Posted on 07/04/2004 6:26:18 AM PDT by Brian Mosely
Ummm... I've got some oceanfront property in Arizona to sell you...
I'm sorry, but you are dead wrong about that. They released the Turks to gain POLITICAL FAVOR with other Muslims. NOT because they actually WERE MUSLIMS. They don't give a rip about other Muslims.
And they don't give a rip about one small company saying they will stop doing business with the American Military... they only SAY that's why they released them. They used those excuses to (a) gain political favor with other Muslims, and (b) to IMPLY that they can be negotiated with. But they CANNOT be negotiated with. Even if we withdrew ALL of our troops from the Middle East TODAY, and even if we completely changed our policies on the Middle East, they would simply come up with yet another reason to HATE us and want us ALL DEAD because we are Infidels. They simply want us eradicated from the planet, nothing more, nothing less.
EVERYTHING they say or do is to that end. Period. And that is why this is a war of Good vs. Evil, and a war for our very survival. (I just wonder, what if we WERE all wiped out from the planet... then what would they do? Who would they hate then? Who would they set out to kill then? There is NO WAY they would suddenly live in peace if we were all instantly removed from the planet. Like a dog that is a bully... it will be a bully no matter what group of dogs it encounters... always picking a fight, no matter what the odds, no matter what the outcome, no matter what... They don't want peace, they simply hate and want to act out that hate.)
I've got Fox on right now, but yesterday, I think on Fox, one of the guests expressed doubt as to the story that this execution occurred. I can only pray to God.
The other option, Johny Jehad Marine has indeed been smuggled out of Iraq by his good buddy Mooslems and they are using this as a cover story. I tend to go with the first option, he has lost his head and the bad guys (can I call them that?) now find themselves in a PC world of hurt.
Hmmmm.....
Some Muslim in the Army tossed a grenade into his commander's tent. The DC sniper was previously in the US armed forces and still went on his rampage. IMO all Muslims are suspect until proven otherwise. This particular Marine went AWOL and turned up in terrorists' hands - there is still the outstanding possibility that he went willingly.
The original claim of having kidnapped Hassoun — in a video aired last week on Al-Jazeera television, showing the blindfolded Marine with a sword brandished over his head — was issued in the name of “Islamic Response,” the security wing of the “National Islamic Resistance - 1920 Revolution Brigades,” rather than the Ansar al-Sunna Army.
This does seem strange. Could some other, rival, group be trying to place the blame on Ansar al-Sunna, in order to bring our wrath down upon them?
No,not Col Kurtz--
Just frustrated and voicing it...
Is that ok with you, Mr. Kerry?
Dear Colonel,
Now if we are suggesting they kill every man woman and child followed by razing and salting the eath of (presumably) Fallujah, please present a candidate that espouses your view and get them elected. Then you can deal with the aftermath which I am sure will be a quick submission by the remaining muslims. I mean Pershing got it done the quick and dirty way and it worked, right?
Meanwhile on planet earth we try to reach accomodations with the competing idealists under the umbrella of political discourse backed by a resolute military power. We try to reach compromise, something better than we had before I guess, 9-11. To that end I think the USA is doing ok. She has a presence in a most inhospitable and secretive part of the world, ostensibly to learn, exfiltrate and infiltrate with more tools in place than was the case before that watershed date in modern history. It's all good if the goal is to keep the enemy off your home turf. But you have to give people who would otherwise try and kill you some hope that you're there to help, not exterminate, them. It means you'll take some hits, return the pain with a rationale dose of properly administered justice in the hope cooler heads acknowledge your resolve and decide to work with you on a solution. Seems to have worked with ths Shiite mini-rebellion.
To remove the brand of zealot carrying out the beheadings requires you to convince potential accessories to stop helping the freaks and start helping you. You do that with a dose of resolve (obliterating potential safe houses with no advance warning) followed by an offer. The offer might be met with some interest. It's measured military doctrine and if it frustrates you it's because you're not engaged in rational thought.
