Ken Bigley Killed ?

[CAFC Matt]

Video shows Bigley being killed
By Fadel al-Badrani

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A video released by Muslim militants shows them beheading British hostage Kenneth Bigley, a Reuters witness says.

Bigley was shown making a statement as six militants stood behind him before one cut his head off with a knife.

Guerrilla sources in the rebel-held city of Falluja said earlier that he was killed on Thursday afternoon in Latifiya, a Sunni Muslim town southwest of Baghdad.

The tape showed Bigley wearing an orange jump suit of the type worn by detainees in U.S. prisons including the detention centre at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

The 62-year-old engineer was kidnapped in Baghdad on September 16 by the Tawhid and Jihad Group which has beheaded two American hostages who were seized along with the Briton. Militants have launched a spate of kidnappings as part of attempts to undermine the U.S.-led coalition ahead of January elections.

The kidnappers had demanded U.S.-led forces in Iraq release women prisoners in Iraqi jails to spare Bigley's life. Washington says it holds only two women in Iraq, both top weapons scientists from the days of Saddam Hussein.

The British government says it is not holding any women.

Asked to comment on Friday on reports Bigley had been killed, his brother Paul told Reuters in London: "I have heard nothing at all. I have been optimistic and remain optimistic. I am praying this news is not true."

Iraqi Interior Ministry officials in Baghdad said they had no information on the report.

FATE OF FRENCH UNKNOWN

Two Western hostages are still held in Iraq -- French journalists Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot. They were held by a different group, the Islamic Army in Iraq.

Last week, Bigley appealed, in a video tape released by his kidnappers, to Prime Minister Tony Blair to meet the captor's demands to save his life.

"Tony Blair is lying, he is lying when he said he's negotiated. He has not negotiated. My life is cheap. He doesn't care about me," Bigley said while squatting behind metal meshing and looking distraught.

"I am begging you for my life. Have some compassion please," he said, his voice cracking with emotion.

Blair has said his government will not negotiate with the hostage takers.

Several groups and individuals have tried to negotiate Bigley's release. This week, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi appealed to the kidnappers to free him.

The United States says Zarqawi is its top enemy in Iraq and has launched several strikes on suspected strongholds for the al Qaeda-linked leader in recent months.

Zarqawi's group has claimed responsibility for many of the bloodiest suicide attacks in Iraq since Saddam Hussein was overthrown, and for killing several hostages.

Bigley was seized from a house in Baghdad along with two Americans, Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley last month. Tawhid and Jihad posted videos of the beheading of the Americans.

Some 30 foreign hostages are thought to have been killed in Iraq since a wave of kidnappings started in April.

From Reuters and Yahoo.

So they now have a video of it

I really feel for his family and friends.

Hopefully one day these tossers that done this will be brought to justice

RIP Bigley

 

[fatboy]

Its been on BBC for the last hour.

They have a video which has not yet been broadcast.

A correspondent from Reuters has seen a CD version of it, and it does appear to show Mr Bigley being beheaded, after saying "I am too old to die."

It has not yet been confirmed but it does not look good.

Abu Dhabi still claim to be broadcasting the video sometime after 3.

 

[Meade's Ball]

I just worry that this gives the hawks more ammunition.
I can't pretend to empathise with anybody involved in this tragedy. But i know that blindly seeking revenge won't help any roadmap to peace. Nor will turning Kenneth Bigley into anything other than he was: just an unlucky bloke in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 

[tedebear]

This is horrific and unacceptable - I wish that everyone who was working in these areas who didn't need to be there would just get the heck out - life is too sacred!!

I also wish that these things would stop being shown on the news - I don't wish to give these people the publicity they crave...

I couldn't begin to understand how his poor family are at this moment...

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

Did anyone seriously expect this gang to release him. For a while it was nice to think they had a shred of human decency left in them but it proved to be a forlong and predictable false hope. Even if the women prisoners had been released they would have beheaded him as thats what they do and thats what they like.

