Unspeakable Violence Is Correct

[Annie]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2168496,00.html

The Sunday Times May 07, 2006

Part of me died when I saw this cruel killing
HALA JABER

EVEN by the stupefying standards of Iraq’s unspeakable violence, the murder of Atwar Bahjat, one of the country’s top television journalists, was an act of exceptional cruelty.

Nobody but her killers knew just how much she had suffered until a film showing her death on February 22 at the hands of two musclebound men in military uniforms emerged last week. Her family’s worst fears of what might have happened have been far exceeded by the reality.

Bahjat was abducted after making three live broadcasts from the edge of her native city of Samarra on the day its golden-domed Shi’ite mosque was blown up, allegedly by Sunni terrorists.

Roadblocks prevented her from entering the city and her anxiety was obvious to everyone who saw her final report. Night was falling and tensions were high.

Two men drove up in a pick-up truck, asking for her. She appealed to a small crowd that had gathered around her crew but nobody was willing to help her. It was reported at the time that she had been shot dead with her cameraman and sound man.

We now know that it was not that swift for Bahjat. First she was stripped to the waist, a humiliation for any woman but particularly so for a pious Muslim who concealed her hair, arms and legs from men other than her father and brother.

Then her arms were bound behind her back. A golden locket in the shape of Iraq that became her glittering trademark in front of the television cameras must have been removed at some point — it is nowhere to be seen in the grainy film, which was made by someone who pointed a mobile phone at her as she lay on a patch of earth in mortal terror.

By the time filming begins, the condemned woman has been blindfolded with a white bandage.

It is stained with blood that trickles from a wound on the left side of her head. She is moaning, although whether from the pain of what has already been done to her or from the fear of what is about to be inflicted is unclear.

Just as Bahjat bore witness to countless atrocities that she covered for her television station, Al-Arabiya, during Iraq’s descent into sectarian conflict, so the recording of her execution embodies the depths of the country’s depravity after three years of war.

A large man dressed in military fatigues, boots and cap approaches from behind and covers her mouth with his left hand. In his right hand, he clutches a large knife with a black handle and an 8in blade. He proceeds to cut her throat from the middle, slicing from side to side.

Her cries — “Ah, ah, ah” — can be heard above the “Allahu akbar” (God is greatest) intoned by the holder of the mobile phone.

Even then, there is no quick release for Bahjat. Her executioner suddenly stands up, his job only half done. A second man in a dark T-shirt and camouflage trousers places his right khaki boot on her abdomen and pushes down hard eight times, forcing a rush of blood from her wounds as she moves her head from right to left.

::nobreak::Only now does the executioner return to finish the task. He hacks off her head and drops it to the ground, then picks it up again and perches it on her bare chest so that it faces the film-maker in a grotesque parody of one of her pieces to camera.

The voice of one of the Arab world’s most highly regarded and outspoken journalists has been silenced. She was 30.

As a friend of Bahjat who had worked with her on a variety of tough assignments, I found it hard enough to bear the news of her murder. When I saw it replayed, it was as if part of me had died with her. How much more gruelling it must have been for a close family friend who watched the film this weekend and cried when he heard her voice.

The friend, who cannot be identified, knew nothing of her beheading but had been guarding other horrifying details of Bahjat’s ordeal. She had nine drill holes in her right arm and 10 in her left, he said. The drill had also been applied to her legs, her navel and her right eye. One can only hope that these mutilations were made after her death.

There is a wider significance to the appalling footage and the accompanying details. The film appears to show for the first time an Iraqi death squad in action.

The death squads have proliferated in recent months, spreading terror on both sides of the sectarian divide. The clothes worn by Bahjat’s killers are bound to be scrutinised for clues to their identity.

Bahjat, with her professionalism and impartiality as a half-Shi’ite, half-Sunni, would have been the first to warn against any hasty conclusions, however. The uniforms seem to be those of the Iraqi National Guard but that does not mean she was murdered by guardsmen. The fatigues could have been stolen for disguise.

A source linked to the Sunni insurgency who supplied the film to The Sunday Times in London claimed it had come from a mobile phone found on the body of a Shi’ite Badr Brigade member killed during fighting in Baghdad.

But there is no evidence the Iranian-backed Badr militia was responsible. Indeed, there are conflicting indications. The drill is said to be a popular tool of torture with the Badr Brigade. But beheading is a hallmark of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, led by the Sunni Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

According to a report that was circulating after Bahjat’s murder, she had enraged the Shi’ite militias during her coverage of the bombing of the Samarra shrine by filming the interior minister, Bayan Jabr, ordering police to release two Iranians they had arrested.

