the way he conducted himself, it was clear that Saddam has not changed a bit in his approach.
Probably it took some time for him to collect himself after being brought to the court in chains after the first few minutes of his being produced in court, was really the Saddam of the old: arrogant, scornful while focused and intense.
Every word he used was so typical of Saddam, starting with the overpowering approach where he could have been mentally taking charge of the courtroom by asking the judge to introduce himself and questioning his credentials.
"What is this court? Who are you? Under whose jurisdiction do you fall? I am the president of the Republic Iraq,"
His insistence that "I am the president of the Republic of Iraq" could be easily seen as a reflection of his self-assurance that he was elected with more than 95 per cent of the votes in the referendum he held prior to the war.
"I am the elected leader of the Iraqi people. Please do not take that away from me. ...Please do not strip me of the title," he told the judge.
 His description of the trial as theatre and US President George W Bush as the "real criminal," his dismissal of the charge that he had ordered the gassing of Kurds — "yes, I have heard about it" — his defence that his 1990 invasion of Kuwait was "for the people of Iraq" and his reference to Kuwaitis as dogs are vivid examples of his behaviour and approach while he was in power.
His response to the court's offer to appoint a lawyer for him if he could not afford one was again so typical: "As everyone says, the Americans say, I have millions of dollars stashed away in Geneva. Why shouldn't I afford a lawyer?"
On Kuwait, he told the judge: "How can you, as an Iraqi, accuse me of an invasion of Kuwait when Kuwait is part of Iraq? How can you call it an invasion? I was doing something for the good of Iraqis. These mad dogs were trying to put down the price of Iraqi oil and turn Iraqi women into 10-dinar prostitutes."
Waving a pen for emphasis while being polite Saddam questioned the legality of prosecuting him for crimes that he argued were covered by presidential immunity. He often showed anger and exasperation at the same time.
All these expressions underlined one thing: Saddam has not been "brainwashed" and left to be a mental wreck by his American interrogators. He has retained his faculties and it is a safe bet that one could get to see another Slobodan Milosevic in action once the trial gets going in earnest, perhaps in a few months' time.
Saddam being produced in court marked an unprecedented episode in the Arab World. For the first time, a former Arab leader was being put on trial in his own country to be judged by his own people.
Indeed, there are many firsts happening in Iraq, and some of them defy logic and reason if seen on their own outside the right context. However, putting Saddam on trial is an imperative of the interim government, which wants to send the strongest message yet to the people of Iraq that it is in control of the country and that not only the brutal era of the Baathists is over in an irreversible course of events but also that the former regime's leaders would pay for their doings against Iraqis.
International legal experts differ over whether a "fair trial" is possible for Saddam. Some say that they would have preferred to see Saddam put on trial in an international framework with UN involvement while others say that it is the privilege and right of the people of Iraq and their government to try the ousted president. All said and done, Saddam and his close associates during his reign in power have been put on trial before an Iraqi court made up of Iraqi judges and the process would take its own course regardless of what anyone has to say about it, including the opinion that Saddam never applied justice in the functions of his judiciary and thus he does not deserve fairness during his trial.
Then, there are those who are insisting that he should be given the death penalty while others believe that he should be subjected to prolonged imprisonment, which they feel is more appropriate for a man who had little mercy for others, including his own sons-in-law.
On the other side of the coin is the fact that it might even have been painful for Arab nationalists, given that Saddam was once seen as the most powerful Arab leader with all that it implies and as the strongest symbol of Arab resistance against biased American polices in the Middle East. To see him brought into court in chains and treated like a criminal was shocking and saddening to many who remember the way he used to conduct himself while in power.