… to bring you a special announcement; Or, “Al Qaeda’s Hot Tips for How to Get on TV,”*** from the Washington Post:

Mohamad al-Janabi, a reputed al-Qaeda member in the nearby city of Salman Pak, said in a telephone interview that he was unable to contact his comrades in Mahmudiyah to determine whether they were responsible for the attack [in Iraq in which 5 Americans were killed and three were abducted].

But he added: “I can assure you that we will start pressuring Bush in a new way at the same time he is facing pressures from the Democrats and the American people. And there will be no problem to sacrifice 10 soldiers in order to abduct a single American soldier and get him on television screens begging for us to release him.”

Let’s bring the boys home—that’ll fix things right up. Right, guys? ‘Cause it’s all about the political process and the Iraqis  meeting benchmarks, and not at all about al Qaeda. As if. From The Times (London):

A RADICAL plan by Al-Qaeda to take over the Sunni heartland of Iraq and turn it into a militant Islamic state once American troops have withdrawn is causing alarm among US intelligence officials.

A power struggle has emerged between the self-styled Islamic State of Iraq, an organisation with ambitions to become a state which has been set up by Al-Qaeda, and more moderate Sunni groups. They are battling for the long-term control of central and western areas which they believe could break away from Kurdish and Shi’ite-dominated provinces once the coalition forces depart.

According to an analysis compiled by US intelligence agencies, the Islamic State has ambitions to create a terrorist enclave in the Iraqi provinces of Baghdad, Anbar, Diyala, Salah al-Din, Nineveh and parts of Babil.

“Al-Qaeda are on the way to establish their first stronghold in the Middle East,” warned an American official. “If they succeed, it will be a catastrophe and an imminent danger to Saudi Arabia and Jordan.”

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*** The first love of the nihilist terrorist thugs is blowing shit up.

Second-best is kidnapping people. They do it because they can hijack the attention of the worldwide audience with a storyline that sucks in everybody. We humans are narrative seekers. We thirst for stories, and given an abduction, we stay tuned to find out what happens next. Even to an all-too-real Reality TV show produced by nihilists.

I’ve directed you to this study about counterterrorism before; I’ll do it again:

While the Western media once covered every car bombing in Iraq, explosions which claim several dozen lives now seldom get more than a brief mention on television or a couple lines of newspaper print.

Kidnapping allows terrorists to bypass this dynamic. Hostage-taking extends media attention and allows reporters to humanize the victim. For journalists, an assassination or bombing is anti-climatic; the press only begins its coverage after the operation has ended. But uncertainty about whether a hostage remains alive creates the suspense necessary for a good story. Terrorists have repeatedly used videos of hostages pleading for their lives in order to seize headlines. The plight of freelance journalist Jill Carroll captivated audiences as each video is released and deadline passed.

There’s an argument to be made, of course, that our hearts have become so hardened that even hostage-taking has become old hat. Witness the lack of interest in the kidnapping of BBC correspondent Alan Johnston, abducted nine weeks ago today. I’ve been folliowing the story since then, but often it feels like I’m the only one.