Margarate Hassan - hostage in Iraq

littlek wrote:

I am always afraid to see the latest news on this thread.

Me, too.

There seems to be little end to the depravity of these terrorists, yet humans have been jerks for so long that I don't know if we CAN stop. Maybe it is just ingrained -- we fight it, of course, but the depths are there just below the surface. My heart goes out to Margaret Hassan, Olga, and I truly wish for her immediate release.

0 Replies

Thok wrote:

But the troops will be move.

They have begun the move to the area around Baghdad.

0 Replies

Still no news of Margaret Hassan. Nothing. Very worrying.

0 Replies

We can only hope that no news is good news, msolga. The AlQaeda people are denying that they've had anything to do with Mrs. Hassan's kidnapping. Perhaps it is just a ransom kidnap. They're fairly common in that part of the world, I hear.

0 Replies

Sigh. In from BBC - Al Jazeera shows new video.

Hassan makes appeal in new video

Margaret Hassan weeping in a previous video
The Arabic television station Al-Jazeera has broadcast a second video of kidnapped aid worker Margaret Hassan.
The station showed footage of Mrs Hassan asking for British troops to be pulled out of Iraq.

She also urged Care International, the aid agency she works for, to close its office in Baghdad, and appealed for Iraqi women prisoners to be freed.

Mrs Hassan, who is being held by an unknown group, was seized last week while at her Baghdad office.

Mrs Hassan, 59, was born in Britain but has lived and worked in Iraq for 30 years and is married to an Iraqi.

She holds British, Irish and Iraqi citizenship.

Three demands

In the video broadcast on Wednesday, a confused-looking Mrs Hassan, wearing a black top, was shown in a dimly-lit room.

Close to tears, she spoke directly into the camera to repeat her message of a video issued last week, asking British Prime Minister Tony Blair to pull UK forces out of Iraq.

"Please don't bring the soldiers to Baghdad," the Associated Press news agency reported her as saying.

"Please, on top of that, please release the women prisoners from prisons."

Mrs Hassan also asked that Care International close its Baghdad office, presenters on Al-Jazeera said.

The British Foreign Office said it would consider very carefully what, if any, response to make to the video.

The plea to Mr Blair came as hundreds of soldiers of 1st Battalion the Black Watch were being redeployed from the British-controlled zone of southern Iraq to positions close to Baghdad.

The request to free women prisoners echoes the demand made by the kidnappers of British hostage Ken Bigley in September.

Mr Bigley was killed earlier this month after several weeks in captivity.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3960031.stm

0 Replies

Such impossible demands! As if any of the coalition leaders would even dream of such the thing! Sad

The demand to close Care is a strange one, though .... Oh that poor woman, living through this.

0 Replies

Quote:

"Please don't bring the soldiers to Baghdad," the Associated Press news agency reported her as saying.

But as said they made the move, and one Black Watch soldier killed and other injured at this movement to the Baghdad area in Babil ,according to officals, in a vehicle accident.

0 Replies

The insurgent to aim now at the British troops: Four Rockets fired at Black Watch Base in Baghdad. Apparent no casualties.

0 Replies

Kidnappers threaten to hand Hassan to al-Zarqawi

Quote:

The kidnappers of Irish aid worker Margaret Hassan today threatened to hand her over to the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi unless their demands - including the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq - are met within 48 hours.

The group broadcast the warning in a new video tape that showed Mrs Hassan, who has British, Irish and Iraqi nationality, in a state of severe distress.

Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group has already claimed responsibility for the murder of several foreign hostages, including British engineer Ken Bigley, who was beheaded last month after three weeks of captivity.

The latest video was sent to Arabic television station al-Jazeera, which declined to broadcast the images of Mrs Hassan on humanitarian grounds. However, the station did choose to air the second part of the video, which showed a hooded man demanding that British troops be withdrawn from Iraq.

Mrs Hassan, the director of CARE International in Iraq, was abducted last month in Baghdad. No group has claimed responsibility for her kidnapping and there was no sign on the brief broadcast of any banner identifying the group which holds her.

The British government has consistently refused to enter into negotiations with kidnappers, and the foreign office declined to comment on the latest development.

The Irish taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, informed his parliament of the existence of the video earlier today, but news of the threat to hand the hostage over to Zarqawi only emerged later.

The initial section of the video showed 59-year-old Mrs Hassan pleading for her life directly to camera before fainting. According to reports, a bucket of water was then thrown over her head and she was filmed lying on the ground before getting up and crying.

Mr Ahern, whose country is militarily neutral and officially opposes the US-led occupation of Iraq, said he had seen the text of the video and described it as "distressing".

He said: "Margaret has no political associations. She represents nobody but the vulnerable and the poor. Your quarrel is not with Margaret. Nor is it with the Irish people, who have been a firm friend of the Arab nations."

