Invitation To A Beheading

‘FORGET weapons of mass destruction, Saddam Hussein and what he could or couldn’t do in 45 minutes and focus instead on Tony Blair’s second Iraq war.

Praying for a miracle

And the look at a terrified man who is all set to become a very public British casualty of this new battle.

The Independent pulls no punches in a front-page news story on Kenneth Bigley. He sits blindfolded in some Iraqi hell-hole while the two American hostages he was seized with are decapitated.

Deprived of any news of the British hostage, the paper looks at his family, visiting them at their home in Walton, a suburb of Liverpool.

And it hears the Bigleys ask for two things – help from Tony Blair and mercy from the hostages.

With the Times leading with the death of the second American hostage, the hopes for clemency seem remote.

A change of direction from the murderous kidnappers seems unlikely after readers have read the Times’ profile on Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born sadist believed to be behind the killings.

Readers learn of a man whose notoriety in Iraq has created a market in snuff movies, allowing anyone to buy home videos of murder released by his group’s ‘media arm’ from market stalls for a dollar.

The truly depressing news is that they sell out as fast as they go on sale.

Which leaves the Bigleys with one option – that Tony Blair will hear their calls for help and do something.

And here is where the Guardian leads with news of hope. It seems that one of the kidnapper’s conditions is to be met – Rihab Taba, a biological scientist known as Dr Germ, is set to be released from an Iraqi jail.

The kidnappers also want the release of a second Iraqi female prisoner, and on this point, too, the Iraqis seem to be ready to comply.

If they do, then it’s good news for the Bigleys, great news for Kenneth Bigley and absolutely wonderful news for Tony Blair.

The last thing Blair needs is bad press. The Independent already says that the backlash over the hostage crisis threatens to overshadow next week’s Labour party conference.

And Paul Bigley, the hostage’s brother, is happy to make trouble for Blair.

As he tells the Times: ‘Blair should be ashamed of himself… If my brother dies, his blood is on Blair’s hands.’

And, as if my magic, here’s the call from Tony. ‘Trust me,’ says the Prime minister to the upset Paul. ‘I’m a family man as well.’

What he means by that, we are unsure. After all, isn’t Saddam Hussein a family man? And aren’t his sons now dead..?’

Posted: 22nd, September 2004 | In: Uncategorized Comment | TrackBack | Permalink