Via The London Times Online :
Update: See Rusty here who says, "Ah young Paducan learn to trust your feelings". (Note extended entry was posted yesterday.)
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.
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
really means. We don't
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.
1
>>> This is the face of evil itself
There's just no other way to describe it.
Posted by: Graeme at May 07, 2006 11:59 AM (XF1Ly)
2
True Graeme, although liberals will fall all over themselves to make excuses for the animals who do such things.
Posted by: Improbulus Maximus at May 07, 2006 12:01 PM (0yYS2)
3
The people that did this were not social or political liberals I have yet to see any liberals making any excuses for this. IM could you provide us some links ?
Posted by: john Ryan at May 07, 2006 12:37 PM (TcoRJ)
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DING DING DING. I thunk he's talking about the reporter. It does boggle the mind you can see the struggle of the liberal in that one quote. It's admirable that she wants to understand shows she is a caring person in my book But she can't it's beyond evil. Satanic I'd call it in a chilling way. I think it underscores the stuggle on the left how to be left and still fight these people who have no respect for life. It's beyond a moderate liberal democracys imagination Left Right Middle whatever. It's freaking evil doubleclutch!
Posted by: Howie at May 07, 2006 12:56 PM (D3+20)
5
I don't know why this surprises anyone. The animals learned this behavior and received plenty of practice under the regime of Saddam. The hate they display is a learned behavior, not something that comes natural to anyone. Saddam was a great teacher.
Posted by: jesusland joe at May 07, 2006 01:44 PM (rUyw4)
6
John Ryan: Excuses include, but are not limited to A) blaming America and the West for being the cause for these actions and/or B) not saying anything at all - as if it isn't.even.happening.
WE have those who constantly harp on how bad the West is, how they're the "oppressors" yet, when this is the reaction, they're strangely silent. They know damn good and well there is no excuse for what happened to this woman and to bring it up detracts from their argument.
When cornered, they often say, "Well, er, uh, of course that's wrong ...... but," Why must they equivocate?
Sometimes, something is just so evil - there
IS nothing else. There
IS no excuse. There
IS nothing else to say.
Posted by: Oyster at May 07, 2006 02:42 PM (YudAC)
7
Anyone have a link to the video?
Not to put the cruelty and stupidity of this act into the shade, but the depiction brings to mind something that I've noticed in all the Angry Arab beheading videos.
Why can't Arabs sharpen a knife? Historically they've always used slashing weapons, and a dull scimitar is pretty useless, so when did they forget how to use a whetstone?
One of the videos I've seen featured a beheading so botched it could have passed for a Saturday Night Live skit if the knife had been fake. Maybe you've seen it--the victim is in a chair, bound hand and foot, and some lumpy goombah in a homemade ninja suit comes up behind him to do the deed. Problem is, not only is the knife dull but the idiot (obviously not a Boy Scout) is cutting toward himself. Naturally, as he tries to saw the dull blade through the skin, the victim squirms out of the chair and tucks his chin, so the executioner and his buddies end up sliding around in a puddle of blood trying to wrestle the guy while avoiding getting cut by their own knife. After some minutes of this there is a break in the video after which the killer displays the freshly detached head and holds forth on God's greatness, utterly oblivious to the irony of the scene. (My thought was, if this clusterfark is an example of God's greatness, what does it look like when He isn't really trying?)
I suspect the dull-knife phenomenon is Arab rather than Muslim, because I've seen the infamous Chechen beheading video and it's worlds apart. If there can be such a thing as a good beheading video, this is it. In fact, the whole thing is handled so businesslike it resembles an instructional video for people who want to take up beheading as a hobby (and knowing the Chechens it may well be.) They've got all the cardinal points covered. The victim on the ground, so he can't flop over. The killing is done outdoors, so everyone keeps their traction and nobody has to mop up. The victim's head is firmly clamped to a large flat rock by the executioner's boot, so there will be no writhing about. The knife is big and razor-sharp. There is no posturing nor ecstatic ululating nor reading from the Scripture, though all celebrants apart from their guest are zealous Muslims. The executioner carefully places the point just below the victim's ear, edge away from himself, and strokes easily through the neck in less than 5 seconds. Presumably the head was removed for taxidermy after the twitching was over, but this was rightly judged a separate task.
