NBC: U.S. officials
investigating new execution tape
Tape purports to show killing of Army soldier
captured April 9
By Jim Miklaszewski
Updated: 6:23 p.m. ET June 28, 2004U.S. military officials were investigating claims that a man seen being executed on a videotape is Army Spc. Keith Matthew Maupin, a U.S. soldier captured in Iraq on April 9, NBC News reported Monday.
Officials who have seen the videotaped execution say the tape is so "grainy" that it is not possible to make a positive identification of the victim because his face is not clearly visible.
The victim, who is shot multiple times in the head and body, is wearing what appears to be a U.S. Army uniform. The body is then seen being dumped into a shallow grave. A voice on the tape, speaking in Arabic, identifies the victim as Maupin.
U.S. military officials said, however, that without recovering a body, they cannot make any ruling that Maupin is dead and that his official status remains “captured.”
But Al-Jazeera television said early Tuesday that Iraqi militants killed Maupin because the U.S. government did not change its policy in Iraq, the Associated Press reported. The al-Jazeera report could not be immediately confirmed by U.S. officials.
more at link:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5319022/