The latest beheading video -- plus: An Israeli institute OPENLY calls for supporting Al Qaeda!!

Another one. A new video depicts the death of British aid worker Alan Henning. Once again, we are told that the actual beheading is not depicted. (I have not yet seen the video, and would prefer not to.)

I keep going back and forth: Should we be suspicious of the fact that the slicing is not shown? After all, anyone trying to perpetrate a forgery could use modern special effects to depict some of the gory details. The case for authenticity is buttressed by the fact that witnesses reported seeing a hostage led out into the desert on September 20. Why the delay in releasing the video, I wonder?

A commenter on Mediaite asks some valid questions:

If the purpose of these alleged beheadings is to discourage US airstrikes and we keep bombing them, why would they continue using a tactic that doesn't work? Why would they provide the US with more reasons to attack them? Lastly, if they've actually identified "Jihadi John", then who is this guy?

I'm quite interested in the circumstances of Henning's kidnapping. As noted in earlier posts, the first two beheading victims were kidnapped by the Free Syrian Army, the "moderates" whom Obama thinks we should back. The FSA then sold their captives to ISIS. A cynic might say that if the FSA gets more American taxpayer support, they will no longer have to resort to novel fundraising mechanisms.

The Henning abduction is stranger than you may think. There is a remarkably detailed account in the Telegraph:

Mr Henning was driving an ambulance on behalf of Rochdale Aid 4 Syria, which raised money on behalf of Al-Fatiha Global, a registered charity currently under investigation by the Charity Commission after one of its leaders was photographed with his arms around two hooded fighters carrying machine guns.

Hm. So the British government is suspicious of Henning's group because it is considered sympathetic to Muslim extremists. Interesting.

Aid 4 Syria has also used its Facebook page to promote an event called O’Ummah Wake Up And Rise! at which the guest speakers were Zahir Mahmood and Moazzam Begg. Mr Mahmood describes the proscribed terrorist group Hamas as “freedom fighters” while Mr Begg, a former detainee at Guantanamo Bay, has admitted to fighting in Bosnia.

The team leader of the convoy was Kasim Jameel, who was arrested in July on child pornography and sexual assault charges before being released on police bail. The investigation remains active.

Mr Jameel has posted messages on his Facebook page including: “Our men love death like your men love life,” paraphrasing Osama bin Laden’s comment that: “We love death. The US loves life. That is the difference between us two.”

The child porn charge seems far too convenient, and may be a set-up. We shall see.

There is no suggestion Mr Henning, a father of two from Eccles, Greater Manchester, knew of the apparent links between the charities and extremism. Al-Fatiha Global was only placed under investigation in March - three months after Mr Henning was kidnapped – after Adeel Ali, the son of one of its trustees, was pictured with gunmen on the front of The Sun newspaper.

Mr Henning, a taxi driver, knows Mr Ali “quite well” as he had been part of previous convoys.

If he knew Ali well, then Henning undoubtedly knew of the man's political and religious sympathies.

Henning, we are told, was a lowly taxi driver before he decided to join up with this remarkable company and head out into the most dangerous region of the world. I'd like to learn more about his motives.

Believe it or not, the story takes an even stranger turn: A Dutch reporter named Harald Doorbos was briefly held with Henning in Al-Dana, in northern Syria. (See here.) Doorbos reports that Henning felt that he would soon be freed because he was "just an aid worker." After a short while, Henning was transferred to Raqqa, the so-called capital of the Islamic State.

Why the transfer? And why only Henning? We are not told.

Doorbos, still in al-Dana, was later freed by the Free Syrian Army. By this point, it's a little surprising to read any story coming out of Syria in which the FSA actually does something worthwhile.

All told, Henning's tale is very odd. Very, very odd. Think about it: ISIS went out of its way to murder an aid worker sympathetic to Muslims and friendly to suspected extremists. But they had no interest in a journalist who has written about ISIS very critically for British newspapers. That guy was allowed to walk.

Does this situation make sense to you?

Speaking of "unfriendly friends" like the FSA: Remember Khorasan, the new new new extremist group? We later learned that this was a simple White House renaming of the Nusra Front, an Al Qaeda offshoot long familiar to anyone reading about the Syrian civil war. Many people were surprised to learn that the first American aerial attacks were directed not at ISIS but at Nusra.

A number of news stories suggested that Nusra/Khorasan was planning an attack on American soil.

Guess what? The Israelis have announced that they consider Nusra to be fine folk. Worthy of support. Don't bomb them: Love them.

Israel gives cover and opened a corridor for Jabhat al-Nusra along the Golan height demarcation line to reach south Lebanon and the southern approaches to Damascus.

There seems to be no concern in Tel Aviv that one day Jabhat al-Nusra could turn against Israel too.

Oh, but it gets better. A well-known Israeli front group in DC openly calls for support of Nusra -- and openly admits that Nusra is part of Al Qaeda.

The risk of empowering an al Qaida affiliate is a small price to pay for Nusra’s contributions on the battlefield, said Jeffrey White, a former senior Defense Intelligence Agency analyst who’s now with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think tank.

“We are degrading, by hitting Nusra, the capability of one of the most effective combat forces against the regime and against Hezbollah,” White said, referring to the Lebanese Shiite Muslim militia that has sent troops to help defend the Assad government. “Do we really want to do that?"

Yes, Jeffy-poo, we do. We should not be at war with Assad: He never did anything to us. We should be at war with Al Qaeda: They did do something to us -- a little something called 9/11.

Get your fucking enemies straight, Jeff. Start putting America first -- and stop putting those goddamned Israelis first.

You should understand that Jeffy-Poo's organization, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, is a not-so-secret front for AIPAC, the Israeli lobby. Here's an insider's account:

How do I know? Then an AIPAC employee, I was in the room when AIPAC decided to establish WINEP.

It was Steve Rosen (later indicted under the Espionage Act, although charges were subsequently dropped) who cleverly came up with the idea for an AIPAC controlled think-tank that would disseminate the AIPAC line but in a way that would disguise its connections.

There was no question that WINEP was to be AIPAC's cutout. It was funded by AIPAC donors, staffed by AIPAC employees, and located one door away, down the hall, from AIPAC Headquarters (No more. It has its own digs).

It would also hire all kinds of people not identified with Israel as cover and would encourage them to write whatever they liked on matters not related to Israel. "Say what you want on Morocco, kid." But on Israel, never deviate more than a degree or two.

I cannot believe what has happened to this country. We are so entranced by Israel -- so hypnotized, so unable to think clearly -- that we actually let the Israelis tell us to support fucking Al Qaeda.

Repeat: We actually let the Israelis tell us to support fucking Al Qaeda!!

Incredible! When will America shake off this trance? Norman Finkelstein is right: Israel is a country that has gone crazy. Why are we letting crazy people turn our reality upside-down?

And how do assholes like Jeffrey White manage to sleep at night?