My thoughts of the beheading of James Foley. I watched the video and I am stunned. I have seen a lot of these video in the past going back to Daniel Pearl and even the early stuff coming out of the Syrian conflict of executions and dismemberment. The one thing almost all of them had in common was that they were very poor quality videos with low production values and the speech was all in Arabic. This is different. While I would not recommend that anyone who isnt an academic or policy maker in the field actually watch this thing, it is quite compelling. The video starts out with clips of Obama speaking of US airstrikes against ISIS (complete with artistic video noise added for nefarious overtone) followed by video of drone strikes against ISIS positions. It then switches over to an HD shot of Foley in orange garb very reminiscent of what we use at GITMO for detainees. They are outside, in the desert. It is well lit. He is on his knees and speaks to the camera. He is eerily calm and even in tone given that it is clear right from the beginning that he is about to die. He bids farewell to his family and says he wishes he had had more time, which would be expected in such a video. However, at that point it turns political. He denounces the US government and Obama specifically. He speaks directly to his brother, apparently a military service member, and asks him to reconsider what he is doing and who is dying as a result of the decisions of superiors. This is, perhaps, in context the most shocking part of the video. Theyve released beheading videos before and shockingly brutal violence, but this is the first video I have seen with such a message from the victim. And thats what gave me chills and has me rolling it over through my mind. While his appeals do feel rather insincere in tone and forced and unnatural in composition (hes clearly reading a script) I still cant help but wonder how they got him to say that knowing it would immediately be followed by his death? Getting a hostage to say anything in front of a camera is no great feat, but getting a condemned man to speak so harshly? Knowing his fate is sealed? It is followed by a pretty typical diatribe by the masked man to his left, though even this is curiously devoid of the usual religious overtones (no references to Allah or Islam aside from acknowledging the intent to establish a caliphate). The masked man is clearly a foreigner (very clear English with perhaps a British accent). He is then killed, though even here the video cuts before any blood flows and only returns for a quick pan of the body laying stomach down and the head placed facing the camera on his back between his shacked hands (the other videos I have seen have kept rolling through the whole process which is, to say the least, horrifying). This video shows a disturbing new era of Islamic fundamentalist propaganda. This is well made, well produced, to the point and not *overly* graphic. It is devoid of zealous religious declarations and, really, much in the way of exaggerated rhetoric at all. This feels like it was produced by a very sick individual with an advanced marketing degree. Its terrifying like no other I have ever seen before it.
Posted on: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 12:42:06 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015