Posted on 05/07/2006 6:29:17 AM PDT by MadIvan
EVEN by the stupefying standards of Iraq’s unspeakable violence, the murder of Atwar Bahjat, one of the country’s top television journalists, was an act of exceptional cruelty.
Nobody but her killers knew just how much she had suffered until a film showing her death on February 22 at the hands of two musclebound men in military uniforms emerged last week. Her family’s worst fears of what might have happened have been far exceeded by the reality.
Bahjat was abducted after making three live broadcasts from the edge of her native city of Samarra on the day its golden-domed Shi’ite mosque was blown up, allegedly by Sunni terrorists.
Roadblocks prevented her from entering the city and her anxiety was obvious to everyone who saw her final report. Night was falling and tensions were high.
Two men drove up in a pick-up truck, asking for her. She appealed to a small crowd that had gathered around her crew but nobody was willing to help her. It was reported at the time that she had been shot dead with her cameraman and sound man.
We now know that it was not that swift for Bahjat. First she was stripped to the waist, a humiliation for any woman but particularly so for a pious Muslim who concealed her hair, arms and legs from men other than her father and brother.
Then her arms were bound behind her back. A golden locket in the shape of Iraq that became her glittering trademark in front of the television cameras must have been removed at some point — it is nowhere to be seen in the grainy film, which was made by someone who pointed a mobile phone at her as she lay on a patch of earth in mortal terror.
By the time filming begins, the condemned woman has been blindfolded with a white bandage.
It is stained with blood that trickles from a wound on the left side of her head. She is moaning, although whether from the pain of what has already been done to her or from the fear of what is about to be inflicted is unclear.
Just as Bahjat bore witness to countless atrocities that she covered for her television station, Al-Arabiya, during Iraq’s descent into sectarian conflict, so the recording of her execution embodies the depths of the country’s depravity after three years of war.
A large man dressed in military fatigues, boots and cap approaches from behind and covers her mouth with his left hand. In his right hand, he clutches a large knife with a black handle and an 8in blade. He proceeds to cut her throat from the middle, slicing from side to side.
Her cries — “Ah, ah, ah” — can be heard above the “Allahu akbar” (God is greatest) intoned by the holder of the mobile phone.
Even then, there is no quick release for Bahjat. Her executioner suddenly stands up, his job only half done. A second man in a dark T-shirt and camouflage trousers places his right khaki boot on her abdomen and pushes down hard eight times, forcing a rush of blood from her wounds as she moves her head from right to left.
Only now does the executioner return to finish the task. He hacks off her head and drops it to the ground, then picks it up again and perches it on her bare chest so that it faces the film-maker in a grotesque parody of one of her pieces to camera.
The voice of one of the Arab world’s most highly regarded and outspoken journalists has been silenced. She was 30.
As a friend of Bahjat who had worked with her on a variety of tough assignments, I found it hard enough to bear the news of her murder. When I saw it replayed, it was as if part of me had died with her. How much more gruelling it must have been for a close family friend who watched the film this weekend and cried when he heard her voice.
The friend, who cannot be identified, knew nothing of her beheading but had been guarding other horrifying details of Bahjat’s ordeal. She had nine drill holes in her right arm and 10 in her left, he said. The drill had also been applied to her legs, her navel and her right eye. One can only hope that these mutilations were made after her death.
There is a wider significance to the appalling footage and the accompanying details. The film appears to show for the first time an Iraqi death squad in action.
The death squads have proliferated in recent months, spreading terror on both sides of the sectarian divide. The clothes worn by Bahjat’s killers are bound to be scrutinised for clues to their identity.
Bahjat, with her professionalism and impartiality as a half-Shi’ite, half-Sunni, would have been the first to warn against any hasty conclusions, however. The uniforms seem to be those of the Iraqi National Guard but that does not mean she was murdered by guardsmen. The fatigues could have been stolen for disguise.
A source linked to the Sunni insurgency who supplied the film to The Sunday Times in London claimed it had come from a mobile phone found on the body of a Shi’ite Badr Brigade member killed during fighting in Baghdad.
But there is no evidence the Iranian-backed Badr militia was responsible. Indeed, there are conflicting indications. The drill is said to be a popular tool of torture with the Badr Brigade. But beheading is a hallmark of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, led by the Sunni Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
According to a report that was circulating after Bahjat’s murder, she had enraged the Shi’ite militias during her coverage of the bombing of the Samarra shrine by filming the interior minister, Bayan Jabr, ordering police to release two Iranians they had arrested.