Mrs Hassan's family has also seen the film. Her sister Deirdre Fitzsimons spoke publicly about their anguish for the first time today after she, two other sisters and their brother met Mr Ahern. "We are the Irish family of Margaret and we are pleading with you to set her free," she said.

Source

0 Replies

Yes, I heard this on the ABC news, while I driving in my car, a short while ago.

The was a suggestion in that ABC report that the kidnappers are requesting ransom money, but I haven't heard further reports indicating that this is the case.

What concerned me most was this:

The latest video was sent to Arabic television station al-Jazeera, which declined to broadcast the images of Mrs Hassan on humanitarian grounds. However, the station did choose to air the second part of the video, which showed a hooded man demanding that British troops be withdrawn from Iraq.

..The initial section of the video showed 59-year-old Mrs Hassan pleading for her life directly to camera before fainting. According to reports, a bucket of water was then thrown over her head and she was filmed lying on the ground before getting up and crying.

I wondered what they had done to her, just what condition she was in.

Her sister's words really moved me. In part of her statement, pleading for the release of her sister, she said words simalar to this: "We're Irish.
We have no influence on the British government">

0 Replies

0 Replies

Still no news. <sigh>

0 Replies

Apart from, that Iraq Insurgents Call for Hassan's Release

0 Replies

geezus, how long has it been for her?

0 Replies

Thok wrote:

Apart from, that Iraq Insurgents Call for Hassan's Release

You have to register to read that report, Thok.

Yes, I saw (in my local press) that there'd been another demonstration of local support for Margaret Hassan, something like a week ago. An appeal to the hostage takers to free her. But to no avail, apparently. In the meantime, Fallujah .... Now nothing more. This situation is just terrible for her & her family. I'm hoping that something constructive is happening behind the scenes.

0 Replies

I was not registered, although I saw the report.

So this link:

Iraq Insurgents Call for Hassan's Release

0 Replies

Thanks for that, Thok.

0 Replies

This is from the Irish Emigrant, Nov 7

www.irishemigrant.com/files/indexfile.asp?id=117#37131

Irish hostages remain in captivity

A new video of Margaret Hassan, who has now been held
captive in Iraq for 20 days, was handed to Al-Jazeera by her
kidnappers but the television company decided that it was too
distressing to broadcast. According to reports it showed her in an
extremely distressed state pleading for her life and then
collapsing. At this a bucket of water is thrown over her. The tape
carried the threat that she would be handed over to Abu Musab al-
Zarqawi, the man responsible for killing Irish hostage Ken Bigley
last month, within 48 hours. All this was seen as ominous but on
Saturday it was reported that al-Zarqawi had called for her
immediate release unless she is proven to be a spy "conspiring
against Muslims". The statement signed "al-Qaeda in Iraq" is thought
to be genuine.

On Tuesday Ms Hassan's sisters, Catherine, Deirdre and
Geraldine Fitzsimons, met with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern at Government
Buildings. One report indicated that they were accompanied by their
brother, who lives in Cork, but he didn't appear in any of the
photographs or in the television coverage. Afterwards the three
sisters, one of whom lives in Kerry and the other two in London,
were joined by Mr Ahern in appealing for their sister's release.

Annetta Flanigan and her two UN colleagues, Angelito Nayan
and Shqipe Hebibi, continue to be held in Afghanistan by their
Taliban kidnappers. Since the videotape of the three was released
last weekend it has been reported that they are now being held in
separate mountain locations to make it more difficult for the
authorities to locate them. Wednesday's deadline for their execution
was extended until Friday morning and then until Saturday night. A
further three days have been added in a statement from the
kidnappers, which claimed that negotiations with the Afghan
authorities were about to begin. The kidnappers, who had been
insisting on the release of Muslim prisoners from Afghan jails and
Guantanamo Bay as well as for the withdrawal of western forces and
UN personnel from Afghanistan, say they are prepared to modify their
demands

0 Replies

They did that earlier, too. Sigh....

0 Replies

This is an AP wire report justed posted by CNN. Things do not look good.

By EDWARD HARRIS

FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) - U.S. Marines on Sunday found the mutilated body of what they believe was a Western woman during a sweep of a street in central Fallujah.

The body was lying in the street covered with a blood-soaked cloth. Marines fear the body may have been boobytrapped and called in dogs to sniff for explosives.
Although the body has not been carefully examined, a Marine officer who spoke on condition of anonymity said he was ``80 percent sure'' it was a Western woman

Two Western women are known to have been kidnapped in Iraq. Margaret Hassan, 59, director of CARE international in Iraq, was abducted Oct. 19. Teresa Borcz Khalifa, 54, a Polish-born longtime resident of Iraqwas seized last month.

Kidnappers of both had demanded among other things that foreign troops leave Iraq.

CNN

0 Replies

Margarate Hassan - hostage in Iraq

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know