The Little Brown Reader

Berg Video Conspiracy Theories

(Warning: This is about a nasty decapitation video, and the links below show parts of it. My text below also discusses parts of it in detail.)

Most of the pieces of these theories don't sway me much (like the much-vaunted difference between the time-stamps on the shots)...but the first link below shows two spots where an additional person appears on the right side of the frame, and that person does seem out of place as compared to his presumed colleagues in the main shot.

The first time I saw the viedo I found the manner of the execution to be very strange -- all of the hooded figures swarm around Berg, obscuring almost all of the killing portion of the decapitation. While you do hear screaming among the "Allahu Akbar"'s being chanted by the captors, you don't actually see Berg screaming or the graphic element of his killing (as you would in a horror or action movie, for example). It's not that I wanted to see that, but it seemed very strange that the terrorists would have arranged their act so that the most horror-filled part was not muddled, blocked, and unclear.

Once the screaming is over, and the decapitator is finishing the job of separating the head, the clustering hooded guys pull back, and that part is shown more clearly.

I just don't see any strategic reason to cluster around him during the killing part, unless there is some sort of ritual custom involved...and it seems as though this video was very carefully planned out. (i.e., everything seems to have been done for a reason in a rehearsed manner).

Aside from that, I also found the fidgeting terrorists to be a little suspicious, and their stances seemed undisciplined. Which again seems strange for such presumably dedicated religious extremists, who are trying to instill fear in the hearts of millions.

So, I'm not ready to buy into the conspiracy theories, but I'm still suspicious of the video (as I was from the first time I saw it, without hearing anyone's theories). I'm skeptical in both directions.

Berg decapitation video was filmed inside the Abu Ghraib prison

Marc Perkel Rantz: Berg Video - SMOKING GUN?

The Nick Berg execution: a working hypothesis and a resolution for the orange jumpsuit mystery