Home > Who Killed Margaret Hassan?

Who Killed Margaret Hassan?

by Open-Publishing - Thursday 18 November 2004
84 comments

Edito International Attack-Terrorism Yamin Zakaria


“Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state” (Noam
Chomsky)

by Yamin Zakaria

There are truths; there are lies; there is then the middle ground of half-truths: propaganda. Those who engage in its dissemination are malicious criminals. And those who are subjected to it are the victims. Propaganda is consumed innocently, like drinking a glass of milk that has been contaminated with small drops of urine; the taste, color, odor of the milk is sustained, so the victims remain unaware. However, the perception changes once the consumer is alerted to the fact that urine was added to it. The consumer is disgusted as milk diluted with urine is the same as pure urine; not fit for consumption; they are both in the same category of lies!

Those who control the modern day propaganda tools of the mass media outlets can effectively manipulate the thoughts and opinions of the masses by feeding propaganda with drastic consequences. It was the American newspaper magnet, William Hearst the Rupert Murdoch of his time, infamously used the power of his press to influence American opinion in favor of war. Using fabricated stories, inflammatory language, frenzied emotion was generated against Spain; those behind the scene had an eye on the Spanish colonies. Ultimately war was initiated in 1898 after the accidental sinking of the battleship Maine.

The newspapers wasted no time, it was the WMD of its day, and Spain had to prove a negative, that it did not sink the ship. Furthermore, the oppressed Spanish colonial subjects were in need of liberation and Philippine was one of the colonies captured from Spain. Many paid the price for the beginning of American imperial expansion, including the 500000 or more Philippinos that in turn fought for independence from the US. The country has since been used as a brothel by the US soldiers, the supposed flag bearers of women’s rights; this was one of the reasons stated by the US leadership when it attacked Afghanistan.

The art and sophistication of propaganda has certainly has grown with technology. Selective focusing on certain news from certain angles, repeated insinuations, being silent on certain pertinent facts, spin-doctoring are all the basic tools of propaganda in modern times. This is coming from a layperson’s observation not a media specialist. As an example, how many people still believe Saddam’s mass graves of millions when only around 5,000 bodies have been uncovered so far? The subsequent report never got the same level of amplification or frequency in terms of media coverage as the prewar hype.

One can get passed the mesmerizing effect of the media by posing simple questions, questions that has simply been left out. Margaret Hassan is now believed to be the first woman killed by kidnappers but nobody is asking who and why, given that the Iraqi resistance has denied any role in her captivity from the onset. In fact, Abu-Musab Al-Zarqawi’s group issued a statement that they don’t hold women prisoners unless they are proven to be belligerent enemies and they actually called for her release! Furthermore, no group has claimed responsibility, which is unprecedented in relation to previous cases of killing kidnapped hostages.

The two Italian women taken hostage were released earlier once it was verified that they were ‘genuinely’ innocent and the few other women were all released by the Mujahideen. This is because women have a special honor amongst the Mujahideen. For sure Abu-Ghraib style porn-torture would never take place with the Mujahideen. The liberated women would be far safer with the Mujahideen than the degenerate soldiers that are littered in the US forces; Abu-Ghraib was only a small snap-shot of the reality!

Since money was not demanded, one can rule out the criminal elements. The captors did not use the same flags and the usual style in the video given the description given so far. Margaret was virtually like a native Iraqi in almost every sense. It could be argued that she was even an Iraqi patriot when you put her next to the likes of A. Chalabi and the other criminal-vultures that encouraged the slaughtering of the Iraqis using the pretext of Saddam, with the inner motivation of personal gains that is so clear now.

Another important question is the timing of the release of the video itself. It is too much of a coincidence for it to have been released when the world’s eyes were focused on the atrocities committed by the US forces in Fallujah. Conversely, if this was the work of the Iraqi resistance how does it benefit their cause to release the video now and especially when Margaret already had wide support amongst the Iraqis? Furthermore, she was perhaps more Irish and Iraqi than British.

This release of this video and again ‘coincidentally’ the release of footage of US soldiers killing a wounded, defenseless Iraqis inside a mosque in Fallujah are a perfect means to divert attention from the American savagery; massacring the civilians in Fallujah. Its broadcast was deliberate, in order to counter criticism and restore confidence in the unruly image of the US marines by showing that they do have codes of conduct and they will investigate and discipline their soldiers. This is like a PR exercise after Abu-Ghraib and diverts the attention from the real crime in Fallujah itself.

As always the accusations of conspiracy theory will surface, as a means to dismiss the arguments without actually addressing it. Many a times in history, conspiracy theories of the time proved to be subsequently correct. Similar accusations of conspiracy theory were made when I learnt of the Abu-Ghraib tortures through a well-known website (http://www.jihadunspun.net) before Seymour Hirsh revealed the information through the mainstream media. The website actually receives information directly from the people who are closely operating with the Iraqi resistance and the Mujahideen in Iraq.

According to their sources the kidnapping was concocted by British agents inside the country, in an effort to divert attention away from the British troop deployment into Latifiyah and for what was to come in Fallujah.

Now, the rabid xenophobic anti-Islamic-fanatics in the media can continue to raise the passion of its largely docile and memorized masses. This paves the way for more killing of Iraqi civilians; flattening more Iraqi towns; torture and execution of more Iraqi prisoners; all this is fine because the ‘civilized’ world is trying to fight these irrational criminals using the most uncivilized methods!

