Monday, July 28, 2014

Apologies

Please accept my apologies for failing to move forward on this series of posts. The events of the current flare up of full-on war against Israel by Hamas has consumed too much of my time. I am also realizing that to properly cover the cognitive war of deception being waged against Israel - not just by Palestinians but by many Western governments - would take far more time than I have in my life. Still, I strongly believe that I should speak out. I can not and will not stand by silently while the worst racism and bigotry since the Nazis overran Europe, run rampant in the world - much of it originating from leftists and progressives in my own country, the USA. Please check back in the next few days. I promise a new focus for my efforts that will be relevant and informative. Thanks, Ray Pelland

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Post 4 of the Nakba Day Killings: CNN editing anomalies - and what about the wads?

Update 11/25/2014: Note that I wrote this post several months ago (7/10/2014) but then ran out of time. Also, Operation Protective Edge soon was consuming the news reports. I had not completely finished editing this post so I pulled it down at that time. I am reposting it now since both the IDF and an Arab sponsored group have now accused the person I described as "Real Shooter" several months ago as having committed either "manslaughter" or "murder", respectively.


Note: If you haven't done so yet I recommend reading the posts in this series starting with Post 1. You can find all the posts in reverse order below this one on the page. You can also find each post in the series in the archives at right. The first post provides the basic intro information on the Nakba Day killings of May 15, 2014. This includes a set of notated maps that gives a sense of where this happened and what you'd see around you if you actually were there on that day. It also shows you a way to view videos frame by frame. If you are drawn to be a blog detective this will be a valuable tool and much of the evidence I'll introduce in this series of posts will require frame by frame analysis - especially if you'd like to check my conclusions for yourself. 


From the start there was something about that CNN "Smoking Gun" footage that bothered me. It seemed there was almost no time at all from the moment the smoke appeared above "Real Shooter's" muzzle in the playback at RowVid frame 113.85 sec, and the sound of the shot in the playback. From the foreshortening of the image of the IDF personnel on the veranda I reasoned that the distance from the shooter to the CNN camera must be at least some tens of meters. I finally found the time to examine the footage on my video editing software that allows me to view the audio track and compare it with the frame by frame video images.

The "Smoking Gun" Audio Track


Note: The distances from the SHOOTER to CAMERA was corrected from a previous version of this post and reflect my most accurate estimates at this time of 58.7 meters. (July 7, 2014)

First Shot Video / Audio Data

One of the first things that appeared from the audio track was the classic N-shaped wave, characteristic of the sharp "crack" of gunshots. But, there's something in this audio data that's very strange. The shot was fired 58.7 meters from the CNN camera that recorded both video and audio of the shot. It should take the sound of the shot .178 seconds ( 58.7 m / 330 m / sec ) to reach the camera after the shot was fired. But, as can be seen  in the Audio Track image above, the audio signature of the recorded shot appears slightly before the video image of the shot is recorded. It is, of course, physically impossible for the sound of a shot to arrive at the camera before the visual image.

Note: I am assuming that the smoke plume from the shot would appear at the same instant (in the same frame) that the sound waves of the shot from the rifle began their travel to the camera microphone. This is because the rapid expansion of gas at the barrel exit is what creates the audio signature of the shot that the camera records on its audio track. The red line in the audio track above marks the frame where that smoke plume first appeared.

The exact moment of the image on the recording is however, only accurate to +/- one frame since we do not know when in the frame the shot occurred. This is the same as +/- .o4 seconds. Therefore the red line could actually be located coincident with the audio spike of the shot. The problem however, remains.

Except for distances of thousands of miles or more, photons, which travel about 300 million meters in one second, will arrive at a camera at virtually the same instant they are emitted. This is certainly true for distances of only a few tens of meters. Sound waves travel at a much slower speed, about 330 m / secs - or almost a million times slower. That means the audio signature of the shot should arrive at the camera microphone - which was about 58.7 meters from the shooter - about .178 seconds after the first frame where the smoke plume appears - certainly not before it - which would violate several laws of nature. A time span of .178 seconds is equivalent to a bit more than four frames of video - each frame being .04 seconds.

I'd expect that the high quality professional CNN video cameras digitize and record the audio and video signals very quickly, possibly less than a millisecond or two. And also that the audio and video tracks would be synchronized during the recording with less error than a millisecond at most. It seems very unlikely that the CNN camera could have caused this four-plus frame discrepancy (.16 to .20 seconds) between the audio and video tracks. I suspect the audio track was shifted forward by about four video frames when the footage was edited - possibly to make the shot appear coincident with the smoke plume, for some reason..

Time shifting aside, there's still something else that seems amiss about the CNN footage which could be an artifact of the time-shifting process. As the camera microphone is recording the background sounds just before the shot, the audio track goes completely blank for 1/3 of a second before the audio of the shot is recorded. For this 1/3 of a second the audio track is wiped clean from all background sounds. If you listen carefully you can hear the voice-over narration stop, then normal background sounds - birds are chirping - then complete silence for 1/3 second, then the shot. I can't help but wonder what sounds may have been recorded and then deleted from the CNN footage during that 1/3 second interval.

CNN Camera View Diagram

The only explanation I can imagine that can account for this strange data is that someone in the CNN editing room manipulated the audio and / or video tracks with respect to each other Then, they seem to have erased all the audio that the camera was capturing for almost 1/3 second before the moment of the shot.

But why would CNN tamper with the audio / video at the exact timing of the shot - especially when they are broadcasting this as "proof" to millions of viewers around the world -  that the Israel Border Police and / or IDF murdered Nadeem Nuwarah. I welcome anyone's thoughts on this intriguing puzzle.