Posted by: ShannonKW at May 07, 2006 02:59 PM (dT1MB)
8
Hey! Dont knock the Religion of Peace! My liberal President says you narrow minded xenophobes are just making trouble. We need to give the Jihadists a chance! The Jihadist is just like you and me.
If you cant believe my liberal President who can you believe?
Posted by: Rod Stanton at May 07, 2006 03:04 PM (EgoYF)
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No! Its ot the left winger in the White House that likes Jihadists. Its his less than capable PC AG Alberto that like Jihadists.Your liberal President does not car either way.
Posted by: Jo macDougal at May 07, 2006 03:43 PM (EgoYF)
10
The knife is dull to insure maximum pain & suffering.It is like trying to behead someone with a huge butter knife.The people doing these things are "Satanists" & they KNOW that they are "Satanists."Everybody has their own opinion of Islam.To me,whats the difference between yelling "Allahu Akbar" & "Hallelujah,Praise the Lord" while doing this vile crime.My point is that these people are trying their best to villify the religion of Islam,just like they would Christianity &/or Judaism.These very same people could be beheading people here in the U.S. or say,Northern Ireland in the "name" of the Christian's God.This is not about belief,this is about attacking a belief & misrepresenting the belief in order to damage it.This killing was not done in the name of religion but to attack religion & to cast the certain targeted religion in a bad light & we are more than happy to take the bait.
Posted by: Roy Smith at May 07, 2006 03:50 PM (AoEIx)
11
Roy, I'm not sure I understand your post, but if you are saying this killing was not done in the name of religion, of course it was. Islam needs to undergo the same reformation and reexamination that Christianity did coming out of the Middle Ages. Jews annihilated non-Jews (read the old testament, they took over entire towns, killed all the men (down to infants), raped all the women, all at God's orders). Christians for centuries behaved with extreme brutality, towards heretics and non-believers, beheading, burning, etc. Islam has come into confrontation with modernity all at once, over a 100 year period, as an external, foreign, dominating power, whereas for us it was internal, gradual, and positive for our relative power in the world. This is NOT making excuses for the animals who beheaded this women--they should be treated as military enemies--but it is to say that this IS a problem of religion, within a major religion. The president is right: what is needed is not a war against Islam but a war within Islam. We must take sides with people like this woman, against people like these beheaders. Samuel Huntington, who predicted in the late 80s that "the borders of Islam will be bloody" was prescient on just this point.
Posted by: jd at May 07, 2006 04:25 PM (aqTJB)
12
Roy do you really believe that crap.
Posted by: Howie at May 07, 2006 04:28 PM (D3+20)
13
Good points JD, but the difference is that when muslims commit atrocities, their behavior is sanctioned by the koran, so there can be no reformation.
Posted by: Improbulus Maximus at May 07, 2006 04:30 PM (0yYS2)
14
Shannon : I've not come across the video yet. As I inderstand I was sent to the family and they shared it with the Times. Obviously it would be very difficult for the family to release that. I've requested it and or selected images and will keep looking as well.
Posted by: Howie at May 07, 2006 04:31 PM (D3+20)
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If I said who I really believe was doing these killings,Then my house would be filled with aluminum foil for making those hats to protect my brain.Somebody is doing all of the killing in Iraq.I would not be surprised if all of a sudden a "Christian" version of Bin Ladin &/or Zarqawi will come on the scene & in the name of "Jesus" proclaim himself a "Crusader" & commit acts of terror which will of course be a misrepresentation of all who would consider themselves Christians.If you can understand what I am saying from this angle then you can understand how people who call themselves Muslims would say that the persons doing this crime must be Israelis & or the Mossad.This is NOT to blame Israel at all,they are just saying that they cannot believe a muslim could commit such a crime.I could just as easily blame the illuminati,freemasons,...Opus Dei,you get the picture.It is hard to believe that what we Christian Americans would call "true Christians" or what Iraq would call "true Muslims" would commit such a crime.I believe these people who killed this women are "Satanists."They may not call themselves that,but they knowingly embrace evil.They have an agenda to cause unrest in Iraq.They could be Iraqi or foreign fighters from surrounding countries,they could be Israel,they could be Iranian,They could be American(which I know is a very cynical thought).NOBODY REALLY KNOWS who is doing all of these killings.We just know who we want to believe is doing it.