They are so brave these men aren't they with hoods and masks on , satans spawn and nothing more.

I hope if and when they are caught they are beheaded and slowly.

 

[Pavilionaire]

His death was inevitable - a very sad day.

One of the questions now is exactly what will the kidnappers do next? They took 3 hostages, their terms weren't met, all 3 hostages were killed.

It wouldn't surprise me if they went straight back out and kidnapped three more.

 

[CAFC Matt]

His death was inevitable - a very sad day.

And that is the worst thing about it all. We all knew it was going to happen it was just a matter of time

 

[Albion Dan]

Very sad, but at the end of the day if you go to Iaq for the big pay day this is the risk you take. Stupid man for going out there in the first place!

 

[pasty]

Very sad, but at the end of the day if you go to Iaq for the big pay day this is the risk you take. Stupid man for going out there in the first place!

Must say I find that statement difficult to disagree with.

 

[Simster]

Very sad, but at the end of the day if you go to Iraq for the big pay day this is the risk you take. Stupid man for going out there in the first place!

Yep indeed, although there are plenty of Brits out there for humanitarian reasons who quite honestly are now sitting ducks for these extremists.

Maybe they should just come home and leave them to it?

 

[CAFC Matt]

Yep indeed, although there are plenty of Brits out there for humanitarian reasons who quite honestly are now sitting ducks for these extremists.

Maybe they should just come home and leave them to it?

Blair has got a big big big decision to make about all this now.

Does he just let them get on with it out there and be targets for the extremists or does he advise them or even order them out.

Frankly if I was out there I would be coming home

 

[Pavilionaire]

The whole Middle East situation is well out of control.

Bush and Blair need to re-evaluate how they can pull all Westerners out of there whilst still maintaining a vice-like grip on the Iraqi oils reserves.

Tough one...

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Blair has got a big big big decision to make about all this now.

Yeah. Like 'Should I Resign?'. Tho we all know the answer there.

 

[mejonaNO12 aka riskit]

Yeah. Like 'Should I Resign?'. Tho we all know the answer there.

no?

 

[adrian29uk]

Sick motherfuckers. What is it with people in this world, I wish there was peace and everyone would get on with each other. I feel sorry for family big time and I feel that this goverment could have done a little more.
When they find this wanker why dont do the same to him. Its quite a scary thought to think that we have people in this country who actually support this type of shit and I think anyone who is found should be evicted straight away no questions asked.

 

[Beach Hut]

Words really fail me when an act so barbaric as this happens.

I pray for him and his family at such a terrible time and hope he is now resting in peace.

This is such a senseless act, I only hope some people think long and hard over what is achieved through actions like this.

RIP

 

[Terrace Dandy]

I just hope that these evil cuts get caught and instead of given them life in prison let them hang or better still let the familles of the murdered behead them and broadcast it around the world, an eye for an eye I say.

My Blair wants to invade Africa next, will the same thing happen there? Shouldn't the wanker think about the home front for a change instead of thinking he's f***ing god.

Blair you fecking muppet, all this for oil!

 

[John Byrnes Mullet]

It is a real shame but unfair to blame Blair, if he would have give in then they just would have kidnapped every westerner there is in Iraq. Ken Bigley died a hero and will always be remembered for his terrible plight but Ken chose to work in a very dangerous country and he new what might happen. The US Goverment are crying out for volunteers and will pay anybody who has a clean 5 year history and can speak English or Arabic at least £1000 a week but I am buggered if I would go there.

 

[Terrace Dandy]

It is a real shame but unfair to blame Blair, if he would have give in then they just would have kidnapped every westerner there is in Iraq. Ken Bigley died a hero

He was happy to sit down with the IRA, and how many innocent people did the IRA kill?


Ken Bigley died a hero? He died like a fox being hunted, the man was crying for mercy, he was crying because he wanted to be with his loved ones again, he was crying for help, call that a hero?

 

[Kev the Ape]

my thoughts are with his famil, RIP kenneth. tony blair your a wanker.