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Al-Jazeera Airs Tape of Weeping Aid Worker
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Oct 22, 11:16 AM (ET)
By ROBERT H. REID
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Margaret Hassan, the kidnapped director of CARE International in Iraq, appeared on a videotape aired Friday, weeping and pleading with British Prime Minister Tony Blair to withdraw troops from Iraq "and not bring them to Baghdad" because "this might be my last hours."
"Please help me. Please help me," said a terrified Hassan, breaking down in tears and burying her face in a tissue. She said she might be killed like British hostage Kenneth Bigley, who was beheaded by his captors earlier this month.
"This might be my last hours," she said in the video aired by the Arabic television station Al-Jazeera. She begged the British people to "ask Mr. Blair to take the troops out of Iraq, and not to bring them here to Baghdad. That's why people like Mr. Bigely and myself are being caught. And maybe we will die like Mr. Bigley. Please, please, I beg of you."
Hassan - an Irish-British-Iraqi national who has been doing humanitarian work in Iraq for 30 years, including distributing medicine and food - appeared haggard, her eyes baggy as she stood alone in front of a bare wall.
She was visible only from the shoulders up, and no kidnappers appeared in the tape.
The wrenching appeal by Hassan, who was abducted Tuesday in Baghdad, puts new political pressure on Blair's government, a day after it agreed to a U.S. request that it redeploy troops from the south to the Baghdad region in order to free up U.S. troops to assault insurgents.
Blair's Downing Street office had no immediate comment on Friday's video.
Bigley's captors - said to be followers of Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi - dragged out his fate in an apparent attempt to undermine Blair. Bigley was kidnapped on Sept. 16 along with two Americans.
The two Americans were beheaded within days after deadlines passed. But the kidnappers put no deadline for Bigley's death and instead over several weeks released two videos showing him pleading for his life. Finally, footage was released in early October showing the 62-year-old being decapitated. His body - unlike those of the Americans - has not been found.
Bigley's captors, al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group, had demanded coalition authorities release all female prisoners held in Iraq. The group has been blamed for numerous car bombings and beheadings of other foreign hostages.
More than 150 foreigners have been abudcted - with more than 30 killed - and Hassan is the most prominent figure to be swept up in the kidnapping campaign. She is widely known for her charity work in the Middle East, was born in Dublin and was naturalized as an Iraqi after marrying an Iraqi man.
But her kidnappers, who pulled her from her car in the Iraqi capital and who have not identified themselves, have pointed in previous statements to her British citizenship.
An editor at Al-Jazeera, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the network received the tape Friday but refused to say how or where. He said the tape included only Hassan's statement.
The U.S. military believes al-Zarqawi is based in Fallujah, an insurgent stronghold west of the capital. U.S. Marines clashed with insurgents on Fallujah's outskirts and launched airstrikes at militant targets overnight, the U.S. command said Friday, ignoring a call from the city's leaders to halt new attacks.
Blair's government agreed Wednesday to move some 850 troops from the southern Basra region to more dangerous central Iraq - despite opposition within his own Labour Party, where some believed the move puts Britons in greater danger and serves to boost President Bush ahead of November elections.
The U.S. military requested the British redeployment to allow American forces to launch a new offensive to put down Sunni insurgents who control swaths of central Iraq ahead of Iraq's crucial elections, scheduled for January.
Insurgent attacks across the country have increased by about 25 percent since the beginning of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month that began last weekend, with mostly car bombs and strikes on civilians rather than direct assaults on U.S. forces, Pentagon officials say.
U.S. troops and insurgents also battled Friday near Buhriz, a former Saddam Hussein stronghold about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, exchanging gun, rocket and artillery fire as U.S. forces scoured palm groves in search of hidden rebel weaponry, the military said.
Between 20 and 25 insurgents were in the fight, Lt. Col. Keitron Todd told The Associated Press in nearby Baqouba. U.S. forces killed one suspected insurgent, but no Americans were reported dead, said Todd, the executive officer of 3rd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division.
