How the Foley beheading gore has been overstated, and the Africa Bank haircut has been understated

If you’ve been trying to view the ‘beheading’ of James Foley over the last two days, then I’d imagine you’ve found it well-nigh impossible. It seems that in Britain, if you watch it you may be committing an offence under the Terrorism Act. I don’t live in Britain any more, so I don’t have that problem. Here in France, I’m not allowed to be rude about French banks (each State to its own censorship of free speech) but watching grizzly videos is OK.

I watched the tape because a valued source suggested I should. These are my observations:

1.The prisoner is very clearly James Foley

2. His alleged executioner is from South London, and probably of West Indian genetic origin

3. Mr Foley does not display any fear consonant with imminent death

4. The ‘beheading’ is faked.

As that last point above has conspiracy-theory looney written all over it, let me expand on the reasons for my opinion:

i. The knife his captor uses could no more sever a head than than my little finger could punch a hole in the Hoover Dam. It is far too small….and far too small to have produced the cleanly-guillotined appearance of head and body at the end of the film.

ii. The universally advertised ‘gruesome gore’ has been hugely overdone by the media. There is no blood at all in the movie action…and that’s precisely when the director cuts. But I don’t believe the knifeman cuts anything.

iii. We see (very briefly) knifeman sawing away at Mr Foley’s neck – but zero blood. That is medically impossible: when you sever the left and right common carotid arteries, the spray of huge volumes of blood is quite incredible. That’s probably why we cut to a still of head and body at the end.

iv. If James Foley has been beheaded (and the closing still shot looks real enough to me) then he certainly was not killed at the spot and with that implement. Again, there simply isn’t enough blood.

v. I would guess that 99% of sites previously running the video have now removed it – Youtube certainly has. This coupled with the heavy stuff about Terrorism Act offences and overdone gore suggest to me that a coordinated media campaign was carried out by the authorities to minimise access to the film. The reason, probably, was that too close an examination would lead most people to the same conclusion as me: the film is authentic (as the CIA puts it) in that it does show James Foley, and his voice refers to things that only happened ten days ago, so the action is contemporary. But it is NOT an authentic execution record.

Why that is so and who planned it I have not the faintest idea, because I do not engage with conspiracy mania when I have no facts or contacts to guide me. All I assert is that this video does not represent what it purports to.

My hunch is that Foley was told to memorise his speech in order to take part in a propaganda stunt, and that he would not be executed. But he was, of course…because you always know where you are with Islamists: they always lie.

None of this makes the ISIS action any less barabaric: if anything, the mental cruelty makes it worse. I leave it up to others to draw their own conclusions as to the whys and wherefores.

. . . . . . .

From one sort of terrorist to another. Just as with Cyprus haircuts, despite widespread denials throughout the African banking industry, it looks like the final haircuts to pay for the disgraceful ABIL debacle are going to be more like a beheading.

Three days ago, Standard & Liberty of Johannesburg (Stanlib) sneaked the ‘STANLIB Money Market ABIL Retention Fund’ under the media radar. One saver victim describes “a further 1.58% gone…..and I understand from the poor fellow at the help desk the funds only become available once ABIL is wound down…so until these monies are returned, the haircut is very large.”

Yessir, sounds just like the Cyprus scam to me. The Stanlib helpline today helpfully informs the customer sorry creditor that “We are currently experiencing high call volumes” and “Transaction instructions are delayed and we apologise”. Yessir, sounds just like an RBS glitch to me.

You always know where you are with bankers. As with Islamists, they always lie.

Earlier at The Slog: Your last chance to avoid being a Crash Dummy