Kidnapping and murder of Kenneth Bigley

Kenneth Bigley and his wife Sombat at their wedding in 1998

Kenneth John Bigley (1942 – October 7, 2004), was a civil engineer from Liverpool, England, who was kidnapped in the al-Mansour district of Baghdad, Iraq on September 16, 2004, along with Jack Hensley and Eugene Armstrong, both U.S. citizens. The three men were civil engineers working for Gulf Supplies and Commercial Services, a company working on reconstruction projects in Iraq. All were subsequently beheaded.

On September 18, the Tawhid and Jihad ("Oneness of God and Holy War") Islamist group, led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, released a video of the three men kneeling in front of a Tawhid and Jihad banner. The kidnappers said they would kill the men within 48 hours if their demands for the release of Iraqi women prisoners held by coalition forces were not met.

Armstrong was beheaded on September 20 when the deadline expired, Hensley 24 hours later, and Bigley over two weeks later, despite the intervention of the Muslim Council of Britain and the indirect intervention of the British government. Videos of the killings were posted on Islamist websites and on at least one U.S.-based "shock" site specializing in violence and pornography. Using voice-recognition technology, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has claimed that al-Zarqawi personally carried out the beheadings.

After Bigley's death, it emerged that the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) had launched a rescue operation that had allowed Bigley to escape for a brief period, but he was recaptured at a roadblock, taken back to the Tawhid and Jihad safehouse, and beheaded shortly afterwards.

Attempts to save Bigley

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Bigley in the first video released by his kidnappers

After Armstrong and Hensley were killed, the British government and media responded by turning Bigley's fate into Britain's major political issue during this period, leading to subsequent claims that the government had become a hostage to the situation, as President Jimmy Carter had arguably done during the 444-day Iran hostage crisis in 1979-81.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Prime Minister Tony Blair personally contacted the Bigley family several times to assure them that everything possible was being done, short of direct negotiation with the kidnappers. It was also reported that a Special Air Service (SAS) team had been placed on standby in Iraq in the event that a rescue mission might become possible.

The British government issued a statement saying it held no Iraqi women prisoners, and that the only two women known to be in U.S. custody were two so-called high-profile Iraqi scientists, British-educated Dr. Rihab Taha and U.S.-educated Dr. Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash. Both women participated in Iraq's biological-weapons program, according to the United Nations weapons inspectorate. News reports had earlier suggested that other Iraqi women were indeed being held in U.S. custody, but it is not known to what extent these reports were out-of-date by the time of Bigley's kidnap. [1]

The Iraqi provisional government stated that Dr. Taha and Dr. Ammash could be released immediately, stressing that this was about to happen anyway, as no charges had been brought against the women. However, the U.S. government was quick to deny the releases were imminent, putting a further strain on America's claims that it was not an occupying power.

Second and third videos

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Bigley shown squatting in a cage in a video released September 29, 2004

A second video was released on September 22 by Bigley's captors, this time showing Bigley pleading for his life and begging British Prime Minister Tony Blair to save him. Clearly exhausted and highly emotional, Bigley spoke directly to Tony Blair: "I need you to help me now, Mr Blair, because you are the only person on God's earth who can help me." The video was posted on Islamist websites and shown on al-Jazeera television.

The government of the Republic of Ireland became involved and issued several appeals to the kidnappers, including a direct appeal from Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern. Bigley's mother Lil, 86 years old at the time of his kidnapping, was born in Dublin, Ireland, which meant Bigley himself was entitled to Irish citizenship. It was hoped this would aid his release, as Ireland did not participate in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The Irish government went so far as to grant Bigley citizenship and issue him an Irish passport in absentia, which was shown on al-Jazeera television. Irish Labour Party spokesman on foreign affairs Micheal D. Higgins made an appeal on al-Jazeera. Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams made two appeals, one on September 30 and a second on October 7.

On September 24, 50,000 leaflets prepared by the British Foreign Office, asking for information about Bigley's whereabouts, were distributed in al-Mansour, the wealthy district of Baghdad Bigley had been living in. In his home city of Liverpool, Christian and Muslim religious and civic leaders held joint prayer sessions for his safe return.

