iraq

Lila Rajiva: "Iraqi Women and Torture, Theater That Educates, News That Propagandizes": July 31, 2004

"It is the ambiguity in our ideas of representation that lies at the heart of the Abu Ghraib torture scandal and prevents us from seeing how the act of photographing naked detainees would in itself have been seen as rape by Iraqis, even aside from the specific use intended for the photographs. Knowing the past use of photography in interrogation techniques passed on by CIA trainers to intelligence agencies like the Shah's notorious Savak, [1] it would have been only too credible to many that the photos were being used to blackmail and coerce through the threat of public exposure or publication on porn sites. If that indeed was the case, and there is evidence to suggest as much, then it is our distinction between physical rape and "virtual" rape that may be questionable. Representations of sex or rape are a far more complex phenomenon than the acts themselves for they lend themselves to reproduction and transformation. It is no longer simply a question of whether some incident or photo is a hoax or genuine but whether, even if it is a hoax, it is genuinely a hoax, that is, one designed simply to mislead, such as the Jessica Lynch story, or to cast a doubt on what is real, such as perhaps the fake rape pictures, or is instead intended to bolster what really is factual. Conversely, even if something is genuine, one now needs to ask whether it has in some way been set up or staged. One needs to know if it is being used to promote something false, in the way in which the dismantling of the Saddam statue was manipulated to give the impression that a reprise of the fall of communism in Soviet Russia was under way. Things are no longer what they seem but what they can be made to seem. And to make something other than what it is to manipulate it, to coerce it. Ultimately then what we are talking about is the operation of power through images. Abu Ghraib is the locus where several dynamics of power come together like spokes in a wheel: the dynamic between a conquering and a conquered people; that between an expansionist religion or world-view and a defensive one; that between the active gaze of the male role and the passive objectification of the female; and finally, that between the producer of information, pornography, or violence and its consumer. To sustain these dynamics, one needs images; for the images to have effect, the dynamics need to be in play. In this interplay, the rumors of rape, fed by the widespread stripping and photographing of detainees cannot be dismissed. They point to the way in which power is employed by the victor not simply in the traditional methods of war -- from bombing to torture -- but also in the creation and imposition of imagery that effaces and replaces the subjectivity of the defeated people with a new reality, one that defines them as abject and dispossessed of their selves."
[Iraq Occupation Watch]

Terror by Video: Robert Fisk: "How Chechnya Inspired the Iraqi Kidnappers": July 26, 2004

"The pictures are grainy, the voices sometimes unclear. But when Kim Sun-il shrieks 'Don't kill me' over and over again, his fear is palpable. As the heads of Iraq's kidnap victims are sawn off, Koranic recitations--usually by a well-known Saudi imam--are played on the soundtrack. At the beheading of an American, the murderer ritually wipes his bloody knife twice on the shirt of his victim, just as Saudi officials clean their blades after public executions in the kingdom. Terror by video is now a well-established part of the Iraq war. [...] the scenario has become grimly familiar. The potential victim kneels in front of three hooded men holding Kalashnikov rifles. Sometimes he pleads for his life. Sometimes he is silent, apparently unaware of whether he is to be murdered or spared. The viewer, however, will notice something quite terrible. When the hostage is to be beheaded, the gunmen behind him are wearing gloves. They do not intend to stain their hands with an infidel's blood. [...] All sides in Iraq have joined the video war. The first day of Saddam Hussein's trial was videotaped and handed to journalists by US military censors who initially tried to delete the soundtrack--something they succeeded in doing with the 11 Baathists whose arraignment followed shortly afterwards. [...] Videos, usually delivered to one of two Arabic-language television channels--al-Jazeera or al-Arabia--are rarely shown in full. But in an outrageous spin-off, websites--especially one that appears to be in California--are now posting the full and gory contents. One American website has posted the beheading of the American Nicholas Berg and the South Korean hostage in full and bloody detail. 'Kim Sun-il Beheading Video Short Version, Long Version' the website offers. The 'short version' shows a man severing the hostage's neck. The long version includes his screaming appeal for mercy--which lasts for at least two minutes and is followed by his slaughter. On the same screen and at the same time, there are advertisements for 'Porn' and 'Horse Girls.' [...] And where does the inspiration for all these ghoulish videos come from? More than six months ago, a video went on sale in the insurgents' capital of Fallujah, allegedly showing the throat-cutting of an American soldier. In fact, the tape showed a Russian soldier being led into a room by armed men in Chechnya. He is forced to lie down--apparently unaware of his fate--and at first tries to cope with the pain as a man takes a knife to his throat. His head is then cut off. It seems certain that this tape was intended as a training manual for Iraq's new executioners."
[Counterpunch]

Mike Francis: "Ordered Just To Walk Away": August 7, 2004

The picture at the right is a photograph taken through the scope of a sniper rifle. The dark vertical and horizontal lines with small dots or "clicks" are for aiming. The abuse described in the article below was first discovered and photographed through an American sniper's rifle.

