Another Phony Beheading?
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| Wed, 08-18-2004 - 8:07am |
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?
type=topNews&storyID=561077§ion=news
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A tech-savvy young San Francisco man who
staged his own mock beheading on the Internet duped international
media today into believing Islamist kidnappers had executed an
American hostage in Iraq. The video, which appeared on a Web site
used by Islamic militants, showed a man who identified himself as
Benjamin Vanderford appealing to the United States to leave Iraq. The
Web format was that used by al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and
was introduced by a headline that said it showed Zarqawi killing an
American. "If we don't (leave Iraq), everyone is gonna be killed in
this way ... I have been offered for exchange for prisoners here in
Iraq," the terrified-looking man said, rocking back and forth
in his chair, his hands tied behind his back. The video showed a hand
with a large knife apparently slicing through the neck of a limp
body.
But it was all a hoax. The blood was dye, the setting was a friend's
garage, the Koran reading was a tape and the knife was held by a
friend. Mutilated bodies and sound effects were edited in
from photos on Web sites and the video was purposefully blurred to
make it seem even more amateur, Vanderford said. A major motivation
for his action, an unrepentant Vanderford told Reuters, was to see
how the world media would react and to see if they would be
fooled. "It really illustrates the potential that this kind of thing
would happen," he said. Vanderford, 22, said he worked at branch of
Wells Fargo bank. A college drop-out, he was a candidate for the
local city council earlier this year but had since dropped out of the
race. His Web site also says he is a video game programmer and works
with a local record label.
