Nick Berg Beheading Video is one of the most controversial death videos related to War in Iraq. Was Nicholas Evan Berg really beheaded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi terrorists or was his death a conspiracy, a CIA insider job? The official story surrounding the beheading of Nick Berg has some serious holes, to say the least, but let’s not be premature and let’s take a look at his death from the beginning. If you can’t be assed to read, scroll all the way down to watch the video of Nick Berg’s decapitation.
Nick Berg Beheading video was allegedly the response to prisoner abuse of Iraqi captives at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.
Nick Berg Biography and Wiki
Nicholas Berg was an American freelance contractor from West Chester, Pa who was in Iraq looking for work in telecommunications. While he was in Mosul, he was detained by the Iraqi police who contacted US officials and let them know of his detention. FBI came to visit imprisoned Nick Berg three times to find out what the purpose of his stay in Iraq was.
The family of Nick Berg claims that Iraqi police returned him over to the US military who kept him detained for 13 days without access to legal counsel. The family filed lawsuit against US officials for illegally holding Nick Berg after which he was released from prison. US officials however claim that he has never been in their custody, only in custody of the Iraqi police.
Nick Berg Beheading Video
The beheading video of Nick Berg begins with the shot of Nick Berg sitting in a white plastic chair. He’s wearing orange overalls, the type prisoners in Guantanamo Bay wear. He mentions briefly that his name was Nick Berg, that he had a father named Michael, mother named Suzanne and that he was from Philadelphia. He also mentions his brother and sister – David and Sarah.
The video then continues with footage of Nick Berg sitting on the ground of an empty room with five masked men behind him. Masked men aka terrorists hold automatic weapons, the one in the middle reads a statement in Arabic language which addresses “satanic degradation” of prisoners in Abu Ghraib. This pre-execution reading takes the biggest chunk of the video.
The decapitation begins towards the end of video. One of the terrorists pulls out a large knife, forces Nick Berg on the side and begins with execution. There is an editing cut in the video right before the actual beheading begins. Right before knife starts cutting his head off. After the cut, a body in orange jail suit is seen lying on the floor and as the head is severed from the body. Video is of very low quality, very grainy with little detail.
The killing reportedly took place on May 8, 2004. The body of Nick Berg was found few days later near a highway overpass in Baghdad.
Nick Berg Conspiracy – Fake Video or Not?
Nick Berg beheading video was initially released on Islamic militant website under the title “Abu Musab al-Zarqawi shown slaughtering an American”. Shortly after, the conspiracy theories began to surface. CNN was first to question legitimacy of the video, saying that experts did not believe the voice in the video belongs to al-Zarqawi.
The more the video was analyzed, the more it was believed that his death was a hoax. The timing for a hoax could not be better – US military needed something to distract from scandalous news regarding Abu Ghraib torture of Iraqi prisoners of war, plus they needed an atrocity that would reignite hatred of average American towards Arabs. Truth be told, if you take a closer look at the video, it does seem rather fishy.
Nick Berg Hoax
First of all – Nick Berg barely moves. You would think he’d be nervous, realizing he’s just about to get executed. Eugene Armstrong was obviously nervous prior to his beheading and even during beheading, he struggled. Nick Berg doesn’t seem to display this type of behavior during his execution. To remain this bloody cold, one would have to be either extremely strong spiritually, heavily sedated, or already dead. Little movement given to the figure of Nick Berg is believed by many to be a digital manipulation, rather than natural movement of a sitting body.
Perhaps the biggest reason to believe the video is a hoax and beheading is fake, is the lack of blood. The video is purposefully of low quality, but when neck arteries are cut right through, there is crap loads of blood that leaks from the wound. This beheading video appears to have no blood flowing through Nick Berg’s neck and his body is not covered with blood after the decapitation.
It is also questionable why Nick Berg is wearing orange jumpsuit – exactly the type that is given to prisoners in US military prisons. Perhaps terrorists got a hold of it and used it to taunt the US some more with their own outfit. Or maybe he’s wearing it, because first part of the beheading video seems to contain footage that could have been filmed during interrogation while in US custody. That would explain why Nick Berg is seen unrestrained in this part of the video and appears calm, nothing like you would expect from a man who is about to be beheaded. It’s also worth mention, that when Nick berg states facts about himself in the beginning of the video, those few seconds of him still alive are composed of two shots, each at a different angle and if you notice the time stamp – they are 12 hours apart from each other. Would terrorists really invest all that time into video editing and recording his brief intro over 12 hours period? It just makes no sense. Could it be that this intro was put together from recordings of two individual interrogation sessions conducted by US military while Nick berg was in their custody?
The man in the video who is cutting the head off – official story has it that it’s Abu Musab al-Zarqawi – wears a gold ring. According to Islamic law, this is prohibited. Masked men in the video also appear chunkier than any underground militants who would have spent most of their time hiding since US invasion of Iraq would normally look. The hands of the terrorists are much paler than complexion of people from Middle East, making it looks as though those people were Caucasians, rather than locals. There are countless other reasons to believe that the video is fake and many websites all over the net have quite detailed analysis on it. We’re not gonna go this much into detail, but at one point towards the end of the video there is a man wearing a military cap who pokes his head into the video, the masked man appearing in the video on the right is wearing clean tennis shoes (Al Qaeda fighters would not wear that), the weapons masked men carry are Israeli Uzi rifles, walls in the video are same color as walls in Abu Ghraib prison, Nick Berg’s scream as he’s being beheaded is clearly dubbed in, guy who lifts up decapitated head of Nick Berg at the end of video is wearing white scarf and no vest – the only masked man out of five who was wearing white scarf is also wearing green vest during statement reading, and it just goes on and on like that…
It is believed by many, that none of the masked men in the video were Arabs. Nick Berg beheading is believed by many to be fake. But if Arabs did not behead Nick Berg, then who did? Well, one of conspiracy theories speculates that it was a CIA insider job. If Americans were presented with a video (albeit hoax) showing gruesome beheading of another American, it would certainly spark a new wave of hatred towards Muslims and that would be accompanied with new wave of support for waNick Berg Beheading Videor in Iraq. Could you think of a better way to counteract the international media pressure over Abu Ghraib, then by showing a high profile terrorist atrocity executed on an innocent civilian?
Nick Berg Beheading Video is below. Even though there is a good chance this video is fake, many could still find it disturbing. Just as all other content on Best Gore, exercise maximum caution and do not take the warning lightly.
