Uh-oh

Sometimes I blog so frequently that things get pushed down the page rather rapidly. I'll keep this one at the top for a while. (It's original posting time was around noon, central.) New posts will be in their regular reverse chronological order beneath it.

Iraqi militants claimed in a Web site posting Tuesday to have taken an American soldier hostage and threatened to behead him in 72 hours unless the Americans release Iraqi prisoners.

The posting included a photo of what appeared to be an American soldier in uniform seated with his hands tied behind his back. A gun barrel was pointed at his head.

"God willing, we will behead him if our female and male prisoners are not released from U.S. prisons within the maximum period of 72 hours from the time this statement has been released," the statement said.
  ABC News article

This is very bad for the U.S. And very bad for the prisoner. Personally, I would prefer beheading to retaliatory torture before killing. Americans seem to have more aversion to beheading than to torture, which I cannot understand. While beheading seems gruesome, it is actually a Saudi method of capital punishment. The Saudis can attend public beheadings on a weekly basis. Why no outcry about their barbarism?

Anyway, I'm very sorry for any captured U.S. soldier to have to put Bush/Rumsfeld's torture challenge to the test. Ireland Online identifies the soldier as John Adam and says that there are others.

A statement posted with the picture suggested the group was holding other soldiers.

“Our mujahadeen heroes of Iraq’s Jihadi Battalion were able to capture American military man John Adam after killing a number of his comrades and capturing the rest,” said the statement, signed by the Mujahedeen Brigades.

[...]

The claim, carried on the Web site ansarnet.ws, could not be verified.

A US military spokesman in Baghdad said he had no information on the claim but “we are currently looking into it".

Update : Here's a picture from a South African website:

Update 3:20pm:

Web site posted a photograph of what it claimed was a kidnapped U.S. soldier, but doubts were quickly raised about its authenticity and the U.S. military said no soldiers were missing.

A toy manufacturer said the figure in the photo resembled one of its military action figures, originally produced for sale at U.S. bases in Kuwait.

The statement appeared on a Web site often used for posting statements from militants, some of which have proven authentic in the past, and was in the name of a group that has claimed previous kidnappings, the Mujahedeen Brigades.

The Arabic text, however, contained several mispellings and repetitions.

Staff Sgt. Nick Minecci of the U.S. military's press office in Baghdad said "no units have reported anyone missing."

The photo in the posting showed a figure dressed in desert camouflage fatigues, wearing a vest and knee pads and with a gun pointed to its head. All the items are similar to ones that come in a box with the action figure, named "Cody."

[...]

Liam Cusack, of the toy manufacturer Dragon Models USA, inc., said the image of the soldier portrayed in the photo bore a striking resemblance to the African-American version of its ''Cody'' action figure.

"It is our doll ... to me it definitely looks like it is," Cusack told The Associated Press. "Everything the guy is wearing is exactly what comes with our figure."
  article

Anybody got a "Cody" doll?

Surely "Cody"'s equipment is based on actual military items.

Update 3:30pm:

Here's the black "Cody", side by side with the interenet photo of the allegedly captured "John Adam"...

I didn't save that picture of the black Cody doll, and the link isn't working now. Here's where I found it. The close-up of the head is from Drudge Report, which has a poor picture of one of the dolls in its case. Later: the link is working again, so I saved the retrieved picture.

Update 5:00 pm:

The only American soldier known to have been taken hostage is Pfc. Keith M. Maupin, who was shown in a video in April being held by militants. A later video purported to show his slaying, but it could not be confirmed and the military still lists him as missing.

If proven a fake, Tuesday's posting would not be the first hoax associated with kidnappings in Iraq. In August, television stations around the world showed a video in which a 22-year-old San Francisco man faked his own beheading by Iraqi militants.
  article

I'm sorry to say I had forgotten both those things. I must have an American memory.

Update 02/02/05: A little more info that you don't care about...

"It is our doll . . . To me, it looks definitely like it is," Cusack told the Associated Press. "Everything the guy is wearing is exactly what comes with our figure."

The company, based in City of Industry, Calif., produced 4,000 of the figures in 2003 for the U.S. military for sale on its Kuwait bases. It was never sold in the United States but is traded online among collectors, sometimes to use in highly realistic dioramas, he said.
  Cleveland Plain Dealer article

The link where I found the picture had it for sale for $35.00, but says they are sold out.

Update 02/02/05, 3:45pm:

Condi & Barbara at All Hat No Cattle

Update 02/03/05:

Black Toy Down

When word reached the Pentagon that an American soldier was being held hostage in Iraq, they knew there was only man they could call on to storm the Islamofacist stronghold and bring 'em back alive:

Major Steele E.I. Rocketman.

Unfortunately the Major was deployed to Alabama some months ago and no one seems to have seen him since [...]
  TBogg blog