Margaret Hassan Pleads for Her Life: 2 Videos

Margaret Hassan who's lived and worked in Iraq for 30 years is married to an Iraqi and has dual Iraqi and British citizenship. She was abducted on her way to work early Tuesday morning, a sign of just how insecure the situation is in Baghdad for foreigners.

Evil of the kidnappers
(Filed: 20/10/2004)

Kidnappers try to get those who love those held hostage to collude in the wickedness of their abductors. There is no doubt about the wickedness of those who kidnap people such as Margaret Hassan, the Iraq director for Care International. When the Foreign Secretary said yesterday, "Our thoughts and prayers go out to her, her family and her colleagues," he spoke for once not a platitude but the truth about the feelings of the British people.

Margaret Hassan, a British-born Iraqi citizen, had been working quietly in Iraq for many years for the good of the Iraqi people. Her organisation has sought the repair of water and sanitation, and the rebuilding of hospitals. The leading terrorist predators on innocent captives, the group led by the Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, do not seek the good of the Iraqi people. They seek to impose their own foreign-born tyrannical philosophy on a country newly freed from a dictator's tyranny.

There is no negotiating with the likes of al-Zarqawi's outfit, Tawhid and Jihad. Its very name traduces two principles of Islamic thought, the unity of almighty God (tawhid) and the moral struggle (jihad). It refuses to negotiate anything short of the destruction of its enemies: the democratic West and anyone in Iraq who disagrees with it. Iraqis already suffer from the crimes of gangs who have kidnapped thousands of people for money; al-Zarqawi's evil plans are altogether more far-reaching.
www.opinion.telegraph.co.uk.../opinion/2004/10/20/dl2002.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2004/10/20/ixopinion.html

Outrage over aid worker kidnap
From correspondents in Baghdad
20oct04

THE kidnapping of a relief worker in Iraq has sparked international outrage and fears for her safety early today as four Iraqi national guard troops were killed and scores wounded in a mortar attack on their base.

The latest unrest yesterday, which also included twin attacks on northern oil pipelines, came as Britain hinted it would agree to a US request to send some of its troops away from its relatively peaceful centre of operations in the south to more unstable areas.
The move would free up US forces to crack down on insurgents in their stronghold of Fallujah, where US warplanes struck suspected hideouts of wanted Islamist militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The international aid group CARE suspended its operations in Iraq in the wake of yesterday's kidnapping of Margaret Hassan, head of its Baghdad office.

Ms Hassan, who was born in Ireland and has lived in Iraq for 30 years, has both British and Iraqi citizenship.
www.heraldsun.news.com.au...

www.google.com...


[edit on 04/10/22 by GradyPhilpott]

Margaret Hassan has made a tearful appeal to British Prime Minister Tony Blair to remove troops from Iraq. She says that she does not want to suffer the same fate as other captives.

news.xinhuanet.com...

www.chinadaily.com.cn...

www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk...

www.google.com...

What are their demands? She is a humanitarian worker. How long can you go by threatening this lady let alone thraten to seperate her head from her shoulders?

A brief video of Margaret Hassan pleading for her life is available here:

uk.news.yahoo.com...

"Please help me. Please help me. This might be my last hours. Please help me. Please, the British people, ask Mr. Blair to take the troops out of Iraq, and not to bring them here to Baghdad. That's why people like Mr. Bigely and myself are being caught. And maybe we will die like Mr. Bigley. Please, please, I beg of you."

[edit on 04/10/22 by GradyPhilpott]

personally i dont see why they do this , it just increases the hate and anger towards them giveing them a negative image and really is unmoral.
we should get the terrorists families and threaten them, see how they feel.

I will immediately set aside any political consideration and say that Ms. Hassan and her family are in my thoughts.

Blair remains firm on kidnapping
By GAURAV GHOSE
WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- Another pressure ploy on the British government to pull out troops from Iraq? Another tragedy in the waiting? But this time it could be a nasty first: A Western woman being beheaded.

The kidnapped director of CARE Margaret Hassan made a tearful plea to British Prime Minister Tony Blair to pull Britain's troops out of Iraq and save her life. In a videotape aired Friday by Qatar-based al-Jazeera television, Hassan said she could meet the same fate as Kenneth Bigley, the British hostage who was decapitated by his captors.

Hassan's abduction could not have come at a worse time for the Blair. He is facing it at a time when the U.S. military requested the U.K. government to deploy some of its troops in areas close to area to allow the U.S. forces to launch another major operation in Fallujah.

And Hassan's videotape comes a day after the United Kindom agreed to redeploy 850 of its troops -- 500 of who are elite Black Watch soldiers -- from Basra to central Iraq, responding to the request of the U.S. military. And latest reports from Baghdad on Friday confirm that the British troops have begun moving into their designated areas.

"Please help me," cried Hassan, as seen on the tape. "Please help me. This might me my last hour."

[...]

The British government -- said senior fellow of foreign policy studies at Brookings Institution, Michael O'Hanlon -- would not change its position based on a position of principle because you have someone who is of a higher profile.

As I think about this, I keep wondering...why do the whole Hostage-In-Iraq-Beheading-Thing to a woman who has been working for an international aid organization for 12 years? I mean, come on, you don't get support for that sort of thing anywhere. Aside from your most militant buddies, most folks find that pretty distasteful.

...but it is happening...

...so, what's up? There's got to be a pretty big underlying motivation to murder such a person publicly when it could erode your support and bring a lot of trouble your way, and it's not just sending a message.

I started thinking about a few things...