"BAGHDAD -- The national guardsman peering through the long-range scope of his rifle was startled by what he saw unfolding in the walled compound below. From his post several stories above ground level, he watched as men in plainclothes beat blindfolded and bound prisoners in the enclosed grounds of the Iraqi Interior Ministry. He immediately radioed for help. Soon after, a team of Oregon Army National Guard soldiers swept into the yard and found dozens of Iraqi detainees who said they had been beaten, starved and deprived of water for three days. In a nearby building, the soldiers counted dozens more prisoners and what appeared to be torture devices -- metal rods, rubber hoses, electrical wires and bottles of chemicals. Many of the Iraqis, including one identified as a 14-year-old boy, had fresh welts and bruises across their back and legs. The soldiers disarmed the Iraqi jailers, moved the prisoners into the shade, released their handcuffs and administered first aid. Lt. Col. Daniel Hendrickson of Albany, Ore., the highest ranking American at the scene, radioed for instructions. But in a move that frustrated and infuriated the guardsmen, Hendrickson's superior officers told him to return the prisoners to their abusers and immediately withdraw. It was June 29 -- Iraq's first official day as a sovereign country since the U.S.-led invasion. The incident, the first known case of human rights abuses in newly sovereign Iraq, is at the heart of the American dilemma here. [...]

On the morning of June 29, Oregon guardsmen set off from their base near the Interior Ministry on routine neighborhood patrols. Lookouts climbed towers ringing the base, and scouts took their usual positions in hidden vantage points around the neighborhoods of east Baghdad, looking for threats and signs of trouble. One of the scouts posted in a tall building squinted through his rifle scope at the courtyard adjoining the Interior Ministry. He saw a man in plainclothes standing over a handcuffed and blindfolded prisoner. The guardsman watched through his rifle scope as the man reared back and brought what appeared to be a stick or metal rod down on the prisoner, who was lying on the ground. The scout took pictures through his scope and considered his options. [...] he radioed battalion headquarters to report the beating. [...]

The squad of armed and armored Oregon guardsmen pushed into the detention yard "basically unchallenged," according to the written account by Southall, a Newark, Calif., middle school teacher who serves with the Oregon Guard. [...] Some of the detainees said they had been held for three days with little water and no food. "Many of these prisoners had bruises and cuts and belt or hose marks all over," Southall said. At least one had a gunshot wound to the knee. [...]

"There were several rooms within the building," Southall said. "One room, about 20 by 20 feet squared, contained even more prisoners, all in the same sad shape as the prisoners found in the outer area. There were about 78 prisoners crowded in this little room with no available furniture, no air conditioner, no water or food or restrooms available." [...] Hendrickson radioed up the chain of command in the Army's 1st Cavalry Division, relaying what he had seen and asking for instructions. As the soldiers waited, Southall said, the Iraqi policemen began to get "defiant and hostile" toward the Americans. It wasn't long before the order came: Stand down. Return the prisoners to the Iraqi authorities and leave the detention yard. That order infuriated the Oregon guardsmen, who viewed themselves as protectors of the abused prisoners. Nonetheless, the soldiers obeyed. None of the soldiers interviewed for this story said which U.S. general gave the order.

In the preceding weeks, the guardsmen had been bombarded with images of Americans abusing Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib detention center. Those images, which continue to reverberate through the Arab world, had been replayed frequently on the televisions at Patrol Base Volunteer. The guardsmen who later gave their account of that day said they wanted Americans to know about the actions they took to protect unresisting prisoners -- and that they were ordered by U.S. military officials to walk away. [...]