Fallujah is considered the toughest insurgent stronghold. On Friday - after the night of fierce clashes and airstrikes around the city - the military said that "combat operations" have not begun and American forces have not entered the city. Coalition forces are still conducting "security operations," the military said.
Palestinian Jew said:They may be telling people who is giving them info. Obviously, they cannot say nationally who is their source because then they would not get further info in the future.
Hopefully they have been secretly giving info to gov't agencies, though I doubt it.
MJDuncan1982 said:Yea, we shouldn't start expecting them to reveal sources. It is a business just like over here and once you get a reputation of revealing sources, the well dries up.
insein said:Except that over here if someone close to Charles manson starts handing the media tapes of him killing people, i would hope that OUR media (but at this point i wouldnt expect much) would notify the authorities.
MJDuncan1982 said:Yea, we shouldn't start expecting them to reveal sources. It is a business just like over here and once you get a reputation of revealing sources, the well dries up.
MJDuncan1982 said:Yea, we shouldn't start expecting them to reveal sources. It is a business just like over here and once you get a reputation of revealing sources, the well dries up.
Hobbit said:Freedom of the Press isn't absolute. Many reporters over here have been forced to reveal their sources in order to aid criminal investigations, not to mention more urgent matters like locating a kidnap victim or preventing a murder. If it was an American T.V. station playing these things and not handing over sources, the company would go under due to everybody being in jail.
MJDuncan1982 said:I didn't say they were protected by freedom of the press. If Al-Jazeera starts revealing its sources then it won't get any more information such as this and viewership will fall. Contrary to what someone said, it is a capitalist business that needs to make a profit, thus maintain viewership, to survive. If someone over there wants to shut them down then take a shot at it. However, don't expect them to do so willingly - they are a business.
MJDuncan1982 said:I didn't say they were protected by freedom of the press. If Al-Jazeera starts revealing its sources then it won't get any more information such as this and viewership will fall. Contrary to what someone said, it is a capitalist business that needs to make a profit, thus maintain viewership, to survive. If someone over there wants to shut them down then take a shot at it. However, don't expect them to do so willingly - they are a business.
Al Jazeera Reporter Charged With Supporting al Qaeda
By Brian Ross, Jill Rackmill and Maddy Sauer
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=129407&page=1
Sept. 24 Sep. 25, 2003 - For Syrian-born journalist Tayssir Alouni, the biggest story of his life may turn out to be his own indictment.
Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon alleges Alouni, a correspondent with the Arab satellite channel al Jazeera, is a member of an al Qaeda terror cell who helped plan the Sept. 11 attacks on America. But with her husband in a Spanish jail cell, Alouni's wife is proclaiming his innocence.
Alouni, 48, was a high-profile correspondent for al Jazeera who had met with Osama bin Laden and was often the reporter who received al Qaeda tapes and messages from unknown sources.
But now Alouni, who was arrested on Sept. 5 in Granada, Spain, is being held at the Soto Del Real prison outside Madrid.
In a court hearing Wednesday, Alouni denied all relations with al Qaeda. He denied recruiting militants, transporting money, or cooperating with the organization in any way. The judge will make a decision regarding Alouni's request for probational release sometime in the next week.
In Madrid, Alouni's wife, Fatima Zohra Hamed Layesi, told ABCNEWS Tuesday her husband is innocent. "My husband is a good person," she said in Spanish. "He is a journalist, not a member of al Qaeda."
"The judge says that he thinks he has proof enough to say this man is a member of al Qaeda and that we must be clear that this person was using his job as a journalist as a perfect cover to be a member of al Qaeda, to be a courier and probably a recruiter, God knows what else," Gustavo Arestegui, the chairman of the Spanish Parliament's Intelligence Committee, told ABCNEWS.
