ISIS threatens to kill 2 Japanese hostages unless Tokyo pays $200 million

originally posted by: DrHammondStoat

originally posted by: AzureSky
The whole screenshot looks weird, the middle guy has this weird black outline to him, it doesn't really make sense if it were a real place.
Also the lighting on the two hostages faces is coming from two different directions, which doesn't make sense as sunlight only comes in one directions usually.

Has anyone seen Iron man 3? The whole mandarin thing in it? This is what i'm being reminded of.

sunlight does come from one direction but the objects illuminated by it can be at different angles, so the separate 'objects' can have shadows going in different directions. in this case the sun appears to be in front and slightly to our left of the 3 people/objects. This is confirmed from versions of the photo that are not cropped and show the legs of all 3 men. The chubbier hostage's body , hips and shoulders are turned slightly toward the sun which gives him a slightly lighter shadow to the right side of his face but not his left cheek as this in angled toward the sun.

as for the skin looking 'weird' to some people, they are pale Japanese men in a hot desert so their cheeks are flushed, then there is the quality of the film and compression artefacts that will come from saving the image, colours and contrast (such as black areas in strong light) are often distorted and can look exaggerated.
I don't know much about 'green screen' but I think compression and image quality are probably responsible for many things people think look weird.
the only thing i think seems fake about these videos is cutting away when they kill people, unless our media edit it out?

My understanding of light and cast shadows on 3 dimensional objects tells me two objects that close to each other cannot have shadows in opposite directions from the sun as a light source, no matter which way you turn them.
It would make sense if it were shot in a studio with professional lighting on either side of the set, although I would have expected to see secondary shadows on either man from the other side also, only not as intense.
I am an artist and I study lighting an awful lot. I have also worked with photoshop and after effects quite a bit, and in my experiences, this looks just like a stitch together.

Japan: No word from ISIS on hostages as deadline draws nearer

Wait, what, so they do want to negotiate and pay but ISIS isn't picking up the phone? Hmm.

Tokyo (CNN)Japan says it has had no contact with ISIS as the Islamic militant group's deadline nears for Tokyo to pay a $200 million ransom to spare the lives of two hostages.

Japanese officials have said they are doing their best to communicate with ISIS, which threatened in a video released Tuesday to kill two Japanese citizens it's holding within 72 hours if it doesn't receive the huge sum it's demanding.

But Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Thursday that Tokyo had so far heard nothing and doesn't know what situation the two hostages, Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa, are in.

Japan has said it would try reaching the ISIS captors through third parties, like governments in the region or local tribal leaders. "We are aiming to save them as soon as possible," Suga said Thursday.

Japanese War Reporter Was Abducted by ISIS After Trying to Save His Friend

Before the reporter set off on his rescue mission, he said: "Whatever happens, this is my responsibility"

When an online video surfaced Tuesday showing the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) threatening to kill two Japanese hostages, relatively little was known about the relationship between the two prisoners. But Reuters revealed Wednesday that war correspondent Kenji Goto had in fact returned to Syria in late October to rescue his friend Haruna Yukawa, who was captured by ISIS a few months earlier.

Yukawa reportedly went to Syria as part of an attempt to get his life back on track after dealing with bankruptcy, the loss of his wife to cancer, and an attempted suicide. Goto, 47, a respected Japanese freelance journalist, went to Syria to cover the civil war.

After the pair first met in April, Yukawa asked Goto, who had years of experience of war zones, to take him to Iraq. Yukawa returned to Syria in July, while Goto went back to Japan. But when Yukawa was captured in August outside Aleppo, Goto was troubled by his disappearance and decided to go back in October to try and help.

originally posted by: lambros56
The Japanese are questioning the validity of this video.


yournewswire.com...


Hope the link works.....just don't know how to post anything from an ipad.

DailyMail is questioning the sanity of one of the prisoners, claiming he is the reincarnation of a cross dressing princess. Way to dehumanize them before they're found dead guys! Great reporting there!

Daily Mail Jerks Thread

Inside the thread is another link to a friend of one of the hostages who claims to be a Muslim Japanese journalist who is friend's with this group and he has been actively negotiating for the release of these two. He claims when he went to Syria to try and get them released, Japan took his passport away claiming he was trying to help a young Muslim join ISIS, which he claims was not true.

originally posted by: DrHammondStoat

originally posted by: AzureSky
The whole screenshot looks weird, the middle guy has this weird black outline to him, it doesn't really make sense if it were a real place.
Also the lighting on the two hostages faces is coming from two different directions, which doesn't make sense as sunlight only comes in one directions usually.

Has anyone seen Iron man 3? The whole mandarin thing in it? This is what i'm being reminded of.

sunlight does come from one direction but the objects illuminated by it can be at different angles, so the separate 'objects' can have shadows going in different directions. in this case the sun appears to be in front and slightly to our left of the 3 people/objects. This is confirmed from versions of the photo that are not cropped and show the legs of all 3 men. The chubbier hostage's body , hips and shoulders are turned slightly toward the sun which gives him a slightly lighter shadow to the right side of his face but not his left cheek as this in angled toward the sun.

as for the skin looking 'weird' to some people, they are pale Japanese men in a hot desert so their cheeks are flushed, then there is the quality of the film and compression artefacts that will come from saving the image, colours and contrast (such as black areas in strong light) are often distorted and can look exaggerated.
I don't know much about 'green screen' but I think compression and image quality are probably responsible for many things people think look weird.
the only thing i think seems fake about these videos is cutting away when they kill people, unless our media edit it out?

One thing mentioned was its possible they filmed one man at a time, then spliced it together.

