Kidnapping and murder of Kenneth Bigley: Difference between revisions
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FUCK KEN BIGLEY, HIS HEAD IS ROTTING IN HELL |
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[[Image:Bigleyandwife.jpg|right|frame|Kenneth Bigley and his wife Sombat at their wedding in 1998.]] |
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'''Kenneth John Bigley''' ([[April 22]], [[1942]] - [[October 7]], [[2004]]). [[Liverpool]], [[England]], who was kidnapped in the [[Mansour district|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 [[Decapitation|beheaded]]. |
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On September 18, the [[Jama'at al-Tawhid wal Jihad|Tawhid and Jihad]] ("Oneness of God and [[Jihad]]") [[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 of the willing|coalition forces]] were not met. |
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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. Using voice-recognition technology, the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) has claimed that al-Zarqawi personally carried out the beheading of Armstrong. |
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After Bigley's death, it was claimed that the British [[Secret Intelligence Service]] (commonly known as 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. |
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==Capture and negotiations for release== |
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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. |
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British Foreign Secretary [[Jack Straw (politician)|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. |
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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. |
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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. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/women/story/0,3604,1220673,00.html] |
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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. |
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===Second and third videos=== |
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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 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. |
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Around this time it emerged that Bigley's mother, Lil, 86 years old at the time of his abduction, had been born in [[Dublin]] and was therefore an Irish citizen; this meant Bigley himself was also an Irish citizen from birth. It was hoped this status would aid his release, as Ireland did not participate in the [[2003 invasion of Iraq]], and the Irish Government issued Bigley an Irish passport ''[[in absentia]]'', which was shown on al-Jazeera television. Irish Labour Party spokesman on foreign affairs Michael D. Higgins made an appeal on al-Jazeera. [[Sinn Féin]] leader [[Gerry Adams]] made two appeals, one on [[September 30]] and a second on [[October 7]]. |
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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. |
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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]], [[Abdullah II of Jordan|King Abdullah of Jordan]], and [[Muammar al-Gaddafi|Colonel Gadaffi of Libya]], who made public statements. |
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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 detainment camp|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." |
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On [[October 1]], another 100,000 leaflets asking for information about Bigley were distributed by the British Foreign Office in Baghdad. |
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==Death== |
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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 [[funeral|memorial service]], attended by Tony Blair and his wife [[Cherie Blair|Cherie]], was held for him in Liverpool on [[November 13]]. His body has not been recovered, although an alleged al-Qaeda militant awaiting trial for the [[2003 Istanbul bombings]] has claimed he is "buried in a ditch at the entrance to [[Fallujah]]" [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4933490.stm]. |
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The kidnappers made a film apparently showing Bigley's killing, and the tape was subsequently posted on Islamist websites and on one [[shock site|"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. |
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News reports [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1302700,00.html] published after Bigley's death suggested he had briefly managed to escape from the kidnappers with the help of two [[MI6]] agents of [[Syria|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. The two captors were said to have been beheaded. |
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After his death, the British [[mass media|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. |
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The sometimes controversial columnist [[Mark Steyn]] had his column pulled from the British ''[[Daily Telegraph]]'' on [[October 11]], [[2004]] when in it he stated that Bigley's last words "Tony Blair has not done enough for me" would not be high up on his list of final utterances. |
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==Torture-chamber discovery== |
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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. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/11/22/uhouses.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/11/22/ixportaltop.html] The November 2004 [[Second Battle of Fallujah]] [http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1350982,00.html] 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.{{Fact|date=July 2007}} |
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==See also== |
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* [[2003 invasion of Iraq]] |
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* [[Human rights situation in post-Saddam Iraq]] |
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* [[Decapitation]] |
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* [[Daniel Pearl]] |
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* [[Nick Berg]] |
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* [[Paul Marshall Johnson, Jr.]] |
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* [[Eugene Armstrong]] |
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* [[Margaret Hassan]] |
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* [[Jack Hensley]] |
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* [[Kim Sun-il]] |
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* [[Shosei Koda]] |
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* [[Fabrizio Quattrocchi]] |
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* [[Seif Adnan Kanaan]] |
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==References== |
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*[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3729158.stm Ken Bigley's wife mourns the loss of her husband] - [[BBC]] |
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*[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3683182.stm ''Profile:Kenneth Bigley''], ''BBC News'', [[October 10]], [[2004]] |
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*[http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,6903,1355798,00.html "Theatre of terror"], by Jason Burke, ''The Observer'', [[November 21]], [[2004]] |
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*[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1302700,00.html "Bigley beheaded after MI6 rescue backfired"], by Hala Jaber and Ali Rifat, ''The Sunday Times'', [[October 10]], [[2004]] |
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*[http://www.guardian.co.uk/women/story/0,3604,1220673,00.html "The other prisoners"] by Luke Harding, ''The Guardian'',[[May 20]], [[2004]] |
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*[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/11/22/uhouses.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/11/22/ixportaltop.html "Ken Bigley's hostage cage 'found'"], no byline, ''The Daily Telegraph'', [[November 22]], [[2004]] |
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*[http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1350982,00.html "The final battle"] by Peter Beaumont, ''The Observer'', [[November 14]], [[2004]] |
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*[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4933490.stm "Bigley body claims investigated"] ''BBC News'', [[April 22]], [[2006]] |
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bigley, Kenneth}} |
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[[Category:1942 births]] |
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[[Category:2004 deaths]] |
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[[Category:Deaths by decapitation]] |
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[[Category:Filmed deaths]] |
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[[Category:English civil engineers]] |
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[[Category:English murder victims]] |
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[[Category:Foreign hostages in Iraq]] |
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[[Category:People from Liverpool]] |
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[[Category:British people taken hostage]] |
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[[Category:British terrorism victims]] |
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[[Category:Terrorism deaths in Iraq]] |
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[[fi:Kenneth Bigley]] |
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[[nl:Kenneth Bigley]] |
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Revision as of 10:45, 18 July 2008
FUCK KEN BIGLEY, HIS HEAD IS ROTTING IN HELL