Posted by: Roy Smith at May 07, 2006 04:57 PM (AoEIx)
16
Seeing as how the Old Testament calls for stoning homosexuals, killing people who refuse to honor their parents, or blaspheme against God, along with many other extraordinarily violent responses, including wars of extermination, all supported by God, I'm encouraged by modern Judaism's disavowal of those things. Even the Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox do not practice those. There are passages in the Koran that are equally or more disturbing. I'm confident that moderate interpretations and reinterpretations can prevail, although I'm not convinced they will, or will do rapidly.
As for Christianity: yes, it does preach, in the New Testament, a much more loving attitude than the Old Testament (altho not without its brutality). It is clear to me that Christianity is, as doctrine, a better fit for modernity than Islam. It did, however, take us hundreds of years to stop violently waging war in the name of God, massacring those who took a different view of God, etc. Ironically enough, it is the one aspect of Islam that is most "modern" compared to historic Christianity that has prevented its authoritative evolution: its diffuse lines of authority. Christians, for whatever reason, have tended to organize around established lines of ecclesiastical hierarchy (Baptists excepted). Thus, when Christianity reformed, each denomination could do so in a relatively organized fashion. Islam lacks any such organized leadership, a tragedy as they try and reform.
Of course, I know, IM that you don't consider any of these faiths worthy of your support, so it is to some extent an academic debate for you, isn't it? And if you don't have any religion, upon what morality do you base your wars of extermination against liberals and Muslims? Randian objectivism? Nietzschean ubermenschery? Nihilistic libertarianism? Secular humanism? Neofascism?
Posted by: jd at May 07, 2006 05:02 PM (aqTJB)
17
It is about ideology, with religion as the driving force, I posted this @ jihad watch but it's worth repeating here:
I was reading this the other night, and it jumped out at me, while it discusses Communism, and Nazism et al, it really applies to Islam too:
Ideology -- that is what gives evildoing it's long-sought justification and gives the evildoer the necessary steadfastness and determination. That is social theory which helps to make his acts seem good instead of bad in his own and other's eyes, so that he won't hear reproaches and curses but will receive praise and honors. That is how the agents of the Inquisition fortified their wills: by invoking Christianity; the conquerors of foreign lands, by extolling the grandeur of their Motherland; the colonizers, by equality, brotherhood of future generations. Thanks to ideology, the twentieth century was fated to experiment evildoing on a scale calculated in the millions. --
Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago.
Posted by: davec at May 07, 2006 05:06 PM (CcXvt)
18
YOu guys seem so amazed- The muslim is an animal. They walk like an animal, talk like an animal and you seem su-prised when they act like animals.
It is high time we treated them like the animals they are.
Butcher them. Put them to sleep. Put them in cages.
Jebus, I won't let one of the buggers step on my lawn. Bad for the grass.
Posted by: Filthy Allah at May 07, 2006 05:42 PM (/RE21)
19
Evil is a force in this world and yes, there are evil people. Don't let Liberals tell you otherwise. They live in a fantasy world were closing your eyes to the obvious is considred a virtue.
Posted by: Jesusland Carlos at May 07, 2006 05:45 PM (8e/V4)
20
What a sick ass world we live in. There are people who probably deserve to die like that, but this victim wouldn't seem to be one of them. The fact that one human being can do this to another is incomprehensible. Which leads me to the unavoidable conclusion that the killers are SUB human.