For those who are already have a pro-war streak in them, usually sitting in the right of the political spectrum, they are not looking for hard facts but something that they can clutch onto. As their mind has largely been mind up, all they need something to convince themselves. For those people propaganda is a deliberate self-deception exercise as expressed by the words of an American writer:

“Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves." (Eric Hoffer - 1902-1983)

Even if Margaret is found to be alive the timing of the release of the video was a counter-insurgency operation. It only served to discredit the Iraqi resistance at a time when they needed support. If she is found to be dead it has only provided maximum benefit to the criminal and murderous regime of Blair and Bush.

Yamin Zakaria

London, UK

Forum posts

  • Exactly my feelings! You know, I posted similar feelings on the BBC talking point, not one was posted. I dont know why the media is so silent about this and why everyone is so stupidly talking about "Islaming terrorists". I mean, it’s a well known fact that secret services around the world stage dramas to divert attention from their attrocities or to dehumanise the enemy. What better purpose than Margaret Hassan!!!

  • Yesterday I tried to explain this to my intelligent friend. I couldn’t do it assuredly. You did. Excellent

  • I tend to agree with the sentiments expressed, just like the raping of Belgian nuns by th ’Hun’ during WW 1 was later disproved, and more recently the raping of Kuwaiti air stewardesses prior to the first Gulf war. Such ’atrocities’ mobilise public opinion by their horror to justify state violence. Margaret Hassan could have been killed by Iraqi gangsters who did not receive their ransom, but just as easily by Mossad/CIA. Maybe we will never know.

  • Interesting! In the early 70’s I attended the University of Colorado at Denver! I had a Professor named Roger Paget! He said he worked for the IVS (International Volunary Services) in Vietnam in the late 1950’s! He said one of his jobs was to get the heads chopped off of Certain Vietnamese! Another of his jobs was to make sure it was blammed on the Communists! So, the US has been involved in such in the Past!

    • The International Volunary Services would not be involved in that. Don’t believe everything you hear (if you heard it at all).

      You people forget that America is an OPEN SOCIETY. Critics of this country ARE FREE to print whatever they like (ask Michael Moore). It wouldn’t take long for these stories to bubble to the surface if they were true. There would have to be too many people involved to keep it a secret for too long. If you know anything about America, think about the Pentagon Papers, or Abu Gharib, etc for examples.

      Believe me, enough hate Bush types are out there who would love to bring this president down. If there was any evidence, it would have appeared by now.

      But of course, that is logical something I haven’t seen from many of you conspiracy theorists.

      FD

    • I said Roger Paget worked for the IVS and did these things! Well as to keeping things secret! The Phoenix Program was secret and still remains fairly obscure in spite of what has been published! In fact the National Security Archives show that the US under Kissinger was highly involved in getting rid of Allende and making sure Human Right’s Concerns about the Pinochet Government! were kept under wraps! Roger knew Don Luce well! Does that tell you anything!

      Your view of an open American society has little to do with the intelligence agecny and carrying out Foreign Policy! I now see Bush eliminating dissent in the CIA and other agencies! I was involved in attempting to get an artilce about a rancher declassified under the Freedom of Information Act! This document dates from the 1880’s! The agency refused to release the document!

      I seem to remember Bill Maher on TV saying tat he felt that Americans who bombed theings from 10,000 feet up were cowards also! He got ran off the show! Clear Channedl has eliminated all dissent in stations it controls!

    • Your knowledge of these "secret" prgorams makes my point. Things can’t be kept undercover forever and the more people involved the less likely things will be kept a secret.

      As for Bill Maher, umm - I can watch him every night if I wish as can you. Obviously he, Michael Moore, and other "anit-Bush" types weren’t silenced. In fact, these people make a great living dumping on the president. So, how is that not open? Try being an Iranian and producing a show that is critical of the Ayatollah.

      It is hard to prove that something didn’t happen. That is why you conspiracy people thrive on non-facts and gossip. I’ll believe you when you can display facts.

      I suggest you getting an education that provides you with some critical thinking skills. Maybe then, you can distinguish fact from fiction.

    • No, I have very little knowledge of these secret programs! I am still not aware of how the US under Pres Ford supported Indonesia under Suharto to invade East Timor! There are rumors of plane loads of weapons going to Suharto! But under your logic, they are rumors! In Vietnam we were told at the American Division training center, a one day joke, to make sure to examine prisoners for documents they are carrying! This was to include women prisoners especially the beautiful ones! We were to probe their orifices with our penis of bayonet for these documents; but we were to probe until we were satisfied one way or another!

      Much like what Roger Paget did in Vietnam while being fronted by the IVS, this is not reported; but you and your kind will not accept such until the government feeds your mind to the fact it happened!

  • The denial among you arab terrorist lovers is amazing. That poor woman gave her life for the betterment of Iraqis and got a bullet in the head for it. Just ignore the suffering and fear she went through in her final hours. Those damn muslims killed her. I hope they get caught and die a horrible death and rot in hell for all eternity.

    • What evidence do you have ’’those damn muslims killed her’’ ?

    • The damn muslims were nice enough to send a tape of them shooting her through the head while she’s blindfolded.