Well, his blood is Lebanese. It seems the people of Lebanon would be pretty pissed if these terrorists killed him. That would result in a tremendous loss of support among the Lebanese for anything related to militant Islam.
The same logic was probably instrumental in the release of 3 Turkish captives last week. If they were killed, the terrorist would face increased hostility from the people of Turkey. When the Turkish workers were spared, the terrorist were seen by some Turks as compassionate Muslims.
Do you all NOT remember the first stories????
I wouldn't believe the New York Times on ANYTHING....not even the date.
If he really deserted wouldnt it be 10 times more productive to have him make a statement about the evil of USA, GWB being satan etc then killing him? Statement by US marine which was not extracted by torture would have much more propaganda value I think.
I think the terrorist version with the girl being a bait is more realistic.
Hmmmmmm, this just gets curiouser and curiouser every day, doesn't it?
Since the mooslimes lie so much, which lie are we to believe?
Well, I fully agree that that was why they released them, and I think that was in fact the statement that they made at the time (fraternal gesture to other Muslims, or some such thing). I do think they would like to see every company or agency in Iraq leave, because it would make it harder for us.
However, it's absolutely true that this is not their long term goal. Their goal is simply our annihilation and in fact that of all non-Muslims, within or outside of the Middle East. Personally, I think Islam is an insane death cult. But I think I've said that before...
Reuters is reporting this story has been denied...
Incredible!
Right now Dick Cheney is Bush's savior. Cheney is the one remaining, thin thread that still connects Bush to his old conservative base.
Cheney is a liability all right ... to liberals.
It WILL be 72 PO'ed Virginians.
Though that doesn't mean the bad guys wouldn't still kill him if they thought they could gain something by it (like proving how tough they were relative to rival groups - that dynamic would be part of the mix). Something for any Islamacists in the coalition armed forces to think about.
Militants in Iraq threaten to behead hostages, including U.S. marine
Chris Tomlinson
Canadian Press
June 28, 2004
BAGHDAD (AP) - Arab television broadcast videotapes Sunday of two men taken hostage by militants, one described as a U.S. marine lured from his base and the other a Pakistani driver for an American contractor. Insurgents threatened to behead them both.
Also, militants hit a coalition transport plane with small arms fire after takeoff from Baghdad's airport, killing an American passenger and forcing the aircraft to return. Earlier on Sunday, Turkey rejected demands by militants threatening to behead three Turkish hostages unless Turkish companies cease business with U.S. forces in Iraq.
Death threats against hostages as well as insurgent attacks on U.S. and Iraqi security forces have accelerated as Iraq's interim government prepares to assume sovereignty Wednesday. [surprise!]
The U.S. military confirmed that a marine named Wassef Ali Hassoun had been missing from his unit for nearly a week. It said it was unclear if he had been taken hostage, but Hassoun's name was on a marine "active duty" identification card shown by militants in the videotape aired by the Al-Jazeera network.
Late Sunday, Hassoun's family in the Salt Lake City suburb of West Jordan confirmed that he was the kidnapped marine who appeared in the videotape.
"We accept destiny with its good and bad," Hassoun family friend and spokesman Tarek Nosseir said in a brief statement Sunday to reporters. "We pray and plead for his safe release."
In the video, the hostage had a white blindfold covering his eyes. He wore military fatigues, and his moustache was trimmed. The U.S. military said Hassoun was of Lebanese descent, though the Al-Jazeera report said the hostage's origins were Pakistani.
The kidnappers claimed to have infiltrated a marine outpost, lured Hassoun outside and abducted him. Al-Jazeera said the militants demanded the release of all Iraqis "in occupation jails" or the hostage would be killed.
They identified themselves as part of Islamic Response, the security wing of the National Islamic Resistance - 1920 Revolution Brigades. The name refers to the uprising against the British after the First World War.
