The AP reports today that the US has retaliated against Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in an airstrike earlier today for the beheading of Kim Sun-Il. Zarqawi's Monotheism and Jihad terror cell also threatened to continue assassination attempts against Iyad Allawi, the interim Iraqi PM:

U.S. forces launched an airstrike targeting militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi after his group beheaded a South Korean who had pleaded "I don't want to die" in a heart-wrenching videotape. Another audio recording purportedly made by al-Zarqawi and found online Wednesday threatened to kill Iraq's interim prime minister. ...

Al-Zarqawi's Monotheism and Jihad movement is believed to be behind Tuesday's slaying of Kim Sun-il, the third foreign hostage decapitated in the Middle East in little over a month.

So how does the AP describe the murder of Kim? By describing how he was dressed, in a somewhat subtle attempt to draw parallels between the treatment of hostages by AQ fanatics and detainees by Americans:

The Arabic language satellite television channel Al-Jazeera broadcast a videotape of a terrified Kim kneeling, blindfolded and wearing an orange jumpsuit similar to those issued to prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba [emph. mine].

Kim's shoulders were heaving, his mouth open and moving as if he were gulping air and sobbing. Five hooded and armed men stood behind him, one with a big knife slipped in his belt.

I'm a bit surprised that Robert Reid couldn't find a way to squeeze in a mention of Abu Ghraib, but you know how it is working under a deadline. Perhaps Reid doesn't know that many prisons and jails in the US also use orange jumpsuits; maybe Zarqawi just likes the color orange. What the hell does Guantanamo have to do with the beheading of civilians? Is this truly what the AP thinks -- that somehow our detention of fighters out of uniform during the Afghan campaign somehow equates, or is even similar, to al-Qaeda kidnappings and beheadings of civilians in Iraq? If so, let them have the guts to print it outright instead of making cowardly references like the one in this piece.

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry is