Online Journal of Politics and Foreign Affairs
After several days of inflamed public debate following official confirmation that the United States government tortured suspected terrorists under specific authorization from the Bush administration, the inevitable pushback has begun. Several reports now suggest that these extreme interrogation techniques had the desired effect, yielding valuable intelligence that saved lives. The most interesting of these, alas, [...]
The body of Staff Sergeant Keith Maupin, the American soldier who was captured and murdered nearly four years ago, has finally been officially identified. Sgt. Keith Matthew Maupin’s parents vowed to never let the U.S. Army forget about finding their son. Their efforts included trips to the Pentagon and even meeting with President Bush, but [...]
A few years back, the horrific videos of Islamic terrorists sawing off the heads of kidnapped hostages on video had the Internet abuzz. Eventually, though, the tactic lost its shock value and it seemed to backfire, causing disgust among the Muslim populations who had otherwise been sympathetic to the Islamist cause. Indeed, there were so [...]
A video of American hostage Ahmed Qusai al-Taayie has been released. A Shiite militant group has issued a video of an Iraqi-American soldier who was kidnapped nearly four months ago while visiting his wife in downtown Baghdad, a U.S. television network reported Wednesday. The U.S. government has offered a $50,000 reward leading to the recovery [...]
Al Qaeda has ordered “a series of kidnappings and beheadings” in the UK, David Leppard reports for the Sunday Times. The “strategic” assassination instruction was issued by Al-Qaeda’s leaders in Pakistan and Iraq to dozens of their followers in this country. It was uncovered by MI5 last autumn, senior security sources say. As a result [...]
Kidnapped FOX News journalists Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig have been released unharmed. Two Fox News journalists were released Sunday, nearly two weeks after being seized by militants, ending the longest-running drama involving foreign hostages in the Gaza Strip. American correspondent Steve Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig of New Zealand were dropped off at Gaza [...]
Rusty Shackleford has strong reason to believe that the group behind the kidnapping of Fox News journalists Steve Centanni and Olaf Wigg are an “al Qaeda 3.0″ group that sees Abu Musab al Zarqawi as a source for inspiration. Given that Zarqawi got on the map by personally beheading hostages on videotape, that’s bad news [...]
An al Qaeda faction has released a video showing the murder of two soldiers captured June 19. SITE reports: The Mujahideen Shura Council in Iraq issued today, July 10, 2006, a 4:39 minute video that shows the mutilated corpses of the two American soldiers the group stated to have captured on June 19, 2006. The [...]
Four Russian diplomats were murdered yesterday by Muslim terrorists. CNN: A group linked to al Qaeda said it has killed four Russian diplomats it had held hostage, according to a statement and video on a Web site Sunday. The group — the Mujahedeen Shura Council — said it had beheaded three of the men and [...]
Three cops and an American resident too. But not much press attention. Why? Maybe because it didn’t happen 6000 miles away in Baghdad, but 25 miles away in Rosarito Beach, Baja California Norte (BCN), Mexico (near Tijuana, and in the same municipality/municipo). The LA Times reports Mexican authorities discovered the decapitated bodies of three police [...]
An al Qaeda-linked Iraqi terrorist group released a new hostage beheading video yesterday, presumably in an attempt to regain momentum after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s assassination. Insurgents signaled the fight is still on after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s death, posting an Internet video Saturday showing the beheading of three alleged Shiite death squad members in revenge for [...]
Michael Berg, whose son Nicholas was the first man beheaded on video by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said today that Zarqawi’s death is a tragedy and President Bush is a bigger terrorist. The father of Nicholas Berg, a U.S. contractor believed to have been beheaded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq, said Thursday that al-Zarqawi’s killing [...]
Rusty Shackleford reports, A gruesome beheading video delivered to the Sunday Times proporting to be of slain journalist Atwar Bahjat is a hoax. On Sunday, May 7th, the Times reported that they had received a low-quality video of Atwar Bahjat being slowly beheaded. That video is now being circulated on the internet as the “Atwar [...]
