tin foil hat : black ops

[oceanpoetry]

Reading the Berg story about gruesome video and a gruesome murder, I wonder if this isn't black ops ...this has completely taken the story off the torture in Iraqi prison - and also seems to again make a connection between Iraq and Al Quaeda. My question - who benefits? it seems to me the * administration is going to gain from this among the general public, those who don't follow the news that closely.

[David Dunham]

1. This won't help Bush. It's another innocent American killed in Iraq.

[DenverDem]

3. It already has helped bushlerco.

Torture isn't as bad as decapitating someone. (rolls eyes)

"They" are worse than us. Torture seems tame.

This is an another obvious mass mind control black op, from the ludicris "al CIAda" terrorists to the edits in the tape.

[mountainvue]

8. Exactly.

Take a look at tonight's CNN poll on Lou Dobb's show:

"Are you offended by the lack of outrage by Arab media and governments over the killing and mutilation of Americans in Iraq?"

Yes 69%
No 31%

Um, how many Americans actually see or hear ANY Arab media? It's ludicrous. It's a subliminal hate the Arabs message.

[TahitiNut]

20. "Cui bono?" Who benefits?

This really is the question. It should be asked not only from one's personal perspective, but from the imputed perspective of anyone we'd regard as responsible for such an act.

Does it help al-Qaida's 'cause'? Nope. Not at all, imho. In fact, I can't even believe that a 'radical Islamist' would regard this video'd atrocity would help their 'cause'. Why not? Because the continued revelations of abuses at Abu Ghraib were a no-cost-to-them boon.

Does it help the 'cause' of global corporatist militarism? Arguable. From my own perspective, it does not. From the perspective of the fascist mind, however, it certainly would. There's no question it's tossing raw meat to FReeperdom, which they happily use to apologize any abuses of the Busholini regime by the rule of lowered standards. Let's recall the repeated propagandistic theme: their boy is never required to meet or exceed anything but the lowest possible standard. When it looks like he's failed even in that regard, the standard gets lowered yet again.

Who is capable of performing such a beheading and passing the video to the media? I nominate Pakistani covert ops in concert with ... someone. I think this is at least as plausible as al-Qaida.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

2. one thing that i've learned over the past couple of weeks

is that jsut when you think you've seen the end, another thing emerges more astounding than the last. If this was some sort of Black Operation by Black Ops, it will be so drowned out by the upcoming weeks' news it will have all been for naught.

[charlie]

4. True dat

Except it's been happening for years. Bushco and the results of their activities just keep the old outrage meter pegged, don't they? It's the frog-in-a-pot syndrome, but cranking the heat to full boil right away and keeping it there. Seems to have worked spectacularly for them so far... and like you, I dread next week.

[TroubleMan]

5. The beheaders were too fat to be our black ops guys

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.

Every special forces and black ops guy I know is in tip-top shape.

Our government would not send a bunch of out-of-shape guys to do this (maybe something else, but not this).

We have height and weight requirements, the opposition forces don't.

This is retaliation for our torture pics, and bush will shamelessly exploit it to his advantage - just like he did with 9/11.

[oceanpoetry]

7. my speculation ...

maybe they were the private contractors being employed by blacks ops. How deep does the rabbit hole go? We have to be asking the questions because the mainstream media won't.

[TroubleMan]

9. You gotta be a zealot, brainwashed, or have some serious training ...

to do some sick shit like that. I can tell by body fat on that one guy, that he hadn't been through some serious training.

Our government would not leave something like this to someone they couldn't trust completely and that has not been through rigorous training.

They're not just going to hire some schmucks to do this - it would have been some elite unit or mercenary, like the South Africans. That's why I feel it was the opposition forces - they don't have a height and weight standard.

After what we did, some shit like this was bound to happen. BFEE didn't need to orchestrate this.

[DenverDem]

10. Contractors provide plausible deniability.

Hard to tell actual fitness of the "al CIAda" guys, though they are rather solid.

One would think that Iraqis would be a little more gaunt, themselves, however.

[StandUpGuy]

11. It's All Black Ops

this is a

http://news.myway.com/top/article/id/402753|top|05-11-2004::18:27|reuters.html

By Ghaida Ghantous
DUBAI (Reuters)
snip
One of the masked men read a statement urging Muslims to seek revenge after pictures were published of Iraqi prisoners being abused by U.S. troops at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.

"Nation of Islam, is there any excuse left to sit idly by? And how can free Muslims sleep soundly as they see Islam being slaughtered, honor bleeding, photographs of shame and reports of Satanic degradation of the people of Islam, men and women, in Abu Ghraib prison?" the statement said.

snip

The militants' statement, addressing families of U.S. soldiers, said Zarqawi's group had offered Washington to swap Berg for Iraqi prisoners held by U.S. troops "but they refused."

