Unknown Group Claims Responsibility

A previously unknown group is claiming it kidnapped Fox News Journalist Steve Centanni and freelance cameraman Olaf Wiig. A video of the two has also been released.

The “Holy Jihad Brigades”? Whose very first act of holy jihad is to kidnap a reporter and a cameraman?

That’s a shrewd way to get press, but at the rather large expense of antagonizing the Palestinian terror establishment you’re presumably trying to ingratiate yourself with.

Also, it took them nine days to demand that the U.S. release all “Muslim prisoners”?

We have 72 hours to do that, by the way. If we don’t, they’re vowing to — make us wait some more.

I don’t know. The name itself rings false somehow, possibly because it evokes the names of two other Pali terror groups: Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. I bet whoever took him did so for mercenary motives, and now that the heat is on, they’re trying to use Islam as cover. We shall see.

Update: According to Reuters, the statement of demands was sent to Al Jazeera by, um, fax.

Update: Fox is airing a screencap from video of Centanni and Wiig in captivity. I’ll post in a few minutes.

Allahpundit has a running update going on this story.