***updated with disturbing new details…Allah lays out more theories…JPost: rogue Fatah?***

A response to the “Holy Jihad Brigades” video from Steve Centanni’s brother. MKH rounds-up theories about what the thugs want.

Update: Rusty Shackleford has a grim report and urges you to redouble your prayers:

The Global Islamic Media Front today released a copy of the Steve Centanni & Olaf Wiig hostage video in an internet posting. Along with the video, the al Qaeda prop[a]ganda production and distribution outlet also released photos of personal IDs found on the hostages, and a copy of the statement faxed to two Arab media outlets yesterday. The posting was made at an Islamist forum with ties to al Qaeda.

Here are some of the IDs the terrorists are displaying:

Rusty explains:

The fact that it was the Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF) that released these artifacts is very bad news. The group is an al Qaeda mouthpiece that generally distributes high-production value propaganda pieces.

The fact that the GIMF was not involved in the initial production of the video is a sign that the “Holy Jihad Brigades” is exactly as I feared: part of al Qaeda 3.0. What this means is that they are an al Qaeda inspired jihad gang, not directly under the control of the terror organization, but which is connected through a worldwide network of radical Salafists–most importantly through the internet.

More importantly, if they have made a connection with GIMF then it is likely that they see Abu Musab al Zarqawi as a source for inspiration. Zarqawi is infamous for popularizing the beheading murders of his hostage victims.

If this is the case–and these are words you may never hear repeated at The Jawa Report—then God help the Palestinian Authority and Hamas in finding them before it is too late.

I hope that I am wrong on this one, and there is some evidence to suggest that taking the Fox News reporters hostage has nothing to do with al Qaeda. However, the evidence trend seems to be that this is, at the very least, an al Qaeda inspired plot.