Lexis

From Yahoo - http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...e_mi_ea/iraq_8

I continue to be shocked at the barbarity of these people. Margaret Hassan has been in Iraq for 30 years, helping the people the best she can. She has devoted her life to helping Iraqi's and now these cruel, cruel people are using her as a weapon against the British government, just as they used Ken Bigley and the American hostages against the US government.

It seems strange that all this happenned as Black Watch are being moved from the South to support American forces.

Part of me wants to say "give them what they want" so that this brave woman can be saved. And yet, the other part of me knows that giving into their demands will just mean they know their tactics work, potentially encouraging them to step up their activities.

As much as I disagree with Tony Blair on Iraq, I do not envy him this horrific position

Ambular

That's just terrible...

I dread the day they start kidnapping children Sometimes I worry that that's next. They're trying to see how far we can be pushed.

mh67511

I know imagine if they started taking children....and especially after that tragedy in Russia! So horrible!

Lexis

Hopefully they've seen the reaction of the Russian government to what happenned in Beslan and realise that bringing children into these situations will just elicit a conviction among people to wipe them out.

It just makes me sick that even a woman who has devoted herself to doing good works for the people of Iraq, who opposed the war and is even married to an Iraqi is not safe. All these years there, under Saddam, and nothing happenned to her.

And then now, when the country is meant to be moving towards safety, she is kidnapped and threatened with such an awful death.

Ambular

Update on the story

This just gets worse.

I'm curious why it's graphic, if she was still alive and alone in the video?

Lexis

According to the report I heard on Sky News, the video showed her looking ill and traumatised. Also, at the end of the video, the hostage takers threw a bucker of water over her head.

On the same day as the tape was released, her three sisters made and emotional plea for her release. I swear, I just sat and cried. I can't believe what is happenning in Iraq.

And as for children - its already happenned. Criminal groups with no real 'terrorist' agenda have kidnapped several children, the most recent being a s 7 year old. I think his father paid a ransom but I'm not completely sure.

I'm Not Your Boy Toy

i knew about children bein kidnapped but were they ever harmed?

Ambular

Well they showed a photo of her, and though she obviously looked sickly and very distressed, it wasn't necessarily more graphic than the first video. But I'm sure there's more than maybe I don't want to see.

Ambular

I just read this

On Sunday, U.S. Marines found the disemboweled body of a Western woman wrapped in a blood-soaked blanket on a street in Fallujah. The woman could not be immediately identified, but the only Western women known to have been taken hostage are Briton Margaret Hassan, 59, director of CARE international in Iraq, and Teresa Borcz Khalifa, 54, a Polish-born longtime resident of Iraq.

Story


So sad

Lexis

I read it this morning on AOL (although for some stupid reason, the new Band Aid single was the freakin' HEADLINE!). Whoever she is, its an awful, awful tragedy. Both families must be going through absoloute hell.

Over the weekend the memorial service for Ken Bigley was held and Tony Blair had the balls to go to it when he hasn't been to a single military funeral. There was also the cermony to honour the British war dead on Sunday. I think this cartoon sums up my feelings on Mr Blair right now. Roll on the reign of Gordon Brown.

Lexis

The BBC, Channel 4 News and Al-Jazeera are covering the apparent death of Margaret Hassan.

The video released to Al-Jazeera showed a woman with her back to the camera being shot by a masked man.

Her family have issued a statement, saying their hearts her broken. Her husband has pleaded for her body to be returned to him.

Rest in Peace Margaret Hassan.

Ambular

That is so terrible. I just don't understand. She was there to HELP, she didn't even approve of the war! It's so absurd.

I feel so bad for her family She was gone for a few weeks, I can't imagine how lonely it is to spend the last weeks of your life completely and utterly by yourself

Ambular

SuperDeluxe

Terrorists dont care that she actually TRIED to help the local population.

They care nothing of life.

Ambular

I know, it's obvious that morality is totally foreign to them - but still, wouldn't at least decide to kill someone who is against you? It's almost stupid.