I am not sure what CNN's motive was for editing the footage in this way. But, since it was apparently manipulated, at the very least I think we deserve an explanation.

Full Scene of the Supposed Crime for reference



Update 11/25/2014: Note that I wrote this post several months ago (7/10/2014) but then ran out of time. Also, Operation Protective Edge soon was consuming the news reports. I had not completely finished editing this post so I pulled it down at the time. I am reposting it now since both the IDF and an Arab group have now accused the person I described several months ago in Post 2 of this series as "Real Shooter" - as having committed either "manslaughter" or "murder", respectively - in the death of Nadeem Nuwarah.

I believe it is curious (and troubling) that neither the IDF nor the Arab group have tried to explain how the CNN video could have recorded the paper wads appearing shortly after the shot was fired if it was indeed a live 5.56 mm NATO round as they are claiming.

(To see the proof of the existence of the paper wads that accompany the Nuwarah shot recorded by CNN - please review post 2 in this series.)


Added 11/26/2014: And also, why he stood up and manually recharged his weapon immediately after the shot, which would not be necessary if he had shot a live NATO 5.56 round. To make this clearer, the M16 rifle is designed so that a live 5.56 NATO round is capable of cycling the ammunition - to automatically eject the spent brass shell and inject the next live round from the magazine into the chamber. Military M16s can therefore selectively fire in either automatic or single shot modes - in both cases without the shooter having to manually clear the chamber or recharge it. This allows the shooter to keep his or her eyes looking down the sights at the target. IDF blank ammo used for rubber coated bullets has a lower energy powder load to minimize injury. These blanks don't have the ability to cycle the ammo. The shooter must do it manually. The CNN footage clearly shows Real Shooter standing up and manually recharging his weapon after firing the shot correlated with Nuwarah's fall. This would only be necessary if he had fired a blank cartridge.


Perhaps there is a reasonable explanation for these events. And of course, if the border policeman did violate orders then he should be dealt with according to Israeli military law. But I believe the world deserves a clear explanation that reveals the truth of what actually happened that day on the veranda above the Beitunia junction.

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Post 3 of the Nakba Day Killings: Geometry of the CNN camera angles

Note: If you haven't done so yet I recommend reading the posts in this series starting with Post 1. You can find all the posts in reverse order below this one on the page. You can also find each post in the series in the archives at right. The first post provides the basic intro information on the Nakba Day killings of May 15, 2014. This includes a set of notated maps that gives a sense of where this happened and what you'd see around you if you actually were there on that day. It also shows you a way to view videos frame by frame. If you are drawn to be a blog detective this will be a valuable tool and much of the evidence I'll introduce in this series of posts will require frame by frame analysis - especially if you'd like to check my conclusions for yourself. 


Although I did provide some diagrams in the the first two posts, before going further, I felt it was important to provide a best-guess estimate, at this time, of the critical geometry surrounding the events of this day. I believe these diagrams are fairly accurate but until I can get a higher resolution image overhead satellite or aircraft camera image this will have to do. If you know of any source for a better Earth Map view please contact me. Thanks

CNN Camera Views


View 1) Veranda wall view to west (281.1 deg compass angle). Camera focal axis - solid white, camera field of view - solid orange. This view and camera angles represent the screen grab from 1m59s in the CNN "Smoking Gun" footage.This line establishes the first line for triangulation of the CNN camera position on the diagram below. Lens zoom is set for 18.1 deg field of view.





 View 2) Nadeem evacuation view to northwest (322.2 deg compass angle). The camera focal axis line can be seen in the diagram below - solid white, camera field of view - solid aqua. This view and camera angles represent the screen grab from 2m13s in the CNN "Smoking Gun" footage.

The white dashed line in View 2 of the diagram below is the line of sight between the two road sign posts as seen above on the footage at 2m13s time. The dashed white line passes from the lens, just along the right side of the double sign post on the concrete block and then just to the left of the large diameter billboard post behind it and then hits near the corner of the 4 Bay Bldg on the diagram below. This line establishes the second line for triangulation of the CNN camera position on the diagram below. Lens zoom is set for 8.8 deg field of view.


Reverse angle view (146 deg compass angle) of the large diameter billboard post nearer the camera and the further back traffic sign that spans both lanes of the divided highway in front of the drive leading up to the veranda. This photo was taken on a different day from the two screen shots above that were taken from the "Smoking Gun" footage of May 15, 2014.









CNN Camera View Diagram


The following diagram encapsulates the data from the three screen shot images above.

The CNN video crew (with Ivan Watson as the on-air personality) seems to have set up their camera in this particular position just in time to observe both Israeli military personnel on the veranda as well as the street out in front of the 6 Bay Building where Nadeem Nuwara would soon appear to fall from gunfire from the veranda - almost immediately after the camera began rolling.

The following diagram overlaid on the Google Earth image of the area shows the CNN camera position and the two main camera angles and fields of view of the "Smoking Gun" footage. Distances between shooter and the CNN camera - and between the shooter and the target are in lime green.

Note: The distances from NADEEM TO SHOOTER and from SHOOTER to CAMERA below have both been corrected from a previous version of this post and reflect my most accurate estimates at this time (July 7, 2014).



Some may wonder why this data is important. I believe there is a wealth of information that can be discovered from a close examination of the still photo, audio and video data that are published online. One obvious value of this data is to compare it with what TV announcers and public officials claim to be the truth in their statements. My next post will use this data to expose possible CNN purposeful deception of the public.