BAGHDAD, Iraq (May 11) -- A video posted Tuesday on an Islamic militant Web site showed the beheading of an American civilian in Iraq, and said the execution was carried out by an al-Qaida affiliated group to avenge the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers.
The video showed five men wearing headscarves and black ski masks, standing over a bound man in an orange jumpsuit - similar to a prisoner's uniform - who identified himself as Nick Berg, a U.S. contractor whose body was found on a highway overpass in Baghdad on Saturday.
''My name is Nick Berg, my father's name is Michael, my mother's name is Susan,'' the man said on the video. ''I have a brother and sister, David and Sarah. I live in ... Philadelphia.''
After reading a statement, the men were seen pulling the man to his side and putting a large knife to his neck. A scream sounded as the men cut his head off, shouting ''Allahu Akbar!'' - ''God is great.'' They then held the head out before the camera.
On the Web site, one of the executioners read a statement:
''For the mothers and wives of American soldiers, we tell you that we offered the U.S. administration to exchange this hostage with some of the detainees in Abu Ghraib and they refused.''
''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.''
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Don't sweat the petty things, and don't pet the sweaty things.
This just leaves me speechless! My heart goes out to the family of this man.
This goes to show the world how uncivilized these people are!
The abuses that happened in the Iraqi prison, was an isolated act of cruelty, but it was just that, an ISOLATED act! I know that the Arab world as a whole are not all brutal terrorists, but a large group of them are!
When something like this terrible act happens, it does make you wish to lash out at them with a cruel vengence too, but then we remember, WE are THE civilized people here!
These acts of cruelty, are designed to weaken our resolve! They have not learned since 9/11, that we Americans are not the weaklings they thought, and think that we are!
It is because of these very criminals, that we are in this war now, and it is because of these criminals, that we must fight to end terrorism altogether!
This is not a pretty war, if there ever was such a thing, and our war on terrorism may not be over when our people leave Iraq!
The world has changed since 9/11, the American life style has forever been changed also! However, to quit now, and ignore the problem, would only encourage more terror!
Again, my heart and prayers go out to this family, and also to these great Americans serving and defending the freedoms that our nations very foundation is built upon!
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Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty or Safety!
Ben Franklin
I LOVE my country, I FEAR my government!
If your mother was an abortion proponent, would you be reading this right now?
I am angry, angry, angry! I don't want to hate but I do! When I was young, I could never understand how we could have treated the ***anese during WWII the way we did - now I do. Right or wrong I understand better. I could never understand how any one person could hate a people or a religion or an organization - but I understand better. I don't want to but there seems to be no reason not to. I tend to try to justify my hate and anger as being directed toward an animal that is at the very bottom of the food chain. An animal so vicious with no compassion it devours anything in its' path. I know now that these "creatures" are more evil than anything mankind has ever witnesses throughout history. Even Hitler tried to conceal his evil but not this darkness. No, they thrive on creating fear and chaos.
We cannot comprehend this behavior and so far refuse to deal with it in a manner that is different from anything we have tried in the past. Many want to "reason" with them! Many want to kill them all.
I am afraid it is an incurable disease that has no cure. Our lives will never be the same ever again and that angers me. I wonder everyday when and where they will strike again. Will it be my comrades in arms, family friends in Mosul or Najaf, my granddaughter on her way to school? Why?
I have to say this! In America there are many religions and some of those have extremists that do some crazy things but most of those religions involving millions of people DO NOT TEACH HATRED TOWARD THOSE WHO DON'T PRACTICE THEIR RELIGION. This point can and will be argued until forever but until the leaders of the Muslim world step forward and actively speak out against this behavior, it will never stop.
Few Islamic leaders ever have anything to say about the actions of their own terrorists but they sure had a lot to say about a handful of prison guards.
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If you give a politician an enema you can easily hide them in a bread box.
Terrorism at its finest. The jihadi terrorists were no doubt incensed by the abuses of the prisoners in Iraq, and it likely contributed to their desire to murder this man, but the prison abuses don't excuse this. This is not justice, it is not even revenge, it is little more than terrorists taking advantage of leverage that the abuses provided them to stage a terrorist killing that would have the greatest effect. That is what terrorists do, and it's unfortunate that it was a few unrepresentitive members of our military that gave these Jihadi terrorists the perfect scenario to do what they would have done anyway.
I watched the news tonight and when they began reporting on this act of terrorism I remembered why I don't watch the news anymore. When referring to the killing of this innocent American contractor, the anchor lady referred to it a "punishment" instead of "murder", implying that this man bore some culpability for the prison abuses he had absolutely nothing to do with, and that the terroristists were meteing out some perverse form of justice for a crime the victim didn't commit. It literally made me sick to think that, unwittingly or not, this talking head would imply guilt on the part of a man who went to Iraq to help rebuild the Iraqi communications network.
I hope that our boys hunt these b*****ds down and gun them down like the animals they are.
American killed in Iraq
