With the latest video being released to Arabic TV stations, what does everyone make of this latest kidnapping? Views on Ken Bigley were well doccumented, but this latest episode is a different scenario altogether. Bigley was a contractor who had moved to Iraq for financial reasons, whereas Hassan is an aid worker who has lived in Iraq for more than 30 years. She also has dual Iraqi-British citizenship.

I will be very interested to read the views of RFYW in particular

I have defended the actions of the militants many times before and even after Bigley I still maintained that the greater cause should not be forgotten amidst the grotesque and barbaric way in which he died. It will be almost impossible to argue the same points again and in a wider context, I fear this may be the straw that breaks the camels back. If Hassan follows the same fate as Bigley, it will be very difficult to argue for the withdrawl of troops, when aidworkers are unable to work and care for the people that need help where halfthe populationis under the age of 15.

well..makes u wonder if she was part of MI6 45 minutes dossier
she has been Iraq for over 10 yrs right? then she must have had alot of information valuable to MI6
need I say more? if she knew Iraq was too dangerous for aid workers and UN pulled out what was she doing there? she could have gone to Guatemala or East Timor instead

no Coltrane. She has been living in Iraq for more than 30 years, she is married to an Iraqi and considers herself an Iraqi. Your theories about M15 and 007 are not only unfounded, they are completely irrelevant to this case.

She stayed because she considered herself to be an Iraqi. She was not some oil technician who was being enticed by attractive contracts. She was a humanitarian aid worker and has been been for many years. Why should she leave her home? She had as much right to stay (if she wanted) and continue her work as much as any Iraqi doctor or nurse.

hmmmm

that one is a tough one compared to Ken Bigly

but I hope the British muslim council does not get involved.

@RBG

so you dont believe that the best MI6 agents are aid workers and humanitarian workers? come on bro welcome to the world of espionage where you have to think of the impossible

So what if she has been living there for 30 yrs? there are countless Iraqis who are killed on daily basis with unguided misles from both British and American forces let alone Iraqis who have been kidnap[ed and as far as miss margareth is is concerned: she know she should have never been there when they bombed the UN

Once again they will bombard you with all sorts of messages telling you SHE WAS ONLY TRING TO HELP IRAQIS

Coltrane you are barking up the wrong tree

Even the way you refer to this woman you are speaking about her as though she is a British person. She is Iraqi, by citizenship and by life. This is not someone who followed the dollar signs and exploited anyones resources. This is someone who cleared up the mess of the Government who acted in our name.

I agree with you fresh. The Muslim council of Britain should not get involved. Neither should anyone from the British side. This is not because I want her to come to harm, far from it. But a distinction must be drawn and Margaret Hasan is an Iraqi citizen so if anyone should intervene on her behalf, it should be on the Iraqi end. They must make it clear that in no way is this in Britains interests for this woman tobe freed, but instead her impact is felt on the Iraqi people. She must be allowed to continue her work, and for that to happen the Iraqiadministration must speak up on her behalf.

This is a true test of the new administration as to whether they are extensions of Bush, or capable of standing their own ground. Bush would never contemplate opening dialogue with any militants, but the Iraqi administration must lead their own path.

I reiterate again- Margaret Hassan is an aid worker whose only role in Iraq is to provide assistance for the victims of this conflict, a conflict which Hassan herself was very much opposed to. She cannot be tainted with the same brush as people like Bigley and all the other contractors who have lurched to Iraq in search of big pay cheques. She has lived through 3 wars (any one of which she could have packed her bags and left but she decided to stay on) and has done a lot of good for the Iraqi people. She is nothing like the greedy contractors, so please stop the crude suggestions which may suggest otherwise.

@RBG. First to Coltrane's point she could well be working for foreign intelligence. There is no occupation excluded from that activity and based simply on the principle of who has access to information. Though I doubt she is....but who are we to know?

I think this is a classic act of desperation. Guerillas have priority list of targets. But once they run out,they start to scrape the barrelll and this seems to be a pure example of that. If it was felt she was a threat to whoever. They would have done her long time ago.

I think they just run out of prime targets.

I doubt if they will behead a woman and a white woman at that. Torturing and inflicting attrocities on women is always very bad for business. So I doubt she is going to get a Bigley job..

However it really depends on what their objectives are. In fact they could actually kill her to deliberartely intensify the phsycological war on Bush..I mean a beheading of a woman to the run up of Bush's election will not make his camp feel easy at all. And probably thelast thing they would want.

But there is clearly no moral basis to this action from what we can see. But that is the nature of these things, to start out with clear moral criteria and descend into the means justifying the end. Study for example ETA in Spain or the IRA whofought a very civilised war, only killing soldiers, police/intelligence forces and informers. Phoning up the police to give them the famous 10 minute warnings and once the opposition got wise or started to make inroads...no warnings were given and civilians became fair game....The moral basis suddenly changed because winning by any means become the operating principle not being gentlemen...

So we will just have to watch this space.

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Finally I was going to say this on the last thread where I think it was Kunjufu said that the British government should have open negotiations with the other side. Look and I said it then and it is standard operational procedure. All governments talk with so call terrorist. They have always done and always will. No biggie. Of course they make these big statements of never giving in or negotiate with terrorist. Come on what do you expect them to say?. That is for your consumption but the reality is deep talking has been going on from day one.

I think the United Nations will have bail this lady out somehow. The British haven't got the best track record.

I suppose we're due for a feel good rescue/escape story though.

It should be interesting.

there is a video online showing her being beheaded by those guys...

terrible news, I think everyone is completely shocked by this one.

seems not even having an iraqi husband helped. that is such bad news. to think they killed a woman who was devoted to iraq. how bizarre

Are you guys gonna go back and do the whole discussion from the Ken Bigley thread all over again?

Its evil and horrible

Its desperation, its the only thing left for them to do

But its barbaric

No more than what is being done to far more of them in their country

How can they kill a woman?

How can the coalition kill babies with bombs?

You are stupid and unpatriotic, they are evil

No you are and you dont understand you are a sellout

Its about good and evil and terrorism

Its about Imperialism and oil



There we are, I haved saved you pages of the same ol stuff. You knew she was kidknapped, we knew they were gonna take off her head. Lets stop acting suprised about it and spare us any false outrage. **sigh**

btw Im not insulting any of you guys Im saying she is one woman and not that important so dont get sidetracked and start thinking of poor her or whatever. Its really not important.