First, some disclaimers: While forensic is probably accurate in at least one sense, I’m not an examiner of any sort or by any means. All observations are simply casual observations, nothing more. My deepest sympathy goes out to the family of this – and any other – person killed in pretty much any situation. But most often in one such as this where the whole world shares in that moment and you simply cannot get away from it.
In case you hadn’t guessed, I was recently able to watch the video. Okay, that’s probably not completely true either. I watched a video, which I am led to believe is the video. Based on the comparison of the clips I’ve seen on TV, I’d say it’s a reasonable assumption.
In any case, there is a string of people standing around in masks, someone is talking in what I think is Arabic or something I view as remarkably similar, the same orange-clad guy is in the video, he says many of the things I’ve seen elsewhere, the timestamps match up, and he even ends up without his head at the end.
What I find interesting about the video is that the quality is remarkably poor. Not the taste – that is obviously poor. But the actual video quality of the clip. I’m not sure if I’d recognize my own father in this video.
I can at least say with reasonable certainty that it is a man in the orange jumpsuit. Beyond that? Anything else is a guess. That the people in the video are even the ones talking is a stretch. The audio isn’t remotely synchronized with the events we see, especially as the video progresses towards its conclusion. At said conclusion, there is no way that I could tell that the head belonged to a person or if it came from a mannequin. The quality is really that poor.
Skipping those facts, I’m left wondering exactly how the orange-clad man got from the chair to the floor. It seems a reasonable assumption that he was killed and thrown on the floor. But the video I saw didn’t include that in any way. It went from chair to blur to floor.
What’s more, the timestamp jumped wildly. The video starts at 13:26 or so, and then jumps quickly to 2:18 (with no jump in audio). Then from 2:40 to 2:44 or so we get the ‘Arabic speech’, and at 2:44:12 – I think – it jumps to 13:45:47, where the floor show begins. None of this is evidence that it didn’t happen, as he could have been talking at 13:26 and killed at 13:45. I just find it strange.
I’m also not saying that the video I have, or the video the rest of the world has, is fake. I’m not that sort of an expert. I just find it odd that the orange-clad figure is mostly unidentifiable, the ‘abductors’ are completely unidentifiable and the quality is poor enough that the entire video could be easily staged and no one would have any idea. The only thing verifiable appears to me to be the facts of this – or some – young man’s life, some Arabic and some screaming. Not exactly proof beyond a reasonable doubt, at least in my mind.
What’s more is that I wonder why no one has brought that up. Anyone see Wag the Dog?
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2 responses to “Forensic Video”
It’s come to my attention that there are a number of other sites (notably Kuro5hin) that are reporting on similar discrepancies in the video. I didn’t know about them prior to writing this piece a couple days ago, but it’s interesting to see that I’m not the only one who has questions.
Oh, I’m quite familiar with “Wag the Dog.” Just like in the movie too, we’ve gotten Toby Keith to replace old Willie Nelson and band us together through song, there’s also a replacement for Schuman – Jessica Lynch; the heroine.
It makes you wonder … wonder if “The Don” Rumsfeld, Dick, and Wolfowitz had movie night together and watched “Wag the Dog.” I picture them on a couch, gorging on popcorn, taking notes, and laughing.