Video Shows American Beheaded By Militants: Sept. 20, 2004

A note to readers of Camera/Iraq:

If you visit this site regularly, you know that Camera/Iraq does not report every instance of beheading or associated news like the public availability of beheading videos. In a way this is ironic, since the these first deaths and their videos were among the early atrocities and discussions that brought the site to life.

Following the first execution of Paul Berg, beheadings, with shocking and bewildering regularity, have proliferated, their numbers now in the hundreds. Each story--a precious life extinguished, in violent circumstance, and published to the world in pictures--took essentially the same form as the one before it: report of capture, video of the hostage sitting below terrorists reading a list of demands, then either notice of the hostage's release or, more commonly, publication of the execution video. For reporters and readers alike, repetition is cruelly numbing. It is why the death of an American soldier in one year can produce a week-long orgy of television news stories, while in the next it is subsumed in a passing headline: 'Today, three American soldiers were killed in Iraq.'

Early, Camera/Iraq decided not to report each beheading. Instead, we choose to note only reports that in some way advanced our particular focus on the way pictures are deployed in this War of Images. [Had our goal been to push up our site stats, we would not have made this choice, since "beheading" is by far the most common search term used on this site.] There were pragmatic reasons for this decision, of course. Practically, it became nearly impossible to follow each of these unfolding and often under-reported stories as they flickered through the news. Nor did we wish to report only stories in which Americans were executed, since each life is valued. But the real reason for our policy was probably personal: we did not wish, in our hearts or in our stomachs, to become the bookkeepers of execution, elbowing our way daily to the front of the leering crowd to scratch our notes, tally the numbers, and send our reports into the ether.

Today, as we mark the execution of American Eugene 'Jack' Armstrong, we take this opportunity to remind readers of our policy and invite your feedback. [John Schott, Editor]

"The nine-minute video shows Armstrong, a Michigan native, blindfolded and seated in an orange jumpsuit in front of five masked men, four armed with assault rifles. Behind the black-clad militants is the black-and-white banner of al-Zarqawi's militant group, Jamaat al-Tawhid and Jihad (Monotheism and Holy War), which has claimed responsibility for the beheadings of other hostages, including U.S. contract worker Nicholas Berg in May and South Korean driver Kim Sun Il in June. After reading a statement, a man identified in the video as al-Zarqawi draws a knife from his belt and uses it to cut off Armstrong's head. 'The fate of the first infidel was cutting off the head before your eyes and ears,' the speaker says. 'You have a 24-hour opportunity. Abide by our demand in full and release all the Muslim women; otherwise the head of the other will follow this one."
[Washington Post]