There is no confirmation of this and the Badr Brigade, with which she maintained good relations, protected her family after her funeral came under attack in Baghdad from a bomber and then from a gunman. Three people died that day.

Bahjat’s reporting of terrorist attacks and denunciations of violence to a wide audience across the Middle East made her plenty of enemies among both Shi’ite and Sunni gunmen. Death threats from Sunnis drove her away to Qatar for a spell but she believed her place was in Iraq and she returned to frontline reporting despite the risks.

We may never know who killed Bahjat or why. But the manner of her death testifies to the breakdown of law, order and justice that she so bravely highlighted and illustrates the importance of a cause she espoused with passion.

Bahjat advocated the unity of Iraq and saw her golden locket as a symbol of her belief. She put it with her customary on-air eloquence on the last day of her life: “Whether you are a Sunni, a Shi’ite or a Kurd, there is no difference between Iraqis united in fear for this nation.”

 

[Annie]

Here's more, but it's very, very graphic. Links at site:

http://www.mudvillegazette.com/archives/004507.html

May 07, 2006
The Killing of Atwar Bahjat
Greyhawk

Warning: The following contains a graphic description of a brutal murder - probably exceeding what you imagine one human being could do to another. However, it is typical of the work of Islamic terrorists. Read on only if you want a bit of insight into the nature of the enemy in this global war. If not, please skip to the final paragraph.

Shortly after the bombing of the Samarra shrine, an Iraqi journalist covering the aftermath was kidnapped and murdered. Her story was mentioned briefly in the western media, but was covered extensively in the Middle East.

Now a video of the brutal murder has surfaced, apparently made with a mobile phone with video capability.

Two men drove up in a pick-up truck, asking for her. She appealed to a small crowd that had gathered around her crew but nobody was willing to help her. It was reported at the time that she had been shot dead with her cameraman and sound man.

We now know that it was not that swift for Bahjat. First she was stripped to the waist, a humiliation for any woman but particularly so for a pious Muslim who concealed her hair, arms and legs from men other than her father and brother.

Then her arms were bound behind her back. A golden locket in the shape of Iraq that became her glittering trademark in front of the television cameras must have been removed at some point — it is nowhere to be seen in the grainy film, which was made by someone who pointed a mobile phone at her as she lay on a patch of earth in mortal terror.

By the time filming begins, the condemned woman has been blindfolded with a white bandage.

It is stained with blood that trickles from a wound on the left side of her head. She is moaning, although whether from the pain of what has already been done to her or from the fear of what is about to be inflicted is unclear.

Just as Bahjat bore witness to countless atrocities that she covered for her television station, Al-Arabiya, during Iraq’s descent into sectarian conflict, so the recording of her execution embodies the depths of the country’s depravity after three years of war.

A large man dressed in military fatigues, boots and cap approaches from behind and covers her mouth with his left hand. In his right hand, he clutches a large knife with a black handle and an 8in blade. He proceeds to cut her throat from the middle, slicing from side to side.

Her cries — “Ah, ah, ah” — can be heard above the “Allahu akbar” (God is greatest) intoned by the holder of the mobile phone.

Even then, there is no quick release for Bahjat. Her executioner suddenly stands up, his job only half done. A second man in a dark T-shirt and camouflage trousers places his right khaki boot on her abdomen and pushes down hard eight times, forcing a rush of blood from her wounds as she moves her head from right to left.

Only now does the executioner return to finish the task. He hacks off her head and drops it to the ground, then picks it up again and perches it on her bare chest so that it faces the film-maker in a grotesque parody of one of her pieces to camera.

The voice of one of the Arab world’s most highly regarded and outspoken journalists has been silenced. She was 30.​

Other gruesome details from a family friend: She had nine drill holes in her right arm and 10 in her left, he said. The drill had also been applied to her legs, her navel and her right eye.

Her funeral procession was attacked twice:

On Saturday two attacks targeted the funeral procession for Atwar Bahjat, the well-known Al Arabiya correspondent killed with two crew members Wednesday while reporting on the violence engulfing Samarra, where the Al-Askariya "Golden" Mosque was bombed.

