Deadline For Hostages

Key terror suspect Abu Musab al Zarqawi has threatened to kill a British man and two American hostages within 48 hours. Al Jazeera television has broadcast a video showing the three hostages being held in Iraq.In the video, al Zarqawi demands the release of all Iraqi women prisoners within 48 hours.

He says if his demands are not met, he will kill the three men.
The footage shows a masked man stood reading from a piece of paper and standing behind three blindfolded men who are kneeling on the floor.

The British man was named yesterday as 62-year-old Kenneth Bigley, who is employed by Gulf Supplies and Commercial Services. The twice-married father-of-one from the Liverpool area had been in Baghdad shortly after the invasion, having lived in the Middle-East for several years. Both Americans who were kidnapped with him worked for the same company and lived in the same compound.

Al Zarqawi's group has claimed responsibility for many attacks in Iraq, including the kidnapping of foreign workers and suicide bombings that have killed Iraqi officials. The US has offered a $25m reward for the capture of Jordanian al Zarqawi, its top militant target in Iraq who it says is allied with al Qaeda.

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1152076,00.html

Here are the demands:

A masked militant stood behind the three men, who were seated and appeared unharmed. Al-Jazeera's announcer said Tawhid and Jihad, the militant group led by al-Zarqawi, threatened to kill the men if female Iraqi inmates being held at the Abu Ghraib prison and in the British-run port city of Umm Qasr are not released in 48 hours.

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20040918_221.html

We are told constantly that we are at "war". Well during war prisoner exchanges happen all the time, but I guess the Bush Administration would rather blow smoke and testosterone than save three lives.

Not the media, not the campaigns, and not the public. We have sunk very low as a nation.We have lost our humanity.

when they had it all over the British newspaper,but got no answer.

WTF?

...we are not really at war, since the enemy is labeled as "terrorist" ergo the US gov does not negociate with terrorists.

This is what irks me with the whole "The War on Terror" (TWAT) bullshit, if we are at war... then who is the enemy. I mean we better not be launching a war on a concept, because are we now gonna bomb bad odor, or evil thoughts will be imprissioned? WTF? So we are a war in which the other side is not an opponent, but rather labeled as terrorists. Which makes this a fight, not a war. The rules of war do not apply when you do not recognize your opponent, BTW when was the war declared. Isn't there a formal process to declare a war between nations? How do we win the war then, there was no declaration, ergo no surrender can be signed.

This is the problem when you let the marketing department run our foreign policy. Bunch of freaking wankers. Wars are among nations, and they are damn serious business. You can not have a war between a nation and a concept, this just shows total lack of disregard for the lives of the people who will be fighting the war.

and MLK. I thought this was the coolest thing we could ever talk about. Maybe he'd take me back in time and we could view the conspiracy. But now I've changed my mind. When I'm helping out God cooking walnut brownies and stuff I want to ask him if I can be there when he passes judgement on the republicans who voted this story on Yahoo a "1", (no interest, meaningless, not important story.) It's currently rated "1.91". I just want to be there when God has these disgusting immoral republican feces touch the faces of these hostages' wives and children. I now understand what pure evil is.

Militants Threaten to Kill Iraq Hostages
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040919/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq&cid=540&ncid=716

Its current average rating is 2.02 with 316 votes.