Free enterprise gone awry:Video of beheadings found for sale at Tampa gas station
ABC Action News 11/09/04
TAMPA - Some of the worst horrors of the war in Iraq were on sale right here in the bay area. Action News found a DVD featuring the beheading of two Americans being sold at a Tampa gas station, but it was not the work of Muslim extremists.
The 90-minute video, titled Buried in the Sand, shows the gruesome way Saddam Hussein tortured his country. It also prominently features the end of Nicholas Berg's life -- in all, a series of brutally graphic, violent images culminating with the beheading.
The DVD was on a shelf right inside the front door of a Shell station on E. Busch Boulevard. The station's assistant manager, 'Sal,' couldn't explain why the station was selling it, but he admitted the images made him sick.
"What's in there is very disgusting. What you see is disgusting. It's not something to be proud about. I think it shows the U.S. isn't bad about the war. They free a country," he observed in broken English.
What might be most surprising about the video, however, is who was behind it. The movie was actually produced by two Republicans out of California as part of the campaign propaganda, meant to counter films like Fahrenheit 9/11.
"I just wanted to get the truth out there and let people know what the face of our enemy was really like," producer Rob Cartee told Action News.
Cartee was vague about his distribution agreements and could not explain how the video wound up on the shelves of the gas station.
Shell was unaware the DVD was being sold at a station with their name on it until informed by Action News. The company said it would immediately start an investigation.
A company spokeswoman said that at any station where "merchandise is offered for sale that is morally offensive or distasteful, Shell will demand that the retailer take the appropriate steps to bring the operation into compliance with its contract."
The DVD was on sale for two weeks, and Sal said they sold about half a dozen. But he pledged to pull the remaining copies off the shelf late Monday.
"Right now, I can assure you from this moment, I am going to call whoever supplied it and ask them to pick it up," he said.>>>
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