I have seen all the coverage about the release of a hideous video showing the beastial behavior of the murderers who killed two American soldiers. Out of respect for their families, I will not link to any of the reports or to any of the other sites discussing this.
I will only point out the claim that these barbaric acts were vengeance killings for an alleged rape/murder did not arise until the media blitz bout the rape/murder started. Terrorists have demonstrated – repeatedly – that they can and do read things in the media and from the internet. I rather doubt the terrorists actually tied the two together until they read about it.
Then they figured out how to make a media circus even worse.
UPDATE: Via Mudville Gazette, the al Qaeda manual on the management of savagery. Greyhawk agrees that it is unlikely the killings were planned retaliation. The more likely reason for the claim is opportunism and propaganda value. Which our media is happy to cooperate with.