John Stevenson collects statements made by the Christian Peacemaker Teams after this morning’s daring rescue by Coalition military personnel from Islamist terrorists who had already murdered one of their fellows. Their press release does not even mention, let alone thank, the men who risked their lives for their rescue, noting merely their “joy” that their [...]
The remaining hostages held with the murdered Tom Fox have been rescued in a daring commando operation. Three Christian peace activists kidnapped last year in Iraq were freed Thursday in an early morning military operation, the British Embassy in Iraq announced. The announcement came two weeks after their colleague and fellow hostage, Tom Fox of [...]
Tom Fox has been killed in Iraq by his kidnappers. An American who was among four Christian activists kidnapped last year in Iraq has been killed, a State Department spokesman said Friday. The FBI verified that a body found in Iraq Friday morning was that of Tom Fox, 54, of Clear Brook, Va., spokesman Noel [...]
Ronald Schulz, an American electrician working in Iraq, has reportedly been murdered by an Islamist terrorist group. U.S. hostage killed, Iraq militant group says (MSNBC) An Iraqi insurgent group said Thursday in an Internet posting that it killed a U.S. security consultant it had taken hostage. The claim̢۪s authenticity could not be immediately verified. The [...]
The other shoe has dropped: The Swords of Righteousness Brigade terrorists holding four members of the so-called Christian Peacemaker Teams* have threatened to kill them unless all prisoners are released from U.S. and Iraqi detention centers on a video shown on Al-Jazeera. Iraq kidnappers threaten to kill hostages (AP/USA Today) The kidnappers of four Christian [...]
A terrorist group calling itself The Swords of Righteousness Brigade has released a video of four Western peace activists taken hostage in Iraq. Video Shows Activists Kidnapped in Iraq (AP) Al-Jazeera broadcast an insurgent video Tuesday showing four peace activists taken hostage in Iraq, with a previously unknown group claiming responsibility for the kidnappings. The [...]
Roy Hallums has been freed, thanks to a daring rescue. American, Iraqi captives freed in Iraq (CNN) Acting on a tip from a detainee, coalition forces rescued two hostages, including an American held hostage since November, the U.S. military said Wednesday. Roy Hallums and an Iraqi man were freed “from captivity in an isolated farm [...]
Taliban claims it has killed missing U.S. soldier (Reuters) Taliban guerrillas said on Saturday they had killed a missing American commando they claimed to have captured in Afghanistan. The U.S. military said it had no information to support the claim. “We killed him at 11 o’clock today; we killed him using a knife and chopped [...]
Mohamad Munaf, an American translator who was among those reported kidnapped with three Romanian March 28, has been indicted by Romanian authorities for having been a plotter in that kidnapping. International news from swissinfo, the Swiss news platform (SwissInfo – Reuters) Romania on Friday charged the translator for three Romanian journalists who were held in [...]
Rusty Shackleford is on the case with Part I of an indepth interview with Susan Hallums, the ex-wife of Roy Hallums, who is an American being held hostage in Iraq but who seems to have been written off as a casualty of war by the Bush administration. Frankly, it’s difficult to read; this woman has [...]
An American hostage was shown on videotape urging the U.S. government to negotiate his release, Al Jazeera has reported. U.S. Hostage in Iraq Appeals for Life on Video-TV (Reuters) An American hostage in Iraq urged the U.S. government in a video to negotiate with his captors to save his life, Al Jazeera television reported on [...]
Rusty Shackleford is reporting on yet another beheading by al Zarqawi’s al Qaeda in Iraq. From the Associated Press: A statement shown on the video identified the Iraqi National Guard member as Jassim Mohammed Hussein Mahdi, who appeared to be in his early 20s, and the black banner of al-Qaida in Iraq, which is headed [...]
