Captors threaten to kill, mutilate U.S. civilian

Captors threaten to kill, mutilate U.S. civilian
By Lee Keath -- Associated Press
Sunday, April 11, 2004
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BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Insurgents who kidnapped an American civilian threatened in a videotape released Saturday to kill and mutilate him unless U.S. forces withdraw from the city of Fallujah.
Meanwhile, insurgents holding three Japanese hostage said they would be freed in 24 hours. The captors had threatened to burn the civilians alive unless Japan pulled its troops out of Iraq, a demand Japan refused.
The tape of the American, broadcast on the Arab TV station Al-Jazeera, showed him identifying himself as Thomas Hamill, 43, from Mississippi. In other footage with no audio, he stood in front of an Iraqi flag, his expression calm but wary as his captors announced their threat on his life.
(...)
Hamill stood in front of the red-, white-and-black Iraqi flag, its emblazoned slogan "God is great" prominent above his head. His eyes darted back and forth, but he appeared calm.
His captors said he would meet a worse fate than four American civilians killed in Fallujah on March 31, their bodies burned and mutilated by a mob, unless U.S. forces end their assault on the city "within 12 hours, starting 6 p.m." -- 9 a.m. Saturday, EST.
"At the end of this period, he will be treated worse than those who were killed and burned in Fallujah," the voice-over said.
(...)
Meanwhile, other insurgents who kidnapped two Japanese men and a woman said they would free their captives within 24 hours because of an appeal from Sunni clerics. The kidnappers, identifying themselves as the Mujahedeen Squadron, announced the decision in a statement received by Al-Jazeera.
(...)
Meanwhile, a group calling itself the Marytr Ahmed Yassin Brigades in the city of Ramadi claimed in a videotape obtained by APTN to have 30 hostages from a variety of countries and threatened to kill them if the siege of Fallujah is not lifted...there was no way to verify the group's claim...
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Read the rest here.
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"They deserve it" in 5...4...3...2...1...
:nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke:

At the end of this period, he will be treated worse than those who were killed and burned in Fallujah.

Sure. Ok, buddy.

who is being denounced over in LBN as a "CIA man" and mercenary who deserves whatever he gets:

Hamill sold his dairy farm last summer after fighting a losing battle to survive in the industry. But the sale still left the family in debt, Kellie Hamill told The Beacon newspaper in Macon in a story published Thursday. ``With this job, he saw a way to help get us back on track,'' she said.

Kellie, his wife, normally works as a 911 dispatcher but is home recovering from heart surgery.

This is a sad story--a farmer driven out of business takes a dangerous job in an effort to support his family, and ends up in this situation. The Hamills are two of the many millions of victims of this little adventure in imperialism cooked up by Bush and his cronies. Let's not forget who's really to blame here.

It compounds the tragedy. The new feudalism...

As if every man who ever worked for Halliburton is a Cheney-style neocon.

he's a guy trying to make ends meet who got caught up in a mess

are so incredibly evil that it drives me to a belief in hell, one where 72 demons will continually, well, you get the drift.

I don't approve of *, his advisors, or his reasons for this war, but to think that a country, any country, would change it's national policies to spare the life of one hostage, or even the lives of many hostages, is incredibly stupid. Not just medieval, but ancient.
the fact that they attempt these tactics is positive evidence of the primitive condition of the tribal societies from which these individuals spring.

I trust, and know, that the majority of Iraqis are against this practice, and these individuals, regardless of how they feel about the occupation and the US in general. I have known too many decent people from Iraq in earlier years to believe otherwise.

Thanks for putting them so eloquently.

the people who bombed Iraq mercilessly, slaughtering thousands of innocent people and maiming thousands more?

Speaking of "evil"...

for what they are doing in taking hostages? Sorry, you can't excuse one evi by pointng to another.

Like most of us here, I am angry about the route Bush has taken our country through. But also I believe that working toward well-being for both parties is the best solution.

