Beheading video

Beheading video is a colloquial term in the U.S. popularized during the "War on Terror" for videos released by Islamist militant groups depicting interviews by hostages taken by said groups. The prelude to these videos usually show the subject alive and pleading for their lives sometimes accompanied by their captors, sometimes not. The demands made are usually broad and general, such as total withdrawal of the hostage's nation's military forces from a particular Middle Eastern country, usually Iraq. Invariably a video depicting the actual beheading is released a few days later.

These videos are often uploaded to the internet by alleged terrorists then discussed and distributed by traditional journalistic media or by web-based outlets such as blogs and shock sites.

Hoax

A hoax beheading video by Benjamin Vanderford received wide attention by the American press. The creators of the video claimed to have released the video to point out how uncritically the mainstream media would accept an anonymous video (the video turned up on U.S. media outlets immediately).

Notorious beheading videos released since 2001

• Eugene Armstrong, U.S. citizen (Iraq)
• Nick Berg, U.S. citizen (Iraq)
• Kenneth Bigley, United Kingdom citizen (Iraq)
• Jack Hensley, U.S. citizen (Iraq)
• Paul Marshall Johnson, U.S. citizen (Saudi Arabia)
• Shosei Koda, Japanese citizen (Iraq)
• Georgi Lazov, Bulgarian citizen (Iraq)
• Daniel Pearl, U.S. citizen (Pakistan)
• Yevgeny Rodionov, Russian citizen (Chechnya)
• Piotr Stańczak, Polish citizen (Pakistan)
• Kim Sun Il, South Korean citizen (Iraq)

External links

• Stannard, Matthew B. Beheading video seen as war tactic." San Francisco Chronicle. Thursday May 13, 2004.
• "Ben Vanderford Hoax Video" - Spike TV
• Jones, Ronald H. "TERRORIST BEHEADINGS: CULTURAL AND STRATEGIC IMPLICATIONS." Hosted at Air University