Posted on 12/01/2004 12:09:56 PM PST by Tarpaulin
LONDON -- Dental records have shown that a mutilated body found in Iraq is not that of kidnapped aid worker Margaret Hassan, but British officials say they still believe the British-Irish citizen is dead.
The Foreign Office said dental tests were conducted in the United States on a body found in Fallujah by U.S. Marines, who believed it was that of a Western woman.
The tests showed the body wasn't Hassan's, a Foreign Office spokesman said. He said he believed the tests had been unable to establish the body's identity.
The belief that Hassan was killed was based on a video that reportedly shows a blindfolded woman being shot in the head by her captors. The Foreign Office spokesman maintained that the woman in the video was likely Hassan and that she is probably dead.
Hassan -- a 59-year-old British citizen born in Ireland -- was abducted in Baghdad on Oct. 19 on her way to work, the most prominent of more than 170 foreigners kidnapped in Iraq this year. Her captors later issued videos showing her pleading for Britain, specifically Prime Minister Tony Blair, to withdraw troops from Iraq and calling for the release of female Iraqi prisoners.
U.S. Marines found a mutilated body on a street in a Fallujah on Nov. 14 during the U.S. assault on the insurgent stronghold. The body, clothed in what appeared to be a purple velour dress, was wrapped in a blanket, with a blood-soaked black cloth nearby. It could not be immediately identified but U.S. officials said they believed it was that of a Western woman.
Besides Hassan, the only Western woman known to be held in Iraq was Teresa Borcz Khalifa, 54, a Polish-born longtime resident of Iraq who was seized in October. Khalifa reappeared on Nov. 20 after being released.
The Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera said Nov. 16 it had received a video showing a hooded militant shooting a blindfolded woman in the head. Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said analysis of the video showed Hassan has "probably been murdered, although we cannot conclude this with complete certainty."
Hassan's family have also said they believe she is dead.
Boy, did I screw that headline up!
Correction: "Body found in Iraq not that of kidnapped aid worker"
Believed ??? Based on what? Arm pits were shaved?
What exactly was the cause of death? Gun shot to the head, or something else?
Probably some jihaddist getting an early start on his 27 virgins and decided to get rid any witnesses.
Mod, please note the SNAFU on the headline of this article.
Thank you.
I suppose that might work, too. But, it won't be nearly as fast, and it's nowhere near as "covert" as clicking the Report Abuse link.
She knew her kidnappers. Those murdering b**tards can't afford for her to live.
"Hassan -- a 59-year-old British citizen born in Ireland -- was abducted in Baghdad on Oct. 19..."
Didn't she have dual citizenship, Iraqi and British?
Didn't want to point out their killing their own over there, maybe?
This was the body found in the street with no arms or legs, very badly mutilated. I didn't know the Polish-born woman turned up alive.
But was she shot in the head as Hassan supposidly was?
If they had enough for dental comparison one would
suspect the rest of the head was there as well.
I suppose this would be considered by some as a terrible thing to think but has anyone ever considered that Margaret is still alive and maybe had a part in her own kidnapping? From what I have read there has been no ransom demand and a few other little oddities that seem out of place. If she is in sympathy with the terrorists and is a British citizen for all we know she could be a "true believer" and is doing her little bit to help the cause. It could be an effort to erode support back in Britain. I know I am being cynical. Maybe it's from reading too much news. Just a thought. Flame away.
Good point. Her kidnapping (so far) has been different from others, since she has not been released.
I've wondered, myself, why she is the only foreign-born female aid worker who was not freed.
From: Britain: Body Isn't Kidnapped Aid Worker
Hassan was among nine foreign women hostages abducted in Iraq this year. Eight, including two Italian aid workers and Polish-born Teresa Borcz Khalifa, have been released.
Maybe her kidnapping was part of a semi-elaborate scheme to cover-up her ordered assassination.
Maybe "important" people don't want her to be alive to testify to the deprivations Iraqi children continued to suffer at the very time the UN's oil-for-food program was supposed to be helping them.
Her testimony could whip up some powerfully angry anti-UN feelings.
Maybe she was marked for gang-style execution, but someone realized her execution could be camouflaged among all the other kidnappings.
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