Italy Rejects U.S. Version of Iraq Shooting (Reuters) Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena, shot and wounded after being freed in Iraq, said Sunday U.S. forces may have deliberately targeted her because Washington opposed Italy’s policy of dealing with kidnappers. She offered no evidence for her claim, but the sentiment reflected growing anger in Italy over the [...]
U.S. Fires on Freed Journalist (Fox News – AP) A freed Italian hostage was injured and an Italian secret service agent killed Friday after a U.S. armored vehicle fired on a car in which they were riding in Iraq, two Italian news agencies reported. The Apcom and ANSA news agencies said that Giuliana Sgrena, a [...]
U.S. Forces Storm House, Free Egyptians in Iraq U.S. forces in Iraq stormed a house in Baghdad on Monday and freed Egyptian telecommunications engineers kidnapped since Sunday, the head of their Egyptian parent company said. Naguib Sawiris, chairman of Egypt’s Orascom Telecom, said U.S. forces raided a villa, possibly in the mainly Sunni al-Aadhamiya district, [...]
Web Site Claims GI Captured in Iraq (AP) Iraqi militants claimed in a Web statement Tuesday to have taken an American soldier hostage and threatened to behead him in 72 hours unless the Americans release Iraqi prisoners. The posting, on a Web site that frequently carried militants’ statements, included a photo of what appeared to [...]
Iraqi Candidate Killed on Videotape; Other Attacks Leave a Marine and Several Iraqis Dead [RSS] (NYT) Insurgents unleashed a string of fierce attacks across central and northern Iraq on Thursday that left nearly a dozen Iraqis and an American marine dead, while the militant group led by the country’s most wanted guerrilla posted a video [...]
U.S. Hostage Pleads for His Life in Iraq (AP) An American hostage pleaded for his life with a rifle pointed at his head in a video released Tuesday while 11 Iraqi police died in fierce clashes and gunmen assassinated a senior judge in slayings highlighting security risks ahead of this weekend’s elections. [...] In the [...]
Militants Behead Iraqi Soldier in Rebel Stronghold (Reuters) Militants loyal to al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi beheaded an Iraqi soldier in a rebel stronghold in broad daylight on Friday and left a note warning other Iraqi troops to quit, witnesses said. They said nine men pulled up in two cars to the center of [...]
Abducted Catholic Archbishop of Mosul Freed in Iraq (NYT) A 66-year-old Syrian Catholic archbishop kidnapped by masked gunmen was freed today, a day after his abduction, without the payment of any ransom, the Vatican said. Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa, the head of the diocese in Mosul, a crime-ridden city in northern Iraq, was walking in [...]
Catholic Archbishop Abducted in Iraq (Fox – AP) A Roman Catholic archbishop in Mosul, Iraq, has been kidnapped, the Vatican (search) said Monday. It identified the kidnapped man as Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa, 66, of the Syrian Catholic Church, one of the branches of the Roman Catholic Church. “The Holy See deplores in the firmest [...]
Nigeria: Controversy Rages Over Beheading of New-Born Baby in Warri (allAfrica.com) CONTROVERSY continued, yesterday, on the beheading, weekend, of a day-old baby by a medical doctor in Warri to save the life of the mother as some medical doctors described the decapitation as archaic, but the doctor at the centre of the storm, Dr. Lanre [...]
U.S. Marine in Mysterious Case Declared Deserter (Reuters) U.S. Marine Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, charged with desertion in a mysterious case in which he left his unit in Iraq and turned up in Lebanon, has again gone absent and appears to have returned to Lebanon, officials said on Wednesday. The U.S. military has tracked records [...]
Hezbollah TV loses satellite feed to U.S (AP) Al-Manar, the television station of Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants that has glorified suicide bombers, lost its satellite feed to the United States on Saturday after Washington put it on a list of terror organizations. The exclusion from U.S. TV screens came less than a week after France banned [...]
