Ranting to /dev/null

Okay, this is bad

By now everyone has heard of the video depicting the beheading of Nick Berg that surfaced last week. (It's still around on the net, but you'll have to look deep, as sites that post a link tend to be slashdotted out of existence within hours.) It appears to be a fairly straightforward execution. But there's a lot about the video that doesn't make sense. Like, for example, why there isn't any blood. Had Berg's head been cut off in the manner depicted by the video, there would have been blood spurting everywhere. There wasn't. And, for example, why the self-identified executioner doesn't have an artifical leg. Because Al-Zarqawi was fitted with an artifical leg that doesn't work very well. He is reportedly unable to stand. To make matters more interesting, current intelligence indicates that Al-Zarqawi was killed in a US helicopter attack several months ago.

The conspiracy mongers are, of course, hard at work. I don't really know what to think. In any case, Kuro5hin has a very detailed discussion of the discrepencies, inconsistencies, and downright oddities in the video. This is not looking good. A going theory - and a not entirely implausible one - is that the execution has been staged, by US operatives, as an effort to blunt the effect of the Abu Ghraib scandal. If this is true, this is bad.