Posted on 10/11/2004 6:23:07 AM PDT by Calpernia
Kenneth Bigley's final TV plea
KAREN MCVEIGH
THE Iraqi militants who murdered Kenneth Bigley delivered a final affront to his memory yesterday, when they released a videotape of him appealing to the Prime Minister for help moments before he was decapitated.
Up to the very end, his kidnappers offered the 62-year-old civil engineer no compassion, forcing him to make a final statement to the camera before his brutal execution.
During the macabre five-minute tape, posted on an Islamic website last night, he is seen pleading that he wanted to "live a simple life" and asking Tony Blair to meet the kidnappers demand to free women prisoners being held in Iraq.
One of his captors vowed to "continue to slaughter the infidels" until women prisoners are freed.
Mr Bigley, who was working on an American base in Iraq, was taken from his Baghdad home on 16 September along with Americans Eugene Armstrong, 52, and Jack Hensley, 48. Both Americans were beheaded within days but Mr Bigley was held for three weeks, forced to become a mouthpiece for his kidnappers in a political game which brought world-wide revulsion and condemnation.
The tape of Mr Bigley’s killing comes after Iraq foreign minister Hoshiyar Zebari said it was "likely" that the Liverpudlian had briefly escaped.
According to Iraqi sources, he was free for up to 12 hours after being helped to evade his guards by one of the group holding him hostage.
However, he was recaptured after taking a wrong turn and killed by the fanatical Tawhid and Jihad organisation, the extremist group which has claimed responsibility for numerous suicide attacks and beheadings of Westerners, one rebel said.
The horror of Mr Bigley’s last moments will cause fresh anguish to his family already struggling to come to terms with the atrocity.
Prayers were said for them yesterday at church services in their home city of Liverpool and across the country, and floral tributes piled up outside his mother Lil’s home in Walton and at St Mary’s church only yards away.
Hundreds gathered at Liverpool’s Metropolitan Cathedral where the Right Rev Jonathan Jones offered sympathy to the family and urged people to "rise above the violent and barbaric killing".
The tape, sent to Abu Dhabi television last week, appeared on the internet two days after Mr Bigley’s family said it had proof that he was dead. His body has not been found. It showed Mr Bigley, dressed in an orange prison-style jumpsuit, seated in front of seven armed, hooded men. Behind them was a banner of the Tawhid and Jihad group.
Mr Bigley made a brief statement, saying: "I am not a difficult person. I am a simple man who wants to live a simple life." He then told Blair that "more than ever I need your help."
"Here I am again, Mr Blair," Mr Bigley added. "Very, very close to the end of my life, you do not appear to have done anything at all to help me." Mr Bigley said his captors patience was "wearing thin, and they are very very serious people."
In a calm voice, he continued: "I beg you ... British people, more then ever I need your help, more than ever I need your voices, to go out in the street and to demand a better life for the females and the women who are imprisoned in the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad."
One of the hooded men then accused the British government of lying when it said it did not know how to contact them. He finished by saying "because Britain is not serious in releasing our sisters, there is nothing further for this malicious Briton than the sword."
Without warning, the speaker drew a knife from his belt, and three of the others grabbed Mr Bigley. The men pushed him to the floor and cut off his head, which the killer then lifted up.
ping
Minutes later one of his captors declared "there is nothing further for this malicious Briton than the sword", and carried out the decapitation.
It was not clear last night whether the knife-wielding killer was the Jordanian born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whose Tawhid and Jihad group was holding Mr Bigley, and who had personally carried out murders of other hostages
I have not seen the video but have seen previous ones. I assume this photo is from the video. From this photo it appears they are using higher quality cameras now. I was afraid of that. The earlier ones were bad enough.
That picture isn't from the video tape, it's at a different angle... wonder where it came from?
Picture is from here: http://www.nzherald.co.nz
Maybe there is more than one video, taken from various angles.
It wouldn't be the first time to find a variation of a video released at other sources.
Looking at the source code on the image says it's from Reuters and they state it is a video grab from an undated video released on the Internet October 10. I'll keep my eye out and see if that angle matches any videos that get posted.
I'm just always suspicious that certain leftie reporters might have more details or contact info with terrorists than they admit to...
I'm just always suspicious that certain, leftie reporters [sources] might have more details or contact info with terrorists than they admit to...
Does it strike anyone as odd that the victims do not struggle or utter any curses to these monsters before they die. The miltary guys did not even put up a fight of any kind. Could they be drugged?
(snip)
Steve Kirsch, who made his fortune when he sold his Internet company, Infoseek is also joining in the anti-Bush donations. Also, Hollywood billionaire Stephen Bing donated $1 million to MoveOn.org.
(snip)
Steve Kirsch, who made his fortune when he sold his Internet company, Infoseek is also joining in the anti-Bush donations. Also, Hollywood billionaire Stephen Bing donated $1 million to MoveOn.org.
(snip)
Both of these men have given $2.5 Million a piece to the far-left organization MoveOn.org. MoveOn.org is so far left it opposed any U.S. military response after the terror attacks of 9/11, asking instead for a ``peaceful response to break the cycle of violence.'' It was founded by Wes Boyd and Joan Blades, (computer entrepreneurs who also created the flying toaster computer screen saver), during the Clinton impeachment debate as an online petition urging Congress to censure him and move on to other business. It has become more powerful than the Democratic party itself in the advertising world. MoveOn.org plans to spend $15 million on anti-Bush ads.
Both Soros and Lewis also gave $10 Million a piece to the newly formed Americans Coming Together. Bill and Hillary Clinton are maneuvering to replace the Democratic party with Americans Coming Together, according to former adviser Dick Morris in a New York Post column. Harold Ickes, President Clinton's former deputy chief of staff, is working closely with Soros to fund and run it as well. Morris believes the Clinton's move to circumvent the Democratic Party is to provide a "lifeboat" for the likelihood that, at that point, were Dean takes the prize, he will fire their close associate, Terry McAuliffe, and take control of the Democratic National Committee according to WorldNetDaily. Morris says, "No longer will it's[DNC's] treasury be available to the Clintons to use as their private fund, channeling donations to candidates and causes they favor or that favor them." Worried by the Dean campaign support before the elections started, he said, "they [the Clintons] are working on stripping the Democratic Party of its central role and giving it to the more pliant Americans Working Together, instead." The Democratic Party, limited to donations of $2,000 per person by the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance law, has been unable to raise enough hard money for a national campaign. That means it essentially is ceding its main role to Americans Coming Together, Morris said.
(snip)
There are no words to describe this evil.
Prayers for Mr. Bigley's family.
I believe they are using Al Jazeera cameras and cameramen. I heard there was a call into the Iraqi talk TV station from a man in one of the cities where these thugs have taken over. He was begging for help and he said they had cameramen and camera equipment from the satallite stations and were set up in many places around the town.
Except maybe KILL THEM ALL. When they behead an American (or any other) we should be killing them by the scores in retaliation.
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