    • ZIONIST ALERT ZIONIST ALERT WARNING WARNING. FALSE DEMONISATION OF MUSLIMS AGAIN WHAT A SUPRISE.
      Damn muslims eh. Mr Yehoudi, you need some education boy. This murder was so againts Islamic principals, It can’t have been committed by anyone else apart from Mossad/CIA or someone against Islam/Iraq. Who has to gain from this ?? Definitely not the insurgents or any Islamic group who know their religion.They have no reason to committ this crime at all. Even Zarqarwi publicly slammed this kidnapping. This woman has helped Iraqis and Palestinians all her life & if you know any muslims at all you will know,what kind of personalities they have. In most cases if you help or give charity they will look to repay you ten-fold. Do you REALLy think that the IRAQIS when deciding on who to kidnap sat down and thought, ooh That woman Maggie Hassan has helped thousands of our children and poor people for no recompense, Lets kill her live and make orselves look like proper cunts. If they were going to behead anyone she wouldn’t even be on the list. They would be going for all the Halliburton £1000 a day make money from death & destruction crew. You are a bonkers zionist stop lying and get on with making bagels and curling up your sideburns. ISLAM = JUSTICE/CHARITY/PEACE? Only fight when attacked and only fight those who are aggressive towards you. Do not atteck innocents are thoses who do not want to fight... TERRY BUTCHER BS4 CREW

    • You people have your head in the sand. While you praise Mulsims for not having the will to do these things, you condemn Christians and Jews for the murder - as if their religiion promotes this kind of barbarism. The evidence is overwhelmning - Muslims have (have you forgotten the poor children at Beslan) and continue to kill innocent people without regard to the logic of it all.

      And by the way, Those "evil" Halliburton people are trying to rebuild Iraq. Those "evil" Zionist are trying to promote freedom (yes even religious freedom) in Iraq.

      You people are in denial because it would rip apart your paradigm that all America is bad and all Islam is good. Perhaps you should open your eyes and set a true moral compass towards peace. As long as you continue to excuse this behavior, you share in the blood of innocent men, women, and children.

      FD

    • Regardless of who killed Margaret Hassan, every American and British citizen beyond the age of consent has her blood on their hands so long as we allow Bush and Blair to rule and ruin our nations.

      That woman is yet another victim of their outrageous crime spree.

    • FD must mean fookin divvy = unintelligent man in English
      I don’t think all Americans are bad there are millions of good ones who’s voices aren’t heard in England because your media and policing keeps them quiet or blank them out from the news. For my sins Rocky is my favourite film, I cannot hate yanks Mr Divvy.
      I forgot to mention that of course you are pleased that this generous lady is dead as she helped so many muslims, snd even married one heaven forbid!!
      Mr Divvy not even you can deny halliburton, are bastards. Even the FBI is investigating them for over charging on contracts they have been given, half the contracts were given without any tenders offered. Mr Cheney is making millions from this and he was part of the team who wrote "PNAC" ( if u don’t know get to know).
      Also Mr Divvy I do not condone killing of any civilians, but in Beslan, the people who took hostages were angry at the Russian government destroying, killing and raping thousands & if you remember the Russian commies were your old bogeymen. Whos next maybe, the Teletubbies, NU NU TUBBY CUSTARD TERROR INSURGENT, COME TINKY WINK, ALL YANKS R BAD ALL YANKS R BAD. TERRY BUTCHER BS4 CREW

    • That tired old chestnut "This is against Islam." gets trotted out again. It obviously isn’t since you have proponents of Islam attacking , kidnapping, beheading, and shooting people for ISLAM. Face it, a part of Islam allows for this kind of disgusting behavior. You refuse to acknowledge it. Islam allows people to murder for the sake of islam. You muslims are your own worst enemy. You are the most backward region in the entire world. Your governments the most ineffective in caring for their population. Face it the terrorists of the modern world are all muslim. And you will all suffer for it.

    • What a silly thing to say. You should be blaming the terrorists instead of the government for killing Hassan.

    • The terrorist of this world are and have always been CIA/MI6 who have used religion and especially Islam as a front for their covert activities. If you suggest that violence is inherent in Islam from the outward potrait that the corporate media paints for us, then by the same argument I can theorise from the evidence of mass killing of Native Americans, the torture of the Indian Christians, HIndus and Muslims by European Catholics in Goa and Kerala, covert operations in Vietnam, Laos, and South America and Africa, black slavery and indentured slavery that Western civilisation is inherently inhumane and violent,

      BUT I DON’T

      because I know that violence is a tool that has for centuries been used by the economic elite to gain to satisfy their never ending greed., their genetic desire to land grab. whether it be the British elite (East India Company) in bengal, Europeans in America, the Spanish elite in South America — these were the Halliburtons and carlyle groups of yesterday, who hid behind a Catholic decree to ’civilise’ the world. By econimci elite I do not mean the huge mass of rich millionaires I am talking about the stinking rich multibillionare banks and royalty.

      Even if you looks at the home of Islam , Saudi Arabia. Who controls the land and resources there but the economic elite. and they do that by practising extreme forms of religion (Wahabbi). Wherever you see the need to occupy land by the elite you will see extremes of degrading inhumanity. and then religion becomes the opium of the masses , the only drug they have left to make sense of inequality and injustice forced on them by the economic elite.

      The Palestinian violence erupted because of a land grab by Isreal. If someone stole my land and continuosly does so, I dont need a Koran, or Bible to tell me to get pissed off.

      The people at the top of CIA/MI6 have always been the blue blood of Britian and America that have continuosly aided and harboured the elite who are justs locusts scouring the earth for its resources.

      Stop being a simpleton and look at the bigger picture. who controls the drugs trade, the arms trade and what tools (including religion) they need to keep that control. Look at the past and the present and you’ll see a pattern emerging.