What happened to the prisoners after the Americans departed is not clear. Guardsmen interviewed for this story said they've watched the detention facility closely since then, and that many of the prisoners were released soon after the raid on the detention facility. The soldiers said they have not seen any further prisoner abuse occur there.
[The Oregonian]
[The Oregonian's online Slide Show of Abuse Photos]

Abu Ghraib Victims Speak: August 8, 2004

"Saddam Saleh al-Radi, a former Abu Ghraib detainee, has a unique perspective: He was jailed in Abu Ghraib twice — the first time for trying to overthrow Saddam Hussein in the mid-1990s. 'What U.S. forces did to me, Saddam Hussein himself did not do,' al-Radi said through a translator. 'During Saddam Hussein's time, we used to be tortured. The scars from the torture I received during the previous regime still mark parts of my body. But I was never forced into nudity. There were never any immoral practices during Saddam Hussein's regime.' [...] After three days of interrogations at one of Saddam's old palaces, he said he was taken to Abu Ghraib, put into a holding cell, and there a hood was placed over his head for what he thinks was about 16 hours. 'When they were torturing me, I lost consciousness,' al-Radi said. 'So, they removed the hood. One of the soldiers then urinated on me.' Then, the hood was put back on. And al-Radi was frog-marched to a cell on the ground floor of tier 1-A, known as the hard site. 'He then started pushing me,' al-Radi said. 'And wherever he saw a wall, he would hit me against it. Wherever there's a door, he would push me and hit me against it.'

Once in his cell, al-Radi said, he was forced, still hooded, down on his hands and knees. 'He pulled the bag off my head, and I saw something I have never seen in my life: A man's buttocks were facing me, and he was completely naked, [and] so were the others with him,' al-Radi said. 'I'm 29 years old. Since I'm mature, around the age of 13 to 14 years, until today, no one has ever seen me naked. Nor have I seen anyone naked at all. 'I am religious,' he added. 'My religion does not allow me to see the private parts of naked bodies of others. And for others to see my naked body, this is haram, forbidden for me. God will not accept this. 'They stripped me naked,' al-Radi said. 'They made me stand on a box used for storing soldier food, I think it's called MREs. I was completely naked with two bags on my head.' Al-Radi mostly blamed two American soldiers, Staff Sgt. Ivan Frederick and Cpl. Charles Graner, both of whom are now facing military charges, for the alleged rough treatment. According to al-Radi, Frederick, 'threatened me by saying that if I did not cooperate with them by giving them information, they would make the soldier rape me.' What was done to him has had a terrible effect, he said. He had become engaged to be married just four days before he was arrested, but broke it off immediately after he was released from prison.

'For me to commit to a woman, I will need to be truthful to my other half,' al-Radi said. 'I feel that something is missing inside me. How can I say any of this to my wife? I am sure she will lose all respect toward me.' And that was before the world saw those photographs of things that had happened to him.

'Before the publishing of the photographs, I had been keeping my experience to myself,' he said. 'After the publishing of the photographs, my mother came to me and asked me, 'Have they done to you what they have done to them?' I had to say, 'No.' Then, a relative of mine, who was detained with us and who knew of my story there, told my family what he knew, and that they did so-and-so to me.' Now, he said, he doesn't see anyone — not his mother or brothers or sisters-in-law. He's too ashamed."
[ABC News]

Lynndie England on Abu Ghraib: Pictures Taken "Just For Fun": August 3, 2004

"An Army investigator testified Tuesday that Pfc. Lynndie England and other members of her unit told him that photos of naked Iraqi prisoners piled in pyramids and other humiliating poses were taken 'just for fun.' As a military hearing started to determine if England should be court-martialed for her actions at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, Paul D. Arthur testified that when he interviewed her, three months before the prison photos became public in April, she told him the shots were taken while 'they were joking around, having some fun, working the night shift.' Arthur said he believed the reservists from the 372nd Military Police Company, based on Cresaptown, Md., were responding to the stress of being in a war zone. 'It was just for fun, kind of venting their frustration,' Arthur testified. The hearing is designed to gather evidence that will be used to decide if England will be court-martialed. The Article 32 hearing is the military equivalent of a grand jury in civilian court, but it is open and the defendant attends it. Defense lawyers have said England was following orders when she was photographed mocking the detainees and that the U.S."
[AP story on KOTV News]

Osha Gray Davidson: "The Secret File of Abu Ghraib": August, 2004

New classified documents implicate U.S. forces in rape and sodomy of Iraqi prisoners.

