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Militants Threaten to Behead Iraq Hostages
EFL
Insurgents threatened to behead a U.S. Marine and a Pakistani driver they had kidnapped unless the United States releases all Iraqis in "occupation jails," according to a videotape aired on Arab television. Turkey rejected demands by militants holding three Turkish hostages in a separate standoff. The family of Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun confirmed that he was the kidnapped American Marine who appeared in a videotape shown Sunday. The U.S. military said Hassoun, a Muslim of Middle Eastern origin, had been missing from his unit for nearly a week. The kidnappers claimed to have infiltrated a Marine outpost, lured Hassoun outside and abducted him.

Al-Jazeera said the militants demanded the release of all Iraqis "in occupation jails" or the hostage would be killed. They identified themselves as part of "Islamic Response," the security wing of the "National Islamic Resistance — 1920 Revolution Brigades." The name refers to the uprising against the British after World War I. The group, which has claimed responsibility for previous anti-American attacks, first surfaced in an Aug. 12 statement claiming the United States was hiding its casualty tolls in Iraq to help President Bush’s election chances. Hassoun’s family in the Salt Lake City suburb of West Jordan asked people to join them in prayers. "We accept destiny with its good and bad," Hassoun family friend and spokesman Tarek Nosseir said in a brief statement Sunday to reporters. "We pray and plead for his safe release."

Death threats against hostages as well as insurgent attacks on U.S. and Iraqi security forces accelerated ahead of Iraq’s return to self-rule on Monday. The transfer of sovereignty had been scheduled for Wednesday but the U.S.-led coalition speeded up the move by two days in an apparent bid to head off any attempts at sabotage. Earlier Sunday, the Pakistani driver was shown on a tape broadcast by a different Arab television station, Al-Arabiya. The hostage displayed an identification card issued by the U.S. firm Kellogg, Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Vice President Dick Cheney’s former company Halliburton.
He doesn't work there anymore, and he has nothing to do with the Bad Guys' atrocities, but somehow it was important to stick that in.
Four masked men holding assault rifles across their chests said they would behead the Pakistani within three days unless Americans freed prisoners held at Abu Ghraib and three cities of central Iraq — Balad, Dujail and Samarra. The gunmen said they captured the Pakistani near the U.S. base at Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad. They did not say whether they were affiliated with any group, The hostage, who gave his name as Amjad, urged Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to close the Pakistani Embassy in Iraq and to ban Pakistanis from coming to Iraq. "I’m also Muslim, but despite this they didn’t release me," he said, bowing his head. "They are going to cut the head of any person regardless of whether he is a Muslim or not."

In Istanbul, Turkish Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul rejected demands by al-Zarqawi’s group for Turkish companies to quit doing business with U.S. troops in Iraq to spare the lives of the three Turkish hostages. "Turkey will not bow to pressure from terrorists," Gonul told the private CNN-Turk and TV8 television stations. The demand was issued as Bush and other Western leaders gathered in Turkey for a NATO summit Monday. Turkey, the only Muslim nation in NATO, was put in a difficult position trying to balance alliance solidarity with national interests. The U.S. mission in Iraq is deeply unpopular in Turkey, and it was feared that any killing of Turkish hostages could intensify anger against the United States.
Posted by: tu3031 2004-06-28
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=36645