      Or you could be a dumb fool and stick to your ill thought out opinions on religion.

      Its a free country

    • the "hell" you’re talkin’ about is just an opinion, but the hell you brought in Iraq is reality.
      is it such difficult to understand?
      how many people must die for your fuckin’ president?

    • Sure - attack the messanger because you can’t deal in facts.

      Honestly, it makes me angry that a person like Ms Hassan, who gave so much of herself to help the needy of Iraq, would be killed by those animals. What stuns me is that YOU can’t see how babaric that is and how barbaric the butchers of Beslan were. You are blinded by hatred not me. I want the best for Iraq, you could care less (where was your voice during Saddam’s reign?).

      YOU are personally responsible for killing the children in Russia and Ms Hassan by your passive support. YOU are personally responsible for the many murders carried out in the name of Islam because you refuse to denounce it. YOU are an accomplice to murder and that deed will be judged.

    • Stick to the subject, why are you bringing in all these other events of mass murder. I’ll tell you why, it’s because you want to draw away attention from the fact that all terrorists today are MUSLIM. All these terrorists kill for ISLAM. And why would these terrorist kill for Islam, because they can justify it in ISLAM. So be as wordy as you want, you can look at all the other historic events but today is you are a terrorist you are a muslim. It was a muslim that killed Margaret, it ws a muslim that killed Theo Van Gogh, it was muslims that killed those Breslan children. And you muslims had better deal with that within your religion or you will all end up branded as terrorists and terrorist supporters and people will deal with it for you. And don’t be surprised if there are pogroms against muslims because you are making it easy to form those.

    • Why didn’t the Palestinians erupt against Jordan and Eygpt who took control of the apportioned for them? Hmmm - does it have something to do with religion?

    • The responsible are the glorious iraqi "resistance"

      "The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not ‘insurgents’ or ‘terrorists’ or ‘The Enemy.’ They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow—and they will win."

      Michael Moore. 4/14/04

      Well, they rather had their ass kicked instead...

      by the way, an iraqi wrote a lot of interesting info about that battle at:

      http://hammorabi.blogspot.com/

    • Ridiculous - the blood is on the murderous Islamist who killed her. The blood i son YOU for supporting these people. Don’t kid yourself - America and Britain deposed a cruel regime. YOU don’t seem to care about those who are now buried in the mass graves.

      Quit kidding yourself and trying to kid me. You hate Christains, you hate Jews - and you support kill.

    • I thought saddam was doing a pretty good job of making hell a reality in Iraq.

    • Funny..the webmaster says it will erase all messages with "caractere (sic) defamatory, abusive, xenophobe, sexist, the threats...etc", but Terry Butcher is allowed to make outrageous, anti-Semitic comments with respect to Hassan’s murdedr. Butcher pines that Muslims are falsely demonized as, according to him, Hassan was killed by the Mossad/CIA. Well, asshole, who are you suggesing butchered 3000 in Manhattan, hundreds in Spain, and beheaded and shot countless other in Iraq? Jews, maybe? Get a clue, idiot.

    • "(where was your voice during Saddam’s reign?). "

      Where ever the voice was it was on the opposing side of the US when it was selling arms to SAddam and was literally in bed with him! However, that is not an issue but the silence of some people due to coercion or otherwise is! Can you get more blatant stupidity and hypocrisy than this sort of argument?

    • "The damn muslims were nice enough to send a tape of them shooting her through the head while she’s blindfolded. "

      Were they Muslims? and You can tell behind their masks? Let me see the sender remained anonymous no claims from anygroup but the conclusion is it was done by MUSLIMS!

      This is another example of brain-dead biggot that litter the US, produced by the FUX-NEWS factory run by the NEO-SHYLCOKS, who is just intent on spreading US-FANATICISM and HATERD

    • What utter bullshit. Your denial is so out of control that it is positively inconceivable. It is this kind of behavior that will doom the muslims. They will be the world’s pariahs. You are already hated in europe and america and australia and when you continue this behavior, more and more people will hate you. They nepalese already hate you, the filipinos hate you, the balinese hate you, and that list will grow. Get used to it.

    • What you say is true, Saddam got arms from the US when they fought against the Iranians because the US hates Iran. However, the US did not turn Saddam into the dictator that he is. He certainly didn’t start out that way. Don’t blame the US for the inherent personality that was Saddam. And you can’t blame the US for all the other iraqis that kowtowed to him and helped his dictatorship to be so effective. The middle east has no shortage of men who once they get a little bit of power, they act irresponsibly and selfishly and become power mad. The middle east region doesn’t grow good leaders and the people are the ones who suffer. You have perverted Islam.

    • "He certainly didn’t start out that way" - saddam rose to power by shooting a member of parliament in front of the whole assembly, he was always a bastard and the americans knew it:
      also see george bush snr’s comment on pol pot - "he’s a son of a bitch but he’s our son of a bitch" - the americans have no qualms supporting dictatorships and they CAN be blamed for it

    • Well, didn’t you just prove the point that the US didn’t make Saddam into a dictator, he was inherently a dictator. What the US did was basically use him to get back at the Iranians.

    • THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A MUDERING ISLAMIST,JUST AS THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A MURDERING CHRISTIAN OR JEW.IF PEOPLE ARE TRUE MUSLIMS,CHRISTIANS OR JEWS THEY DONT COMMIT MURDER.IF THE CASE WAS THE OTHER WAY YOU COULD CALL GEORGE BUSH A MURDERING CHRISTIAN,HE IS IN FACT,JUST A MURDERER AS IS WHOEVER KILLED THIS WOMAN.