"Eventually, all seven Iraqis were standing naked and hooded, and the MPs got out their cameras. A few pictures had been taken earlier in the evening, but now the abuse turned into a photo-op. Men taught to be ashamed of appearing naked in front of other men were forced to assume a series of humiliating and bizarre poses. Graner had them climb on top of each other to form a human pyramid, and the MPs took turns taking each other's picture standing behind the men. In one photo, Graner and England smile and give the thumbs-up sign behind the men, who are naked except for the green sandbags covering their heads. The Iraqis were made to crawl across the floor on their hands and knees while the guards rode on their backs. Two were posed as if performing oral sex on each other, and others were lined up against the wall and forced to masturbate while England pointed at their genitals and leered. And all the while, the Americans were laughing, cracking jokes and taking pictures."
[Rolling Stone]

Faisal Bodi: "Decapitation: Execrable, But Effective" [Al Jazeera]: July 3, 2004

"Until the shooting death in June of US soldier Keith Maupin, the insurgents had made a point of beheading their captives and disseminating the grisly scenes over the internet. Most people would recoil at the mere thought, but experts say that is precisely the aim. In war, ascendancy in the horror stakes can be a major battlefield gain. 'It gives people an enormous feeling of their own power that they can threaten this fate to their opponents,' believes Professor Ian Robins, a London-based traumatic stress psychologist who specialises in treating war prisoners. While it serves as a morale booster for the perpetrators, it has the converse effect on their opponents. [...] The captive himself becomes a weapon for his captors, a tool for the transmission of horror to the rest of the enemy, effective in proportion to the level of his fear. [...] The act also gives insurgents another advantage. In an age where wars are fought as much on TV as on the battlefield, they no longer need actual victories. The battle, says Meyerson, can be 'won with a single dramatic visual impact'. [...] By turning his family into celebrity anti-war campaigners the beheading of Berg became a political gain for his killers. 'The acts are a sure way of making governments look incompetent by showing they are powerless to stop them despite the fact that they might pour billions of dollars into the campaign,' said Professor Robins. Nothing succeeds like success and so long as the acts continue to put pressure on enemy governments there is little incentive for the perpetrators to stop, according to Robins. 'Behaviour is maintained or increased by its consequences. This [beheadings] gets an enormous amount of attention and scrutiny and therefore it is highly likely it will continue.'"
[Al Jazeera]

Joseph C. Phillips: "Beheading in Iraq": July 6, 2004 [NPR]

Phillips discusses the lynching of Afro-American Zachariah Walker, who in 1911 was pulled from the hospital by a hundred men and burned at the stake for killing a police officer. The crowd stood around the body in obvious delight, posing for a "Kodak moment," as Phillips suggests. Phillips compares this incident to the desecration of bodies in Fallujah and the beheading of Nicholas Berg. He notes how groups often have used violence to shock, frighten and intimidate others different from them.

Of this lynching Gode Davis and James M. Fortier write: "Walker was hurled onto the pyre, his body quickly enveloped in flames. The crowd roared its approval, and those close to the fire hunched forward, according to a newspaper report, 'eagerly watching the look of mingled horror and terror that distorted his blood-smeared face." [...] The following day, the Coatesville Record remarked on the politeness of the crowd: 'Five thousand men, women, and children stood by and watched the proceedings as though it were a ball game or another variety of spectator sport.' Boys had stopped for cold soda afterward at the Coatesville Candy Company to retell the story. Many returned to the site the next day to gather fragments of bone and charred flesh as souvenirs.'"

Camera/Iraq here includes the original picture of Walker that Phillips discusses—a reminder that recent acts of atrocity in the Middle East had striking parallels in our own country several decades ago.
[NPR's The Travis Smiley Show—RealAudio]
[Link to Phillips' essay in print]
["American Lunching," a film by Gode Davis and James M. Fortier]

Padraic Kenney: "POWs: Torture and Civility": July 11, 2004

"In some regimes, like that of Stalin's Soviet Union, torture was a way for the perpetrators to show their contempt for all they believed their victims represented: intellectuals, cosmopolitans, class enemies. In an insecure nation like Argentina, Jews were made to feel like traitors to the nation. And in occupied Iraq, guards - possibly resenting this land that had interrupted their lives and killed so many of their fellow soldiers - zeroed in on what made their captives inferior. What else do we see in the pictures of Pfc. Lynndie England, grinning before naked Iraqis but, paradoxically, an attempt to demonstrate the superiority of American culture? The irony is still greater when we consider that these grotesque scenes no doubt were meant, perhaps subconsciously, to remind Iraqi prisoners that Americans were more respectful of women's rights. As surely as torturers have always done, the American soldiers wanted to show not only that they were stronger, but also of a more advanced civilization. [...] There is another, secondary function of torture: to sow fear in the minds of those not in prison but who feel themselves within the torturer's reach. The tortures of Nazi or Soviet prisons were no secret to anyone. Nor have the dictatorships of Africa, Asia or Latin America been ashamed of their work, seeing in them a way of reminding citizens of their awesome power. Could the same reasoning lie behind the photos and videos at Abu Ghraib?"
[Denver Post]