-Could this have something to do with CARE International? Is there something we don't know?
Statement On Iraq

Shays added that there is a chance some of the insurgents now operating against the United States and the new Iraqi government are using Oil-for-Food money in their terror campaign.

�I think it's not only possible that insurgents are using Oil-for-Food money -- I think it's very likely,� Shays said.

One casualty was Ihasan Karim (search), the Iraqi official heading an inquiry into the Oil-for-Food program. On July 1, a bomb placed under his car exploded in Baghdad, killing him, and U.S. officials in Iraq told FOX News that they believe Oil-for-Food was the motive in the assassination. That wouldn't surprise Shays.

Oil-for-Food Scandal Draws Scrutiny to U.N.

-Why pull an operation that starves Iraqi's by shutting off their aid...Care Int'l Suspends Operations in Iraq? Unless you're not Iraqi's and you don't really care...

-She's asking Blair not to advance his troops on Baghdad...

"Please, the British people, ask Mr. Blair to take the troops out of Iraq, and not to bring them here to Baghdad."

Generally the British have been well received in Basra.

The troops are still out on regular patrols. As they bump along Basra's streets, people wave and boy cyclists pedal furiously, trying unsuccessfully to keep up with the army vehicles.

There is hostility in some quarters towards the British. For the first time this week, the base came under mortar fire and the compound has a slightly bygone air, reminiscent of Britain's colonial past in the Middle East.
British troops seek happy homecoming

...maybe the British troops might be better received in Baghdad. They haven't been gone from their colony for all that long. Some of the older Iraqi's probably still remember. Maybe it doesn't help the insurgency much to have an occupying army that people don't abhor.

Any way you slice it, this woman's capture isn't just about another beheading. She's big there, not just another truck driver or contractor.

Here's another longer video. It has what sounds like Arabic translation dubbed over much of the video.

www.libertyunites.tv...

The whole thing is aimed to drive out all the aid and humanitarian agencies.

Remember the insurgents do not want any example of any Western Benefits influencing Iraqis. Westerners are mean't to be F'ing Evil incarnate.

Care is just one in a long line of NGOs forced out via attacks and threats to staff. Red Cross the UN Humanitarian programs and other groups have already departed or been reduced to local Iraqi staff.

The stated public aim by groups like AQ have been to drive all Western influence out including foreign aid groups. This has been picked up by media and internet and widely reported and repeated (including here). Iraqi insurgent copy cats not necessarily receiving direct commands on this are using this as the basis of thier logic.

Such threats may just have been tools of the Insurgent leaders or role models by the likes of Bin Laden. But it is one sure way to loose control of thier supporters at the ground level - "Bin says it, We do it"

Its the double edged sword of a press and internet free to report what it wants....thats not a criticism btw thats just a fact of life......like stronger intelligence and security powers maybe being necessary but in the hands of rats (without proper safeguards) open to abuse......We dont ignore the need but we monitor the danger as well.

I heard she has been killed shot in the head. Killing a woman that has helped that poor in Iraq for over 25 years. What a bunch of great "Freedom Fighters" we have there.

A unarmed Humanitarian aide worker, Im going to have to laugh the next time somebody calls these monsters Freedom Fighters

[edit on 16-11-2004 by ShadowXIX]

If any single act exemplifies the enemy we all face this would have to be it. These people are savages and even the term savage gives them more credit than they are due.

Originally posted by GradyPhilpott
If any single act exemplifies the enemy we all face this would have to be it. These people are savages and even the term savage gives them more credit than they are due.

And perhaps those that are easily influenced on the so-called "insurgent" side by media images of inhumanity regard their "enemy" in exactly the same way after viewing images from Abu Ghraib.

It is a no-win situation if unilateral finger-pointing is the standard response. It holds no meaning.

Originally posted by MaskedAvatar
And perhaps those that are easily influenced on the so-called "insurgent" side by media images of inhumanity regard their "enemy" in exactly the same way after viewing images from Abu Ghraib.

It is a no-win situation if unilateral finger-pointing is the standard response. It holds no meaning.

An Idaho potato could recognize the difference between the humiliation tactics of Abu Ghraib, for which the perpetrators are being punished and the senseless killing of innocents by the animals who have yet to be brought to justice.

Originally posted by MaskedAvatar

Originally posted by GradyPhilpott
If any single act exemplifies the enemy we all face this would have to be it. These people are savages and even the term savage gives them more credit than they are due.

And perhaps those that are easily influenced on the so-called "insurgent" side by media images of inhumanity regard their "enemy" in exactly the same way after viewing images from Abu Ghraib.

Al Jazeera the people that were sent the video of the Killing of this innocent women will not air this video. But everyone aired Abu Ghraib footage in the US and Arab world.

Not like the two can even be compared I bet this women would have wished to have gone through what people at Abu Ghraib had happen to them compared to getting her brains splattered on the wall.

I'd actually prefer death as opposed to being raped and have it photographed and videotaped then shown to the world...

I guess some will never understand.

You see, this is the interesting thing.

Manipulation of simple minds to believe the worst about their "enemy" is culturally specific, and does not always take place in Idaho.

Originally posted by sweatmonicaIdo
I'd actually prefer death as opposed to being raped and have it photographed and videotaped then shown to the world...

I guess some will never understand.

I doubt many rape victiums share your view. I know some and have worked with them and I can tell you none of them would rather have been killed. You can be raped and still go one to heal mental and physical wounds and live a normal life.

Thoses are pretty hard things to do when your brains are getting some fresh air. But I guess some people will never understand.