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Republican_Man
STV's Premier Conservative
Joined: 26 Mar 2004
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 Mon Sep 20, 2004 9:27 pm Another Beheading |
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In a sad day, the EVIL of the terrorist Al Zawahiri has been seen YET again through another beheading:
| Quote: | Video Shows Beheading of American
From the AP
BAGHDAD, Iraq � The militant group lead by Al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (search) posted a gruesome video on a Web site Monday showing the decapitation of a man identified as American civil engineer Eugene Armstrong (search) and said a second hostage � either an American or a Briton � would be killed in 24 hours.
The grisly beheading was the latest killing in a particularly violent month in Iraq, with more than 300 people dead in insurgent attacks and U.S. military strikes over the past seven days. Earlier Monday, gunmen in Baghdad assassinated two clerics from a powerful Sunni Muslim group that has served as a mediator to release hostages.
The video of the beheading of the man said to be Armstrong, whose age was not known, surfaced soon after the expiration of a 48-hour deadline set earlier by al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad (search) group for the beheading of the three civil engineers. The men � Armstrong, American Jack Hensley and Briton Kenneth Bigley � were abducted Thursday from their home in a wealthy Baghdad neighborhood.
A militant whose voice resembled al-Zarqawi read a statement in the video saying the next hostage would be killed in 24 hours unless all Muslim women prisoners are released from U.S. military jails.
"You, sister, rejoice. God's soldiers are coming to get you out of your chains and restore your purity by returning you to your mother and father," he said before grabbing the hostage, seated at his feet, and cutting his throat.
In Washington, a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Armstrong's body had been recovered, but the official would provide no information about where or when.
The taped beheading appears to be of Armstrong, but the CIA is still examining it to be sure, the official said.
The 9-minute tape, posted on a Web site used by Islamic militants, showed a man seated on the floor, blindfolded and wearing an orange jumpsuit � similar to the orange uniform worn by prisoners at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay (search), Cuba � with his hands bound behind his back. Five militants dressed in black stood behind him, four of them armed with assault rifles, with a black Tawhid and Jihad banner on the wall.
The militant in the center read out a statement, as the hostage rocked back and forth and side to side where he sat. After finishing, the militant pulled a knife and cut his throat until the head was severed.
The victim gasped loudly as blood poured from his neck. His killer held up the head at one point, and placed it on top of the body
"The fate of the first infidel was cutting off the head before your eyes and ears. You have a 24-hour opportunity. Abide by our demand in full and release all the Muslim women, otherwise the head of the other will follow this one," the speaker said.
Tawhid and Jihad � Arabic for "Monotheism and Holy War" � has claimed responsibility for killing at least six hostages, including Armstrong and another American, Nicholas Berg, who was abducted in April. The group has also said it is behind a number of bombings and gun attacks.
In a video Saturday setting the 48-hour deadline, the militants demanded the release of female Iraqi prisoners detained by the U.S. military. The military says it is holding two women with ties to Saddam Hussein's regime, including Dr. Rihab Rashid Taha (search), a scientist who became known as "Dr. Germ" for helping Iraq make weapons out of anthrax, and a biotech researcher. But there may be women held as common criminals.
They said no women were being held at the U.S. military prison at Abu Ghraib (search), west of Baghdad, where American soldiers were photographed sexually humiliating male prisoners, raising fears about the safety about women detainees.
The militant on the video called President Bush "a dog" and addressed him, saying, "Now, you have people who love death just like you love life. Killing for the sake of God is their best wish, getting to your soldiers and allies are their happiest moments, and cutting the heads of the criminal infidels is implementing the orders of our lord."
Armstrong grew up in Hillsdale, Mich., but left the area around 1990. His brother, Frank, still lives there. Armstrong's work in construction took him around the world; he lived in Thailand with his wife before going to Iraq.
The other American hostage, Jack Hensley, 48, made his home in Marietta, Ga., with his wife Patty and their 13-year-old daughter. Kidnapped with the Americans was Briton Kenneth Bigley, 62. All three worked for Gulf Services Co. of the United Arab Emirates.
In a statement released after the video was posted, Armstrong's family said: "This is what we did not want to hear. We are praying for Jack Hensley and Kenneth Brigley and their families."
At least 55 American civilians have died in Iraq since President Bush declared major combat complete on May 1, 2003.
In addition to Armstrong and Berg, at least two other Americans have been beheaded since Bush launched the war on terrorism after the Sept. 11 attacks. Paul M. Johnson Jr., a 49-year-old engineer, was decapitated by militants in Saudi Arabia in June. Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was killed in Pakistan in 2002.
