Neues Tötungsvideo von al-Qaida aufgetaucht

--- Laut einer AP-Meldung ist ein neues Tötungsvideo auf einer der einschlägigen al-Qaida-Websites aufgetaucht. Etwas subtiler als das jüngste Enthauptungsvideo, aber nichtsdestoweniger ein weiterer Schritt im langen Krieg der Terrorbilder: The latest dramatic Web posting came Saturday, a short video that showed no faces but included a voice yelling in English: "No, no, please!" The video showed a shot fired, then the scene of the falling body of what appeared to be a Western man -- identified as Robert Jacobs, an American killed by suspected al-Qaida militants in Saudi Arabia last week. Two gunmen then fired at least 10 more shots, before one of them kneeled and motioned as if he was beheading the fallen man. ... "The aim is really to spread as much terror as possible and make it available to as many people as possible, especially in the West," where Internet use is more common, said Dia'a Rashwan, a Cairo expert on Islamic militants. In what Rashwan calls a a war of "ideology, images and perception," the Web is a place for militants and their sympathizers to exchange the latest news, debate their definition of Islam, share how-to manuals, extoll their heroes and vilify their enemies. Images of American soldiers pointing guns at children, Iraqi prisoners being tortured, and Muslim rebels in the Philippines being decapitated pop up again and again. Contributors sign off with pictures of bin Laden or large machine guns. Militants can put images on the Internet most TV news producers would consider too shocking to televise. The Internet, though, also can be subject to censorship. Postings signed by the Saudi branch of al-Qaida -- everything from claims of responsibility for attacks in the kingdom to training and diet menus for a fit fighter -- started popping up on a sub-domain of a Qatar-based Web-hosting company run by Murad Alazzeh. Alazzeh told The Associated Press he shut down one of his two servers after his site was repeatedly hacked. He said he has cut subscribers from 48,000 to 4,000. The Web savvy, though, have ways around the gatekeepers. (Info über die Mailingliste Infowar.de)