What the Charlie Hebdo Execution Video Really Shows
Global
Research, January 13, 2015
Region: Europe
Theme: Media Disinformation
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I
am well aware that I’m stepping into a hornet’s nest by posting this video,
which is going viral. Those who wish to silence all debate have an easy card to
play here, accusing me of buying into a conspiracy theory. There’s only one
problem: unlike the video-maker, I have few conclusions to draw about what the
significance of this video is in relation to the official story. That is not
why I am posting it.
But it does, at least to my mind and
obviously a lot of other people’s, judging by how quickly it’s spreading,
suggest that Ahmed Merabet, the policeman outside the Charlie Hebdo office, was
not shot in the head, as all the media have been stating.
That said, it does not prove much more.
It doesn’t prove that Merabet did not die at the scene. Maybe he bled to
death there on the pavement from his earlier wound. It certainly doesn’t prove
that the Kouachi brothers were not the gunmen or that the one who fired
missed on purpose. Maybe he just missed.
Nor does the video’s removal from most
websites prove that there is some sort of massive cover-up going on. Ideas of
good taste, especially in the immediate aftermath of a massacre close to home
(ie here in the West), can lead to a media consensus that a video is too
upsetting. That can occur even if it does not show blood and gore, simply
because of what it implies. Herd instinct in these instances is very strong.
But the unedited video clip does leave
a sour taste: because unless someone has a good rebuttal, it does indeed seem
impossible that an AK-47 bullet fired from close range would not have done
something pretty dramatic to that policeman’s head. And if the video is real –
and there doesn’t seem much doubt that it is – it clearly shows nothing
significant happened to his head either as or after the bullet was fired.
So what points am I making?
The first one is more tentative. It
seems – though I suppose there could be an explanation I have overlooked – that
the authorities have lied about the cause of the policeman’s death. That could
be for several probably unknowable reasons, including that his being
executed was a simpler, neater story than that he bled to death on the pavement
because of official incompetence (there already seems to have been plenty of
that in this case).
The second point is even more
troubling. Most of the senior editors of our mainstream media have watched the
unedited video just as you now have. And either not one of them saw the problem
raised here – that the video does not show what it is supposed to show –
or some of them did see it but did not care. Either way, they simply
regurgitated an official story that does not seem to fit the available
evidence.
That is a cause for deep concern.
Because if the media are acting as a collective mouth-piece for a
dubious official narrative on this occasion, on a story of huge
significance that one assumes is being carefully scrutinised for news angles,
what are they doing the rest of the time?
The lesson is that we as news consumers
must create our own critical distance from the “news” because we cannot trust
our corporate media to do that work for us. They are far too close to power. In
fact, they are power.
Official narratives are inherently
suspect because power always looks out for itself. This appears to be
a good example – whether what it shows is relatively harmless or sinister
– to remind us of that fact.
UPDATE:
I’m still trying to
imagine a plausible explanation for the video. I’m no ballistics expert, so I’m
firmly in the land of conjecture. But I wonder whether, if the bullet hit the
pavement close to Merabet’s head, it might have been possible for bullet
fragments to hit him, possibly killing him.
This possibility (assuming
it is one) does not invalidate the point of my post. If it was indeed the case,
certainly no media outlet has suggested that the gunman missed Merabet and that
he died from the exploding fragments.
This isn’t meant to
raise technical, or gruesome, details of the case. It is to suggest that
western journalists do not report fearlessly and independently when they
examine events being narrated by official sources. They mostly regurgitate
information on trust, because they trust the authorities to be telling the
truth. They do the same when the acts of official enemies are being examined –
they again turn to official sources on
their side. In short, most journalists have no critical distance from the
events they are reporting on our behalf.
That leaves us,
ordinary news consumers, in a position of either blindly trusting our own
officials too or trying to work things out for ourselves. You would hope
that the issues raised by this video get aired by journalists as part of
establishing greater trust in our profession and proof of our independence.
Instead, I expect it will simply be consigned the “conspiracy theory” bin.
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