U.S. hostage screams in horror as he is beheaded.
Posted: Wed May 12, 2004 10:49 am
This disgusts and saddens me to no end.
http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/20688.htm
U.S. HOSTAGE SCREAMS IN HORROR AS HE IS BEHEADED
By NILES LATHEM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
May 12, 2004 -- WASHINGTON - A young American contractor in Iraq was mercilessly beheaded by Islamic terrorists on a horrifying videotape released yesterday as so-called revenge for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners.
The sickening video, posted on an al Qaeda-linked Web site, shows a killer identified as terror boss Abu Musab Zarqawi sawing off the head of a screaming Nick Berg.
He commits the savage murder after reading a lengthy diatribe vowing more slayings for the "satanic degradation" of Muslims in the Abu Ghraib prison.
Berg's severed head is then held before the camera.
The brutal killing recalled the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was also beheaded.
Like Pearl, Berg was Jewish, although the latest murderers apparently did not mention his religion in their statement.
The grisly tape was released just hours after U.S. authorities confirmed that a beheaded body found hanging from a bridge near coalition headquarters Saturday was that of Berg, 26, a Philadelphia-area resident who went missing on April 9.
In the video, five men wearing headscarves and black ski masks stand over Berg, who is wearing an orange jumpsuit similar to a prison uniform.
"My name is Nick Berg. My father's name is Michael," the pale and terrified Berg says moments before he is murdered on the stomach-churning death tape.
"My mother's name is Suzanne. I have a brother and sister David and Sarah," continues the kneeling and bound Berg.
Then, one of the hooded fanatics reads a lengthy statement denouncing President Bush as a "dog of the Christians" and vowing revenge for the prison abuse scandal.
"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," says the speaker.
As the tape continues, one of the masked men pushes Berg sideways to the ground and he begins to scream.
To shouts of "Allahu akbar" (God is great), Zarqawi thrusts a large knife into his neck and saws off his head.
After the killing, the masked monsters proudly hold up the severed head to the cameras.
The video was posted on the Muntada al-Ansar Web site, well known as a bulletin board for statements from al Qaeda and other Islamic terror groups.
The Web site's headline title for the video was "Abu Musab al-Zarqawi slaughtering an American."
Zarqawi is an al Qaeda-linked Jordanian arch terrorist responsible for numerous bombings and other terrorist attacks in Iraq over the past year.
He also is sought in the assassination of a U.S. diplomat in Jordan in 2002.
U.S. intelligence officials could not confirm that the man who did the killing was Zarqawi. They noted that the voice of the speaker on the tape appeared to be different from the voice on other audio tapes that have been released in Zarqawi's name in recent weeks.
The speaker on the videotape did the actual killing.
Although he is often identified as al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Zarqawi, in fact, runs his own terrorist network that is allied with Osama bin Laden, but does not take orders from him.
In the video, the executioners said they had tried to trade Berg for prisoners at Abu Ghraib.
"For the mothers and wives of American soldiers, we tell you that we offered the U.S. administration to exchange this hostage for some of the detainees in Abu Ghraib and they refused," one of the men read from a statement.
"So we tell you that the dignity of the Muslim men and women in Abu Ghraib and others is not redeemed except by blood and souls. You will not receive anything from us but coffins after coffins . . . slaughtered in this way."
The State Department had informed Berg's anguished family of the grisly killing on Monday.
"I knew he was decapitated before," Berg's father Michael told reporters. "That means is preferable to a long and torturous death. But I didn't want it to become public."
When first told that a videotape of the killing was posted on the Internet, the elder Berg and his two surviving children kneeled slowly to the ground in the front yard in West Chester, Pa., and wept as they hugged each other for comfort.
Berg had his own TV antenna business and had been in Iraq looking for work helping rebuild the infrastructure when he went missing.
His family said he had been held for unknown reasons by new Iraq security forces for a few weeks in March.
Berg's parents said they last heard from their son on April 9 when he told them he had been released a few days earlier and was on his way home to Philadelphia.
Military officials said his body was found Saturday hanging upside down from a bridge near U.S. headquarters.
His severed head was left underneath the body, officials said.
U.S. government counter-terrorism officials said the videotaped beheading appeared to be designed by Zarqawi to capitalize on the worldwide outrage over the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and weaken the will of an increasingly anxious American public to support the U.S. war effort in Iraq.
There are fears that other Western hostages, including an American soldier and three Italian security guards known to be in captivity, could also face grave danger in the days ahead, if they are in the hands of Zarqawi's group.
Officials noted that videotaped decapitation is a gruesome but standard al Qaeda tactic.
Islamic fighters in the Afghan war against the Soviet Union made numerous videotapes of beheadings of captured Russian soldiers that were sent home to their families.
And more recently, al Qaeda-linked militants videotaped the beheading of Pearl, who was kidnapped in Pakistan in 2002.
