5.15.2004

The Questions About Nick Berg's Death

I'd advise any interested to read the immediately previous post including the full article on al Jazeera because it raises some of the very points that concern so many of us, including:

    * That curious orange jumpsuit, which would make sense if he was released from US custody (the US uses such jumpsuits standardly for prisoners of all types), but why was he wearing it upon his death a month later?
    * The lack of blood in the tape discussed by those who have seen it (I have not); I exchanged Email with a former pathologist I know who agreed that the type of execution and decapitation cited on the tape should have produced both a wild spray and then a large blood loss
    * The US once told us this "2nd lieutenant" of Osama's had died some months ago but, like Lazarus, is now purported to have risen from the dead
    * Many argue that Zarqawe (so many spellings here, sorry), the al Qaeda associate mentioned above) speaks with a Jordanian accent while the purported executioner does not
    * That this fellow has not been hooded in the past, so why now?
    * That the official US translation insists al Qaeda is mentioned, while other translators insist it does not
    * Why so many versions from the government (ours) about whether Berg was in their custody?

People deserve answers, especially considering the timing of the tape's release.