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[Trevelyon]

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A tech-savvy young San Francisco man who staged his own mock beheading on the Internet duped international media today into believing Islamist kidnappers had executed an American hostage in Iraq.

The video, which appeared on a Web site used by Islamic militants, showed a man who identified himself as Benjamin Vanderford appealing to the United States to leave Iraq. The Web format was that used by al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and was introduced by a headline that said it showed Zarqawi killing an American.

"If we don't (leave Iraq), everyone is gonna be killed in this way ... I have been offered for exchange for prisoners here in Iraq," the terrified-looking man said, rocking back and forth in his chair, his hands tied behind his back.

The video showed a hand with a large knife apparently slicing through the neck of a limp body.

But it was all a hoax.

The blood was dye, the setting was a friend's garage, the Koran reading was a tape and the knife was held by a friend. Mutilated bodies and sound effects were edited in from photos on Web sites and the video was purposefully blurred to make it seem even more amateur, Vanderford said.

A major motivation for his action, an unrepentant Vanderford told Reuters, was to see how the world media would react and to see if they would be fooled. "It really illustrates the potential that this kind of thing would happen," he said.

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=561077&section=news

 

[LakeEarth]

What, were the other 5 fake too? I can't wait till they tell their families. That'd be the worst fucking episode of Punk'd ever.

 

[Meier]

We were talking in chat about how funny it is that this guy got his picture taken in just his boxers by all the news outlets. What a nut.

 

[Kuroyume]

Man I saw this video months ago... funny to see the news stations get it all wrong this morning...

 

[teiresias]

back and shoulders meet wax . . . I mean, shit, c'mon now!!!!

 

[Trevelyon]

"Vanderford said he distributed the staged video on Kazaa and other Internet peer-to-peer networks which are popular swapping forums for films, music and software. He said if his staged death appeared on any terror-related Web sites it was the work of others who found the video on the peer-to-peer networks."

Um, so I guess this al-Zarqawi site didn't recieve the Orgish.com newsletter update, from three months back.

Heh, yeh the guy needs behead his back hair... if anything.

 

[Dagless M.D.]

now that we know it's fake, can someone link to the video

 

[Trevelyon]

I'll pm you Newbie.

Better be on the safe side.

 

[Chittagong]

Excellent stuff. The media deserves it. And by that, I mean not only Fox News.

 

[Dagless M.D.]

I'll pm you Newbie.

Better be on the safe side.

Thanks, some of the pictures in that vid are real, and are pretty sick

 

[Ecrofirt]

Someone PM me as well.

 

[Trevelyon]

Yeh, that's why I didn't post a link. But the actual mock beheading is fairly tame.

 

[norinrad21]

Ship him to Iraq

 

[gofreak]

I don't wanna see a video..but how did he mock the beheading? I know they do it all the time in period dramas on the BBC and such, but this is a little different..

 

[Dagless M.D.]

I don't wanna see a video..but how did he mock the beheading? I know they do it all the time in period dramas on the BBC and such, but this is a little different..

well the beheading part of the video is about 5 seconds, and only shows the knife going back and forth obscured so it looks like its in his neck

 

[MrPing1000]

I gotta admit he executed some serious ownage there