Beheading dominates media worldwide
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| Wed, 05-12-2004 - 11:54am |
Wednesday, May 12, 2004 · Last updated 8:25 a.m. PT
Beheading dominates media worldwide
By MICHAEL MCDONOUGH
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
LONDON -- Amnesty International condemned the videotaped beheading in Iraq of American civilian Nick Berg, an act which Prime Minister Tony Blair's office described Wednesday as "barbaric." But Iranian radio accused Western media of using the slaying to distract attention from the abuse of prisoners in Iraq.
Images from the film showing Berg and his captors just before the killing dominated TV broadcasts and newspaper front pages in many countries.
A Kuwaiti newspaper ran a picture of one of the killers holding the severed head and some Greek TV stations showed the actual execution, although they obscured the head. The full video was posted on an al-Qaida-linked Web site.
"Such acts are unjustifiable under any circumstances and constitute a serious crime under international law," London-based human rights group Amnesty International said of the slaying. "Those responsible should be brought to justice in line with international standards."
The masked men who killed Berg claimed they were angered by coalition abuses of Iraqi prisoners. The video, posted Tuesday, showed them pushing Berg to the floor, severing his head and holding it up. His body was found near a highway overpass in Baghdad on Saturday, the same day he was beheaded, a U.S. official said.
The video bore the title "Abu Musab al-Zarqawi shown slaughtering an American," referring to an associate of Osama bin Laden believed responsible for a wave of suicide bombings in Iraq.
Blair's official spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity, described the killing as "a truly barbaric act," adding: "There is no justification for this kind of act in a civilized world."
In Greece, government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos said the execution provoked a "sense of abhorrence. ... The Greek government condemns violence wherever it comes from."
Most Greek TV stations aired segments of the video, some stopping just before the beheading while others obscured the head during the execution.
Other broadcasters in Britain, Spain, China, Germany, Italy and Belgium showed images of Berg kneeling on the floor with his black-clad captors standing behind him.
"What follows is too cruel to show," said Belgium's VRT public broadcaster, which aired the video up to the point where Berg was thrown to the ground after one attacker took out a knife.
Germany's mass-circulation Bild newspaper ran a picture of Berg's captors holding up his severed head, eliciting condemnation from the German Journalists' Union.
"Naturally, newspapers have to report on this horrible act," union chairman Michael Konken said in a statement. "But the human slaughter recorded in the picture does not belong in the media."
Iranian radio accused the western media of showing pictures from the video for propaganda purposes.
"As a result, the issue of Iraqi prisoners' torture has been totally ignored by these media," the Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran said.
"The American authorities too, have entered this news-making propaganda. These authorities have described the killing method of the American national as loathsome, and implicitly indicated that the American troops were justified to torture Iraqi prisoners."
Arab media reacted cautiously to the execution, with some newspapers conspicuously playing it down or even ignoring it.
Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya, the big two satellite networks, aired edited snippets of the video. "The news story itself is strong enough," said Jihad Ballout, spokesman for Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television. "To show the actual beheading is out of the realm of decency."
Egypt's leading daily, Al-Ahram, ignored the beheading Wednesday. An editor said the news came too late for the paper to confirm the video's authenticity with the U.S. government.
Newspapers in Syria, where the government controls the press tightly, did not report the execution at all.
Five of Kuwait's seven dailies published the report with photographs on their front pages. The other two published brief reports. The Al-Siyassah daily ran two photos, including one with a masked militant holding up Berg's severed head.
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cl-nwtreehugger
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The man who beheaded American captive Nicholas Berg was likely al Qaeda associate Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a CIA official said Thursday.
An assessment of the video showing Berg's death concludes it is a "high probability" al-Zarqawi is the hooded speaker who is shown decapitating Berg, the CIA official said.
The video was posted on an al Qaeda linked Web site and discovered Tuesday.
Zarqawi, a 37-year-old Jordanian native, has a $10 million reward on his head.
The U.S. government claims he has a long-standing connection to al Qaeda and is a close associate of Osama bin Laden.
He is accused of organizing terrorists to fight U.S. troops in Iraq on behalf of al Qaeda. He is also believed to have plotted the 2002 killing of U.S. diplomat Laurence Foley, who was gunned down outside his home in Jordan.
More.........
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/05/13/iraq.berg/index.html
I hope they catch them and hang them from the highest tree!
Those who were in the pictures were, their general was, and the investigation was on going. There is absolutely no indication that anything is or was trying to be covered up, and if the story did have any effect on the investigation, it wasn't dependent on releaseing those photos.
I still don't believe that it's gone far enough up the chain of command.
I am sorry but this sort of disgusted me...even though you say it doesn't negate the horror that happened to Mr. Berg you go on to say that he was there at his own accord for some money. You are sounding like those you have been argueing with this whole time. By saying that and adding that in which is so "irrelevant" makes you seem you are saying in an idirect way that somehow this is HIS fault. Also how do you know he went over there with $$$ signs in his eyes? That is a scary place right now and I don't think anyone would openly accept the invitation simply because he was gonna make a few bucks....Gosh I wish you wouldn't have said what has no relevance on any of the tragedy that he and his family encounterd. Tell me would you have said that to his parents face? "He refused to leave when he had the chance. He went over there on his own to make money. Sadly, it was a risk he decided to take."
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I agree with you. My sister was disgusted when she saw the new cover of TIME magazine with an Iraqi sitting there with a bag on his head coming across as "Americans the Barbaric". Where is the magazine cover with Mr. Berg sitting there in a chair looking innocent as he was about to be murdered in such a way that defies anything good. It sickens me that this get's so blown up as if ALL AMERICA and ALL the MILITARY and ALL WHAT we represent is a lie. It's mind boggling! It's propaganda at it's all time low.
I would be surprised if TIME didn't have Berg on the cover in it's next issue.
James
janderson_ny@yahoo.com
CL Ask A Guy
>"The only PROPOGANDA is the right-wing BS that we don't care."<
To blame others is easier than to admit guilt about supporting a war that never should have been started.
Time had it's cover & the entire mag.already printed & shipped before the video of that poor young man was shown.
There is no mention of it in the table of contents.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/0,9263,1101040517,00.html
I understand people get emotional about stories in the news they don't stop & rationalize.
What is that supposed to mean? Who am I blaming in order to not feel so "guilty" as you put it about the war??
That was an ignorant comment.
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