British hostage Kenneth Bigley beheaded

[Mr2005]

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Washington's closest ally in Iraq was horrified by the beheading of a British hostage there and Prime Minister Tony Blair urged Britons not to let it undermine their support for continued involvement in the country.

Blair's government, which for three weeks refused to bargain with Kenneth Bigley's kidnappers even after they killed his two American colleagues, revealed that it had opened secret contacts with them in the days before his death on Thursday.

But on Friday a Reuters journalist saw a video in Baghdad in which the 62-year-old construction engineer made a final despairing plea for his life before militants suspected of fostering ties to al Qaeda severed his head with a knife.

British and Iraqi officials denied that Bigley died after a failed attempt to rescue him somewhere in rebel-held Sunni Muslim territory west or south of Baghdad but declined comment on a report from a Western security source that he was killed after making an attempt to escape with help from an insider.

"I feel a strong sense, as I hope others do, that the actions of these people whether in Iraq or elsewhere should not prevail over people like Kenneth Bigley, who after all, only wanted to make Iraq and the world a better place," Blair said.

The video scene was familiar from tapes of the deaths of Americans Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley, seized with Bigley from their Baghdad home on Sept. 16, and of other killings by a group led by Jordanian Islamist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Abu Dhabi television said it had the tape but would not broadcast it, refusing to serve as a "mouthpiece" for one of many groups that have severely restricted movement by foreigners in Iraq and hampered U.S.-led efforts to rebuild infrastructure.

Reuters Iraqi cameraman Maher Nazih, who saw the video but has only a limited command of English, said Bigley, unshaven and clad in an orange, prison-style jumpsuit, had spoken before he died. He said something along the lines of: "I need help. I need my government's help. I am a simple man. I want to live."

PRESSURE ON BLAIR

Iraq's Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi told Reuters he believed Zarqawi had intended to kill all his hostages from the start and was never serious in its demand that the United States free female prisoners in Iraq. Washington says it holds only two women, both weapons scientists under Saddam Hussein.

"This is a horrible, barbaric act," said Allawi, who is relying on U.S. and British military support to stabilize the country sufficiently to hold elections in January.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=SI1UGZXBT4HZQCRBAEKSFEY?type=topNews&storyID=6457145

[rumguy]

1. horrible, tragic, and maddening

we humans have a truly barbaric streak in us...

it's scary...

[Moderator]

2. Duplicate.. pelase continue here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=891627