Two police officers were killed and five others wounded, as the cortege, led and guarded by Iraqi police and soldiers, entered the western Baghdad neighborhood of Abu Ghraib, Iraqi Emergency Police told CNN.
<...>
The incident happened near the home of Harith Al-Dari, the head of the Muslim Scholars Association, and along a road that splits, linking Baghdad with Syria and Jordan.

When the shots rang out, security officers ordered people in the convoy to abandon their vehicles and hide behind nearby houses.

Later, as the procession resumed toward the cemetery, a roadside bomb exploded, causing an unknown number of casualties, including deaths, said al-Nasery.​

Like many Iraqis, Atwar Bahjat was half-Shi’ite, half-Sunni, and completely opposed to the violence destroying her country. As the London Times story notes, we may never know who her killers were.

Her cries — “Ah, ah, ah” — can be heard above the “Allahu akbar” (God is greatest) intoned by the holder of the mobile phone.
​

The video was given to the Times by a "source linked to the Sunni insurgency" but that source claimed it had been found on the body of a Shi’ite Badr Brigade member killed during fighting in Baghdad. While Bahjat had received death threats from Sunnis, the Times says the Shiite Badr Brigade acted as protection for her family during the funeral. If so, they might have been the targets of the attack near the home of the head of the Association of Muslim Scholars - that group maintains "close ties" with the "Sunni resistance".

Regardless of which side in the conflict killed her (and I have my own thoughts on that - in the eyes of her killers her greatest crime was most likely being a woman outside of a kitchen) the London Times reporter can't resist a mild apology for their act:

Just as Bahjat bore witness to countless atrocities that she covered for her television station, Al-Arabiya, during Iraq’s descent into sectarian conflict, so the recording of her execution embodies the depths of the country’s depravity after three years of war.​

In truth, it represents a depth of depravity achieved over centuries. From the description, her killers hadn't just conceived or improvised their method execution on the spot - they seem to have been well practiced. But such is the nature of the enemy in this war, and perhaps this is their most sacred and well honed knowledge: if a brutality can be inflicted that exceeds all human ability to comprehend, the humans will find a way to deny it.

Or excuse it.

Or simply look the other way.

Posted by Greyhawk at 02:14 PM

 

[HopeandGlory]

Thank you for high-lighting this. Anyone who doubts the intention of these people needs to read articles like this. If you're not with them, you're against them. If you're against them - you deserve to die.

Poor woman - I wonder if her death was politically motivated or simply because of the fact she was doing a so-called, high-profile 'man's' job?!

This was torture and cruelty just for the hell of it. Barbaric and totally sick-making!

 

[Annie]

Thank you for high-lighting this. Anyone who doubts the intention of these people needs to read articles like this. If you're not with them, you're against them. If you're against them - you deserve to die.

Poor woman - I wonder if her death was politically motivated or simply because of the fact she was doing a so-called, high-profile 'man's' job?!

This was torture and cruelty just for the hell of it. Barbaric and totally sick-making!

You're welcome. Too many in our countries are trying to get 'back to normal' forgetting normal was always a chimera for reality. There has always been evil, for too much of history Islam has been one face of it.

 

[BATMAN]

I think this is horendous. Unfortunately some people are getting "use" to this. Others go as to not hear about it.

For what it's worth - Wikipedia is saying this about the murder.
I ran it through snopes search - but didn't find anything.

Photographs distributed by the photo agency Getty Images shows what appears to be the bloody but intact body of Atwar Bahjat, fully clothed and still wearing her headscarf. Atwar Bahjat images on Getty

On May 7, 2006, The Sunday Times of Britain published an article written by Arab journalist Hala Jaber, in which she describes watching a camera phone video of a person being stripped of their clothing and beheaded. Jaber believed the person was Bahjat. It is believed by some that the video actually shows the murder of a Nepalese man by The Army of Ansar al-Sunna in August of 2004. Report on video
FULL INFO

 

[pegwinn]

Stolen and posted elsewhere with attribution. This needs to be told. I wish we could ratchet up the violent deaths of these pigs and thier supporters.

 

[Bonnie]

Horribly gruesome..........

But hey if we just have coffee with them I'm SURE we can come to some kind of understanding

 

[Gunny]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2168496,00.html

I'm waiting for someone to come along and atempt to justify this crap. THIS is what REAL torture is. Where are the lefties up in arms NOW?