Posted by: Richard at May 07, 2006 05:51 PM (7KF8r)
21
jd,
"Islam needs to undergo the same reformation and reexamination that Christianity did coming out of the Middle Ages."
Are you sure Islam "needs" this, or that we in the West would approve of them more if the Koran stopped being an obstacle to adopting our moral beliefs?
The West has greatly benefited by rubbishing some of the more inconvenient of the Bible's teachings. But you should be careful to distinguish between teachings that are truly impractical and those that are merely incompatible with modern moral vogue. For example, the requirement to forgive wrongdoers would make justice and civilization impossible, so we gain a real demonstrable benefit by ignoring it; but rules about modest dress and sexual conduct don't restrict anything but your right to party, so we could impose these on our people and be just as civilized as we are now (though grumpier.)
I mention this because when Westerners look at Islamic countries with an eye toward junking the rules that are supposedly holding them back, they always pick the wrong ones. The plight of Muslim women, for example, wets no end of hankies in the West, but there is no point in emancipating the women in some countries. The U.S. could afford to do this after we industrialized and babymaking became a burden rather than blessing. Sure, we take a self-congratulatory attitude toward it now as though we suddenly awoke to how evil it was to keep 'em barefoot and pregnant, but it's no coincidence that we had this epiphany when the economy had found better things for them to do.
Personally, I think the biggest things holding back Muslim countries are their penchant for nationalized industry combined with a lack of rule of law, but it's unclear how this can be pinned on the religion (not that I'd be surprised if it could...)
Posted by: ShannonKW at May 07, 2006 06:41 PM (dT1MB)
22
JD, I'm not really into "isms", so I don't need any ideological support for my opinions, just simple logic: Kill my enemies before they kill me. Survival is the prime imperative in life, and anything that threatens survival must be destroyed without mercy or remorse. It is no secret that global liberalism and terrorism go hand in hand, and that liberals have always supported whatever psychopaths came along as long as they were preaching some ideology that promised to destroy civilization, and nothing has changed, except now the liberals support islamic terrorism rather than communist terrorism, but only because muslims look like they stand a good chance of destroying civilization.
Posted by: Imoprobulus Maximus at May 07, 2006 07:20 PM (0yYS2)
Posted by: jack at May 07, 2006 11:30 PM (aitZQ)
Posted by: jack at May 07, 2006 11:30 PM (aitZQ)
25
well I did not really expect that anyone would provide any links showing "liberals" justifying the especially brutal murder of this brave woman. The demonization of all who are not in 100% agreement has polarized and weaken our nation.
Posted by: john Ryan at May 08, 2006 07:57 AM (TcoRJ)
26
John Ryan, read Oyster's comments above. Sometimes a lack of condemnation of an action is a justification, or at least tacit support, even though the method itself may not be to someone's liking. Does the term "insurgent" ring a bell?
Posted by: jesusland joe at May 08, 2006 08:45 AM (rUyw4)
27
>>>Does the term "insurgent" ring a bell?
john ryan,
does the term "minuteman" ring a bell?
Posted by: Jesusland Carlos at May 08, 2006 09:53 AM (8e/V4)
28
I see Islam degenerating in that part of the world..organized murder and mayhem led by thugs who parade as Mullahs. There is a power vacuum...which we created. And, God is crying....
Posted by: sharon spry at May 08, 2006 01:04 PM (BdT9X)
29
Ah me a suck you a sucker he a sucker she a sucker wouldn't ya like to be a sucker too.
Posted by: Howie at May 08, 2006 02:59 PM (D3+20)
30
Re the news media's seeking to tone down the barbarity of these acts:
"Every villain is followed by a sophist with a sponge." -- EM Forster, misquoting
a Lord Acton lecture
Posted by: The Sanity Inspector at May 08, 2006 03:47 PM (uw+0A)
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John--you don't think the majority of people feel the need to back up what they say, do you? That's betraying your bias for "reality". And as Stephen Colbert so insouciantly put it: reality has a well known liberal bias.
Posted by: jd at May 08, 2006 05:10 PM (aqTJB)
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