Ceasefire collapses, US hostage taken in Iraq

abc.net.au ^ | AM - Saturday, 10 April , 2004 08:00:58 | Peter Cave

[Destro]

Transcript

This is a transcript from AM. The program is broadcast around Australia at 08:00 on ABC Local Radio.

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Ceasefire collapses, US hostage taken in Iraq

AM - Saturday, 10 April , 2004 08:00:58

Reporter: Peter Cave

TANYA NOLAN: It's the day after the 12-month anniversary of the toppling of Saddam's regime, and things appear bloodier than ever in Iraq.

The ceasefire called by US troops in Fallujah less than 24-hours ago seems to have already collapsed, with mortar rounds ringing out across the Sunni city where 450 Iraqis have died this week.

America has announced the death of six more of it's soldiers, taking the number of US troops killed since Shia unrest erupted on Sunday, to 39.

Meanwhile, insurgents are taking more foreign hostages, an alarming new strategy being used to try and drive coalition forces out of Iraq.

Our own ABC staff on the ground in Iraq have witnessed the taking of the latest hostage.

Hundreds of Sunni Mujahideen or Holy warriors armed with rocket propelled grenades, attacked a convoy of oil tankers taking fuel to US forces besieged in the town of Fallujah, destroying at least a dozen trucks and killing or wounding several drivers.

For hours, the Mujahideen ruled the main east-west highway in Iraq, where they took at least one American hostage.

Our Foreign Affairs Editor Peter Cave reports how he and his cameraman, Michael Cox, were taken by members of the Mujahideen to film the latest hostage, whose fate remains unknown.

PETER CAVE: It was a huge pall of thick black smoke billowing high into the air, west of the capital, that attracted our attention. As we drove closer we passed a burnt out oil tanker, a gaping hole in its side, then another and another.

(Audio excerpt recorded on scene)

PETER CAVE: There appears to have been a major attack on oil facilities on the road just up ahead. There are three major fires burning up there with smoke going high into the sky, and just beside us here, an oil tanker is well on fire.

(End audio excerpt recorded on scene)

PETER CAVE: But as we continued up the highway, it became clear it wasn't an oil facility, it was more oil tankers blazing furiously.

(Audio excerpt recorded on scene)

PETER CAVE: On the road ahead, two oil tankers are burning. We've passed another half a dozen already on this road. There's been a major attack by Mujahideen. Just a short while ago, we spoke to an American who'd been taken prisoner by the Mujahideen.

(End audio excerpt recorded on scene)

PETER CAVE: We'd been filming an oil tanker upside down in a ditch beside the road. Local people were braving the fierce heat trying to pull something from the cabin, most probably the driver, who was certainly dead.

(Audio of burning wreckage)

Suddenly, a large late model Toyota Saloon pulled up right in front of us.

(Audio of people speaking)

And three men, two of them masked, climbed out carrying assault rifles and insisted we look at the prize they had in the car.

(Audio excerpt recorded on scene)

PETER CAVE: What's happened?

AMERICAN HOSTAGE: They attacked our convoy. That's all I'm going to say.

PETER CAVE: Okay.

(End audio excerpt recorded on scene)

PETER CAVE: Their hostage, being held by two more masked men in the car, was wounded in the arm, his blue jeans covered in blood. He had blonde hair and a moustache and appeared more defiant than scared as they roughly yanked his head across so we could see his face.

(Audio excerpt recorded on scene)

PETER CAVE: Do you want to give us your name?

AMERICAN HOSTAGE: Hamil (phonetic), Thomas.

(Audio of banging on car roof)

MASKED MAN: Go, go.

PETER CAVE: Okay, okay.

(Audio of car driving off)

(End audio excerpt recorded on scene)

PETER CAVE: As they drove off, another car full of armed Mujahideen pulled up.

"I swear in the name of Allah", he says, "we don't care about death or life, we're going to heaven. Death is welcome."

We had to driver some kilometres back towards Baghdad before we found any coalition troops. Several tanks and two APCs guarding an overpass and watching the huge palls of smoke on the road totally under the control of the Mujahideen.

