By Debbie Schlussel
**** UPDATE: VIDEO ADDED (scroll down) ****
Since we know that Muslims throughout the world–including and especially in the Palestinian realm–often recruit children (including mentally retarded ones) to become homicide bombers; and since we know they teach kids as young as age three in school and on kids’ television programs to become martyrs, I’m not sure why this is a surprise. It’s not like they don’t train kids to kill and engage in terrorist attacks, every single day, all over the Islamic world, including Sudan, the Palestinian Authority, Hezbo-dominated Lebanon, etc.
But today’s USA Today has an inside-front page piece on an Al-Qaeda training video, in which young boys are taught to kidnap and assassinate on behalf of the terrorist group:

A video that shows young boys being trained in kidnapping and assassination was discovered during a raid on an al-Qaeda safe house in Iraq, the U.S. military said Tuesday.
The video shows about 20 boys wearing ski masks and carrying pistols, assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. In some cases the weapons appear to dwarf the youngsters carrying them.
Excerpts, which were viewed by USA TODAY, appear to show the boys running through training exercises under the supervision of trainers, said Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, spokesman for the coalition command in Iraq. Portions of the video, the content of which could not be independently verified, will be released publicly today.
An analysis of the video provided by the U.S. command in Baghdad said the boys were proclaiming allegiance to al-Qaeda.
The tape was found among other al-Qaeda material uncovered during a raid north of Baghdad on Dec. 4, Smith said.
Smith said the video was being released to illustrate al-Qaeda’s increasing willingness to use women and children to carry out its objectives.
“That is a disturbing trend that obviously shows the desperation that al-Qaeda is currently going through to use whatever means possible to achieve its ends,” Smith said. “It knows no bounds.” . . .
A teenager was used in a suicide attack in Anbar province, west of Baghdad, last month. . . .
The video was captured during a raid targeting an al-Qaeda leader in the town of Khan Bani Saad.
A date stamp on the video indicates it was taken last summer. . . .
A U.S. military description of the video provided by Smith said one of the trainers spoke with an Iraqi accent.
The written description said a narrator at one point spoke with an Egyptian accent.
It is not clear who the boys are or how they were brought into the training.

It’s pretty clear to me. One word: Islam.