Both beheading videos are questionable. Both were probably made by the same people following the same script and using the same format. I find it strange that the second video was distributed to subscribers of SITE before ISIS itself had the video made public. A SITE analyst had discovered the video on a filesharing site.
In both videos you don't see the actual beheadings which is uncommon for many other jihadi beheading video's. The two video's have become the trigger for the Obama speech in which he announced a new war. To me it is not clear at all why these two videos became ‘ trigger events' as there are execution video's almost on a weekly basis which are much more gruesome. Maybe it was because of the fact that the victims were allegedly well known US and Israel journalists. Phi Beta Iota posted the item by two US students showing how easy it is to produce a beheading video that looks quite genuine.
Immediately after the publication of the first video the regular conspiracy sites raised questions about it. What was very strange was that several MSM came with stories quoting anonymous intelligence sources or security experts who repeated the critique and question marks by regular conspiracy websites. I've not seen that happening before. These experts kept open the possibility that the video's were staged although the victims may have been killed. MSM referring to US and UK intel have indicated that they are very close to identifying the real guy in the video.
Phi Beta Iota: A battle for the soul of US intelligence appears to be underway. On one side are the “leaders” who have chosen to prostitute their office and follow in the example of George Tenet, enabling lies to and by the White House. On the other side are the legions of real professionals — of the same caliber as those that knew that Ho Chi Minh was a nationalist, not a communist; who knew beyond doubt that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq (and who also knew that freeing the Shi'ites in Iraq at American expense was Iran's signal strategic goal). From where we sit as sidelined observers with no access at all to secret information, the revelations of Edward Snowden appear to be strengthening the integrity of the lower ranks within the US Intelligence Community (IC). People are starting to realize that their Oath to defend and support the US Constitution against all enemies, DOMESTIC and foreign, is a sacred oath, not an oath of convenience as Jim Clapper and Mike Vickers appear to believe. Properly trained professionals understand that they work for the public, not the chain of command, and that their most sacred duty to that public are a) to tell the truth and b) refuse illegal orders and if necessary denounce those illegal orders, first to the internal channels and then to Congress and then if necessary to the public. The current efforts of the US intelligence “leaders” to intimidate all employees by telling them that ANY contact with media, ANY comment out of office, will be grounds for loss of clearances and termination is, in our view, not just unprofessional, but grounds for the impeachment of those leaders and all those below below them who are pursuing these Gestapo-like tactics. The US Government is lying to the US public. We are long overdue for push-back on this culture of mendacity, and any sign of life — any sign of integrity from among the lower ranks of US intelligence professionals — is a most welcome indication that we can still restore intelligence with integrity to the US Government.
NOTE: There are two ways to produce a real beheaded body “by name.” The first is to actually behead them while making them think they are participating in a false flag operation for which they and their families are being handsomely paid. The second is to take individuals killed by other means (e.g. direct mortar fire or random rounds — or even a sniper delivering a not-so-random round) and then combine a faked video with a real body beheaded in the laboratory. US citzens have no idea what rogue elements of their government are capable of. Absent an independent investigation we have no idea what has actually happened — all that we do know with certainty is that the US Government cannot be trusted to a) tell the truth or b) in the case of foreign affairs, know what the truth is.
NOTE: Ebola is getting scary. While the worst-case estimate of 5 million dead after multiple 21-day incubation periods may be over the top, what is not over the top is that there is a very real humanitarian and public health crisis in Africa that Obama is ignoring because his intelligence community is incapable of presenting a proper stoplight chart on forthcoming catastrophic events aligned with possible investments and the Return on Investment (RoI) of those investments.
See Also:
4th Media: WEST Publicly Claims To Be Fighting Terrorism, Whilst Covertly Nourishing It
Allen Roland: Honoring Chalmers Johnson, Prophet of Truth + Empire Meta-RECAP
Anthony Judge: Beheading versus Befooting — Lesser Evils, Anyone?
Anthony Judge: Eradication as the Strategic Final Solution of the 21st Century?
Beheadings at ‘record levels’: Saudi Arabia executes dozens in deadly August
Berto Jongman: C-SPAN on 9/11 – A Definitive Exposure
Berto Jongman: Fake Beheading Interview
Berto Jongman: Foley Execution a Fake? UPDATED
Berto Jongman: Pentagon Oversaw Creation of Shi’ite Torture Squads and Secret Detention Sites
Berto Jongman: Saudi Arabia’s Efforts to Expand Radical Islam and Support Terrorism
Berto Jongman: Tony Shaffer on Benghazi and 9/11
Chuck Spinney: Averting Civil War in Syria
Chuck Spinney: Emile Nakhleh on Saudi Anger over Losing Influence — Iran Ascendant
Chuck Spinney: Syrian Use of Chemical Weapons? Bullshit. + Syria Regional Meta-RECAP
Gordon Duff: 9/11 Unraveling within Congress — Saudis and Israel and Bush-Cheney in the Headlights
Graphic: Difference Between a Boss and a Leader
Graphic: Muslim Sunni – Shi'ite Distribution (Global)
Graphic: Updated US Swath of Destruction from Afghanistan to Niger
Henry Kissinger: Military men are ‘dumb, stupid animals to be used' as pawns for foreign policy
Henry Kissinger: “The illegal we do immediately; the unconstitutional takes a little longer.”
Information Pathologies @ Phi Beta Iota
Intelligence for the President — AND Everyone Else
Kevin Barrett: US ‘Aid’ Destroys Egypt’s Economy, Democracy
Marcus Aurelius: Appraisal of Syrian Intervention Options and Costs + Syria Anti-War Meta-RECAP
Marcus Aurelius: General Robert Scales on Defeating ISIS – Comment by Robert Steele
‘Obama’s volte-face on ISIS thrusts US into years of perpetual war’
On Defense Intelligence — Seven Strikes
Owl: Syrian Rebels Behead Two Christians, One a Priest
Rebuilding National Intelligence — A 12-Step Plan
Review: 935 Lies – The Future of Truth and the Decline of America’s Moral Integrity
Review: God’s Terrorists – The Wahhabi Cult and the Hidden Roots of Modern Jihad
Review: How America Was Lost – From 9/11 to the Police/Warfare State
Review: Improper behavior–when misconduct is good for society
Review: Manufactured Crisis – The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare
Review: National Insecurity – The Cost of American Militarism
Review: The Coup: 1953, The CIA, and The Roots of Modern U.S.-Iranian Relations
Review: The Trial of Henry Kissinger
Review: Weapons of Mass Deception–The Uses of Propaganda in Bush’s War on Iraq
Review: Who Speaks For Islam?–What a Billion Muslims Really Think
Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Democracy Lost & Found
Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Intelligence (Most)