Posted on 11/16/2004 11:50:49 AM PST by areafiftyone
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Kidnapped aid worker Margaret Hassan was believed to be dead Tuesday after a video received by Al-Jazeera television showed a hooded figure shooting a blindfolded woman in the head.
The British government and Hassan's family in London said they believed the longtime director of CARE in Iraq was the victim. CARE said it was in mourning for the 59-year-old Briton who worked for decades providing food, medicine and humanitarian aid to Iraqis.
The video shows a militant firing a pistol into the head of a blindfolded woman wearing an orange jumpsuit, Al-Jazeera spokesman Jihad Ballout said. "She was presumed to be Mrs. Hassan," he told The Associated Press.
The station initially said it would air parts of the video, but Ballout then said it would not.
Hassan was abducted in Baghdad on Oct. 19, the most prominent of more than 170 foreigners kidnapped in Iraq this year. Her captors later issued videos showing her pleading for Britain to withdraw its troops from Iraq and calling for the release of female Iraqi prisoners.
Ballout said the station received the tape a few days ago but had not been sure of its authenticity.
"We invited British diplomatic officials to come and view it ... with the aim of helping us ascertain whether it was Mrs. Hassan or not," he said. "It's now likely that the image depicts Mrs. Hassan."
In London, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said that based on the experts' examination of the video, "we have today had to inform Margaret Hassan's family that, sadly, we now believe that she has probably been murdered, although we cannot conclude this with complete certainty."
In an emotional plea on Al-Jazeera, Hassan's husband said he had heard of the video but did not know whether it was authentic. He asked the kidnappers to return his wife to him.
"I appeal to those who took my wife (to tell me) what they did with her," Tahsin Ali Hassan said, his voice choked with tears. "They can contact me or the Iraqi Peace Organization. I want my wife, dead or alive. If she is dead, please let me know of her whereabouts so I can bury her in peace."
Her four brothers and sisters said they believe Hassan is dead.
"Our hearts are broken," they said in a statement released by the British Foreign Office. "We have kept hoping for as long as we could, but we now have to accept that Margaret has probably gone and at last her suffering has ended."
The family did not indicate why they now believed Hassan was dead, but said: "Those who are guilty of this atrocious act, and those who support them, have no excuses."
"It is with profound sadness that we have learned of the existence of a video in which it appears that our colleague Margaret Hassan has been killed," CARE said in a statement. "The whole of CARE is in mourning."
On Sunday, U.S. Marines found the mutilated body of what they believe was a Western woman on a street in a Fallujah during the U.S. assault on the insurgent stronghold. The body's identity, if known, has not been made public. Besides Hassan, the only Western woman known held was Teresa Borcz Khalifa, 54, a Polish-born longtime resident of Iraq who was seized last month.
Al-Jazeera reported on Nov. 2 that Hassan's captors had threatened to turn her over to followers of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Al-Zarqawi and his men have been blamed for numerous deadly car bombings and the slayings of foreign hostages, including three Americans and a Briton. More than 170 foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq this year; more than 30 of them have been slain.
Born in Ireland, Hassan also held British and Iraqi citizenship. She lived in Iraq for 30 years and married an Iraqi. She became well known among aid agencies for her work, helping distribute food and medicine to Iraqis during the more than a decade that Iraq was under U.N. sanctions.
Britain's Straw expressed his sympathy to Hassan's family and condemned the killing.
"To kidnap and kill anyone is inexcusable. But it is repugnant to commit such a crime against a woman who has spent most of her life working for the good of the people of Iraq," Straw said in a statement.
In its statement, her family said: "Nobody can justify this. Margaret was against sanctions and the war. To commit such a crime against anyone is unforgivable. But we cannot believe how anybody could do this to our kind, compassionate sister.
"The gap she leaves will never be filled."
Cowards
Do you have a link to the tape? I went to the A-J site and could not find it ... and we sure won't see it in the MSM.
Get a clue, world. You can't appease these folks. They aren't just reasonable folks who happen to disagree.
You mean to say NBC won't be playing this 50 times a day?
If you can find the hoods (as we did in Fallujah), we should be able to get DNA off them. I'm not big on the idea of giving these guys "due process," but I would like to make sure we find them and give them what they deserve.
It's all the Americans fault!!! I would like to hear what the Iraqis who spoke out against the Marine shooting the guy in the mosque have to say about this.
This mentality is scary.
Chris Mathews spoke for much of blue America when he said that these terrorists "aren't really bad people."
I was for sanctions and support the war. Would a bullet to the brain be justified? If reports are accurate, the mutilated woman found in the street was blond, while Hassan was a brunette. The woman may well be the Pole.
And Al Jazzera will not show this to their viewers because it would erase the "sympathy" in which the "insurgents" are recieving.
Jeeezzz... why do you want to see it?
"...Al-Jazeera spokesman Jihad Ballout said. "She was presumed to be Mrs. Hassan," he told The Associated Press."
JIHAD BALLOUT?? This is the AH's name? (rolling eyes)..
Appeasers are always the first ones to get mowed down by those they're trying to appease.
There is one website that has all the beheading videos that I've heard of. But I don't think the MSM will have it anywhere.
Of course her death will be blamed on the actions of the Marine and the MSM will focus on that angle.
Ballout said the station received the tape a few days ago...
So the "insurgents" (read: terrorists) had time to dispose the body.
In its statement, her family said: "Nobody can justify this. Margaret was against sanctions and the war
It is not about sanctions and the war. This act should make it clear to everyone. This is genocide, these people want to exterminate us.
Ok, I'm waiting. Waiting to see which story will get the most airing by the MSM....
*The American Marine shooting a combatant in the heat of war, or
*The cruel execution of a kind lady who was heading an Iraqi charity.
A 'mentality' presumes an intellect of some sort. These people traded their intellects and their souls to the devil about 1,400 years ago, and the 'prophet' mohammed was their broker. What remains are medieval barbarians without souls or brains, beyond that there is no explanation for these kinds of deeds.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.