U.S. Army Spc. Keith M. Maupin, 20, of Batavia, Ohio, is officially listed by the military as missing. Maupin disappeared in Iraq on April 9 after an attack on a fuel convoy. Arab television reported June 29 that he was killed but did not broadcast a video it said showed his shooting death. U.S. military could not confirm that a man shown being shot in videotape was Maupin.
Also missing from that convoy attack are contract truckers William Bradley and Timothy Bell, both Americans.
Armstrong's slaying came on the heels of the beheading � apparently by a group of Sunni insurgents � of three Kurdish militiamen taken hostage in the north.
More than 130 foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq, some for lucrative ransoms, and at least 26 of them have been executed. At least five other Westerners are currently being held hostage here, including an Iraqi-American man, two female Italian aid workers and two French reporters.
On Monday, kidnappers released a group of 18 abducted Iraqi National Guard members after renegade Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called for their release, an al-Sadr aide Nail al-Kabi told The Associated Press.
Insurgents have used kidnappings and bombings as their signature weapons in a 17-month campaign to undermined the interim government of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and force the U.S. and its allies out of Iraq.
North of Baghdad, insurgents attacked a U.S. patrol near the town of Sharqat, killing an American soldier.
U.S. warplanes struck in the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, killing two people. The military said the attack hit equipment that militants were using to build fortifications in the city and that care was taken that "no innocent civilians" were there at the time. Doctors said the dead were municipal workers using a bulldozer on construction projects near the railway station.
In Mosul, a car bombing killed three people. The number of car bombings so far in September in Iraq, 32, is the highest recorded in any single month during the conflict.
A Web site statement posted Monday in the name of al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group condemned the killing of the two Sunni Muslim clerics in Baghdad.
Gunmen shot and killed Sheik Mohammed Jadoa al-Janabi as he entered a mosque in the capital's predominantly Shiite al-Baya neighborhood to perform noon prayers Monday.
The previous night, gunmen kidnapped Sheik Hazem al-Zeidi and two of his bodyguards as he left a mosque in another largely Shiite neighborhood, Sadr City. The bodyguards were released Monday.
The two clerics belonged to the Association of Muslim Scholars, a grouping of conservative clerics that opposes the U.S. presence in Iraq and has emerged as a powerful representative of Iraq's Sunni minority.
The association is believed to have contacts with Sunni militants but denies that it has an active role in the insurgency. It has interceded often in the past to win the release of foreign hostages, and militant groups have asked the association for a religious ruling on whether kidnappings and killing of hostages are permitted.
Clerics from the association have been killed in the past � most recently in February. But the motives in those and the latest slayings have been unclear. There have been tit-for-tat killings of Shiite and Sunni clerics in the past year, widely believed to be motivated by sectarian sentiments. |
Source
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"Rights are only as good as the willingness of some to exercise responsibility for those rights- Fmr. Colorado Senate Pres. John Andrews
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Theresa
Lux Mihi Deus
Joined: 17 Jun 2001
Posts: 27256
Location: United States of America
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| Tue Sep 21, 2004 9:45 am |
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| Quote: | American Hostage Killed in Iraq
By BASSEM MROUE, AP
BAGHDAD, Iraq (Sept. 21) - Family members of an American and a Briton held hostage in Iraq appealed for their lives after militants vowed to kill one of them Tuesday, a day after beheaded a hostage identified as U.S. civil engineer Eugene Armstrong.
The beheading was shown in a nine-minute video posted on the Internet on Monday. In the footage, a sobbing, blindfolded man identified as Armstrong knelt in front of five militants dressed in black. The banner of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad, a group linked to al-Qaida, hung on the wall behind them.
The man in the center read a statement, then pulled a knife, grabbed the hostage seated at his feet and sliced his head off. The victim screamed and blood poured from his neck. Al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian who is the most wanted militant in Iraq, purportedly conducted the beheading himself.
The speaker then threatened to kill at least one more hostage in 24 hours unless all Muslim women are released from U.S. custody in Iraq. The group still claims to be holding American Jack Hensley and Briton Kenneth Bigley, construction contractors abducted along with Armstrong from their Baghdad home last week.
The U.S. military says the only two women in its custody in Iraq are two female security prisoners: Dr. Rihab Rashid Taha, a scientist who became known as ''Dr. Germ'' for helping Iraq make weapons out of anthrax, and Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, a biotech researcher known as ''Mrs. Anthrax.''
The speaker, whose voice resembled al-Zarqawi's, said Tawhid and Jihad was taking revenge for women Iraqi prisoners and called President Bush ''a dog.''
''You, sister, rejoice. God's soldiers are coming to get you out of your chains and restore your purity by returning you to your mother and father,'' he said.