.
.
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I mean they've got a few thousand troops around there trying to get whoever killed those four Americans, maybe they could try to save the live one?

Oh, and a wee bit more from the article:
____________________________________________________________________

"I am in good shape," the voice-over quoted Hamill as saying. "They were good to me. They gave me antibiotics. I have no idea what is going on (in) Fallujah. I hear there is a siege and people are living in some sort of prison.

"I hope to return home one day, and I want my family to know that these people are taking care of me and provide me with food, water and a place to sleep."

Hamill stood in front of the red-, white-and-black Iraqi flag, its emblazoned slogan "God is great" prominent above his head. His eyes darted back and forth, but he appeared calm.

/snip/

Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt refused to comment Saturday on efforts to free Hamill or other captives
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This is where there efforts should be, rescuing the LIVE American never mind "taking care of business" in Fallujah.

They've already massacred over 100 times the number of Americans they are trying to "avenge".

Operation Vigilant Resolve my ass.

They are acting like a gang of Vigilantes

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

how many of us would go to Iraq to get ourselves out of debt--and go to work for Halliburton to boot?


There is something not quite right about this. At best, it reeks of desperation--and we have Bush to thank for that desperation. Either way Bush is the culprit in this story.

I am willing to wait to see how this story pans out.

Look how many people die in our own southwestern deserts trying to come here to work. Or think of the dangers faced by oil rig workers and commercial fishermen right here in our own country. The sight of one's family doing without will prompt people to risk their lives in all kinds of ways.

Many of "us" would not do it, of course, since, if the occasional income polls we have here at DU are any indication, "we" are considerably more affluent than most people. But for a person who is facing the very real prospect of his family ending up on the streets, taking a dangerous job for a few months is not unthinkable. And what do we have here? A man who just lost his farm, is heavily in debt, and whose wife can't work because of heart surgery. He sounds like the perfect mark for a con artist like Halliburton.

Is that the drum roll in the background I hear? and a few.....well a deceitful enterprise we have so it 'tis hard to indeed know. Like the North Korea threat and Cheney had to leave immediately for Japan? While junior fished and Condi lied.

probably propaganda

Just curious.

Is unemployment in Iraq so low that they have to import workers? Are these "civilians" like migrant workers taking jobs no Iraqi is willing to perform for the pay? I don't think so.

When I'm seeing news reports about Chinese, Japanese, American, European and other foreign "civilian workers" in Iraq I'm wondering what it is about the jobs these folks are doing that makes any Iraqi unqualified to do them.

Could it be merely that the companies don't want the salaries paid to actually become part of an Iraqi economy? (Isn't that an indication of a problem?)

Carpetbaggers and mercenaries. I find myself unable to work up a bunch of extra sympathy for a foreign national traveling to Iraq in order to join in the pillage (carpetbaggers) and rape (mercenaries) of that nation. To the degree it's assumed that no Iraqi could be "trusted" to perform some job there, it seems we're seeing a far more hostile and adversarial occupation than our media has been willing to portray. I have far more sympathy for members of the military who're not being personally enriched and have little choice about their deployment. I have very little sympathy for carpetbaggers and mercenaries.


On edit: I really have to wonder about how an ordinary Iraqi feels seeing foreigners come in and occupy the palaces that were once occupied by Saddam and his cohorts who, at the very least, were Iraqis. At least those palaces were built using Iraqi labor. How does an ordinary Iraqi feel about carpetbaggers living in "luxury" hotels and "liberated" residences, working for and with foreign occupation forces for a salary that an ordinary can only dream of?

I once had similar thoughts about Vietnamese who worked in menial positions on US military bases, where even an ordinary grunt lived better than many Vietnamese. We had running water, decent dining facilities, air conditioned offices, and many more amenities that were not common in Vietnamese towns and villages. And we weren't anywhere near the better off foreigners. :shrug: