Iraq Hostage

[MaiLuk]

Sorry just noticed you are looking in dubai etc. No green zone there.

[Zorro]

Mailuk said

I'm going also, probably february time frame.

 

Are you still thinking of coming to Saudi?

 

A Frenchman was gunned down in Jeddah yesterday as he was driving around an occurrence all too familiar these days.

The ME is not a great place to be with Bush and Sharon policies creating a very nasty atmosphere for westerners.

 

There has been a steady exodus of western expats over the last few months and the trend looks likely to continue.

Don't come unless you are getting paid a lot of money

BTW Do you look western?

If not you will probably be okay.

[Zorro]

I had an interesting talk with a guy last night who just came out of Iraq.

 

He said that the Iraq hostages actually lived in the green zone but had left it to meet some hookers in a house outside the green zone.

Apparently they were set up by the hookers.

Interesting!

[MaiLuk]

decided the pay was not enough to justify a move to sa, so will go to iraq, possibly Kabul. You still in sa or did you move to bahrain?

 

On the hostages, the news stories from different news sites with different journalists on the ground all said the guys lived in that house. They even quoted neighbors as saying they lived there and talked about the guards not showing up at the house for work and the farang who turned on the generator which is something he would do at his house. Well i have no personal knowledge so can't say beyond that.

[MaiLuk]

Yes i look western, blonde hair no beard no head gear

[Zorro]

I cannot verify that what this guy told me was true but he had just got out of Iraq the day before ...who knows?

 

I am still in Saudi....I could move to Bahrain and commute everyday ...it is about 1 hours drive each way

 

Iraq or Afghanistan....nice options...good luck

[MekhongKurt]

I would like to make an open appeal to people to show support and sympathy for Jack Armstrong -- a dear friend --, Jack Hensley, and Kenneth Bigley, in particular, and for any and all other slaughtered victims of those pig terrorists, whether you believe they were stupid to be there or not. As I wrote elsewhere on this site, I know for a fact that while Jack Armstrong *did* like the money, when he narrowly escaped capture some months ago and returned here, he told me he felt a moral imperative to return to try to do whatever little bit he could to help the innocent Iraqi people. He went back eyes open, heart hurting for those unfornates.

 

I have set up a dedicated e-mail address for condolences for Armstrong in particular, but also for Hensley, Bigley, and all the others, past, present, and future. The e-mail address is thaijack92004@yahoo.com. On my own website I have a guestbook where you can post any comments you like at http://pub23.bravenet.com/guestbook/show.php?usernum=1951559487&cpv=1. [Note to Moderator: this is *not* a commercial announcement; I don't make a satang from my site, and am talking only about memorializing the victims, not making money. And if no one goes there, fine -- they can write to the e-mail address, which is, of course, entirely divorced from the site.]

 

In the case of Kenneth Bigley in particular, his hometown newspaper has set up a special dedicated message board for people to voice their support, sympathy, and hope for his safe release. You can see that message board over at http://www.icliverpool.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/country/. You may have to copy and paste the longer URL's into the address bar of your browser.

 

Friends of Amrstrong's had a moving celebratory memorial for him in particular last Saturday, but we remembered Hensley and Paul Johnson, another denizen of our favorite venue, other slaughtered victims, and held out hope for Ken, who is yet another denizen of our neighborhood.

 

It was wonderfully soul-cleansing. Now I and the others find ourselves gradually, ever so gradually, able to move on.

 

If any of you are willing to help spread the word regarding the above links, I will be deeply appreciative, as will the rest of us who knew Jack Armstrong. His wife, Mother, family members, and other loved ones will be, too.

 

The horror has moved ever so gradually closer for me personally. Friends of my Mother's knew Daniel Pearl -- the husband was a colleague of his at the Wall Street Journal. Though I never met Paul Johnson, I have met his wife, passingly, a few times. And now this horror show. Armstrong I knew well, Hensley not at all, and Ken passingly (just for beers, etc.), but all 3 are/were fellow denizens.

 

Thanks to the operators of Nanaplaz.com for providing this venue for expression.

 

Mekhong Kurt

[BelgianBoy]

MK,

 

Hats of for what you do, lots of respect from me.

 

Any chance that you could point me also to any address or website to send my condoleances for the 10.000+ of innocent dead Iraqi's killed in the process of being "liberated" ?????

Thanks for that.

 

BB

[Neo]

It will always be appalling to see people slain, especially when they are just trying to help, but these cases are tempered by the knowledge they themselves made a decision to walk into the jaws of the militants. The US state department clearly warns its citizens to stay out of Iraq. The "collateral damage", that is common Iraqi people who were simply going about their daily life as best they can, but end up dead in the crossfire remain nameless and faceless. Even the innocent 9/11 victims receive memorials, continual news coverage, high profile speeches, and millions of dollars in compensation. The "collateral damage" is referred to as an acceptable number that is part of an equation. But they are human beings with families, lives, and dreams just the same. My sympathies to all.

[MaiLuk]

Mideast - AFP

 

 

British hostage may have been handed over to new group

 

1 hour, 1 minute ago Mideast - AFP

 

 

 

LONDON (AFP) - The younger brother of Ken Bigley, the British hostage held in Iraq (news - web sites), said he believed the engineer had been handed over to a "more moderate gang" that would be more likely to free him.

 

 

Paul Bigley, who spoke to AFP by telephone from his home in Amsterdam, said Monday that he was not letting up in his freelance campaign to win his brother's release, by now trying to establish contact with King Abdullah II of Jordan.

 

 

The younger Bigley said his business contacts in Kuwait led him to believe that his brother had been handed over "to a more moderate gang, but I don't know who they are."

 

 

He added he did not know whether such a handover was linked to his own campaign which has led him to speak directly with the son of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi and with the Irish government.

 

 

Dublin has in turn been in contact with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (news - web sites), who sent an official to Baghdad, and is now trying to involve King Abdullah in the campaign for Bigley's release.

 

 

Bigley, 62, and two American colleagues were kidnapped 18 days ago by the Tawhid wal Jihad group (Unity and Holy War) led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, suspected of links to al-Qaeda. The two Americans were beheaded.

 

 

Following unconfirmed reports Saturday in the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai Al-Aam that Zarqawi had handed Bigley over to another group likely to demand a ransom, Paul Bigley has said his family would pay to get his brother back.

 

 

"And this thing is going down in Kuwait, one way or another," Paul Bigley told AFP after consulting with his business contacts in Kuwait.

 

 

He hoped the case of his brother would play out the way it did for two female Italian aid workers who were freed by their captors in Iraq after three weeks in captivity and who passed through Kuwait on their return to Italy.

 

 

"My bag is packed and I have an open-ended ticket and I can get to the airport as soon as something is happening," said Bigley.

 

 

"I wouldn't use the word confident, I'm very hopeful and I'd like to be there to embrace Ken and Ken would like to embrace me. God knows, when he's set free it'll be euphoric for him but it will be absolute trauma for him as well."

 

 

Bigley had earlier told Britain's Press Association news agency that it was "my gut feeling, and the gut feeling of about 25 prominent people in Kuwait, that Ken is being held by a new group.

 

 

"The people telling me this are decent, honorable and high-level people, so I trust their instincts," he said.

 

 

"Whether it will be confirmed remains to be seen.

 

 

"I would much rather be dealing with people talking money than ones holding a government to ransom. Funds can always be found, somehow."

 

 

With the British government's hands "tied" because of its role in the US-led occupation of Iraq, the younger Bigley said he knew he had to rely on himself and others to win his brother's release.

 

 

From his own 28 years of experience doing business in the Gulf, he also knew that "things go by word of mouth in the Middle East" and back channels could produce results.

 

 

 

 

 

He said he had put trading business on hold while he spent 24 hours a day campaigning for his brother's release.

 

"All I have is a coffee pot, an excellent satellite system, I have an excellent computer system, and I've got mobile phones. Just me, I'm sitting here in my short pants and just trying to save this man's life."

 

He was waiting for his contacts with both the Irish and Kadhafi's son to bear fruit.

 

A journalist friend managed to put him in touch with Saif Kadhafi, who is studying in London.

 

"I said: 'Saif listen, you need to help me here, if you can. I don't want to be impertinent or embarrass anybody, but pick up the phone, for god's sake, and call your dad and ask him to make some noise on my behalf," Bigley told AFP.