"You will only get shroud after shroud and coffin after coffin slaughtered in this manner," it said.

"As for you Bush, dog of the Christians, anticipate what will harm you... You and your soldiers will regret the day you stepped foot in Iraq and dared to violate Muslims."

The release of the Torture pics was Black ops.
Each picture released portrayed crimes against Islam
even Saddam new better than to stoop to such levels.

It was IMHO designed to deflect attention from Fallujah defeat

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1582070

[oceanpoetry]

12. the more I read about this story...

the more questions I have. He was being held by the our government for weeks for interrogation. Berg was released after his parents' filed a lawsuit. He isn't allowed to fly out from Baghdad Airport so has to find a different route. Then he is ostensibly picked up and executed in a heinous way on videotape.

I won't watch the video, btw, because I know it is nightmarish.

[Tansy_Gold]

13. Someone on another thread posted there are no civilian flights

out of Iraq. If you want to get out, you go through Kuwait, Jordan, or Turkey. And that's exactly what Nick Berg was planning to do.

OHMYGAWD! That must mean there was a conspiracy! If anyone does something normal in this totally fucked up mess, that's evidence they knew more than they let on, so they must have been CIA and that's why. . . . .

my sarcasm reservoir needs a refill. time for bed

[phaed]

14. My 2 cents

Having been in SO I can't discount these guys could have been SO personnel or at the least trained by them. They didn't look "fat" as much as larger than the normal ME male. They wouldn't have hired schmucks, no, but there are some folks who would do anything for a dime or to make thier case on the side of any religious fanaticism including Christian. Remember the crusades, Salem witch hunts? As much as we would like to think we're above all that now, we're not.

Anyone who would discount that the US could sacrifice one of their own for political gain has had their head in the sand for a long time.

[DoYouEverWonder]

15. It seems that weight is not as big an issue

as it use to be? Look at some of the folks in uniform in this pic. The fellow bending over, who doesn't have his pants tucked in properly (probably one of those private contractors) is quiet stout. And his other buddy isn't in the best of shape either.

[DieboldMustDie]

6. Michael Berg blames the Bush administration.

Listen to A Conversation with Nick Berg`s Father.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

16. in the months before Berg's beheading the Berg's were sueing Rumsfeld

the Berg's had filed papers against Rumsfeld and Berg had been in CPA custody and US custody twice before he was beheaded....something REALLY REALLY stinks about this video

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-te.beheading12may12,0,6296379.story?coll=bal-nationworld-headlines

Berg had decided to abandon the search for work after being detained by Iraqi police late March 24 in Mosul. On March 30, FBI agents visited his parents, Michael and Suzanne Berg of West Chester, Pa., to tell them Nick Berg was jailed in Iraq and to establish the reason for his presence in that country.

But Berg continued to be held by decision of the U.S. military, possibly because of uncertainty about whether his identity had been stolen by someone else, his parents said in recent media interviews.

Berg's parents filed a federal lawsuit April 5 against Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld demanding their son's release. He was freed the next day, according to Alfred A. Gollatz, the attorney who handled the case.


Father blames delay

In an interview yesterday with public radio station WBUR in Boston, Michael Berg said he blames the U.S. government in part for his son's death. If he had not been held incommunicado for nearly two weeks, he could have left Iraq safely, Michael Berg said.

"We could have gotten him out of there before the hostilities escalated," he told the radio station. "I still hold responsible.

"But it goes further than Donald Rumsfeld. It's the whole Patriot Act. It's the whole feeling of this country right now that rights don't matter anymore because there are terrorists about."

In the video footage, posted on the Web site of the terrorist group Ansar al-Islam, Nick Berg, dressed in an orange jumpsuit and with his hands bound, sits on the floor in front of five men wearing head scarves and masks.

In a quiet voice, he introduces himself: "My name is Nick Berg. My father's name is Michael. My mother's name is Suzanne. I have a brother and sister, David and Sara. I live in ... Philadelphia."

something is very WRONG about the media and gov't story :cry:

[WoodrowFan]

17. sheesh

You know, they make wonderful medication for this kind of paranoia now.

[oceanpoetry]

18. WoodrowFan....

ad hominem - google it.

There are way too many unanswered questions - as part of what aspires to be a democracy, I am going to keep asking the questions and raising the speculation. I love my country but fear my government.

[MoonRiver]

19. No way is it going to help *.

Just think about the knot in your gut as you imagine yourself or your kid, or grandkid, or friends kids etc. potentially in that picture. I'm starting to wonder if Kerry needs to come up with a super duper immediate exit strategy. Hopefully he will before November. I definitely believe that the sentiment of this country will be OUT OF IRAQ NOW by late-summer. * doesn't care diddly squat about what people want, so Kerry's got to step up to the plate.