Revenge for Abu Ghraib?

Before Mr. Berg was killed, one of the masked men said in Arabic: "For the mothers and wives of American soldiers, we tell you that we asked the US administration to exchange this hostage with some of the detainees in Abu Ghraib, and they refused."

"So we tell you that the dignity of the Muslim men and women in Abu Ghraib and others is not redeemed except by blood and souls," the man said. "You will receive nothing from us but coffin after coffin slaughtered in this way." The New York Times reports that "the masked man reading the statement mentioned Al Qaeda by name, suggesting that the abuses at Abu Ghraib justified the terrorist group's broader war on the West."

The website that posted the videotape said that infamous terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi – who Fox News says is " eclipsing [Osama] bin Laden in prominence" – carried out the killing. There was no way to independently verify this claim, which the CIA is currently investigating. CNN reports that "staffers familiar with Zarqawi's voice said the voice on the tape did not sound like him."

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Iraqi police detained Berg in March in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, says another Times report. Berg's parents filed a lawsuit in federal court in Philadelphia, Pa. on April 5 charging that the US military was holding him illegally.

The Associated Press reports that Berg's father " lashed out at the US military and Bush administration, saying his son might still be alive had he not been detained by US officials in Iraq without being charged and without access to a lawyer."

The BBC's correspondent in Cairo, Egypt reports that "the Arab media and the 'Arab street' are forthcoming with condemnation of the beheading of American captive Nick Berg in Iraq – but usually with equal stress for the view that this was a natural and expected reaction to US abuses in Iraqi jails." An AP report, however, said that Arab media "reacted cautiously ... to the videotaped beheading ... with some newspapers conspicuously playing it down or even ignoring it." AP points out that some in the Arab world say that "it surpassed the American military's abuse of Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison." Referring to the Islamic militants responsible for the killing, AP cites Abdullah Sahar, a Kuwait University political scientist, as saying: "We were winning international sympathy because of what happened at Abu Ghraib, but they come and waste it all."

In the US, some of the initial shock and indignation at the brutal killing has already turned into a political blame game. Howard Kurtz of The Washington Post hints at this in his " Media notes" column.

There is already an undercurrent out there that the media are at fault for publicizing [photos of US soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners] – that they whipped up a storm, embarrassed America and perhaps led to yesterday's killing. Oklahoma Rep. James Inhofe, for example, says he is "outraged" by the press on this matter.

All of which, of course, ignores the fact that journalists didn't abuse prisoners, or take the pictures. Or that the perpetrators of Sept. 11 don't need a pretext or provocation to murder civilians.

Where is the rage, Mr. Kerry? Where is the rage, Mr. Kennedy? Do we have a reaction from the Grand Dragon, Klansman Robert Byrd? Will Michael Moore be making a documentary to place the blame on the president? The perpetrators of this horrible crime have stated that it is in retaliation for the alleged abuses perpetrated on Iraqi detainees. This is a clear sign that those who have made much hay about what happened in that compound are to be blamed.

Thanks to Hollywood, CBS, the Democrats, and the social malcontents of the left, the radical Islamic terrorists have become so emboldened that they feel they cannot only murder and burn American contractors, they've now resorted to capturing and beheading them.

For every town where an American contractor or soldier is abducted or harmed, we should enact a roadblock to prevent any militants from departing said town. After a 24-hour grace period for women and children to leave said town, the United States military will drop a MOAB or tactical nuke on said town.

If anybody tries to tell you that these pictures from this prison are responsible for the death of Nick Berg, I want you to stand up, and I want you to tell them to stuff it. This is just Al Qaeda being who they are. Al Qaeda beheaded Daniel Pearl before there was any knowledge of whatever went on in this prison in Baghdad.

Conservative blogger Andrew Sullivan opines that this killing was not a tactically smart move for the Islamist terrorists responsible.

Al Qaeda never learns. Listening to the hooded coward shriek on that video and reading what he says can only remind us that these people are a) vile, b) as alien to true Islam as the KKK was to the Gospels, c) pathetic and d) dumb. They think they terrify us by this? The gang-murder of an unarmed, innocent civilian? And they think that it will add to the shame of Abu Ghraib, demoralize Americans still further, and prompt a withdrawal? In fact, of course, the Berg beheading does a grim but salutary service. In the midst of our own deserved self-criticism, we are suddenly reminded of the larger stakes, the wider war, why we are in Iraq in the first place. ... In a purely strategic sense, stiffening American resolve and inflaming American outrage at this juncture is exactly what a smart al Qaeda would avoid. But there is no such thing as a smart Al Qaeda. Evil can sometimes be stupid, and often is.

Also...
• An Afghan gives his own account of US abuse ( The New York Times)
• Abuse in Iraq not military policy ( The Washington Times)
• American power, past and present ( Slate)

• Feedback appreciated. E-mail Matthew Clark.