This is one of those stories that shouldn’t be overtly political, yet as soon as you hear about it you know exactly how the chips will fall. HuffPo dutifully relayed the retaliation theory on Sunday. This morning, our pal Dr. Debbie eats it up with a spoon.

Revenge. Justice. Legitimacy.

It’s too good not to be true.

Which it isn’t, for the reasons best explained by Greyhawk. He might — might — be wrong about Tucker and Menchaca having been killed in the original firefight. His logic is sound, but witnesses reported at the time that they were seen being “led away.”

But that’s a quibble. From CNN on June 21st, the day after Tucker’s and Menchaca’s bodies were discovered:

A claim posted on a Web site Tuesday said the soldiers were “slaughtered” in accordance with “God’s will.”

“We announce the good news to our Islamic nation that we executed God’s will and slaughtered the two crusader animals we had in captivity,” said the claim, reportedly from the Mujahedeen Shura Council, a group linked to al Qaeda.

“And God has given our Emir, Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, the good fortune of carrying out the legitimate court’s command in person.”

No mention of the rape. SITE noted on June 19th the Shura Council’s earlier message announcing that the two had been kidnapped. No mention of the rape then, either. Coincidentally. In fact, the first mention of it that I know of by any jihadi was in the Adam Gadahn segment of the Shehzad Tanweer video that was released last Friday.

Which, Gateway Pundit reports, the AP was kind enough to cite as corroborating evidence.

Too good not to be true.