I believe it was a Japanese site debating the shadows that came to that conclusion.

Video May Be Composite

ISIS-affiliated militants say 'countdown has begun' for group to kill Japanese hostages

Militants affiliated with the Islamic State terror group issued a new threat against a pair of Japanese hostages Friday as the deadline passed for Tokyo to pay a ransom of $200 million to prevent their beheading.

An online posting shows a clock counting down to zero along with gruesome images of other hostages who have been beheaded by the Islamic State group, or ISIS, as well as a warning that the "countdown has begun." The posting did not show any images of the Japanese hostages.

Islamic State deadline on Japanese captives passes with no word on fate

(Reuters) - Japan said on Friday it was still trying to secure the release of two Japanese hostages held by Islamic State militants after a deadline to pay ransom for their release passed and there was no immediate word on their fate.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government considered whether planned legislative changes would give it the legal basis for a military strike on the Islamic State militants and concluded it did not, according to a briefing document reviewed by Reuters.

Did Japan Botch ISIS Hostage Deal?

In late October, after negotiations for Yukawa’s release had collapsed due to Tsuneoka’s detention, the freelance journalist Kenji Goto arrived in Syria, seeking to establish contact with ISIS and free Yukawa, a friend he had met the previous spring. On October 25, he vanished. His family received an email in November demanding a $10 million ransom for his return. The Japanese government knew he had been kidnapped but did not make the news public.

Still no word.

Why Japan Lacks Sympathy for the Hostages Held by ISIS

The hostage drama has dominated the news cycle since ISIS released a video showing two Japanese men being threatened by a masked militant with a knife. But in very Japanese fashion, much of the anger has focused on the hostages themselves, who are seen by many as having acted recklessly. “The public thinks these guys put themselves in harm’s way, and that it is their problem — not the government’s or the taxpayers problem,” says Jeff Kingston, director of Asian Studies at Temple University’s Tokyo campus.

I can't disagree.

Experts say ISIS ransom clip faked as deadline for Japanese hostages passes

A tweet from a Twitter account linked to ISIS said the hostages had been killed "because of Japan's choices." The tweet, on the same one that previously posted the countdown clock, warned that a new video was "being sent to production." Intelligence sources told Fox News the claim the hostages had been killed could not be confirmed, but said the situation is being monitored as they await release of a new video.

And as people here have said...

The hostage video showing the hostages wearing orange jump suits and kneeling before a masked, black-clad jihadist may have been faked, experts said. New analysis of the video appears to reveal the message was shot indoors using a "green screen," and a phony backdrop, according to Veryan Khan, editorial director for the Terrorism Research and Analysis Consortium. She told The Associated Press the light source on the men in the latest videos appears to be coming from two different directions — as opposed to one bright sun, and said if the video was made outdoors in natural light, the shadows behind them should be going in one direction. Instead, they converge.

"The hostages are visibly bothered by" the bright light, she said.

Yeah...so this is interesting.

Nothing.

Was it fake?

Did Japan take some sort of action? The people didn't seem to have much sympathy. The government said they weren't paying but was negotiating.

Will keep following.

a reply to: ~Lucidity

I was going to post that article.

Also this from that article:

"The hostages are visibly bothered by" the bright light, she said.

Look at the shadows on the ground. It's pretty obvious.

a reply to: Deaf Alien

Yes...there's something very, very odd here. Maybe the Japanese made some sort of deal? Or maybe this was all just faked? I mean all of it, not just the picture. Maybe it wasn't even ISIS.

Yes it's all very weird.

Anybody who doesn't think its weird is well, weird.

a reply to: ~Lucidity

I just thought of something. Look at those pictures I posted. Those Japanese men haven't moved one bit. It's like copy and paste. Look at those pictures really close. It feels... uh... faked? I mean really look at those pictures.

a reply to: Deaf Alien

Yeah. I haven't seen the video, but I have to agree this one seems even more faked than the rest.

a reply to: ~Lucidity

One other thing... why don't news media show the whole pictures? Why crop the bottom part where there's shadows on the ground?

a reply to: Deaf Alien

Yep. That's a good point too. It's extremely curious as to why this time is a bit different. Is it because ISIS didn't get the reaction they expected? Wonder if we'll find out what happened.

i do not negotiate with terrorists as well!

Reports: ISIL video claims 1 of 2 Japanese hostages beheaded

Claims.

The Islamic State reportedly released a new video Saturday claiming one of the two Japanese captives had been beheaded and issuing new demands for the other hostage's release.

In the video, Japanese freelance journalist Kenji Goto holds a photo that purportedly shows the dead body of the second hostage, Haruna Yukawa. SITE Intelligence Group, a U.S.-based organization that monitors extremist websites, said the video had been distributed across several Islamic State-linked Twitter accounts.

Japan attempts to verify Isis hostage ‘beheading video’

Attempts to verify.

​The Japanese government is seeking to verify a video that suggests one of the two Japanese hostages kidnapped by Islamic State has been killed.

In the video there is an audio recording of a man speaking in English, who says he is hostage Kenji Goto, over the top of a still image apparently showing him holding a photograph of the body of fellow hostage Haruna Yukawa.

The speaker claims that Yukawa had been executed and that the militants would release Goto in exchange for the release of a prisoner, Sajida Rishawi, an Iraqi held in Jordan who has been linked with al-Qaida.

Now they wanna swap.

This is a nice BS story. The good old japan israeli relations were reassured by a visit in july then in august the hostage is taken. Now
out of the blue in perfect time to bolster them relations -which are security related mostly- they just happen to announce their deal no deal. This is getting pathetic.