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The accused: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi |
WASHINGTON - Terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
was the masked man who beheaded an American civilian in
Iraq, U.S. intelligence officials concluded Thursday,
leaving other questions unresolved about Nicholas Berg's
final days and his contacts with U.S. and Iraqi authorities.
Through a technical analysis, intelligence
officials were able to determine "with high probability"
that the speaker on a video showing Berg's beheading was
al-Zarqawi, said a CIA official, speaking on condition
of anonymity. The same person is shown decapitating Berg,
the official said.
Three days after Berg's body was found
on Saturday, an Islamic Web site released a video, titled
"Sheikh Abu Musab al-Zarqawi slaughters an American
infidel with his own hands."
U.S. authorities consider al-Zarqawi an
ally of Osama bin Laden and say he is running his own
terrorist operation.
The
video shows five armed men disguised by head scarves and
masks line up behind Berg, who is seated on the ground.
Standing in the middle, the man identified as al-Zarqawi
reads a lengthy statement that criticizes Islamic scholars
and the "shameful photos" of the humiliation
of men and women at the Abu Ghraib prison. He then decapitates
Berg.
Below is a shortened
version that avoids a bunch of Arabic-language crap that
his murderer, al-Zarqawi, is reading to the world before
the deed. The original is 5 minutes long and too big of
a file to leave here for random downloading...
See the Berg
Murder Video Here
(2.0 MB Windows Media Video)
To view this properly, right
click on the link and then choose "Save Target As..."
and download it to your hard drive first.
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