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May 05, 2008
Its hard to say Happy Birthday
But it is equally hard to let the day pass unnoticed.
Ron Arad was born on May 5, 1958 in Israel. He is the son of Batya and the late Dov Arad, and is the oldest of their three sons. Arad, an air-force navigator in an F-4 Phantom jet, had just completed his first year of chemical engineering at The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa when he was called up for reserve duty.
On October 16, 1986, while on a mission over southern Lebanon, Lieutenant Colonel Ron Arad and his pilot were forced to parachute out of their Phantom jet due to a technical problem. While the pilot was rescued in a daring helicopter raid, Arad fell captive to terrorists belonging to the Amal organization.
About a year after his capture, Israel received photographs and letters from Arad’s captors.
Mustafa Dirani, the Amal security chief who allegedly captured Ron Arad when his plane crashed in Lebanon, reportedly broke away from the terrorist group in 1987, taking Arad with him. It is believed that Dirani then "sold" Arad to either Hizbullah or Iranian elements.
According to Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot, as recently as 2003, three former Iranian diplomats and intelligence officials living in Europe claimed that Ron Arad is alive and being held in a prison near Tehran.
These reports cannot be verified.
One of them claimed that Arad was being held in a secret, heavily-guard prison near Tehran in the late 1990's. He claimed that he had access to Arad's files, saw Arad several times, and even exchanged words with him.
According to this Iranian, Arad tried to escape from his captivity while in Lebanon and was shot and wounded by his guards. He claims that in mid 1994, Arad was transferred via Syria to Iran. He claims that before being transferred, Arad underwent an operation to paralyze his legs in order to prevent him from escaping, and that as a result, Arad is confined to a wheelchair. He also claimed that Arad was hospitalized twice for heart problems.
Twenty years later, we know nothing about the fate of Ron Arad.
Or do we?
Nick Berg's body was found decapitated on May 8, 2004 on a Baghdad overpass by a U.S. military patrol. Berg's family was informed of his death on May 10. Military sources stated publicly at that time that Berg's body showed "signs of trauma", but did not disclose that he had been decapitated.
On May 11, 2004, the website of the militant Islamist group Muntada al-Ansar [6] allegedly broadcast a video with the opening title of "Abu Musa'b al-Zarqawi slaughters an American", which supposedly shows Berg being decapitated.
Is Nick Berg dead? Yes, and likely beheaded afterwards, but is the man seen in the beheading video Nick Berg?
Journalist Jamie Francis of the St. Petersburg Times ran into Nick at a gym in Baghdad's old Jewish quarter less than a month before this video was released. Nick was a regular at the gym and well known by its owner. Francis described Nick's ivory skin and thin red beard, adding that Nick looked the part of a construction worker, and spoke of Nick's muscular build.
The victim in the video does not have ivory skin or a red beard, he is not muscular at all, is much smaller than Nick Berg and he looks nothing like Nick Berg. However, he does look a lot like Ron Arad.
Question: How do you know an islamist is lying?
Answer: His lips are moving.
The victim in the video did not stand up or even move his legs through anything that was happening. He sat on the floor, legs bent at the knees. When they flipped him over sideways, his legs did not move, the body just fell onto the floor. This lead some to believe that the victim was heavily sedated, however, this is consistent with reports that Arad had been disabled to prevent escape.
The quality of the movie is not consistent with today's technology, and voice-overs cannot be confirmed. The sound could easily have been dubbed over. Despite the lies perpetuated by CNN, the voice over on the video has been confirmed as Zarqawi.
Coincidentally, Arad was in news at the time of the release of the beheading video. His remains were being used as a negotiation tool by Hezbullah, who were seeking an exchange of live terrorists for his remains. Israeli intelligence and defense officials have said that another purpose of the recent spate of media reports on Arad is to try to remove Iran from the picture. Hezbullah of course is Iran's hit squad.
The same day the execution video was posted on the internet, Hezbullah announced they had located Ron Arad's grave in Lebanon. A short time later, they handed over a piece of bone supposedly that of Ron Arad's. The bone was proved to be fake a few days later.
I don't believe in coincidence. Remember, these are the same people who released photos of a toy marine, claiming to have captured another member of the U.S. Military.
I believe Nick Berg is dead, I believe that Ron Arad is dead. What I do not believe is that Nick Berg was the man in the video, I believe that man was Ron Arad. I believe the video was made years ago, and withheld to be released at an opportune time. I believe that eventually, it was decided that a "Ron Arad" beheading was less valuable than a "Nick Berg" beheading and that the timing of the release of the video was a "crime of opportunity." As Moshe Dyan once said, "The Arabs will never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity."
I am not alone in my beliefs. You may look at the pictures, look at the video and draw your conclusion.
We may never know the truth behind the video.
When I think about Nick Berg and Ron Arad, I cannot help but think of Johnny "Mike" Spann who was attacked by a mob of Islamist prisoners and beaten to death, his body full of bites as though animals had been tearing at his flesh.
Know thy enemy.
Posted by LindaSoG at May 5, 2008 01:54 PM
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Comments
looking at the picture, its hard to believe that it was Nick in the video, and easy to believe that it was Ron Arad, but I don't understand why they would do such a thing. Was Nick killed another way and beheaded afterwards when they remembered the video? That would be the only thing that makes sense, if there is any sense to be made out of his murder and the video.
Posted by: Rene at May 5, 2008 07:43 PM