Hoping you might be able to find more on this, Loz. The Channel 4 report on this last night was hugely sceptical, pointing out details such as how the camera turns away from the action while the boy is taking off the jacket and only turns back just in time for the controlled explosion - the implication being that he was never wearing explosives in the first place.

They also kept making reference to "growing suspicion" that the entire event was staged by the Israelis, but I've been everywhere I can think of and can't find anything to back this up. I can't even find one single voice mentioning it, to be honest (and the Channel 4 News website seems to be updated once a day, if that).

Struck me as very odd that a major news programme would make such a comment without providing any evidence. If you trip over anything about this, could you let us know?
E. Randy | Homepage | 03.25.04 - 1:05 pm | #

I've only come across this on the websites so I didn't know anything about it being staged, I rarely see C4 news, but al-Aqsa ARE claiming responsibility so maybe C4 are off-key with this one. We shall see...
Loz | Homepage | 03.25.04 - 4:54 pm | #

They seem to be backing down a bit now, but they're still claiming that "militants have denied recruiting Hassam."

By the way, do not set foot in the C4 News forums. It's like somebody's taught a load of secondary school kids a combined lesson on the most basic facts about world politics and swearing, then set them loose on each other. Not a pretty sight.
E. Randy | Homepage | 03.25.04 - 8:00 pm | #