Yesterday Pearl's wife, Marianne, was too upset to discuss Berg's murder, her lawyer said.
http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/20688.htm
U.S. HOSTAGE SCREAMS IN HORROR AS HE IS BEHEADED
By NILES LATHEM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
May 12, 2004 -- WASHINGTON - A young American contractor in Iraq was mercilessly beheaded by Islamic terrorists on a horrifying videotape released yesterday as so-called revenge for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners.
The sickening video, posted on an al Qaeda-linked Web site, shows a killer identified as terror boss Abu Musab Zarqawi sawing off the head of a screaming Nick Berg.
He commits the savage murder after reading a lengthy diatribe vowing more slayings for the "satanic degradation" of Muslims in the Abu Ghraib prison.
Berg's severed head is then held before the camera.
The brutal killing recalled the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was also beheaded.
Like Pearl, Berg was Jewish, although the latest murderers apparently did not mention his religion in their statement.
The grisly tape was released just hours after U.S. authorities confirmed that a beheaded body found hanging from a bridge near coalition headquarters Saturday was that of Berg, 26, a Philadelphia-area resident who went missing on April 9.
In the video, five men wearing headscarves and black ski masks stand over Berg, who is wearing an orange jumpsuit similar to a prison uniform.
"My name is Nick Berg. My father's name is Michael," the pale and terrified Berg says moments before he is murdered on the stomach-churning death tape.
"My mother's name is Suzanne. I have a brother and sister David and Sarah," continues the kneeling and bound Berg.
Then, one of the hooded fanatics reads a lengthy statement denouncing President Bush as a "dog of the Christians" and vowing revenge for the prison abuse scandal.
"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," says the speaker.
As the tape continues, one of the masked men pushes Berg sideways to the ground and he begins to scream.
To shouts of "Allahu akbar" (God is great), Zarqawi thrusts a large knife into his neck and saws off his head.
After the killing, the masked monsters proudly hold up the severed head to the cameras.
The video was posted on the Muntada al-Ansar Web site, well known as a bulletin board for statements from al Qaeda and other Islamic terror groups.
The Web site's headline title for the video was "Abu Musab al-Zarqawi slaughtering an American."
Zarqawi is an al Qaeda-linked Jordanian arch terrorist responsible for numerous bombings and other terrorist attacks in Iraq over the past year.
He also is sought in the assassination of a U.S. diplomat in Jordan in 2002.
U.S. intelligence officials could not confirm that the man who did the killing was Zarqawi. They noted that the voice of the speaker on the tape appeared to be different from the voice on other audio tapes that have been released in Zarqawi's name in recent weeks.
The speaker on the videotape did the actual killing.
Although he is often identified as al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Zarqawi, in fact, runs his own terrorist network that is allied with Osama bin Laden, but does not take orders from him.
In the video, the executioners said they had tried to trade Berg for prisoners at Abu Ghraib.
"For the mothers and wives of American soldiers, we tell you that we offered the U.S. administration to exchange this hostage for some of the detainees in Abu Ghraib and they refused," one of the men read from a statement.
"So we tell you that the dignity of the Muslim men and women in Abu Ghraib and others is not redeemed except by blood and souls. You will not receive anything from us but coffins after coffins . . . slaughtered in this way."
The State Department had informed Berg's anguished family of the grisly killing on Monday.
"I knew he was decapitated before," Berg's father Michael told reporters. "That means is preferable to a long and torturous death. But I didn't want it to become public."
When first told that a videotape of the killing was posted on the Internet, the elder Berg and his two surviving children kneeled slowly to the ground in the front yard in West Chester, Pa., and wept as they hugged each other for comfort.
Berg had his own TV antenna business and had been in Iraq looking for work helping rebuild the infrastructure when he went missing.
His family said he had been held for unknown reasons by new Iraq security forces for a few weeks in March.
Berg's parents said they last heard from their son on April 9 when he told them he had been released a few days earlier and was on his way home to Philadelphia.
Military officials said his body was found Saturday hanging upside down from a bridge near U.S. headquarters.
His severed head was left underneath the body, officials said.
U.S. government counter-terrorism officials said the videotaped beheading appeared to be designed by Zarqawi to capitalize on the worldwide outrage over the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and weaken the will of an increasingly anxious American public to support the U.S. war effort in Iraq.
There are fears that other Western hostages, including an American soldier and three Italian security guards known to be in captivity, could also face grave danger in the days ahead, if they are in the hands of Zarqawi's group.
Officials noted that videotaped decapitation is a gruesome but standard al Qaeda tactic.
Islamic fighters in the Afghan war against the Soviet Union made numerous videotapes of beheadings of captured Russian soldiers that were sent home to their families.
And more recently, al Qaeda-linked militants videotaped the beheading of Pearl, who was kidnapped in Pakistan in 2002.
Yesterday Pearl's wife, Marianne, was too upset to discuss Berg's murder, her lawyer said.