As a point of discussion on the bedlam of modern human "conflict", I'm sorry if this offends the funsters of this forum but - <deleted> is this all about? In the name of defending "the laws" of fundamental Islam, this poor soul suffered an end that makes an evil mockery of their religious debate..... May her soul RIP

Brutal beheading of journalist who lived for unity

The pitiless torture and murder of a top television presenter shows how depraved the country has become after three years of war, writes Hala Jaber, a friend of the victim

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May 08, 2006

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 Shia 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 a 20cm 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 aged 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 piece of 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, whose 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 Shia Badr Brigade member killed during fighting in Baghdad. But there is no evidence that 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-Qa'ida 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 Shia 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.

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."

The Sunday Times

Yes, horrific and tragic,

But not necessarily core to the condition of man,

Executions like these always have a dual purpose, (example / deterrence),

Last year a top Irish female reporter was shot in face by gunman on the street,

after being warned to back of on a story, etc.

Don't forget not far in past, innocent women were burned at the stake for failure of a neighbor's crop, (Salem witch hunts), and another little thing call the Spanish Inquisition ...

The degree of violence and brutality is boundless when God is on your side, ...

Bloody animals!

Bloody animals!

Animals are tame compared to these filth..

totster

I'm speechless

and the killings go on...:

""Iraqi journalists' bodies found

Two Iraqi journalists have been found dead south of Baghdad a day after they were stopped by men wearing police uniforms, the manager of their television station said. The bodies of Laith al-Dulaimi and Muazaz Ahmed were discovered at midday along a main road near their hometown of Madain, about 12 miles south-east of the capital, said Abdul-Karim al-Mehdawi, general manager of Al-Nahrain TV, a private station. He quoted witnesses as saying the pair were driving to Madain when they were stopped on the highway by men wearing police uniforms who took them away. Their bodies were brought to the morgue in Kut, officials there said.""

Source: also from the (Sunday) Times, May 8th.

LaoPo

im speechless.

lets hope she is in a better place now and that justice will be served to these barbarians.

the human bedlam exists in many societies , not only muslim societies.

http://www.copi.com/articles/guyatt/unit_731.html

MEN ! I can't speak.

This isn't new, nor is it isolated. In the current age, Rwanda, Iraq, Iran, Northern Ireland, Somalia, Sudan, Colombia - the list goes on and on of places where man's inhumanity to man is so vilely evidenced. The good news is that such awful creatures are a miniscule minority, so we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that the vast majority of people are sensible, decent individuals. Let's not lose hope that decency and justice will eventually prevail.

This isn't new, nor is it isolated. In the current age, Rwanda, Iraq, Iran, Northern Ireland, Somalia, Sudan, Colombia - the list goes on and on of places where man's inhumanity to man is so vilely evidenced. The good news is that such awful creatures are a miniscule minority, so we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that the vast majority of people are sensible, decent individuals. Let's not lose hope that decency and justice will eventually prevail.

I'm afraid that as far as the Muslim/Christian/Middle East/Israel/Palestine problem is concerened, its almost certainly going to get worse before it gets better.

The world is going to become more and more polarised, and there is no prospect of any downturn in the violence.

It is indeed a sad heritage that we seem to be passing on to our children.

Millions of words have been written and discussed, yet there has been no men or women of vision to show the world the way - on either side.

Oh that it were different.

Read a news report yesterday that there's some doubt it was the journalist who was killed in the film. Some discussion as to it being a 'stand-in' for her but none the less, the family of whoever was killed is suffering as well as all mankind.

How many Buddhists do this?

UPDATE:

According to the jawa report the video is a hoax. I didn't even watch it, I didn't have the heart.

The facts remain that she was stripped, tortured with a cordless drill and beheaded in front of a crowd of her neighbors. The jihad snuff film is of some other poor soul.

UPDATE:

According to the jawa report the video is a hoax. I didn't even watch it, I didn't have the heart.

The facts remain that she was stripped, tortured with a cordless drill and beheaded in front of a crowd of her neighbors. The jihad snuff film is of some other poor soul.

!!!ATTENTION!!!

I would like to add that there are some very cruel images on the link above you DO NOT WANT TO SEE... SO.....DON'T SCROLL DOWN IF YOU OPEN THE LINK!!!

LaoPo

Absolutely disgusting. Whether the video is a hoax (as far as the journalist is concerned), someone was still brutally murdered by obviously sadistic b@stards who deserve similar treatment themselves.

The sad part is, even if thses people were caught, and it could be proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that they committed the crime, there would still be people out there that would claim it would be inhumane to put those scum out of their misery using something like lethal injection.

Too many weapons in the hands of uneducated, religious fanatics that answer to no one but themselves. Their religion allows them to justify almost any action, as long as it is done in the name of Allah.

They should start giving these scum the General Pershing treatment. See how long the strife continues after that.

There seems to be no end in sight to the atrocities perpetrated by man upon fellow man. As long as people subscribe to hate these acts will continue. Hatred itself has at it's roots many concepts that are well accepted by the mass of humanity. Until these concepts are exposed as fallacy and changed among the greater polulation of our world the sad fact is apparent that things will not begin to change. It all starts with the individual.

May the place she was sent to, and all others too, be better than this ugly, cruel, world.

Inshallah she will have a legacy remain far llonger than her short thirty years.

r.i.p.

MEN ! I can't speak.

Well... I hardly think that blatant generalisation was called for

totster

Yes, horrific and tragic,

But not necessarily core to the condition of man,

Executions like these always have a dual purpose, (example / deterrence),

Last year a top Irish female reporter was shot in face by gunman on the street,

after being warned to back of on a story, etc.

Don't forget not far in past, innocent women were burned at the stake for failure of a neighbor's crop, (Salem witch hunts), and another little thing call the Spanish Inquisition ...

The degree of violence and brutality is boundless when God is on your side, ...

Burnings at the stake of women in Salem? are you sure?

But truly women have been persecuted everywhere ... still are in many places ...

Yes, horrific and tragic,

But not necessarily core to the condition of man,

Executions like these always have a dual purpose, (example / deterrence),

Last year a top Irish female reporter was shot in face by gunman on the street,

after being warned to back of on a story, etc.

Don't forget not far in past, innocent women were burned at the stake for failure of a neighbor's crop, (Salem witch hunts), and another little thing call the Spanish Inquisition ...

The degree of violence and brutality is boundless when God is on your side, ...

Burnings at the stake of women in Salem? are you sure?

I do believe most were hung until dead, but I wouldn't be surprised if some were burned, yes.

But truly women have been persecuted everywhere ... still are in many places ...

Don't forget not far in past, innocent women were burned at the stake for failure of a neighbor's crop, (Salem witch hunts), and another little thing called the Spanish Inquisition ...

HAH! NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition!!

Please!! Not the comfy chair!!!!