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"knife Or Life" abuse of hostages

#1 User is offline   ticker 

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Posted 25 September 2004 - 04:42 AM

Even the hostages fortunate enough to escape murder by decapitation must endure turture:

New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
'Knife or Life' for 2 in Iraq
BY JOSE MARTINEZ
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Saturday, September 25th, 2004

Death was just a game for the kidnappers who held two journalists in Iraq for five days.

One of them, Canadian reporter Scott Taylor, who was freed last week, said yesterday he was manhandled, threatened with beheading and physically tortured - tied upside down and beaten on legs and feet with rods and a whip for nearly half an hour.

But the most frightening moment came near the end, when his captors subjected him to a twisted quiz in which the wrong answer meant death.

"They said we are going to play a game of 'Knife or Life,'" Taylor said in an interview with Fox News. "With each answer, I was to either live or die."
And the rules weren't fair. When they asked whether Taylor had ever visited Israel, saying no wasn't enough.
"The answer to that is 'No, I have never been to the occupied lands of Palestine,'" said Taylor. "They do not use the word Israel."

Taylor was grabbed in northern Iraq with a woman named Zeynep Tugrul, a Turkish journalist.

He said he doesn't know why they were spared, but suspects the men who took them found them by chance and were not interested in hostages.

That may have made their abduction even more chaotic. They were passed from group to group and Taylor said his captors displayed "almost a schizophrenic behavior," swinging from dishing out beatings to allowing the hostages to pick out their meals.

At times it was children or students who guarded Taylor and Tugrul, but the woman was not spared torture when hardened insurgents were in command.

Then, Taylor heard her screaming, and even his guards looked sickened. "The perpetrators were of a different breed," he said.

Taylor said he owes his life to Tugrul. "She saved my life a couple of times. She did suffer quite a bit herself."

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/235621p-202347c.html
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#2 User is offline   Soprano84 

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Posted 25 September 2004 - 11:00 AM

QUOTE (ticker @ Sep 25 2004, 06:44 AM)


At times it was children or students who guarded Taylor and Tugrul, but the woman was not spared torture when hardened insurgents were in command.

Then, Taylor heard her screaming, and even his guards looked sickened. "The perpetrators were of a different breed," he said.

Taylor said he owes his life to Tugrul. "She saved my life a couple of times. She did suffer quite a bit herself."

That really makes me worry about the 2 Italian women...and any female US soldier that gets caught.
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Posted 27 September 2004 - 04:49 AM

QUOTE (Soprano84 @ Sep 25 2004, 01:02 PM)
That really makes me worry about the 2 Italian women...and any female US soldier that gets caught.


There was a report that the 2 Italian female hostages had been killed. That report was called questionable and now there is a new report that they are safe. It doesn't look good for them to be released though, Berlusconi doesn't look like the type to give in to terrorists.

Two Italian hostages in good health, Italian media reports Xinhua News Agency - September 27, 2004

A Kuwaiti paper said that the two kidnapped Italian aid workers in Iraq were in good health and being treated well by their kidnappers, Italian News Agency ANSA reported yesterday.

The Al Ray Al-Aam, Kuwait's top newspaper, said the kidnappers would not release the women Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, untilItalian troops were withdrawn from Iraq.

The daily said it had been told by its sources that "all mediation attempts will be rejected unless Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi's government respects the kidnappers' request for the complete withdrawal of Italian forces from Iraqi territory."

"They are determined not to free them until their demand has been met," it said.

It also said two Iraqi aid workers kidnapped along with the Italians were being used as interpreters.

The paper denied recent claims that the two had been or were about to be killed.
It said its sources had confirmed that the two women had been kidnapped in order to "send a clear message to the Italian people and the Silvio Berlusconi government: that the Iraqi people denounces the sending of Italian troops to Iraq and calls for the courageous decision to withdraw them, like the Spanish government which pulled its troops out in order to retain its friendly ties with the Iraqi people."
Italy has some 3,000 troops serving in Iraq and Berlusconi has repeatedly said that they will remain there for as long as the government considers necessary.
Torretta and Pari, both 29, were kidnapped on September 7 alongwith two Iraqi aid workers. Italian intelligence has cast doubts on the reliability of the death claims.

On September 12, a group calling itself the Islamic Jihad Organization said it would kill the women within 24 hours if Italian troops were not pulled out of Iraq.

On Thursday, the group said in a statement posted on the Internet that the hostages had been killed.

On the same day, a group claiming to support al Qaeda No.2 Ayman al-Zawahri said it had beheaded the two women.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1228031/posts


UPDATE - In an interview this morning, King Abdullah of Jordan tells Corriere della Sera newspaper - "They are alive, we are trying to free them"

http://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Esteri/...bre/27/re.shtml

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Posted 28 September 2004 - 04:12 AM

2 female Italian hsotsges may be released this week: http://translate.google.com/translate?u=ht...Flanguage_tools

2 abductors of the Italian female hostages have been arrested: http://translate.google.com/translate?u=ht...e_tools
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Posted 28 September 2004 - 01:30 PM

Just heard on radio that the 2 Italian women are free.
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