    • SO BUSH IS A MUSLIM?

    • Of course there’s a murdering islamist. Didn’t saddam and other muslim leaders like him threaten blood will run down the streets. He and zarqawi did a lot of murdering for islam and said so. As for Bush he did not kill in the name of christ. He put his arguments in front of congress, they voted and they told him to go ahead with it. Christ and God was not anywhere in the process.

    • You equivalize Bush with terrorism? That may be how your feel but it is not true. If that were really true, you would see a lot of worse things from us than you do now.

    • I SAID,IF PEOPLE ARE TRUE MUSLIMS,CHRISTIANS OR JEWS THEY DONT COMMIT MURDER.GEORGE BUSH CALLS HIMSELF A CHRISTIAN,YET HE COMMITS MURDER.IF A MUSLIM COMMITS MURDER,THEY CAN SAY IT IS IN THE NAME OF ALLAH,BUT IN THE EYES OF TRUE MUSLIMS IT IS MURDER.

    • NO,HE IS A COVERT TERRORIST.VERY DIFFERENT.HE IS A TERRORIST IN THE GUISE OF A BENEFACTOR,FUNDED,IN YOUR WORDS,BY SAUDI "ISLAMIC TERRORISTS".AND PLEASE DONT TELL ME I HAVE BEEN WATCHING TOO MUCH MICHAEL MOORE,I DONT EVEN LIKE HIM.I KNEW THESE THINGS LONG BEFORE MICHAEL DECIDED TO ENLIGHTEN THE WORLD.

    • WASN’T IT SOME CLOSE FAMILY FRIENDS OF DUBYA.AND WHY HAVENT THEY CAUGHT HIM YET?

    • I would say that Zarqawi and Osama think that they are being true muslims and have said so. Everyone else who doesn’t agree with them are infidels and they have said so. So what and who are we to believe?

    • Now he’s a covert terrorist? That simply isn’t true. He was very up front to everyone when he said he was going to attack Iraq if Saddam didn’t cooperate and fully disclose.

    • THAT PEOPLE THAT COMMIT MURDER ARE NOT TRUE MUSLIMS.SIMLPE AS THAT.

    • If it was that simple muslims would all agree. They obviously don’t.

    • BUT HE DIDNT TELL ANYONE HE WAS GOING TO GET THE WTC BLOWN UP DID HE.AND HE DOESNT TELL ANYONE WHAT IS HAPPENING TO CIVILIANS IN IRAQ DOES HE.

    • AND EXACTLY HOW MANY MUSLIMS DO YOU KNOW.

    • What does that have to do with anything? It is evident if you look at all different types of islam that there is not any kind of agreement. Even if I knew 1000 muslims, all 1000 muslims don’t agree on the same thing. Use some logic, will you?

    • Wow, so you think Bush was responsible for the 3000 peopel in NY, and the attack on the Pentagon? Just so he can attack Afghanistan and Iraq? You are one crazy lunatic. It’s even useless to talk to someone who is so far gone. Fortunately, I can tell who you are because you are the crazy who uses all caps.

    • NO,NOT CRAZY,JUST SICK OF HAVING TO CAPITALISE ETC.READ YOUR POST AGAIN AND YOU HAVE ANSWERED THE QUESTION.HE NEEDED AN EXCUSE TO ATTACK THE MIDDLE EAST.WHY ELSE DID HE USE HIS GOOD FAMILY FRIEND TO CARRY OUT THE DEED.

    • So do you support John Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Robert McNamara, Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, then ? Partners in war crimes committed in Vietnam and responsible for the deaths of 3 million Vietnamese. Oh, by the way, just to make you feel better, don’t forget agent orange, a chemical defoliant that’s so lethal still continues to devastate the health of millions of Vietnamese. Oh, another thing, I suppose you’re a great admirer of Ronald Reagan who once said that Vietnam "was a noble cause". God bless America!

    • No, the CIA helped put Saddam in power becuase we thought we could use him

    • Lefty madness never ends. It’s always the fault of the US. I am so glad that your party is being filled up by anarchists and anti-establishment lefties which will insure that the democratic party will never win another presidential election and will continue to lose seats in Congress. HIP HIP HOORAY!

    • That is idiotic. Blame the US and British? Why, because we are doing the right thing? The blood is on the hands of the IslamoFacsists who killed Hassan, execute Iraqi cops and blow up innocent Iraqi civilians. Put away your Chomski reader and come back to reality. The US, UK and the west are the best hope for freedom and humanity in this world. The only way those freedoms will be lost is by America haters like yourselves who don’t appreciate what you have.

    • We helped pronote Saddam into power as we messed up Iran:

      http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/51/217.html

    • Yeah, all Muslims are Saints, I wanna become a Muslim so I can go to heaven & hang around with Uday Hussein, he is my hero.

    • Some Jews were caught by the FBI cheering and clapping when the twin towers were burning...was this because they knew Bush’s next move ??

  • THERE IS A SIMPLE SOLUTION.

    Obviously more than one person was involved in the abduction of Margaret Hassan.

    Therefore the solution is to offer a huge reward and immunity from prosecution to one person as long as that person was not the principle offender.

    It is extremely important that the Truth is outed. If the Americans do not cooperate with the reward and passage out of the country for an informer then it must be said they are affraid of the truth.

