Resolution

[rowyn]

I was thinking, earlier today, about Nick Berg's death. As the news of his murder was first circulating, some of my LJ friends were pointing at things in the video, or in the events leading up to his death, that appeared inconsistent with the story presented in the video: that he'd been kidnapped and executed by Muslim terrorists while the videotape was rolling.

And I was wondering: did anything more ever come of that? Was a hypothesis advanced that explained the apparent inconsistencies? Were the concerns of armchair bloggers refuted by mainstream sources or official channels? Does anyone here know?

[Edit: Here's an example of the inconsistencies that were being discussed at the time.]

Comments

Googling It: "Nick Berg Conspiracy"

[jordangreywolf.livejournal.com]

I decided that one way to go about this would be to do a Google search on "Nick Berg conspiracy".

I found an interesting article on Wikipedia that covers a lot of the "discrepancies", but also includes some possible responses. Not exactly a resolution, but I thought it might be of further interest.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Berg_conspiracy_theories

Re: Googling It: "Nick Berg Conspiracy"

[level-head.livejournal.com]

Interesting -- thanks.

The follow ups -- many subsequent executions -- make the conspiracy theorists scramble for motivation to fake this one. I've heard it said that Zarqawi is now mocking the US by using the same setup the US allegedly used to kill Berg. It seems ... unlikely, shall we say?

===|==============/ Level Head

Re: Googling It: "Nick Berg Conspiracy"

[jordangreywolf.livejournal.com]

A curious sort of cynicism I see in these theories. "Nobody can POSSIBLY be more evil than OUR government!" ;)

Re: Googling It: "Nick Berg Conspiracy"

[level-head.livejournal.com]

It's almost the reverse of GaryAmort's original premise that it must be someone else -- here, "it MUST be us because no one else is that bad!"

===|==============/ Level Head

Re: Googling It: "Nick Berg Conspiracy"

[rowyn]

It's a very strange sort of thing. But it does seem to work that way, as if I'm supposed to believe every bad thing that is said about my government, or American companies, but not believe any bad things said about other governments or organizations.

I'm not sure that it's meant to be "we're the worst of all possible places" but more like "we're exactly like everyone else." No worse -- but no better, either. I think that's a very American sort of idea, in fact; the notion that people are all equal, all "just like us" in some fundamental way.

(Haven't gotten on the plane to the Bahamas yet -- I'm at the airport now, using telnar's laptop to post.)

Re: Googling It: "Nick Berg Conspiracy"

[rowyn]

Thanks for the link. It was interesting stuff. :)