(Audio excerpt recorded on scene)

AMERICAN SOLDIER: Just past that first burning tanker?

PETER CAVE: We're the first people on…

(End audio excerpt recorded on scene)

We reported the fate of the American hostage but there was no immediate move to mount a rescue.

(Audio of crowd chanting)

Several more kilometres down the road and tens of thousands have gathered chanting "Jihad", or "holy war" in the huge Sunni mosque Saddam built on the western edge of Baghdad.

(Audio of speaker yelling through loudspeaker)

The speaker says, "we will say no with one voice. You Americans will not pass through here. There is no legitimacy in the new Iraq, except for those who fight."

This is Peter Cave in Baghdad, for Saturday AM.

[MEG33]

I believe they were with the convoy attacked yesterday outside Baghdad...no word on a kidnapping,just that they are missing.

[don-o]

This is a tempest in a tea cup as one writer called it correctly.

Mark Steyn said that!

[DoughtyOne]

Does it leap out at you, as it did me, that the mainstream Moslem community in Europe is so closely networking with the terrorists in Iraq? What the hell are the European governments, even our own, thinking to allow so much immigration from a society that is oil to western civilization's water? The same question goes for how easily these terrorist sympathizers get VISAs and travel freely.

The two civilizations (and for one of them I use the term rather loosely), cannot be mixed in peace. Have we learned nothing by watching the last 70 years of middle-eastern history? Are our leaders this clueless? Could any human be?

scratching head in astonishment...

[Steel Wolf]

If the ceasefire" is that we keep the cordon and Iraqi police run the city and hand over baddies, great. if the ceasefire is we withdraw and give the jihadists time to regroup or escape, then all is lost.

Precisely. Sadr may call for some kind of truce, but if he and his crew don't plan on giving themselves up, it will be necessary to resume offensive operations. In the mean time, there are a lot of pilgrims and other civilians that will have a chance to get out of the way.

The delay is a merciful one on our part. We can debate the pros and cons of being merciful at this point, but that appears to be our position. There is no question that we can level the city at our lesiure; the fact that we have not yet done so isn't lost on anyone. No one questions our strength, they only question our will. That's why it is vital that we bring Sadr in and make him Saddam's new roomate.

[don-o]

Have we learned nothing by watching the last 70 years of middle-eastern history? Are our leaders this clueless?

'Sup Doughty? We seem to be following same threads.

I have been thing for the last couple of days, that we are in a really tight spot in Iraq. I keep hoping to hear of some regular Iraqi troops being deployed, but, I reckon there is no such a thing.

I am also thinking that rebuilding a nation called Iraq is a fool's errand. Am I wrong that most of the people inside the borders consider themselves something other that Iraqis as their primary self identification?

[DoughtyOne]

Ideally we'll set up a stable government that can stand on it's own. At the worst we will probably glean out the worst of the dreck and move on.

You've probably seen the maps of the middle east that show all the Arab (Moslem) land, and Israel in relation to it. It's quite clear that those maps of one color for all the Moslem lands, are basicly one ideology, no matter the reality that different factions exist.

I don't think you're wrong at all to point out that middle-eastern mind-sets don't conform to the western perception of nation-state borders. Of course western civilization conforms to that model itself to some degree. While there are differing aspects of governance, over the last forty years plus, western civilization's core ideology transended borders as well.

Now that seems to be changing. Allignments are shifting. Europe is now quite understanding of the terrorist Moslem mindset, siding with certain factions unquestionably. The Palestinians can do no wrong.

No, you're on to something. That's why it's so vitally important that the US show a willingness to be as absolutely ruthless and brutal as international law will allow in this process. If it is percieved in any manner, that terrorism works or is a viable tool, then western civilization is doomed.

If Europe and the United States continues to allow Moslem intergration, we are in a serious world of hurt. This factor alone will doom us to morphing our global world view to that of the Moslem mindset due to the massive ratio of Moslems to Christians. As goes Europe, so goes the US IMO.

[Husker24]

Supposedly there were two missing soldiers from the attack on the fuel convoy, I heard it from Fox, as well as some blurbs on the internet here and there, but never any follow up.