Last week, five men suspected of being members of a Spanish al Qaeda cell were arrested on the orders of Garzon. Garzon alleges that all five made contact with Alouni.
Spokespeople for the Qatar-based network say Alouni is an honest journalist. His outraged colleagues now wear "Free Tayssir" buttons on the air and the network is running a video montage of Alouni with prison bars superimposed over his image.
But others say Alouni's alleged involvement with al Qaeda raises new questions about al Jazeera.
"To what extent did one of its reporters cross the line from being a supporter of Islamist policies to being a member of an underground al Qaeda cell?" said Fawaz Gerges, an ABCNEWS consultant and professor of International Affairs and Middle Eastern studies at Sarah Lawrence College. "What does the case say about al Jazeera? To what extent should al Jazeera pay more attention to the background of its reporters?"
Indictment Details Interactions with Al Qaeda
According to the 710-page indictment written in Spanish, Alouni was under surveillance for five years, before he went to work for al Jazeera. The indictment does not make any charges against al Jazeera.
The indictment details his travels and wiretapped phone conversations in which Alouni allegedly agrees to carry money and messages to al Qaeda operatives planning the Sept. 11 attacks. It also charges that Alouni later used his job at al Jazeera while based in Afghanistan to make it easier for him to pass money to al Qaeda members. The indictment details Alouni's relationships with many al Qaeda members. Documents, mostly seized phone records, show that he was in frequent contact with Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, also known as Abu Dahdah, the leader of al Qaeda's activities in Spain. The indictment also maintains that both men were involved in recruiting and supporting a young group of extremists in Granada, where Alouni lived before moving to Madrid in 2000, and that after moving to Madrid, Alouni kept in frequent contact with the group in Granada.
According to the indictment, Yarkas helped Alouni with passport and visa renewals, and he also handled the documents to obtain Alouni's permanent resident status in Spain. The indictment also says Alouni often received money from Yarkas in order to support members of the group in Granada.
Alouni was also close to Mohamed Zaher, another defendant and member of the al Qaeda cell in Spain, the indictment says. After moving from Madrid to Granada in April 1999, Zaher often acted as Alouni's assistant for example, he drove Alouni to the airport whenever Alouni traveled out of Spain. Alouni made numerous calls from Zaher's home, often before he traveled to Qatar, Pakistan, or Afghanistan. According to the indictment, both Alouni and Yarkas help Zaher get permanent residence in Spain and Alouni even allowed Zaher to use his home address on all his documentation.
Alouni also helped Mohammed Bahaiah, also known as Abu Khaled and a member of al Qaeda, get permanent residency in Spain, the indictment maintains. Bahaiah attended al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan, but also stayed with both Yarkas in Madrid and Alouni in Granada. Alouni also allowed Bahaiah to use his mailing address on his immigration forms.
Finally, the indictment says that when Alouni started working for al Jazeera in Afghanistan in January, 2000, he brought money from Yarkas to Bahaiah, who was at the training camps.
Not About Racism
The Paris-based Arab Commission for Human Rights is organizing a large-scale campaign in support of Alouni, including establishing a defense team made up of several French lawyers and one Spanish lawyer.
Haitham Mannagh, the organization's representative, told ABCNEWS he knew Alouni personally and that if the group had any doubts about his innocence they would be the first to ask for his trial. Mannagh also said Alouni had criticized al Qaeda and the Taliban in the past.
Mannagh explained it is common for Arabs to carry money to deliver to relatives and family when they are traveling, while also pointing out that the amounts carried were too small to help fund any terrorist operations.
But Arestegui claimed the charges against Alouni are not about racism "or anti-Arabism or anti-Islamism," he said. "We're doing this because an independent judge of this country has found out that this man is directly connected to a terrorist cell that was directly connected to the most outrageous, horrible and bloody terrorist attack in the history of mankind."
wade said:with respect to "contractors", who are basically spies by the rules of war,
