Reply #30: I never said I didn't like speculation.

[Tansy_Gold]

And I wasn't "speculating" that any of the events that I suggested *DID* happen. I only offered suggestions of possible scenarii. In some cases, my suggestions conflicted with others. Is there something wrong with that?

I offered what I considered plausible alternatives, none of which I espoused as being THE answer. I was merely suggesting that others who seem to feel their particular theories are carved in stone might want to consider alternatives.

But I guess if they consider their theories are carved in stone, they won't even consider other possibilities.

One person who viewed the video frame by frame said that his analysis showed Berg was alive in both "time-stamp" segments of the video. Despite this analysis, there are many people who have not even viewed the video insisting that the different time stamps are indicative of the substitution of a dead body -- Berg's or someone else's -- for the beheading scene.

Now, I'm not going to watch the video. Period. But for those who HAVE seen it or are willing to watch it, I've offered MiddleMen's analysis for their comparison.

I haven't seen anyone who has carefully studied the video refute his analysis.

If someone has a reliable news report -- and who knows what's reliable these days? -- that shows when and where Berg's head was found, please post. I don't have one, so I'm not going to "speculate" on when or where or in what condition. But I do think those are valid questions.

Likewise, the statement that Berg's body was found at a Baghdad overpass, indicating not a remote location. I'm not familiar enough with Baghdad and its overpasses to be able to compare them to, say, a freeway overpass in Phoenix. Since there haven't been any reports of anyone actually seeing the body being dumped, one might be tempted to presume that this overpass was not particularly busy at least at the time that the body was dumped. Was there a curfew? Was it dumped when there wasn't any traffic? Do we know for sure how well-traveled this particular road was?

I just think anyone who engages in speculation should -- but they don't have to -- avoid leaping to bizarre and unfounded conclusions. The figures in the video might indeed have had very light-skinned hands, but does the presence of light skin automatically mean they were CIA/Black Ops agents? That's the kind of leap I think is dangerous. It precludes any other explanation, or even possible explanation.

As others have posted, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. I think it's POSSIBLE -- amongst a welter of other possibilities -- that Mr. Berg was an independent contractor who was in Iraq with several possible motives -- to make some money, to see the world, to help people, to make connections with relatives-by-marriage. His lack of official connections made him suspect and a routine check-point inspection of his passport revealed an Israeli stamp and ended up with him being taken into custody. By whom and for what reasons, well, we aren't sure yet. We have the family's testimony and the various releases of government information, but do we trust any of it? Trust only what we want to trust?

Was Berg fingered by Iraqis while he was in prison? Was he tagged as a lone wolf who might make a good target for hostage taking? We've been told that there are as many as 40 civilians "missing" in Iraq. Berg's disappearance in april wasn't enough to attract major media attention, no "amber alert" or anything. not even after the murders of the four contractors/mercenaries in Fallujah. (I won't even go into the fact that many here on DU decried the presence of those civilian/mercenaries, and yet now they are making Berg into a totally innocent. . . but that's another topic for discussion.) We don't know who holds the other missing civilians, or if they are being held or have already been killed. There's a great deal we don't know.

I don't mind speculation at all. I dislike unfounded speculation, because I think it distracts the serious investigator (here on DU or elsewhere) from examining truly relevant information.

That's all. sorry I offended.

Tansy Gold, who isn't really