Posted on 10/09/2004 5:37:38 PM PDT by saquin
DISGUISED in an Arab robe and headdress, the British hostage Ken Bigley escaped from his captors in Iraq by car the day before they beheaded him, it was claimed last night.
A Saudi described as a spokesman for the group that kidnapped Bigley said two of his captors had accepted a large sum of money to help him flee after three weeks of captivity. The money was provided by a Syrian and an Iraqi who had penetrated the group on behalf of British intelligence, the spokesman claimed.
Bigley was bundled into the car last Wednesday and driven towards the safety of an area under the control of American forces near Latifiya, southwest of Baghdad, he said.
But after only five minutes the vehicle was halted by other members of the Tawhid and Jihad terrorist group.
The terrorists, who were patrolling the road in two separate cars, were from a different cell but recognised Bigley’s face and detained him, along with his companions.
They took the 62-year-old Liverpool engineer back to the house where he had been held, and he was beheaded on Thursday. His two helpers were also executed, the spokesman said.
The claim of an MI6 rescue attempt that backfired came from a man described by resistance fighters in Latifiya as the only person who could speak for the Tawhid and Jihad group. They gave his name as Abu Ahmad al-Saudi and his temporary address as a house in the village of Jars al-Sakher.
Speaking at the house, al-Saudi said Bigley had been generally well treated before he tried to get away, and had been given plenty to eat and drink. The Foreign Office refused to comment and Downing Street said it did not know if the claims of an escape were true.
An American official described them as credible and an Iraqi government source was quoted as saying that witnesses had reported seeing Bigley recaptured.
An Iraqi resistance commander with connections to Tawhid and Jihad later supported al-Saudi’s account. He said that when the group realised it had been compromised, it killed Bigley in the belief that its bolthole was about to be stormed.
According to an Iraqi cameraman who saw a video of Bigley’s last minutes, he was dressed in an orange jumpsuit and allowed to make a final plea for his life, saying: “I am a simple man. I don’t want to die.”
The cameraman said Bigley had reiterated that he needed his government’s help, adding: “Tony Blair has not done enough for me.”
A statement was read in Arabic by one of the captors, who complained of the British government’s failure to secure the release of Iraqi women prisoners held in American custody as the kidnappers had demanded. A man standing behind Bigley then beheaded him with a knife.
The video was delivered to the Baghdad offices of Abu Dhabi television but was not broadcast and the cameraman’s account could not be verified.
The resistance commander said Tawhid and Jihad was concerned about US and Iraqi government forces in the area and did not want to risk what would have been a coup for the coalition if Bigley had been rescued.
Iraqi government officials dismissed the claim as an excuse for carrying out a murder that many had seen as inevitable ever since Bigley and two American companions were seized from their villa on September 16 by followers of the Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Bigley’s brothers, who had mounted an international campaign for his release after the Americans were beheaded, were comforting his 86-year-old mother Lil yesterday at home in Liverpool, which declared a day of mourning. A two-minute silence was observed across the city in churches, cathedrals, shops and homes.
In Bangkok, Bigley’s Thai widow Sombat, 42, read out a statement at the British embassy asking to be left in peace to grieve for her husband.
“No words can express the agony I feel for the loss of my husband Ken,” she said. “He was a good man and a loving, caring husband.”
Terry Waite, the former Beirut hostage who visited the Bigley family in Liverpool during the ordeal, said he felt an “immense sadness”. A further minute’s silence was observed before the start of yesterday’s World Cup qualifier between England and Wales at Old Trafford.
It emerged yesterday that the Foreign Office had earlier called on Scotland Yard’s expertise as efforts intensified to save Bigley. Peter Clarke, the deputy assistant commissioner and head of the anti-terrorist branch SO13, sent two experienced negotiators to Baghdad.
It is likely that they helped to draft a series of messages relayed to the hostage takers by an intermediary said to have offered to help last Monday.
MI6 and GCHQ, the government eavesdropping centre at Cheltenham, had been closely involved in attempts to locate Bigley. An SAS unit had also been put on standby to move in.
“When the prime minister said everything possible was being done to secure Bigley’s release, he meant that . . . every possible resource was mobilised,” a senior diplomat said.
Blair is expected to face questions from Labour backbenchers tomorrow about whether the government did all it could to save Bigley. In Iraq, British officials were making efforts to recover his body.
Al-Zarqawi — who is linked with Osama Bin Laden, the Al-Qaeda leader — has been under pressure to change his group’s tactics after protests at the number of local people killed by suicide bombings directed at coalition and government forces.
The commander claimed that Bin Laden had sent a message to al-Zarqawi, warning him not to risk exacerbating the divide between his largely foreign fighters and an increasingly resentful Iraqi resistance.
Additional reporting: Stephen Grey, Baghdad, David Leppard, David Cracknell and Maurice Chittenden
They should all be tried for TREASON.
I know it's hindsight, but Bigley's rescuers should have let all hell break loose when they were stopped.
This story should only reinforce our will to "stay the course" until these subhumans are no longer a threat to civilization.
It seems at this point you'd obviously be best of by going down shooting.
these maggots are worse than subhuman
pong
I may be missing the point here, but aren't the SAS and CAG (formerly known as Delta Force) supposed to be handling these hostage rescue type of missions?
It kinda reminds me of the fake escape of Dustin Hoffman in MARATHON MAN.
I think you're right.
To my mind the term "resistance" denotes a semi-heroic role, these fiends are COWARDS, plain and simple. To give them any positive connotation is disgraceful!
They Learn from EVERY "Incident!!"
'Tho Mr Bigley Died, Our "Good Guys" Extracted Enough Information from that Unfortunate Incident to Prevent Another Such Event!
The NEXT such event will, Likely, be FAR LESS SATISFYING to the "Psychopaths" attempting such an "Action!"
The "West" is "Thoroughly Fed Up" with the Behavior of the "Islamic Fascists!!"
UNLESS the "ALLEGED" "Moderate Voices of Islam" GET CONTROL OF the PSYCHOPATHS who are "Operating In Their Name,"--Those of Us "In the West" CANNOT PREVENT our Most Fearful Representatives from ASSUMING THAT "Radical Islam" is "Out of Control!!"
What I'm TRYING to MAKE the "Muslims" Understand, is that NO ONE--in the "West"-- will "Shed a Tear" over the THERMONUCLEAR ANNIHILATION of MECCA, MEDINA, & Qom, etc.
Mr Bigley's Murder has REMOVED the LAST VESTIGE of "Humanity" Left to the "IslamoFascists" in Iraq.
Since the "Religion" has been Unable to Defend it's Behavior, It has EARNED It's FATE!!
Bigley was bundled into the car last Wednesday and driven towards the safety of an area under the control of American forces near Latifiya, southwest of Baghdad, he said.
But after only five minutes the vehicle was halted by other members of the Tawhid and Jihad terrorist group.
The terrorists, who were patrolling the road in two separate cars, were from a different cell but recognised Bigley’s face and detained him, along with his companions.
They took the 62-year-old Liverpool engineer back to the house where he had been held, and he was beheaded on Thursday. His two helpers were also executed, the spokesman said.
Did the rescue attempt pass the global test?
What puzzles me is WHY didn't the care with the captors SPEED OFF? IF caught they were surely going to be executed and they must have known that. Heck, I'd rather get shot at then beheaded. Also there is alot of detail here ... I wonder if this is true. I do believe Mr. Bigley is dead but after thinking about this it doesn't add up.
Yep
Well, that makes it all ok I suppose; really humane treatment before they hacked his head off.
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