The group, which has claimed responsibility for previous anti-American attacks, first surfaced in an Aug. 12 statement claiming the United States was hiding its casualty tolls in Iraq to help President George W. Bush's election chances.
U.S. officials believe the insurgency consists of several groups with different ideologies, among them Arab nationalists, former Baath party members and Islamic extremists.
Earlier Sunday, the Pakistani driver was shown on a tape broadcast by a different Arab television station, Al-Arabiya. The hostage displayed an identification card issued by the U.S. firm Kellogg, Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Vice-President Dick Cheney's former company Halliburton.
Four masked men holding assault rifles across their chests said they would behead the Pakistani within three days unless Americans freed prisoners held at Abu Ghraib near Baghdad and three cities of central Iraq - Balad, Dujail and Samarra.
The gunmen said they captured the Pakistani near the U.S. base at Balad, 80 kilometres north of Baghdad. They did not say whether they were affiliated with any group,
The hostage, who gave his name as Amjad, urged Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to close his country's embassy in Iraq and to ban Pakistanis from coming to Iraq.
"I'm also Muslim, but despite this they didn't release me," he said, bowing his head. "They are going to cut the head of any person regardless of whether he is a Muslim or not."
It was unclear how either set of kidnappers was linked to Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who claimed responsibility for the decapitation deaths of American businessman Nicholas Berg and South Korean translator Kim Sun-il last week.
In Baghdad, meanwhile, an American soldier was killed Sunday when a rocket slammed into a U.S. base on the southeastern outskirts of the city, the military said.
Gunmen dressed in black killed six soldiers of the Iraqi National Guard, formerly the Iraqi Civil Defence Corps, and wounded four others at a checkpoint in Jalawla, 120 kilometres northeast of Baghdad. In first reports of the attack on the transport plane, U.S. military officials said the aircraft was American. Later, however, Australia's Nine Network television said it was a C-130 transport from the Royal Australian Air Force. The plane was about 20 kilometres from the Iraqi capital when it was fired on and forced to return to Baghdad International Airport.
Australia Broadcasting Corp. radio reported that a passenger on the plane who died of injuries was a U.S. citizen. U.S. Brig.-Gen. Mark Kimmitt also said the victim was believed to be an American, according to the report.
Attacks against coalition aircraft around Baghdad have occurred before, although no fixed-wing planes have been shot down. The main road linking the airport to central Baghdad also has become increasingly dangerous because of ambushes.
In Istanbul, Turkish Defence Minister Vecdi Gonul rejected demands by al-Zarqawi's group for Turkish companies to quit doing business with U.S. troops in Iraq to spare the lives of the three Turkish hostages.
"Turkey will not bow to pressure from terrorists," Gonul told the private CNN-Turk and TV8 television stations.
The demand was issued as Bush and other western leaders gathered in Turkey for a NATO summit Monday. Turkey, the only Muslim country in NATO, was put in a difficult position trying to balance alliance solidarity with national interests.
The U.S. mission in Iraq is deeply unpopular in Turkey, and it was feared that any killing of Turkish hostages could intensify anger against the United States.
More than 40 people from several countries have been abducted in Iraq since April - many of them released or freed by coalition soldiers. Several kidnappings have been blamed on the al-Zarqawi group.
© The Canadian Press 2004 Copyright © 2004 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest Global Communications Corp. All rights reserved. Optimized for browser versions 4.0 and higher.
Thanks, I agree with you, until we have full report on this I want to believe he joined the Marines because he was patriotic to the USA. As for his father, some parents don't know what their children are capable of. Some only fight for what they truly believe in.
I say we lift him up in prayer and pray for his faithfulness to the Marine Corp, for courage, and for opportunity to escape or kill those terrorists. I am doing that.
I would bet he is already dead. They screwed up, this is a holiday weekend and very few watch the news. He will pop up dead again on Monday or Tuesday. More shock value when done during the news cycle.
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