I Saw the Daniel Pearl Video

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

And I feel dirty. It was only a matter of time before the wonders of the internet came upon the film of horror that is the Daniel Pearl execution video. I forced myself to watch the film out of morbid curiousity- I now hold Pearl’s family in the highest regard. No one should have to go through what he went through. Murdered for his beliefs and nationality, a life wasted. I will now discuss the happenings in the video (TMI Warning):

Now that you’re still with me…

(Note- I watched it once, and will not again. Some estimates of time and whatnot may be off)

The video is about three minutes in length. It starts off with a black screen and Arab script imposed upon it. Daniel Pearl is then featured. His hair is gelled back, and only his head is visible. Everything else is dark. Presumably he has a gun to his head, but the edited shroud blanks his background out.

He says stuff. He starts out with his address, in Encino, California. He tells about his parents being Jewish, the street in Israel named after his grandfather, and his visitations to the Holy Land.

He then denounces American foreign policy. There is a slight tremor in his voice. Throughout the duration of all this, his words are translated into Arabic at the bottom, and on the right side of the screen images of Palestinians are shown. After each statement Pearl makes, a dramatic thump is put on.

Nearly two minutes into the film, the audio goes silent. You can see Danny sprawled on the ground, either dead or unconscious. A pair of hands grasping a machete disconnect his body from his neck.

The final minute of the video is that of a hand holding Pearl’s lifeless head. To the left of his dangling head are the demans by the Pakistani terror group, in both Arab and English. Demands include the release of all Gitmo prisoners, the end of US forces in Pakistan, and the selling of F-14’s to Pakistan (huh?).

An ominous message tops it off, warning that if the demands are not met, the same fate will befall other Americans in “Muslim lands.” Pearl’s head is still dangling. The screen fades out.

You almost expect to see credits.

2

That should be the left side of the screen. His image is on the right.

3

Apropriate post/sig combo. Couldn’t have put it better myself.

4

That’s horrible. Evil.

How utterly evil.

I’m sure that some visual evidence of this evil is important, (for whatever reason) but a description is definitely more than enough for me. (Way more than enough.)

5

**

They were probably referring to the sale of F-16s to Pakistan. Pakistan currently has 32 early model F-16s that constitute the cream of the crop for their Air Force. The F-16s are probably their only hope for a favorable matchup against a numerically and technologically superior Indian Air Force.

They purchased 28 more F-16s in the early 90s, but before the aircraft were actually delivered, Pakistan was found to be developing nuclear weapons. Congress had passed a law forbidding arm sales to Pakistan if they were doing this, so Pakistan never got their planes or their money back. An attempt was made to sell the F-16s to Indonesia in order to get the money to pay back Pakistan but that fell through.

So Pakistan is out $600 million or so (though some of that money was US aid anyway.) Needless to say, this is considered a pretty big snub, and fundamentalists in Pakistan seem particularly annoyed by it. Not that kidnapping Americans is going to get them their planes. The Pakistani government’s policy of cooperating (somewhat) with US operations in Afghanistan seems a much more practically way to get your planes, but that’s fundies for you.

6

My own thoughts are too ugly for this thread.

So I posted them in the Pit.
:frowning: :mad:

7

I just downloaded it and watched it.

All I can say is at least it looked like he was already dead when they showed him being decapitated.

Shit…

8

Curiosity got the best of me, too.

Downloaded and watched it…

It was hard to watch, knowing how it would end. bdgr is right that he does look like he was dead before he was decapitated, for whatever that’s worth. It was less gruesome than I thought it might be, but it did make me angrier than I had expected. How someone could do that to another human being is hard for me to understand.

9

Its because they dont consider jews to be human. If your going to watch this, dont do it like I did and watch it right before you go to sleep.