Another Phony Beheading?

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-01-2003
Another Phony Beheading?
Wed, 08-18-2004 - 8:07am
Another Phony Beheading?

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.