War On... Terror?

Contrary to earlier speculation, al Qaeda chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi apparently still runs free in Iraq:

Iraq accused al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi Monday of carrying out coordinated car bombings at churches that killed at least 11 people, saying the militants wanted to drive Christians out of the country.

A group linked to Zarqawi also executed a Turkish hostage. In response to the killing and a wave of kidnappings of Turkish drivers, a Turkish truckers' group said it would stop transporting goods to U.S. forces in Iraq.

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In a videotape of the Turk's execution shown on Islamist Web sites, a masked man shot the hostage while he was seated. When he fell to the ground, the gunman shot him twice more with a pistol while shouting "God is Greatest."

Those who might be inclined to avoid watching Al Jazeera tonight in fear of seeing that snuff video may not have to worry:

The videotapes arrive by courier at the information desk in the shadowy lobby of the Swan Lake, a fading hotel in Baghdad's battle-pocked downtown that now serves as the Iraqi headquarters for the television channel Al Jazeera.

Chillingly similar, the grainy videos of frightened hostages have become a defining image of Iraq's new violence: tearful pleas for life and masked kidnappers, swords held aloft, laying out their demands.

For Al Jazeera's journalists, who wrestle with how to use the exclusive and often bloody footage, the tapes pose the latest in a string of credibility tests. The current rules go like this: Show the hostages. Don't show beheadings. The slaughter of two Pakistani hostages this week, for example, was deemed too gory ? Al Jazeera broke the news, but kept the pictures to itself.

"It gives me a headache every day we receive a tape," said Ahmed Sheikh, the organization's editor in chief.

We can only imagine the intensity of his pain.

Speaking of pain, if it's the abysmal conditions at Guantanamo that prevent Zarqawi from just surrendering then he might be surprised some day to find quality of life in captivity could be tolerable, if Clive Stafford-Smith has his way:

A REPORT due this week on the treatment of prisoners at Camp Delta in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, contains damning evidence of abuses, according to a human rights lawyer.

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?I am ashamed to say evidence will come to light that conditions in Guantanamo Bay are in many ways very similar to Abu Ghraib,? said Clive Stafford-Smith, the lawyer who acted for the Britons ? Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal and Rhuhel Ahmed, all from Tipton, West Midlands ? during their time at Guantanamo.

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One source claims that the report, to be published on Wednesday, says many prisoners were denied even basics such as underwear.

When will the humiliation end?