UK Hostage in Iraq Alive - Islamist Activist

Reuters ^ | 9/26/04

[TexKat]

DUBAI (Reuters) - British hostage Kenneth Bigley, kidnapped 10 days ago by gunmen in Iraq, is still alive, a London-based Muslim activist who has good contacts with Islamist groups in Iraq said on Sunday.

Yasser al-Serri, director of the Islamic Observation Center, said his group issued an appeal to Bigley's kidnappers through mediators in Iraq and received a reply that the Briton was still alive.

The British engineer is being held by Tawhid and Jihad, a group led by al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. It beheaded two Americans seized along with the Briton when its demand to have female prisoners released from Iraqi jails was not met.

"We were told by the mediators today that the British hostage is still alive," Serri told Reuters by telephone.

"We had sent an appeal to the kidnappers for the hostage's release, and another Islamic group also sent an appeal, and the mediators said the appeals were being studied," he said.

The appeal, he said, urged the kidnappers to free Bigley for the sake of his family and as "a clear message to the British people to see their government's weakness and crime in not freeing prisoners held by coalition forces to spare their sons."

In July 2002, Serri won a legal battle in Britain against extradition to the United States, which accuses him of funding al Qaeda, the group blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

A British judge has cleared him of conspiracy in the 2001 murder of Afghan General Ahmad Shah Masood. Serri was sentenced to death in absentia by an Egyptian military tribunal in 1994 for trying to assassinate then Egyptian prime minister Atef Sedki.

[EggsAckley]

Reuters................hmmmmmmmmmmm.

[nuconvert]

??

[TexKat]

A copy of a letter handed out September 26, 2004 by the British embassy in Baghdad shows Yusuf Islam, the singer and song-writer formerly known as Cat Stevens, urging Islamic militants in Iraq to free British hostage Kenneth Bigley, seized 10 days ago and threatened with death. 'As a member of the Muslim Council I request you, in the name of Allah, the Rahman, to release the British citizen, Ken Bigley for the good name of our religion and according to the sayings of Allah in the glorious Qur'an,' Islam said in the letter. (Reuters - Handout)

[RtWngr]

Of course he's alive - he's not American. The demand for the release of female prisoners was an excuse to kill a couple more Americans and scare the hell out of the soccer moms.

[EggsAckley]

Wow!

Where or where is the MSM these days? Oh, yeah......chasing hurricanes.

[nmh]

The appeal, he said, urged the kidnappers to free Bigley for the sake of his family and as "a clear message to the British people to see their government's weakness and crime in not freeing prisoners held by coalition forces to spare their sons."

I hope they buy this ... but actually it shows Britain standing FIrm against terrorists.

Don't get me wrong I'd like to see the guy released but their request is NOT logical.

Pray for this man. He sounds like a good man. He must be going through hell.