Hezbollah, Hamas, and Beheading

The AP is reporting from Lebanon that both Hezbollah and Hamas have been moved to condemn the butchering of Nicholas Berg by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. According to the wire's lede, "the language they used Thursday was unusually tough."

True, both organizations use terms like "grisly" and "brutal." Still, Hezbollah added that, "By its suspicious actions and links, this group belongs to the Pentagon school ? the school of killings, occupation, crime, torture and immoral practices as exposed by the big scandal in the occupation prisons." As for Hamas, its man in Beirut, Osama Hamdan, told AP that "U.S. President George Bush and [Berg's] killers are equally responsible."

Then there's the "militant" group Islamic Jihad. According to AP reporter Hussein Dakroub, Islamic Jihad spokesman Abu Imad Rifai "said he couldn't be sure Berg was dead."

Rifai explained that "I didn't see the man's body."