IRAQ: Part of me died when I saw this cruel killing

The Sunday Times ^ | May 7, 2006 | HALA JABER

[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.”

[Modok]

Hala Jabar must have gotten tired of her previous propaganda pieces about American troops on murderous rampages and being an apologist for hezbollah.

[tillacum]

Most people act as these unwilling Iraqis did. If most people think they'll be hurt or killed helping another, even a crowd, they will step back.

[Shery]

When you realize what they do to their own, it makes you pretty certain that they would not give any special consideration to one they considered an infidel.

[Lee'sGhost]

I first read this when there were only about nine or ten postings. No one had expressed the sentiments you did in your post, but your comments reflect the same observations I had. I kept getting the feeling that this was a veiled put down of the war effort and America. I still feel that way.

[Dems_R_Losers]

What a cowardly thing to do this to a woman.

That is what these poeple are, cowards. Afraid to show their faces, afraid to show the badges of their organization that sponsors such filth, and afraid of the TRUTH that this woman was sharing with the world.

COWARDS!!!!

[PghBaldy]

Good point about the article implying everything bad in Iraq only comes from the US. I am disgusted by what these animals did to this poor woman. I don't know what else to say...

[Myrddin]

The article describes the standard method of "partial beheading" as prescribed in Sharia law. It is designed to be exceptionally cruel and painful. The prescribed method for stoning is no less hideous. Islam is a murderous death cult. Platitudes about being a peaceful religion are offered to distract you until it is your time to face the knife.

[anglian]

Her team was surrounded by a crowd of civilians, but, according to the surviving crew member, two armed men fired shots in the air, dispersing the crowd. One of the armed men shouted, "We want the anchorwoman." Bahjat cried for help from the crowd but to no avail. Members of her news crew tried to dissuade the gunmen but they were captured and two of them were also killed. On Saturday, February 25, her funeral procession was attacked twice, first by gunmen who opened fire on mourners and later by a roadside bomb that targeted the funeral cortege as it returned from the cemetery. At least three security personnel were killed in the attacks on her funeral and four people were injured. On March 18, 2006, Iraq's Defence Minister Saadun al-Dulaimi announced the arrest of six men suspected of involvement in Atwar Bahjat's murder her two-person crew from Dubai. "The six terrorists who killed the Iraqi television crew will be put on public display today or tomorrow," Dulaimi declared on March 18th 2006 itself. They were arrested in the course of Operation Swarmer, a major operation involving both Iraqi forces and a brigade of the 101st Airborne division and north of Samarra, which was kicked off on March 16th 2006. [edit] External links Shock over Iraqi reporter's death (BBC) Arab TV journalists killed in Iraq (CNN) Gunmen fire on funeral of Al-Arabiya newswoman (Ireland On-Line) Press freedom groups condemn murders of Bahjat and her camera crew - IFEX AP account of alleged murderer's arrest during joint Iraqi-US military operations Part of me died when I saw this cruel killing (Times Online) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atwar_Bahjat

[JohnBovenmyer]

He might manage to lose the sign. Tattoo it on him in Arabic.

[anglian]

The three members of the team were removed Wednesday in the north of Samarra, by armed men, and their found bodies Thursday.
In addition to Atwar Bahjat (30 years), the two other victims are the cameraman Khaled Mahmoud Al-Falahi (39 years), and the taker of its Adnane Khaïrallah (36 years).

[bray]

The Murderous Moosehamed would be proud. One sick cult built by Satan.

Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters

[JohnBovenmyer]

There are links to a video of this on-line. I've not linked to it and, I suspect like most of those here, I have no wish to see it. However, like the Twin Towers footage it needs to be seen to remind those who don't seem to understand what we're fighting. Here is an observant Muslim woman, a reporter who worked for two Arab networks not known for their pro-infidel coverage. By the MSM template she should have been a heroine to the "insurgents." I hope Tony Snow makes the White House Press Corps watch all of it his first day on the job!!! In spite of all the media aid and comfort given to those "insurgents" can anyone doubt they'd have done the same, at least, to anyone in that room if they had the chance.

Tony starting by showing this would certainly signal a change in the administration's approach. It clearly illustrates what we are fighting is not only evil but even believes that spreading such images helps their evil cause. It would almost certainly result in at least one of two good consequences. It may be a blunt enough image to change even some of the iron clad lib skulls in that room. The response of those who refuse to change is very predictable. They will irately complain about Snow inflicting such on them. Their selfish whining will carry the story to ears that otherwise would never have heard it, the masses of apathetic Americans who had mindlessly been accepting the MSM message. Judging by what Hollywood and TV push as entertainment, not to mention the wall to wall media coverage of gruesome crime stories, the American public can handle viewing these images. History shows we won't respond the way the butchers... and the MSM expect.

[mtntop3]

Atwar Bahjat's love, courage and sacrifice transcends forever the horrible manner in which she perished. Our thoughts are turned to Christ the Redeemer.

May many people learn of her sacrifice, wherein she joined millions of other Iraqis who have similarly died in this defining struggle against evil.

May they forever live young in our hearts. May we give them life through our own actions.

[StarCMC]

Ugh. Thanks for the ping - I think. What swine.

[USMCPOP]

Why do I get the feeling that only their women have the courage, wisdom and strength to save them in the long run? If it weren't for the complete lack of compassion in the Islamic culture, they'd have prevailed long ago. The women should rule these animals, not the other way around. We must find a way to support and protect them.

[Edit35]

If it is possible to isolate those immediately accountable for the murders..

Whenever I read horrendous terror like this, I am further convinced we should authorize the use of neutron bombs in the Sunni triangle in Iraq.

Neutron bombs are the ones which destroy all life, yet leave the buildings intact and not destroyed (if memory serves me correct).

[U S Army EOD]

Years ago, in order to win the hearts and minds of the people, the VC were just as bad when they terrorised a village. But as yesteryear, Amercian liberals still support these people.

[wildbill]

I'm beginning to believe that there is no redeeming feature of the Islamic religion if any faction or sect can countenance this this type of brutal and animalistic treatment of a fellow religionist.

This ISN'T the 6th century AD. or the 10th. or the 14th.

[Denver Ditdat]

The most horrifying thing about this is the knowledge that there are over one billion Muslims in the world who, if they read this account, will shout "Allahu akbar."

I'm about ready to shout "Deus Vult!" myself. Eff these medieval barstids.

[gotribe]

If you think islam is a religion, as most people do, then yes you are right - you'll be frustrated hoping for a muslim democracy and wondering why there can't be a separation of church and state in the western mode. If however you believe islam is nothing but an imperialistic political movement (which is what I believe), then it comes no surprise at all that there are no democratic muslim nations, or that it is not a "religion" of "peace".