"How Modern Terrorism Uses the Internet": Study by United States Institute of Peace: March, 2004

"Terrorism has often been conceptualized as a form of psychological warfare, and certainly terrorists have sought to wage such a campaign through the Internet. There are several ways for terrorists to do so. For instance, they can use the Internet to spread disinformation, to deliver threats intended to distill fear and helplessness, and to disseminate horrific images of recent actions, such as the brutal murder of the American journalist Daniel Pearl by his captors, a videotape of which was replayed on several terrorist websites. Terrorists can also launch psychological attacks through cyberterrorism, or, more accurately, through creating the fear of cyberterrorism. "Cyberfear" is generated when concern about what a computer attack could do (for example, bringing down airliners by disabling air traffic control systems, or disrupting national economies by wrecking the computerized systems that regulate stock markets) is amplified until the public believes that an attack will happen. The Internet—an uncensored medium that carries stories, pictures, threats, or messages regardless of their validity or potential impact—is peculiarly well suited to allowing even a small group to amplify its message and exaggerate its importance and the threat it poses. Al Qaeda combines multimedia propaganda and advanced communication technologies to create a very sophisticated form of psychological warfare. Osama bin Laden and his followers concentrate their propaganda efforts on the Internet, where visitors to al Qaeda's numerous websites and to the sites of sympathetic, aboveground organizations can access prerecorded videotapes and audiotapes, CD-ROMs, DVDs, photographs, and announcements. [...] The Internet has significantly expanded the opportunities for terrorists to secure publicity. Until the advent of the Internet, terrorists' hopes of winning publicity for their causes and activities depended on attracting the attention of television, radio, or the print media. These traditional media have "selection thresholds" (multistage processes of editorial selection) that terrorists often cannot reach. No such thresholds, of course, exist on the terrorists' own websites. The fact that many terrorists now have direct control over the content of their message offers further opportunities to shape how they are perceived by different target audiences and to manipulate their own image and the image of their enemies."
[Gabriel Weinman: "www.terror.net: How modern Terrorism Uses the Internet"]
[See also: "Examining the Cyber Capabilities of Islamic Terrorist Groups" from the Technical Analysis Group at the Institute for Security Technology Studies at Dartmouth College]

US contractor Paul Johnson, Jr. Beaheaded: Highly graphic photos circulate on the web: June 18, 2004

Paul Johnson, Jr., a US citizen working for Lockheed Martin in Saudi Arabia, was taken hostage and executed a few days later.
[CNN: "Al Qaeda Militants Kill American Hostage"]
[Disturbing, graphic images showing the body and severed head of Paul Johnson are published at the Drudge Report.]

Pittsburgh Tribune-Riview Publishes Three Photos of Executed Paul Johnson: June 22, 2004
"So why publish it? Because the statement with its photos - issued so casually, like some bland press release - demonstrate compellingly the brutality, the inhumanity, and the deadly danger of the enemy we face. Words alone could not fully convey the cold-blooded savagery of this graphic declaration, with its gloating tone and its threat of more such acts. Americans must know without doubt, without flinching, without averted eyes, that threat's gravity and inhumanity. [...] The photos published in Saturday's edition should offend and horrify you."
[Frank Craig: "Why Publish Images of Death?"]

CBS News Footage of Paul Johnson
Emotionally difficult excerpts, but no graphic violence:
[CBS News]

Video of Paul Johnson, Jr.'s Beheading Posted On Islamic Sites: July 18, 2004
Video is posted on at least one U.S.-based site as well.
[Bloomberg]

Photographer David Modell, BBC: May 13, 2004

"The language of photography has, again, proved its power. [...] There is something unique about the language of photography that contributes to the horror of these pictures. Memory itself is constructed through frozen moments in time and so a photograph slips serenely into our minds and is retained. [...] Moving images can never be this potent. We cannot retain and carry with us a video-clip in the same way. We cannot have a two-minute news report always available in the top drawer of our minds ready to be glanced at, at any moment. [...] These are not snatched, clandestine images, taken to uncover the truth and disseminate it. And this reveals an appalling reality - that photographs are a deliberate part of the torture. [...] The taking of the pictures was supposed to compound the humiliation and sense of powerlessness of the victims. The photographer was the abuser. When we view the pictures, we are forced to play our part in this triangle of communication. The photographs were taken to abuse, by exposing the victim at their most vulnerable. By looking at the images we become complicit in the abuse itself. It is this that makes them intolerable for the viewer and why they are so destructive to a war effort built on the spin of 'liberation'."
[BBC]

