Free Republic

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Arab media have reacted cautiously to the beheading of an American civilian on a video issued by an associate of Usama bin Laden, with some newspapers conspicuously playing it down or even ignoring it. Opinion-makers condemned the execution of Nick Berg (search), an American businessman who had been kidnapped in Iraq in April. The biggest pan-Arab satellite television channels broadcast an edited version of the video, cutting out the severing of the head as indecent. "This shows how base and vile those who wear the robe of Islam have become," said Abdullah Sahar, a Kuwait University political scientist. SNIP In...