May 30, 2006
The good news, it just keeps on a rollin! Another of Iraq's most wanted, Ahmed Hussein Dabash Samir al-Batawi, was captured by Iraqi forces. This follows the announcement of the capture of top Zarqawi aide Kassim al-Ani, also on Baghdad's most wanted list.As Traderrob notes (hat tip & thanks for the image): Dropping like flies, just a matter of time before we nail the big one. And by 'the big one' he means al Qaeda in Iraq's Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
“The anti-terrorism unit arrested the terrorist Ahmed Hussein Dabash Samer Al Battawi on Monday in the Firdos district in the capital Baghdad,” the statement said.Battawi confessed after he was arrested that he had “chopped off the heads of hundreds of innocent Iraqis” in Baghdad and other parts of the country, said the statement.
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May 08, 2006
A gruesome beheading video delivered to the Sunday Times purporting to be of slain journalist Atwar Bahjat is a hoax. On Sunday, May 7th, the Times reported that they had received a low-quality video of Atwar Bahjat being slowly beheaded. That video is now being circulated on the internet as the "Atwar Bahjat" beheading video.
The Jawa Report can reveal that the Times and Halal Jabar, the author of the article, are victims of a hoax. The video actually shows the gruesome murder of a Nepalese man by the Army of Ansar al-Sunna in Iraq from August of 2004. The man was one of 12 victims executed by the terrorist organization--the other 11 were shot (original story, video, and images of 12 Nepalese murdered in Iraq here).
The Times describes the Nepalese murder video precisely. However, the video delivered to the Times was actually a low-quality version of a much higher quality film originally made by Ansar al-Sunnah. The Times video also is edited to exclude the murder of the other 11 hostages.
The Army of Ansar al-Sunna has murdered dozens of civilians in Iraq. The organization is an offshoot of the Army of Ansar al-Islam--a Kurdish Islamist organization. The group routinely murders those suspected of collaborating with the U.S. and Iraqi governments. Before the group murders their hostages they accuse them of 'apostasy', a crime punishable by death under Islamic law. They therefore justify their murders as 'executions' for 'crimes' committed against Islam.
Halal Jabar describes the video in the Sunday Times, but leaves out that you can hear the victim gasping for breath through the hole in his severed neck:
By the time filming begins, the condemned woman has been blindfolded with a white bandage.Greyhawk tipped us to the possibility that the video delivered to the Times was not authentic. This image from Getty shows the corpse of Bahjat, apparently shot by terrorists, in February.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. ...
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 an 8in 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.
Soon afterward, jihadi forums began to circulate the phony video. Thanks to Baf Baf for much of the legwork in helping figure out which video the hoax had been made from.
The Times reported that the film was delivered to them by Sunni insurgents and said that it had been found on the mobile phone of a dead Shia militant. The article erroneously tries to blame Bahjat's murder on Shia militias, and uses the false video as evidence of growing civil strife in Iraq.
The video, in fact, actually shows an "infidel" being murdered by a Sunni Salaafist terrorist organization with ties to al Qaeda. Related from Jeff Goldstein on why this matters. Neo-neocon as well.
Earlier report: The Bloody Murder of Muslim Jouralist Atwar Bahjat
Here is a link to the original video being circulated on jihadi discussion boards as the Atwar Bahjat beheading video (WARNING: VERY GRAPHIC). Disgusting, cruel, and graphic images from it are posted below.
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UPDATE: Just for the sake of clarity, Bahjat was murdered in a cruel way. The fact that this video is a hoax should not distract us from that fact. Whoever murdered her deserves the severist punishment available. [And by 'hoax' I do not mean to imply the video is fake, only its attribution. For some reason some Islamist scumbag thought it would be funny/scary/useful to send out an old video and label it 'Bahjat'.]
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UPDATE 2: Al Arabiya (Arabic) is now confirming the tape was a hoax (via Abu Aardvark).
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UPDATE 3: Ogrish now reporting same.
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UPDATE 4: Here is a translated version of the al Arabiya article. Bahjat was a reporter for al Arabiya. It claims that the Atwar Bahjat hoax video is for sale on CD-ROM on the Baghdad streets:
It was published this tape in Arabic forums on the Internet, as well as news of the British newspaper quoted several Arab newspapers. The sources also stated that the tape recording sold on CD-ROM in the streets of Baghdad.----
UPDATE 5: I don't know how I overlooked this, but apparantly The Jawa Report's Mike Pechar had been on this from the beginning. From our February post on Atwar Bahjat's murder:
Their bullet-riddled bodies were found by their vehicle near the town of Dawr. Notably, by all indications, these journalists were specifically targeted.----
Why do we show these images? So you can see the cruel and barbaric deeds of the enemies we fight in Iraq and around the globe.
The Western press has no problem with showing you the misdeeds of U.S. soldiers in Iraq--misdeeds that are punished--but will not show you what our enemies are like. The hypocrisy of a media which has no problem characterizing prisoner abuse as 'torture'--- and endlessly publishes photos of a woman laughing at nude prisoners---but refuses to show you what our enemies routinely do to prisoners. Torture them, murder them, and behead them.
WARNING: DO NOT PROCEED. GRAPHIC IMAGES. more...
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TerminusMay 07, 2006
Sickening
Via The London Times Online :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 familyÂ’s worst fears of what might have happened have been far exceeded by the realityÂ….
...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...
...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 an 8in 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 worldÂ’s most highly regarded and outspoken journalists has been silenced. She was 30....
...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 BahjatÂ’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.
Also see the Mudville Gazette who adds:
Regardless of which side in the conflict killed her (and I have my own thoughts on that - in the eyes of her killers her greatest crime was most likely being a woman outside of a kitchen) the London Times reporter can't resist a mild apology for their act:Blue Crab Boulevard says :Just as Bahjat bore witness to countless atrocities that she covered for her television station, Al-Arabiya, during IraqÂ’s descent into sectarian conflict, so the recording of her execution embodies the depths of the countryÂ’s depravity after three years of war.In truth, it represents a depth of depravity achieved over centuries. From the description, her killers hadn't just conceived or improvised their method execution on the spot - they seem to have been well practiced. But such is the nature of the enemy in this war, and perhaps this is their most sacred and well honed knowledge: if a brutality can be inflicted that exceeds all human ability to comprehend, the humans will find a way to deny it
This is the face of evil itself. That the monsters choose to hide behind masks shows how deeply depraved and cowardly they really are. We must remember we are at war. Or that face will show itself again and again.Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch chimes in with the following:
Anyone who thinks that God's greatness is established by such acts of barbaric cruelty must be resisted at all costs.I want to add one thought. I know this is a horrid thing. IÂ’ve seen several of these things and they turn my stomach. I dread having the even think of it. But this video should be released as respectfully and responsibly as possible. Hard to do I know, but the public must be shown this evil. Otherwise how are they to know the truth. Also I have an all too realistic awareness of what the threat below really means. We don't want to release it but we feel we have to release it. The Jawa Report will bring you updates if and when it becomes available. Our prayers go out to Atwar Bahjat and her family.
Others : Malkin and Captains Quarters.
See our beheading archive; Warning Graphic Images. more...
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