Mark Bowden: "The Lessons of Abu Ghraib"

"The fact that the pictures were taken at all, and the cheerful expressions on the faces of the American bullies, suggest an atmosphere in which these soldiers had no reason to fear being punished for their behavior. It seems doubtful that the photos were meant to be used later to intimidate other prisoners, as has been suggested. If that had been so, the guards would probably have tried to look threatening. These photos have the appearance of grotesque souvenirs. The smiling faces of the tormentors suggest that apart from lacking moral judgment, these soldiers felt licensed to abuse."
[Atlantic]

Mark Matthews: "Abuse Tailored to Arabs, Experts Say": May 23, 2004

"U.S. authorities adapted interrogation techniques to exploit the religious and cultural sensitivities of Arabs, according to human rights monitors and experts in the treatment of torture victims. [...] Forced homosexual acts, parading naked detainees in front of female guards and other inmates, and forcing male prisoners to wear women's underwear all point to attempts to affront Muslim religious taboos and use sexual shame as a method for breaking down prisoners' resistance to interrogation, experts said. [...] Public nakedness for men and women and homosexual acts are particularly degrading, experts said, noting photographs of nude prisoners piled in a pyramid and accounts of forced masturbation and sodomy. [...] Muslim men "are not supposed to show their body from the knee to the navel to anyone who is a stranger" [...] "The whole notion of ladies' panties - someone thought that up as a particularly humiliating thing for an Iraqi man." [...] The result of such shame is to "humiliate a person to the core," rendering them powerless, which, in turn, reduces resistance to interrogation..."
[Baltimore Sun]

"The Nausea" website publishes the most gruesome images from Iraq

The site's Statement of Rationale: "The nausea" is a non-profit project of different individuals all over the world. This is NOT a "politically correct" web. We do not share any particular political tendency except our rejection to violence in every way. We believe that getting close to first degree violence will avoid any patriotic or romantic fantasy about war. Children DO NOT have any nationality. They should not suffer. Their lives, our lives can never be replaced. We are not against any nationality but just against people that are able to handle a weapon against another human being or making economic profit out of it. We are against the military that turned this century into a hell killing 20 civilians for each military fallen in action (it was exactly the opposite 100 years ago).

If you feel a nausea after visiting our web we have accomplished our goal. Do not put the blame on us, we have not produced all this violence. It is better that you think twice to whom you vote. Our aim is to distribute information to everyone that demands it. Every information will NOT be manipulated before being posted. "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth... and, at the end everyone blind and without teeth". You can help just resending an email to everyone who is sensitive to this topic."
[The Nausea]

Jonathan Nichols-Pethick: Reality TV & Desensitization: May 17, 2004

"Reality TV is part of a larger media environment that capitalizes on humiliation, tragic behavior, and the like. It encourages us to take pleasure in seeing people humiliated and put in dangerous situations. This helps desensitize audiences to the pictures they see from Iraq. This isn't necessarily a direct effect, but it is part of the environment."
[MSNBC, May 17, 2004]

Matthew Stannard: Beheading Video Seen As War Tactic: May 13, 2004

"The nightmare video of an American civilian captured in Iraq being decapitated by his captors was anything but a random act of terrorism, experts say -- it was a press release, carefully designed for a global audience. [...] It was the kind of production, the experts said, that al Qaeda and other radical groups have repeatedly used in their global war on the West: an evolving form of confrontation that American institutions -- politicians, press, public and military -- are still struggling to understand and deal with effectively. [...] most experts said they doubted Berg's videotaped death was a result only of [Abu Ghraib] abuses. Several, noting that Berg apparently had been kidnapped nearly a month ago before he was killed, suggested that the prison scandal merely provided the terrorists with an opportunity to make a point. [...] Another goal, the experts said, is recruitment -- drawing new members to the cause by portraying the killers as defenders against anti-Muslim forces. [...] In fact, the power of information is so great that military policy experts describe it as an instrument of national power, like diplomacy, economy and the military, said Douglas V. Johnson II [...] "Terrorism, as I see it, is communications," said Nacos. "Without the media communicating what they want to say, terrorism doesn't really make sense. " [...]
[San Francisco Gate]