Murder as Propaganda

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Matthew Stannard reports that the "nightmare video of an American civilian captured in Iraq being decapitated by his captors was anything but a random act of terrorism, experts say -- it was a press release, carefully designed for a global audience." Its purpose was recruit new terrorists and to frighten Americans, especially nongovernmental groups and civilian contractors working in Iraq who provide a sizable armed "auxiliary" to the U.S. military and the Coalition Provisional Authority. "The reason this video was made was an attempt to destroy that auxiliary, " said Juan Cole, a professor of Middle East history at the University of Michigan. "It's not going to scare the U.S. troops out of the country, and it's not going to get rid of the CPA. But there are a lot of NGOs and contractors that are going to decide this is not the time to be doing business in Iraq." Brigitte Nacos, adjunct professor of political science at Columbia University in New York, said the media also needed to recognize that terrorists were using them to get their message across. "Terrorism, as I see it, is communications," she said. "Without the media communicating what they want to say, terrorism doesn't really make sense. "