    I suggest that a campaign get under way to raise the reward and pressure the Americans into the scheme.

    • The simple solution is that an informant with a conscience should tell the US military where these bastards are hiding so that they can gun them all down.

  • Why do the victims of beheadings always seem to be wearing US issued orange prison jumpsuits?

    • The jumpsuits are a sick attempt to create a moral equivalency between murderers who would cut off the hands of those who feed them and the U.S. policy of not offering full benefits of its justice system to enemy combatants (a justice system which frees murderers every day and which allowed Ramsey Yusef to coordinate attacks from within prison.)

      Judging by this poorly researched article and those who drink every claim in it as fact, such crude propaganda works. But it only works on those who are misinformed, who have a one-sided view of the U.S. and are predisposed to hatred of a diverse western nation as a monolithic evil. Isn’t it fortunate that every despot in the world can point to the U.S. and say "there is your problem", thus absolving themself from any responsibility for regional problems. Isn’t it possibly too convenient? Ah but you say that it is Americans, who only see one side. We who have access to every source from fox to bellacio, we who can read the writings of Buckely and Chomsky... yet you claim it is we who have a lopsided view of ourselves and those who hate us. Why do you fear that some will see your conspiracy theorys as conspiracy theorys? The truth is I’m open to many fact based critiques of U.S. foreign policy. Margarat Hassan was also critical of the U.S. and U.N. sanctions on Iraq but we now know that these were not the root cause of Iraq’s humanitarian suffering. Saddam siphoned over $20 billion from the food program for himself and to fund suicide bombers who believe in killing as many Israelis as possible. To use her death to furthur your anti-U.S. cause feeds into the nihlism which led to the deaths of so many innocents.

      If you aren’t afraid of a different point of view which may convince you that you are drinking propaganda:
      http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20041118/COWENT18/TPComment/TopStories

      There are many other opportunities to criticize U.S. foreign policy which do have a basis in reality. Please do not use the death of this good woman to further your anti-American cause.

  • Very strange that this website which claims the U.S. can’t handle the truth seems to have erased my message which contradicts the claims made in this article. Hmm, let’s see if this one gets deleted: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20041118/COWENT18/TPComment/TopStories

    Cover your eyes if you can’t handle the truth!

    Again, while I have no problem with criticizing the U.S. for actual failures in its foreign policy, please do not use the death of this good woman to further your cause.

  • The problem here is that this article is full of the propaganda that it rants against. No proof offered. . .just inuendo. And while this makes for interesting speculation, that’s all it is.

    As for the claim that Islam = peace, I’m afraid that much more is required. There are people killing in the name of Islam. It is not enough for those Muslims that interpret Islam differently to simply state their opinion. They need to become activists—in the positive sense of the word. They have a HUGE job ahead of them.

    Spinning articles of half-truths doesn’t count as activism in my book. . .

    • she’s dead and when it comes down to it, MEN killed her. You should all be ashamed of yourselves.

      from someone who actually knew Margaret

    • Christians have always hated Muslims. They did many crusades to try to eliminate them. Muslims have always promoted peace. They are just acting in self-defence becaus they are beeing attacked by the United States, England and Isreal.

    • Why do you think the crusades? DUH! The muslims were killing christians or forced them to convert to avoid being killed. At one point, most of the middle east was a christian region until the barbaric muslims started pushed christians out or killed them or forced them to convert. And muslims do not always promote peace. Haven’t you seen tapes of osama threatening people who didn’t believe as he did. Muslims promoting peace is all hogwash. Muslims are the terrorists of the world. They killed the children of Breslan, Theo Van Gogh and now Margaret Hassan. I hope your God sends a plague to smite you all down.

    • In the background of these appalling pictures, there were none of the usual Islamic banners. There were none of the usual armed and hooded men. There were no Qur’anic recitations.

      And when it percolated through to Fallujah and Ramadi that the mere act of kidnapping Hassan was close to heresy, the combined resistance groups of Fallujah - and the message genuinely came from them - demanded her release.

      So, incredibly, did Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qaeda man whom the Americans falsely claimed was leading the Iraqi insurrection, but who has definitely been involved in the kidnappings and beheadings.

      Other abducted women were freed when their captors recognised their innocence.

      But not Margaret Hassan, even though she spoke fluent Arabic and could explain her work to her captors in their own language.

      If anyone doubted the murderous nature of the insurgents, what better way to prove their viciousness than to produce evidence of Margaret Hassan’s murder?

      What more ruthless way could there be of demonstrating to the world that the US and Interim Prime Minister Iyad Alawi’s tinpot army were fighting "evil" in Fallujah and the other Iraqi cities?

      Things are not as they would like us to believe.

    • They killed her because they wanted to create some symmetry. They apparently wanted the release of a couple of women that they thought were in jail. The fact that they did not have the usual trappings of Islamic ritual to kill people just might indicate that they themselves felt that this was against islam. Unfortunately these islamic militants didn’t feel bad enough to let her go. They are bastards but they are not any different from any other muslim barbarians.

