Hostage Bigley murdered in Iraq

British hostage Kenneth Bigley has been murdered by his captors in Iraq, his family has confirmed.

A video released by militants showed Mr Bigley making a statement before being killed, according to witnesses.

"We can confirm that the family has now received absolute proof that Ken Bigley was executed by his captors," his brother Philip said.

Mr Bigley, 62, of Liverpool, was taken hostage on 16 September by the Tawhid and Jihad group.

It beheaded two Americans captured at the same time.

Philip Bigley said the family had experienced "three long weeks of waiting and three long weeks of agony".


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3727658.stm

very very sad, poor guy. Even the Libyan leader, Colonel Gaddafi, offered to negotiate.

I don't think the hostage-takers even tried to negotiate. It was just a tragic media-stunt to draw attention to their group.

I feel especially sorry for the family - they made a really emotional appeal today, which you can see on the source site. Paul's mother is in hospital, taken ill from the stress, and another of her sons had to tell her of Paul's death.

This is abominable. I am against the invasion, but doing this will not force the troops out. If they want the troops out, they should start campaiging for the elections in January and, if they get elected, tell all foreign troops to get out of Iraq. This is nothing but an exercise in media manipulation and fear.

this sucks

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I have something to hide.

My heart breaks for Bigley and his family, I still can't believe it. There were such high hopes for his release.

God Bless them all and may he rest in peace.

We have seen how many hostages publicly executed now?

This same group of people killed 2 Americans over the past week.

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The Science of Brute Force......

I would like to know what they think they accomplished. We knew it would happen. These sadists just prolonged the agony. I can't imagine the grief the family is bearing.

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"Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves." ~Ronald Reagan

Bigley's brother accused Tony Blair of capitulating (and the Iraqi puppet government) when they had first agreed to release two female prisoners (as demanded) until they were told by their US masters that this could not happen.

So much for the 'sovereignty' of Iraq.

And now, Bigley is dead - but 'we stood firm'!

All hail!
Heil!

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"A man's work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened."

That is exactly why you don't negotiate with terrorists. Giving them an audience and especially meeting their demands only validates their actions and promotes more hostage taking. By the way, the Internet is the most important resource for distributing this kind of propaganda by assuring any maniac with a hostage, message, and video camera has all the air-time they need.

These kidnappers are violent people who communicate through acts of brutality the only means of negotiation with them is by hunting them (and their supporters) down and killing them off.

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The Science of Brute Force......

True, all that you say, as long as you understand that sawing-off your countrymen's heads is (possibly) the only negotiating strategy that you then leave open to your adversary - once you accept this, and all this entails (for generations), you have soberly arrived at a strategy (though not a 'good' one, or one likely to achieve any stated aim). But it is a strategy, oddly coherent and unreasoned as it may be.

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"A man's work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened."

If a long term and systemic trend of hostage taking and execution (along with the larger problem of terrorism) is what you are facing then you have a problem which is much larger than the sum of the individual acts. It is a cultural problem.

So, how far would you go to stop it?

Here are your 2 choices (as far as I can tell):

1. - Cultural Change
2. - Genocide

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The Science of Brute Force......

bollocks.


hm. I suppose them taking a page from Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandela or Gandhi would be too hopelessly optimistic. These options (of peaceful civil unrest and protest) aren't open to them...why?

Do you really think our soldiers would shoot down unarmed men who'd chained themselves to the door of a mosque to make a point?

You're foolish if you think WE'VE PUSHED THEM to this outcome. THEY started there in the first place. Beheading is a normal punishment in societies with Shari'a law. THIS ISN'T SOMETHING THEY'RE DOING TO NEGOTIATE. It's how they live.

THERE ARE ALWAYS OTHER CHOICES THAN TERRORISM. Guerilla fighting, where one targets enemy soldiers, is less morally reprehensible than this.

THIS is how far the left has fallen. JUSTIFYING acts of barbaric atrocity and suggesting that they are a normal reaction.

I regret less, every day, leaving the Democratic party. Every time I encounter a leftist terrorist apologist, I realize, yet again, how far my party has gone from it's historic roots.

It's sickening, really, to hear Americans suggest such things.

What, did you fail History 101? Weren't you taught about Rosa Parks and the lunch counter boycotts? Didn't you read about Gandhi's tactics to win the liberation of India? Didn't you study Mandela's courageous willingness to be imprisoned in order to bring awareness to the plight of black South Africa?

These people are cowardly scum. They risk nothing. They do what they do ONLY to implement a form of government in that region that makes the U.S. invasion look saintly. Their own people know they would be terrorized and brutalized by these thugs, just like the women were in Afghanistan. They do this, not only to try and push our allies away from us, but also to send a message of fear and intimidation to their own people.

"Don't you dare to dream of freedom," their deeds say. "we will crush you under our fanaticism."

Catz

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I'll get nicer when you get smarter.