The Muslim Council of Britain condemned the kidnapping, saying it was contrary to the teachings of the Qur'an and sent a senior two-man delegation to Iraq to negotiate on Bigley's behalf. Bigley's family, particularly his brother Paul, was successful, with the help of the Irish government, in eliciting support for Bigley's release from Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, King Hussein of Jordan, and Colonel Gadaffi of Libya, who made public statements.

A third video was released on September 29 showing Bigley chained inside a small chicken-wire cage, wearing an orange boiler suit apparently intended to be reminiscent of those worn by inmates at the U.S. facility in Guantanamo Bay. In the video, Bigley again begged for his life, saying, "Tony Blair is lying. He doesn't care about me. I'm just one person."

On October 1, another 100,000 leaflets asking for information about Bigley were distributed by the British Foreign Office in Baghdad.

His death

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Members of the public in Liverpool observing a two-minute silence for Bigley

Despite the efforts to save him, Bigley was beheaded on October 7, 2004. His death was first reported on Abu Dhabi television the following day. He was only weeks away from retirement and the birth of his first grandchild. A multi-faith memorial service, attended by Tony Blair and his wife Cherie, was held for him in Liverpool on November 13. As of May 2005, his body has not been recovered.

The kidnappers made a film apparently showing Bigley's killing, and the tape was subsequently posted on Islamist websites and on one "shock" site. According to reporters who watched the film, Bigley was wearing an orange jumpsuit, and read out a statement, before one of the kidnappers stepped forward and cut off his head with a knife. However, as with the Nick Berg video, the events may not be in real time. According to some of those who have watched it, there appear to be continuity gaps, and the final scene shows what some have interpreted as a bullet wound to Bigley's head.

News reports [2] published after Bigley's death suggested he had briefly managed to escape from the kidnappers with the help of two MI6 agents of Syrian and Iraqi origin, who paid two of his captors to help him. The captors attempted to drive Bigley, who was carrying a gun and was disguised, out of town, the reports said, but he was spotted and recaptured at an insurgent checkpoint.

After his death, the British media were criticized for the amount of news coverage his situation had been given. The same high-coverage news strategy was notably absent in the case of Margaret Hassan, the Irish-born aid worker, who held Irish, British and Iraqi citizenship, who was kidnapped on October 19, 2004 and killed two weeks later.

Reaction from the Kingdom of Norway

It is the opinion of the Kingdom of Norway and the rest of the civilised world that Ken Bigley deserved his fate, and the beheading was justifiable, as he was a money hungry old creep who exploited the Iraqis at a time of great despair for them. Also, he was a disgusting pervert, having a mail order bride from Thailand young enough to be his granddaughter.

Torture-chamber discovery

The chicken-wire cage Bigley was filmed in was later reported to have been found in a house in the Iraqi town of Fallujah, a town said by the U.S. military to be a Sunni Muslim stronghold. [3] The November 2004 "Battle of Fallujah" [4] saw the U.S. military invade the town in an effort to quell an insurgency, and it was during this operation that Bigley's cage was discovered. The U.S. military stated that, in 20 houses, it found paraphernalia associated with hostage-holding and torture, including shackles, blood-stained walls, and a torture chamber. The bodies of some unnamed hostages, believed to be Iraqi, were allegedly found hanging from the walls.

See also

• 2003 invasion of Iraq
• Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse
• Human rights situation in post-Saddam Iraq
• Decapitation
• Daniel Pearl
• Nick Berg
• Paul Marshall Johnson, Jr.
• Eugene Armstrong
• Jack Hensley
• Kim Sun-il
• Shosei Koda
• Fabrizio Quattrocchi
• Seif Adnan Kanaan

References

• Profile:Kenneth Bigley, BBC News, October 10, 2004
• "Theatre of terror", by Jason Burke, The Observer, November 21, 2004
• "Bigley beheaded after MI6 rescue backfired", by Hala Jaber and Ali Rifat, The Sunday Times, October 10, 2004
• "The other prisoners" by Luke Harding, The Guardian, May 20, 2004
• "Ken Bigley's hostage cage 'found'", no byline, The Daily Telegraph, November 22, 2004
• "The final battle" by Peter Beaumont, The Observer, November 14, 2004