    • GO TAKE A HISTORY LESSON MORON.THE CRUSADERS ATTACKED ANY ONE NOT CHRISTIAN,IN THE NAME OF GOD.EVEN THE CHURCH EXCOMMUNICATED THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS IN THE END.THE CRUSADERS ACTUALLY ENTERED THE MIDDLE EAST WITH NO PROVOCATION.FUNNY THING IS, A LOT OF THE SOLDIERS LOVED THE REFINED AND INTERESTING CULTURE OF THE MUSLIMS AND WILLINGLY CONVERTED,MARRIED MUSLIM WOMEN AND NEVER RETURNED HOME.A LOT OF THINGS WE TAKE FOR GRANTED,SUCH AS HOSPITALS AND UNIVERSITIES,WERE FIRST THOUGHT OF BY MUSLIMS.WHEN THE CRUSADERS ENTERED THE MIDDLE EAST IN A SUPOSSED "PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKE" THEY SLAUGHTERED ANYONE IN THE STREETS,MEN,WOMEN AND CHILDREN.THESE SAME NOBLE MEN,THAT WERE HANGING AND BURNING WITCHES AND HERETICS IN THEIR OWN COUNTRIES.THIS IS NOT GODS WORK,THIS IS THE WORK OF EVIL,POWERHUNGRY MEN.

    • You really are very ignorant, I’m sorry to say. Islam was born in war. Under Islam there are only two worlds, the world of Islam and the world of Non Islam. Under traditional Islamic teaching the world of Non Islam is to be conquered by the world of Islam. That is in their religion. After Mohammed died, the muslims started attacking Christian countries like Egypt, Palestine, Syria, countries of North Africa. It was because of these successful attacks that the Eastern Orthodox Church asked the Western European Christians and the Pope to help them and that’s how the crusades happened. And the crusaders were brutal, there is no doubt about that, but then again so were the muslims.

    • iSLAM WAS NOT BORN IN WAR.YOU SAID YOURSELF,AFTER MOHAMMED DIED.YES THE DID WAGE WAR UNDER A CORRUPT LEADERSHIP.THAT IS HOW THE TWO BRANCHES FIRST STARTED IE:SUNNI AND SHIATE,AS FOR THE CRUSADES,THE CATHOLICS ONLY GOT INVOLVED TO SECURE CONSTANTINOPLE WHICH WAS THE MOST STATEGIC POINT ON THE MAP AT THE TIME.AND SINCE WHICH OF THE COUNTRIES YOU NOTED WERE REALLY CHRISTIANS AND WHICH HAD IT IMPOSED ON THEM.YOU ARE THE IGNORANT ONE.

    • We obviously aren’t going to agree. But your post proves that Islam was not peaceful otherwise they wouldn’t have split up. And your post also proves that Islam was attacking christianity because they attacked constantinople, which was the eastern orthodox christian center.

    • I AM AFRAID YOU ARE WRONG AGAIN.CONSTANTINOPLE WAS RELIGIOUSLY TOLERENT,ALL THE FAITHS LIVED IN PEACE TILL THE CRUSADERS CAME.THEY CONVETED THE MOSQUES INTO CHURCHES,THEN WENT ON TO STEAL THE DOME DESIGN AND CLAIM IT AS THEIR OWN.YES THE MUSLIMS SPLIT.THE GOOD SIDE BEING LED BY MOHAMMEDS MOST FAITHFUL.THEN THE REGION FELL INTO A STATE OF PEACE,UNTIL THE CRUSADES.THIS THEN GAVE THE MONGUL TURKS,ESSENTIALLY STILL PAGEN,THE OPPORTUNITY TO WAGE WAR ON WHOEVER THEY PLEASED.THIS WAS NOT FOR GOD OR ISLAM,JUST FOR POWER.AND I NOTICE YOU HAD NOTHING TO SAY ABOUT THE ATROCITIES BEING COMMITTED IN ENGLAND AND EUROPE IN THE NAME OF GOD.

    • Boy, you really are reading from the crazy book. What you said is totally in error. And I don’t even know where to begin to correct you. You are beyond hope. The only thing I can do is pity you and ignore you nonsensical ravings. As for any other atrocities you keep harping about, you can go on raving about it, no doubt, it’s just as much full of errors as your other "information".

    • SO NOW YOU ARE SAYING THE CHRISTIANS DIDNT BURN,TORTURE,HANG HERETICS AND WITCHES.THE VATICAN HAS ONLY RECENTLY RELEASED DOCUMENTS ADMITTING THEY DID THIS.YOUR BOOK IS OBVIOUSLY WESTERN PROPOGANDA.I LIVED WITH A CHINESE PERSON ONCE AND WE HAD MANY ARGUMENTS ABOUT HISTORY,COZ IN CHINESE HISTORY,REWRITTEN POST COMMUNISM,THE CHINESE WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY AND EVERY GREAT DISCOVERY IN THE WORLD.PEOPLE RIGHT HISTORY BOOK FROM THEIR OWN PERSPECTIVE.IF YOU READ ANY OF CAESARS HISTORY BOOKS THIS BECOMES EVIDENT.THEY WERE WRITTEN FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF A ROMAN CONQUERER.IF YOU ARE ONLY EVER GOING TO LOOK AT ONE SIDE OF THE STORY,YOU ARE ONLY EVER GOING TO GET HALF THE PICTURE.AND FOR ANYONE WHO THINKS I AM YELLING,IT IS JUST EASIER AND QUICKER TO CAPITILISE EVERYTHING.

    • Islam is an religion combined with a secular ideology. The religious side spills completely into society’s laws, rules and power arrangements. It cannot accept competition, similar to Marxist Leninism. Islams means "submit to the will of God." It sprang in the 7th century and in a hundred years Muslim armies swept violently across Africa, into Spain and into India until its expansion reached its height. Democracy is a foreign concept to Islam.

