Was the Islamist website hacked and the picture posted by some joker? Or did some Islamist think this was funny? Anyone care to take a guess?
I think they thought we'd be fooled. I spent a bit of time last night reading Ask the Imam These people are not grounded in reality.
I can't imagine the terrorists would knowingly post this as a joke. If you make your living by imtimidating and terrorizing people with threats of dire consequences, the last thing you'd want to do is make yourself a laughingstock.
I honestly believe that these guys thought our media would completely buy into this and make us believe it as well in their desperation to flog anything that might harm George Bush. After all, the terrorists watched as Dan Rather pushed crudely forged government memos in an attempt to take him down.
However, when it comes to understanding us and our culture, the terrorists always seem to be about 10 steps behind the prevailing zeitgeist. They sure as hell haven't clued into the blogosphere or FR yet (but to be completely fair, our Dinosaur Media hasn't either).
If I were the Dinosaur Media, I'd be asking just what it says about peoples' opinion of them when a bunch of murdering scumbags with towels on their heads can take pictures of a GI Joe doll, claim they're photos of a hostage, and have the story splashed as the truth on front pages worldwide.