Italian captive Santoro killed in Iraq (Aljazeera) An Italian captive identified as Salvatore Santoro has been killed by his captors in Iraq, Aljazeera television reported. Aljazeera on Thursday broadcast pictures of Santoro’s passport and showed him sitting bound and blindfolded in a ditch with a gun to his head. In separate footage, four masked and [...]
Blasts punctuate country’s unrest (ContraCostaTimes) Police officials disclosed Thursday that Imad Jabouri, a lieutenant colonel in the Iraqi traffic police, was grabbed a day earlier from in front of his home in the Sabaa Bour neighborhood in northern Baghdad by several armed men as he left for work. The men beheaded Jabouri, who directed traffic [...]
U.S. finds hostage sites in Fallujah (Seattle Times) U.S. troops have found close to 20 “atrocity sites” in Fallujah used by insurgents to imprison, torture and kill hostages, a U.S. military officer said yesterday. Marine Maj. Jim West said in addition to weapons caches, troops clearing the city after a major U.S.-led offensive had found [...]
Army of Ansar al-Sunnah Execution Video, More Beheadings in Mosul (The Jawa Report) The Army of Ansar al-Sunnah has released a video of the murder of two officials of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Mosul. This brings the total number of people murdered by terrorists in Mosul over the past week to 17. Images from [...]
General: Osama, insurgency trying to communicate (CNN – Reuters) Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and the network’s ally in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, are trying to communicate with each other even as they continue to elude U.S. forces, a senior U.S. general said on Friday. Air Force Lt. Gen. Lance Smith also said U.S. [...]
Aid worker Margaret Hassan believed dead after TV receives video of woman’s slaying (AP) Margaret Hassan, a kidnapped aid worker who spent decades bringing food and medicine to Iraqis, was believed murdered after Al-Jazeera television said Tuesday it received a video showing a hooded militant shooting a blindfolded woman in the head. Hassan’s family in [...]
Iraq Group Says Kidnaps American Man -Jazeera TV (Reuters) Iraqi insurgents have kidnapped an American who works as a manager at Baghdad airport, Al Jazeera television said on Friday. The Arabic channel showed TV footage of the man in a video it said it received from his kidnappers, the 1920 Revolution Brigades, a group which [...]
Iraqi hostage freed by marines in Fallujah (CBC News) U.S. marines pushing into Fallujah said Thursday that they had found a starving Iraqi hostage in a building they were searching. The man was chained at his wrists and ankles and shackled to a wall. He told reporters he thought he would be killed. He’d been [...]
Militants threaten to behead Allawi’s abducted relatives (Independent) Militants have threatened to behead three abducted members of the family of Iyad Allawi, Iraq’s interim Prime Minister, unless he calls a halt to the assault on Fallujah. Ghazi Allawi, a 75-year-old first cousin of the premier, was taken away by gunmen, along with his wife and [...]
“Hostage slaughterhouses” found in Fallujah (MSNBC) Iraqi troops have found “hostage slaughterhouses” in Fallujah where foreign captives were held and killed, the commander of Iraqi forces in the city said Wednesday. Troops found CDs and records of people taken captive in houses in the northern part of Fallujah, Maj. Gen. Abdul Qader Mohammed Jassem Mohan [...]
US soldier reported captured in Iraq (Sidney Morning Herald) Insurgents have captured an American soldier in the Iraqi city of Samarra, north of Baghdad, an Iraqi police spokesman said yesterday. Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed Ahmed of Samarra police told reporters the soldier had been seized on Monday night by gunmen in two Opel cars. He said [...]
Four hostages seized in Baghdad (UPI) Insurgents seized four hostages, including one U.S. resident, as they worked at their Baghdad office Monday, the BBC reported. Earlier Monday gunmen murdered Baghdad’s deputy governor, Hatem Kamil Abdul Fatah, in a drive-by shooting south of the city. None of the identities of the four victims was immediately available, [...]