[in the Arena]

Thanks, I thought this might be a different incident...

[in the Arena]

Thanks for the reply, I thought this might have been a different incident...

[don-o]

That's why it's so vitally important that the US show a willingness to be as absolutely ruthless and brutal as international law will allow in this process.

Agreed. And international law is something worth preserving. We simply cannot descend to their level. But, we have to hit hard.

On the current, I heard yesterday that thousands had evacuated Falluja. Time to kick the tires and light the fires.

If not Falluja, then where?

If not now, when?

[MEG33]

I may be off on the day it happened.I know it was a big fuel truck fire,looting and they said it may be the bodies were burned and scattered beyond recognizing on TV today.

[DoughtyOne]

Again, we're pretty much in agreement here. Quit following me around. Heh heh heh...

[in the Arena]

I think a lot of the convoys are run by civilian contractors, so I wasn't aware that they were US military that were MIA...there's another story with a picture here...http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1115182/posts?page=1.

God bless this man and all who are in harms way...

[MEG33]

Amen.I listened to the Australian reporter's tape.I have no faith at all that this man will be treated anything but with cruelty and with deadly results.

[Hun in the sun]

Sorry, but you should watch WHAT you are posting!

Loose lips sink ships!

Your quoted email just appeared on a leftist page
in Germany:

Wie gut, daß die "privaten Sicherheitsdienste" nur Schutzaufgaben haben...
Kesha (10. April 2004 20:44)

Polygraf schrieb am 10. April 2004 19:27

> Vielleicht, weil sie keine anderen Sichtweisen als ihre eigene gelten
> lassen wollen ?
>

Hier ein interessanter Kommentar aus einer garantiert
zuverlässigen Quelle:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1115139/posts


"Here is an excerpt from an email I received today from a good friend
who is over there fighting right now. He is an ex-marine who now
works private security. He was in the first Persian Gulf War,
Somalia, Bosnia and many other operations. I edited out personal info
and curse words.

"Yesterday we encounterd heavy resistance and through the night as
well. No casualties on our side, I can confirm 10 ememy KIA's there
were several more through out the city with other units and
operators. Amazing that no friendly casualites were sustained, I saw
some of the heaviest fire fights I have ever seen yesterday and I am
in amazement that there were only two injuires. I was behind a PKM
all day don't know how many I sent down range, lost count at 600
rounds so we are hammering them through buildings and in the open.
These savages have no concept of a "Better way of Life", so we will
show them a nightmare of existence."

19 posted on 04/10/2004 11:07:29 AM PDT
by feinswinesuksass

Fein, Schwein...

Kesha

[Thank You Rush]

CA has two senators we can donate to the cause and NY can throw their two in and they can install "gun control" and make everyone safe! I'd even contribute to their airfare if they would promise never to come back BUT Hillary would have to take her husband with her.

[Feiny]

All that says is:
" Here an interesting comment from one guarantees reliable source"

Besides, I gave away no info on company, location or names. These emails from the field aare posted all the time. I edited mine due to personal info & curse words.

[Cold Heat]

Small world!

Although I do not think we sunk any ships here, this illustration of net speed and access needs to be taken to heart by all.

But then, we can never really say what is usable intel for the enemies of the U.S.

This post caught the attention of someone for a reason and we can only guess why that is.

[Feiny]

I do like how they translated my screen name to : Fein, Schwein...

Free Republic is monitored by many which is why I was careful as to what info I posted.

[CGVet58]

"...THEN get back into it? Fight the savages now, or fight them later, it's our choice. With the Republicans in power, we fight them now on our terms. With the RATS in power, we will fight them later, when it will be infinitely harder, and our forces will take unimaginable casualties..."

So very, very true. It would be a tragedy beyond imagining which our actions now - when the correlation of force-to-threat viz-a-viz the casualties we can expect to incur is greatest in our favor - work towards avoiding.

But tragic it would be if the Rats get into power... the only war they know how to fight is one where the only remaining choice is surrender or die.

CGVet58