 

[manu1959]

all the while the liberals of the world say:

"we have brought this on ourselves"

"these are reasonable peaceful people if only we could sit down and speak with them"

"these people deserve due process and to be treated in accordance with the Geneva convention"

me?.... i say we get medieval on their asses

 

[Gunny]

all the while the liberals of the world say:

"we have brought this on ourselves"

"these are reasonable peaceful people if only we could sit down and speak with them"

"these people deserve due process and to be treated in accordance with the Geneva convention"

me?.... i say we get medieval on their asses

Killing an enemy I can understand, even when it's the bad guys, I can at least understand it.

Doing this shit is over the top and I can only hope and pray their sins are revisited on them sevenfold.

 

[BATMAN]

THIS is what REAL torture is. Where are the lefties up in arms NOW?

They're not up in arms because no loud music was played, no underwear placed on top of the head, and no sleep deprivation.

 

[Gunny]

They're not up in arms because no loud music was played, no underwear placed on top of the head, and no sleep deprivation.

oh yeah .... now THAT is torture.

 

[Diuretic]

I'm waiting for someone to come along and atempt to justify this crap. THIS is what REAL torture is. Where are the lefties up in arms NOW?

Why would anyone in their right mind try to justify this?

 

[Gunny]

Why would anyone in their right mind try to justify this?

I said "lefty's," not anyone in their right mind.

 

[Diuretic]

I said "lefty's," not anyone in their right mind.

No you didn't. This is what you wrote:

I'm waiting for someone to come along and atempt to justify this crap. THIS is what REAL torture is. Where are the lefties up in arms NOW?

There are three separate points.

1. You were waiting for someone to come along and attempt to justify it. You're still waiting and you'll be waiting a long time, that is unless some nutter in an internet cafe gets hold of a computer.

2.You said that this is what real torture is. Fair point. But what's the difference between REAL torture and any other type of torture?

3. Then you asked, "where are the Lefties up in arms NOW?" I'd say probably sitting there disgusted beyond belief.

 

[manu1959]

No you didn't. This is what you wrote:

There are three separate points.

1. You were waiting for someone to come along and attempt to justify it. You're still waiting and you'll be waiting a long time, that is unless some nutter in an internet cafe gets hold of a computer.

2.You said that this is what real torture is. Fair point. But what's the difference between REAL torture and any other type of torture?

3. Then you asked, "where are the Lefties up in arms NOW?" I'd say probably sitting there disgusted beyond belief.

is fraternity hazzing tourture....had an sf lefty tell me she deserved it

 

[Diuretic]

is fraternity hazzing tourture....had an sf lefty tell me she deserved it

Don't think so. I went through a particular institution (not prison) that featured as a form of initiation, applying shoe polish to private parts - very adolescent and it stopped the day a fellow got injured.

 

[deaddude]

is fraternity hazzing tourture....had an sf lefty tell me she deserved it

Yes and their are conservatives who hate gays so much that they believe God is punishing the US by killing soldiers. You get wackos in any ideology, using them to blacken the ideology as a whole is underhanded.

 

[Gunny]

No you didn't. This is what you wrote:



There are three separate points.

1. You were waiting for someone to come along and attempt to justify it. You're still waiting and you'll be waiting a long time, that is unless some nutter in an internet cafe gets hold of a computer.

2.You said that this is what real torture is. Fair point. But what's the difference between REAL torture and any other type of torture?

3. Then you asked, "where are the Lefties up in arms NOW?" I'd say probably sitting there disgusted beyond belief.

Well, that WAS supposed to be humor, but since you want to play ......

I really didn't expect anyone to come along and attempt to justify the act. The absolute silence from the left is all the "justification" required.

Where's the every-other-thread "Abu Ghraib this and Abu Ghraib that"? Or pointing of fingers in every direction but at the people whose turn-a-blind-eye political philosophy allows this kind of people to fometn hatred, breed, and grow?

Where's all your liberal "moral outrage?" The pages and pages and hours and hours and days and days and months and months of nonstop running off at the mouth that accompanied prisoners being mistreated in Abu Ghraib?

Last I looked, there were TWO threads on this subject on this board ....both posted by conservatives. Why IS that? Doesn't the same moral outrage apply to the scumbags that are our enemies you apply to those serving our Nation?

You don't need to justify a damned thing. You are condemned by your silence.

 

[Annie]

Yes and their are conservatives who hate gays so much that they believe God is punishing the US by killing soldiers. You get wackos in any ideology, using them to blacken the ideology as a whole is underhanded.

And their fellow Christians reactions? Can't really say the same for MS Muslims.