There is no confirmation of this and the Badr Brigade, with which she maintained good relations, protected her family after her funeral came under attack in Baghdad from a bomber and then from a gunman. Three people died that day.
Bahjat’s reporting of terrorist attacks and denunciations of violence to a wide audience across the Middle East made her plenty of enemies among both Shi’ite and Sunni gunmen. Death threats from Sunnis drove her away to Qatar for a spell but she believed her place was in Iraq and she returned to frontline reporting despite the risks.
We may never know who killed Bahjat or why. But the manner of her death testifies to the breakdown of law, order and justice that she so bravely highlighted and illustrates the importance of a cause she espoused with passion.
Bahjat advocated the unity of Iraq and saw her golden locket as a symbol of her belief. She put it with her customary on-air eloquence on the last day of her life: “Whether you are a Sunni, a Shi’ite or a Kurd, there is no difference between Iraqis united in fear for this nation.”
Yes, may she have known Jesus as her savior. And may her torturers know a slow and painful death on their way to hell.
Uh...she was a muslim herself. She could care less about Jesus.
But by the invocations, I'm sure it soothes both of your minds.
god, when i read what they did to her i teared up.
I cannot stand such cruelty and feel that people who undertake such things must be a different species of human from me
To liberals, America could demonstrate greatness by turning away and ignoring this. after all this woman was not killed by a weapon of mass destruction.
wasnt that orwell who said that?
I know what you mean. These stories make me physically ill. Forget all the other "stuff", the fact that people like these exist in Iraq is reason enough. Kill them there and now to keep them from coming to the US again.
The only way these animals get attention is through brutality. History is repeating itself once again. People like Michael 'tubby' Moore who defend these animals should by charged with treason.
BUMP
as an ex-Al Jazeera "journalist" she had plenty of American blood on her hands. need to be careful who you associate with.
One has to wonder about Islam when the terrorists shout out, "In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful", when they're about to crash a plane full of innocent women and children into a building and thus send them all to a fiery death.
Regards, Ivan
I cannot imagine Specter opening the doors for the democrats to impeach Bush for wiretapping these blood-thirsty creeps so that they are not here in this country doing the same thing to the children in our schools!
Maybe then Journalist mouthpieces for Al Qeda you might rethink your pro Terrorist propagandizing. THESE animals are the one you are currently working for. Wake up before you get MORE innocents killed.
I saw this article on the Times site, thanks for posting this. I have sent it to the few libs I know/speak to.
Well said. My sentiments exactly.
You're not. The killing is just the background in a propaganda piece.
"Michael moore doesn't care..."
And i don't care about Michael Moore. His 15 minutes are up, he's not the wunderkind of the liberal jet set anymore, what's her name in the ditch stole that away.
Personally, I think Moore is living a life of anguish and pain anyway, looking at his actions and his weight. It all screams towards a severly unhappy and poisoned mind, and there's no doubt the only happiness he finds is in food and the pain of others, his callousness is a deflection away from his pain, or a selfish 'If *I* hurt, then everyone else will!" mentality. No doubt he'd blame it on his parents or society, just like every other weak-minded liberal fop out there. Funny how they try to control society, yet they can't even control the mechanism of fork-to-mouth.
I personally think every day on this earth is suffering for him, and I have little sorrow or pity for someone like Moore who wallows in his pain and weakness.
If he chooses the hard path towards healing, he'll drop the weight and the anger...but I doubt he will. His weight shows he's lazy and weak, his slovenly appearance shows he's lacking self-esteem, and his "work" is lazy, contrived, poorly researched and presented, and summed up is a temper tantrum against those that refuse to tow HIS line of thinking.
Let him wallow. Refute his lies and tantrums when he throws them, and try not to let a slug like him matter. The only power he has his the power we let him have. If you get angry, he's won. If you laugh at him for being the frustrated little boy in the obese adult body that he is, you win.
This is the thread...
Words can not express my feelings. The things (I can not say “animals” because few animals are intentionally cruel) that did this have a special place in hell awaiting them. I can only hope these groups turn on each other with the same cruelty and leave the rest of the people alone.
Hello Ivan. I think fatso Moore should be made to watch the film. In fact I think all of America's main stream tv stations should show the American people what we are fighting. This film would show man's inhumanity to man. We are the cruelest of the animal kingdom when we act like these inhuman beings. The film would make any normal person sick to watch, but it would wake a lot of people up to the fact that there are people out there who love to do this sort of thing to other humans.
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.