FBI Probes Hoax Video Of Iraq Beheading

The FBI have questioned Benjamin Vanderford, a San Francisco computer expert, who duped international media into believing Islamist kidnappers had executed an American hostage in Iraq, by staging his own mock beheading on the Internet. The video showed a hand with a large knife apparently slicing the neck of a limp body. But 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, Mr Vanderford said. A major motivation for his action, an unrepentant Mr Vanderford told Reuters, was to see how the world media would react and to see if they would be fooled — via Rogue Sun