      There is a clash of civilizations going on. On one side, the west, democracy and freedom. On the other, failed states built on a civilization stuck in the middle ages, where women are chattel and freedom is a little understood idea.

      Which side is this site and the America-haters supporting? They’re supporting a civilization that would cut their fucking heads off.

    • Now you are describing the Born Again Christians for Bush.

  • Your a liar...

    Ja

    JSA

  • Your editorial is ridiculous. Islamic extemists murdered and tortured Margaret Hassan and they are nothing more than serial killers. They are not human beings. They are sick cowards who wear masks. As evidenced by the the lack of women’s rights in fundamentalist countries, most of these men hate women and would have no problem murdering one.

    Their behavior is evidence that they were raised is a diseased society and culture that does not honor human life, that has no morals, ethics.

    As far as I am concerned the US and Brits should withdraw from the middle east and let the muslims contintue killing each other until all are dead.

    Further, the Arab countries do not support each other—it seems as though the neighboring countries encourage chaos and inhumanity.

    • I think the whole emphasis of this argument is skewed. We might find it a better world if we considered why Margaret Hassan lived, how she lived her life, and honoured her memory by realising the fact that she found a real purpose to her life.
      My hope is that her body is returned to her family.
      Whoever killed this precious woman, is irrelavant compared to the fact she is another strong light which has been extinguished. Her whole life’s work seems to me to have been directed towards inclusion, caring for people who were needing help which could not come from within. I think some of the comments made on this site are very disrespectful to her memory. Perhaps we should all go out today and do one small kind thing for someone else, in memory of Margaret.

      T

  • Those of you who didn’t like hearing all this from someone with a "dodgy-sounding" Arab name, living in London, and away from "the reality" in Iraq..... well, first of all, you’re probably racists, but secondly, have a look at the article i’ve linked to below (which backs it up a bit, and ought to have been on the front page, in my opinion). This is written by the British (British/Irish, actually) journalist Robert Fisk, the toughest and most respected of the English-speaking journalists in the Middle East. This is a man who lived through all fifteen years of the Lebanese Civil War, including the period when almost every other Westerner fled the place; the man who worked 24/7 for the release of his great friend Terry Anderson, the hard-as-nails former Marine who spent nearly seven years in various cellars in Beirut and Baalbek. Robert Fisk is a man who in pursuit of the terrible Middle Eastern truths has been seconds away from death almost as many times as some of the respondants here have sniffed Dick Cheney’s underpants. Do you think that he’s naive, or promoting some subversive commie anti-Zionist "agenda"? Yes, I’m sure you probably do. I myself am fairly sure he’s just trying to report what he sees, but have a look, please do.....

    http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=4455

    Can I just add that I would like to agree with the sender who was responding to the rather open and rabid anti-Semitism of Mr. "Terry Butcher BS4 Crew". Although it’s all a bit muddled and I hesitate to pass judgement on where he’s coming from, there’s a faint whiff of BNP in there which has me running for the sickbucket. (I’m very sorry for the famous footballer Terry Butcher, who always sounds like a decent bloke, to have had his name abused by such a bad ’un.)

    However, I’ll just defend the webmasters a little. I imagine that the reason why "anything goes" on the English part of this site (yes, the Wild West is still with us) is precisely for the reason that the people running it are not anglophones - hence the dodgy English - "caractere defamatory, abusive, xenophobe...." Ce sont des francais. They’ve got enough to do without reading these long threads in English, so i wouldn’t utterly condemn them there. If you read French, then have a look at the French version of the site. You’ll find quite a lot of stuff responding to the recent upsurge of anti-Semitism in France. Try hitting on this link:

    http://bellaciao.org/fr/mot.php3?id_mot=32

    • Just to say I know who the Terry Butcher character is and he’s a generous spirited kind person. He’s a muslim who is sick and tired of islamaphobic views and is in no way anti-semitic. He IS very, along with some of our jewish crew, totally anti -Zionist as any right minded person. We are also totally against this latest US armed robbery/slaughter as I’m sure you realise.

    • He may be sick and tired of islamophobic views, but is he sick and tired of all the crimes that are being done under the name of islam? That’s what these islamic fundamentalist extremists are claiming it is done for.

    • who cares ..noone..no news here

  • Sorry, I realised that I didn’t once pay tribute to the memory of Margaret Hassan in that last post. I suppose that it’s inevitable that her death is taking on a strange mythical symbolism, but of course we must also remember that she was a very good woman trying to do a very difficult job. I don’t know whether the people who killed her were Sunnis, Shiites, Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, Satanists or Hydrocarbonites. To me, they could be any or all of these, but whoever they are, they’re bastards on a Nazi-Pol-Pot level of achievement. The one thing that is clear is that the Tigris and Euphrates are now so full of effluent that the world will soon choke on the smell.

  • I was in Baghdad when she was kidnapped. She appeared on TV making pleas for mercy over a period of several weeks, as did her husband, an Iraqi, and her body was later found in Fallujah, a base area at the time of followers of Al Zarqawi. Her pleas were put out on the internet by her captors, who did not hide their loyalties. There were also witnesses to her kidnapping.
    It’s saddening that anyone should try to exploit this tragedy by promulgating such a far-fetched notion as British involvement when the Brits and others were doing all they could to free her. Your claims only deepen the divisions — and the sense that there’s no solution while people such as you have no inhibitions about mercilessly using such a tragedy for your own purposes.