Reply #21: Doni's Husband: "If it quacks like a duck..."

[doni_georgia]

Let's see:
1. Berg is arrested and held without legal counsel for two weeks. By US personnel. No one seems to be able to answer why. Someone knows, and if it was WANTED to be known, it'd leak out in a hurry. Just ask Mr. Wilson.
2. Berg is released...and is kidnapped within 72 hours. When he's planning to get out of there. Awfully small window there, for one thing. Seems to me if I was going to leave Iraq, the last thing I would do is go anywhere where there was anything greater than the least possible danger to my life.
3. Not only is he kidnapped, but by al Qaeda. HUH??? In BAGHDAD? Where did they come from??? What are they doing there??? What are our military intelligence and our security forces doing if these shmoes can walk into Baghdad and grab a civilian, presumably (assuming my previous point is accurate) in a relatively secure area?
4. Al Qaeda, to my memory, is big on killing, but I'm not so familiar with kidnapping as their M.O. Kidnapping is usually a two-liner in the American media and those guys, when they act, usually do it big and do it with great and spectacular loss of life.
5. Who says that this was REALLY al Qaeda??? The media seems to be swallowing this bait, hook, line, bobber, rod and is gnawing on the reel. All we have to go on is who a bunch of hooded guys say they are. Well, duh. If a hooded guy comes up to me and says he's al Qaeda, what proof to I have that he's not just some murderous, anonymous loony, regardless of his allegiances? The number-two guy in al Qaeda - Zarquawi (sp?) is named in the tape. So what? That makes this actually less credible. Is Dick Cheney or Donald Rumsfeld going to fly to Iraq, go to Fallujah, and toss a few grenades into a mosque? Nope, nope nope. These guys almost certainly were flunkies or grunts. The unlikelihood of this being possible is reflected in #7.
6. This poor man is then beheaded on film. The severed head is brandished by the executioner. Unless memory fails me, isn't there some taboo in Islam that prohibits the handling of dead human flesh - unlean?? If these guys are serious about their religion - and most of them generally are - then it would seem highly suspect to allow oneself to be filmed performing an unclean act in any circumstances, lat alone with apparent glee.
7. The ostensible reason for this horrific act is: retaliation for the abuses in Iraqi prisons. Yet this has been going on for MONTHS. This is the reason that the four contractors were butchered in Fallujah. Most people in America had no clue about the abuse when the contractors were killed - but we now know that this was a substantial contributing cause to the wave of violence that began around that time. The Iraqis sure knew what was going on - long before we did. Why wait until NOW, when the American people are already reeling from the revelation of charges for the crimes committed by their military, to indulge in an action that will in fact cause many Americans to want to fight back? I thought they wanted us to leave????

The timeline is nice and smooth - TOO smooth, cosidering it's been less than 24 hours since the story was released and less than 100 hours since this happened - and pulls in way too many other elements. Al Qaeda has been pretty much on the sidelines, for the most part, and hasn't drawn a heck of a lot of attention lately. Al Qaeda ostensibly bombed Madrid to get Spain OUT of Iraq, and they hit Spain at home, not in Iraq.
I do not think al Qaeda is responsible for this one, at this point. And I find it hard to imagine that a bunch of Iraqi irregulars would be that savvy to what is going on in the American press; those guys have their hands full right now just keeping themselves alive and fighting. So - WHO DID THIS?

It just seems too much like a setup. It feels like a setup. It smells like a setup. If it quacks like a duck....
Mac in Ga