Just when you thought all of the beheading posts had ended, Iraqi television broadcasts a confession of a man who trained the mujahadin to behead their victims. There's more: he's a Syrian military offier.

A little birdie keeps telling me that the reason there were no Weapons of Mass Destruction found in Iraq was because they were moved to Syria. I have tended to downplay that suspicion. Oddly, with each passing day that theory seems more and more plausible---even likely.

AP:

Iraqi state television aired a video Wednesday showing what the U.S.-funded channel said was the confession of a captured Syrian officer who said he trained Iraqi insurgents to behead people and build car bombs to attack American and Iraqi troops.

The video also showed an Iraqi who said the insurgents practiced beheading animals to train for decapitating hostages.

In the video, the man, identified as Lt. Anas Ahmed al-Essa of the Syrian intelligence service, said his group had been recruited to "cause chaos in Iraq Â… to bar America from reaching Syria."

"We received all the instructions from Syrian intelligence," al-Essa, 30, said on a video broadcast by state-run Iraqiya TV, which can be seen nationwide.

The tape was apparently made in the northern city of Mosul but no date was provided.

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A new video has been released of a Christian Iraqi who had returned to Iraq, from which he had fled to Sweden in 1984, to run for pollitical office. He is a naturalized Swedish citizen. Minas al-Yusifi is the leader of the Christain Democratic party in Iraq and was taken hostage in Northern Iraq three weeks ago by a group calling itself Martyr al-Isawy Brigades.

The group has threatened to behead al-Yusifi if any security forces were contacted by the family, have demanded ransom, and that US forces be replaced by UN forces.

UPDATE: The video may be downloaded from the Expressen, a Swedish news service here. The video runs about two minutes and is in Arabic. Although fairly low-quality, Mr. al-Yusifi can be seen visibly flinching and recoiling from his captors rifle.

From Local, a Swedish source:

A video of the Swede who was kidnapped in Iraq three weeks ago was released by his captors on Thursday. With a machine gun to his head, Minas Ibrahim al-Yousifi appealed to the international community to help free him.

"I beg everyone to do their utmost to free me," he said on the film, which lasted for just over two minutes....

"I appeal to His Majesty Carl XVI Gustav, Sweden's king, and Queen Silvia, Pope John Paul, the international federation of Christian parties, the Muslim clerics in Iraq and Iraq's constitutional assembly to work for my freedom," he said.

On Saturday Mr al-Yousifi made a telephone call to his family in which he explained the kidnappers' demands. According to Expressen, they have requested around 28 million crowns and for US troops to be replaced by UN troops in the Iraq.

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Xinhua: "Iraqi security forces in Sherqat area in Salahudin province captured Khaled Zakiyah who was suspected of involving in terroristacts and beheadings," and it looks like Zarqawi was just missed in Tikrit.

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