In Georgia, Patty Hensley, the wife of Jack Hensely, pleaded Tuesday with his captors to open lines of communication and spare his life.
''I understand their political agenda, but what I need them to understand is the man who I have been with for 23 years, who is the father of our 13-year-old daughter, who does not understand this situation, why someone would want to hurt her father,'' Patty Hensley said in an interview with CNN. ''I would plead with them to please realize this man does not deserve this fate.''
In London, the Bigley's family appealed to British Prime Minister Tony Blair to meet the captors' demands.
''I ask Tony Blair personally to consider the amount of bloodshed already suffered,'' Craig Bigley, 33, said in a videotaped statement. ''Please meet the demands and release my father - two women for two men. ... Only you can save him now. You have children and you will understand how I feel at this time.''
Philip Bigley pleaded with his brother's captors to free his brother and Hensley.
''We are begging you not to kill them,'' he said. ''We are begging you to find a solution, a compromise, that will help to save two lives, innocent lives.''
Blair condemned the kidnappings at a news conference Monday.
''But our response has not got to be to weaken,'' he said. ''Our response has got to be to stand firm, to say, whatever the differences over the Iraq conflict, there is a clear right and wrong on these issues, and that is to be with the democrats and against the terrorists.''
Armstrong's body was found Monday a few blocks from where he lived in the leafy west Baghdad neighborhood of Mansour, officials and witnesses said Tuesday. Iraqi police found the corpse near a highway overpass and informed U.S. troops, the officials said on condition of anonymity. U.S. troops sealed off the area.
In Washington, a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Armstrong's body had been recovered, but the official would provide no details.
Armstrong grew up in Hillsdale, Mich., but left the area around 1990. His brother, Frank, still lives there. Armstrong's work in construction took him around the world; he lived in Thailand with his wife before going to Iraq.
''Jack (Eugene Armstrong) was a good guy,'' said Cyndi Armstrong, a spokeswoman for the Armstrong family. ''He was in Hillsdale for many years, but he didn't like to stay in one place. He loved to travel.''
Rick Gamber, a cousin of Armstrong, said on NBC's ''Today Show'': ''I would just hope that people would realize this isn't something that there should be retaliation for. Our family feels a great deal of grief. We hope the criminals are brought to justice, but we certainly don't want people to overreact and do something foolish.''
Tawhid and Jihad - Arabic for ''Monotheism and Holy War'' - has claimed responsibility for the slaying of six hostages in the past, including American Nicholas Berg, who was abducted in April. The group has also said it is behind a number of bombings and gun attacks.
More than 130 foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq, and at least 26 of them have been executed. Iraqis have also faced an epidemic of kidnappings in the chaos since the fall of Saddam Hussein last year, in many cases for ransom.
In a separate hostage crisis, suspected Shiite fighters freed 18 U.S.-trained Iraqi National Guard members Monday on the orders of renegade Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who had denounced the act as insulting to Islam.
Insurgents have used kidnappings and bombings as their signature weapons in a 17-month campaign to undermined the interim government of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and force the U.S. and its allies out of Iraq.
The violence continued unabated Tuesday with a police vehicle hitting a roadside bomb in Baqouba, north of Baghdad. One civilian was killed and four wounded, police and hospital officials said. Two policemen were also lightly injured.
U.S. warplanes launched missiles to destroy roadside bombs and mines strewn across the streets of the east Baghdad slum of Sadr City, the site of fierce clashes recently between American troops and fighters loyal to al-Sadr, the U.S. military said Tuesday.
There was no immediate word on casualties.
On Monday, assailants gunned down two Sunni clerics in predominantly Shiite areas of Baghdad in twin attacks against a powerful Muslim religious group that has emerged as a key representative of Iraq's fearful Sunni minority. The Association of Muslim Scholars, a grouping of conservative clerics, opposes the U.S. presence in Iraq but has interceded often in the past to win the release of foreign hostages.
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^Slightly different article
Did anyone watch 60 Minutes Sunday night? There was an interview with some US soldiers, and some Iraqi officials. The people doing this are a few thousand. Not the entire country. The soldiers talked about how when one city was liberated, they lost, in their company, 4 men in one mortar attack. When the Sgt. was asked if it was worth it, he started to cry and said definitely yes. That when driving out of the city, the people coming out and waving to them, thanking them for routing out the militants, made it worth it. He said that they get "certain news channels" in Iraq, and they only see the negative. Also commented that if he only had what was reported on TV to go buy, instead of being there himself, he'd think the whole country hated them.
The worst thing they can do now is to give in.
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Some of us fall by the wayside
And some of us soar to the stars
And some of us sail through our troubles
And some have to live with our scars
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