Barbarism To Extremes: The Death Of Atwar Bahjat
(Bumped To Monday with an Update at the Bottom)
OK. If this doesn't get the Left's attention, then I doubt anything will ...
Michelle Malkin brings us this "wonderful" story that just rips my stomach up (I have an ulcer as it is, and this just aggravates the crap out of it). From Greyhawk of the Mudville Gazette:
Warning: The following contains a graphic description of a brutal murder - probably exceeding what you imagine one human being could do to another. However, it is typical of the work of Islamic terrorists. Read on only if you want a bit of insight into the nature of the enemy in this global war. If not, please skip to the final paragraph.
Shortly after the bombing of the Samarra shrine, an Iraqi journalist covering the aftermath was kidnapped and murdered. Her story was mentioned briefly in the western media, but was covered extensively in the Middle East.
Now a video of the brutal murder has surfaced, apparently made with a mobile phone with video capability.
Two men drove up in a pick-up truck, asking for her. She appealed to a small crowd that had gathered around her crew but nobody was willing to help her. It was reported at the time that she had been shot dead with her cameraman and sound man.
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.
Just as Bahjat bore witness to countless atrocities that she covered for her television station, Al-Arabiya, during Iraq’s descent into sectarian conflict, so the recording of her execution embodies the depths of the country’s depravity after three years of war.
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 world’s most highly regarded and outspoken journalists has been silenced. She was 30.
For those wondering how she was abducted, the London Times explains:
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 family’s worst fears of what might have happened have been far exceeded by the reality.
Bahjat was abducted after making three live broadcasts from the edge of her native city of Samarra on the day its golden-domed Shi’ite mosque was blown up, allegedly by Sunni terrorists.
Roadblocks prevented her from entering the city and her anxiety was obvious to everyone who saw her final report. Night was falling and tensions were high.
Two men drove up in a pick-up truck, asking for her. She appealed to a small crowd that had gathered around her crew but nobody was willing to help her. It was reported at the time that she had been shot dead with her cameraman and sound man.
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.
Greyhawk also adds this disgusting detail:
Other gruesome details from a family friend: 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.
Her funeral procession was attacked twice:
On Saturday two attacks targeted the funeral procession for Atwar Bahjat, the well-known Al Arabiya correspondent killed with two crew members Wednesday while reporting on the violence engulfing Samarra, where the Al-Askariya "Golden" Mosque was bombed.
Two police officers were killed and five others wounded, as the cortege, led and guarded by Iraqi police and soldiers, entered the western Baghdad neighborhood of Abu Ghraib, Iraqi Emergency Police told CNN.<...>The incident happened near the home of Harith Al-Dari, the head of the Muslim Scholars Association, and along a road that splits, linking Baghdad with Syria and Jordan.
When the shots rang out, security officers ordered people in the convoy to abandon their vehicles and hide behind nearby houses.
Later, as the procession resumed toward the cemetery, a roadside bomb exploded, causing an unknown number of casualties, including deaths, said al-Nasery.
THIS IS WHAT OUR ENEMY DOES! Did I say it loud enough and clear enough for the Left out there? Do you moonbats get it now? WE didn't cause this. THIS is how they live. This is their ideology. This is within the beliefs they follow. To them, this is righteous. ANY clear thinking individual out there that reads this and says, "Yeah, so, we're still to blame" I swear to all that's Holy I will wring their necks.
This woman was committed to seeing a better Iraq. She was a journalist that ought to put every member of the MSM to f**king shame. This woman did what she believed in, and took risks that few others (Bill Roggio, Robert Kaplan, and Michael Yon just to name three) were willing to do. Cover the efforts of our troops and the rebuilding of a nation. As such an outspoken voice, and because of her dual heritage (she was half-Sunni and half-Shi'ite), she was a target. We should remember her for her accomplishments, but also for how she died; a martyr in the cause of creating a free and liberated Iraq.
These animals can't be reasoned with or bartered with. They don't want concessions other than our surrender. The Left would be willing to play dhimmis to these people. We can't allow that to happen.
We can't allow this woman's death--or anyone's death in this mission--to go in vain. We must stay the course. And we need to remember her as one of the heroes of the new Iraq. Greyhawk adds this in conclusion:
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:
Just as Bahjat bore witness to countless atrocities that she covered for her television station, Al-Arabiya, during Iraq’s descent into sectarian conflict, so the recording of her execution embodies the depths of the country’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 of 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.
Or excuse it.
Or simply look the other way.
We, at the Asylum, aren't looking away. We're not excusing it. We're no accepting it. And neither is Greyhawk, or any of the other bloggers on the following list. We're just as committed as Atwar Bahjat was.
Michelle Malkin
Jeff Goldstein
Kim Priestap
Joe Gandelman
The Jawa Report
Riehl World View
Powerline
LGF
Ace of Spades
Jihad Watch
Ed Morrisey
Blue Crab Boulevard
Publius II
UPDATE: (4:44 p.m. AZ Time)
John at PowerLine weighs in with this:
The enemy is evil, and those who try to excuse that evil, or who lavish ridiculous amounts of news coverage on stories like Abu Ghraib while leaving their readers in the dark about the real atrocities perpetrated by the Islamic terrorists, are complicit.
WE agree, and I hope that the idiotarians in the MSM take note of this. Complicity is a tricky thing concept though, and with their lack of legal knowledge, I doubt they comprehend the idea. After all, Bill Keller of the New York Times tried to justify the Times reporting the NSA surveillance program. Funny how they'd rather not be held accountable in affecting the very methods we use in the war, and they love to celebrate our enemies. They love to point out their victories, their methods, and at the same time slamming the administration for it's prosecution of the war.
In my world, complicity doesn't begin to cut it, but it's spot-on target right now.
Publius II
UPDATE: (Monday, 8 May. 2:14 p.m. AZ Time)
Greyhawk has an addendum to the story, as does Dr. Rusty Shackleford. From Greyhawk:
Update 8 May 1550 UTC:: Questions have been raised concerning the identity of the victim in the video described in this story. According to this wikipedia entry photos of Atwar Bahjat's body prove she was not decapitated. The photos linked from the entry, while gruesome, are not conclusive.
What's known at this time: Atwar Bahjat was kidnapped and murdered while covering the Samarra bombing. The author of the London Times' story has been with the paper for some time, and is self-identified as "a friend of Bahjat who had worked with her on a variety of tough assignments". According to that Times story, the paper received a video of an execution that concludes with a close-up of the victim's face. The author has seen the video. The video is "cell phone" quality. The author says the victim is Atwar Bahjat.
More (8 May 1930 UTC) Update: The Jawa report says the Times has been hoaxed. From the evidence, if this is the same video the Times has the reporter must have very poor eyesight, or memory. The victim is a dark haired man who looks nothing like Atwar Bahjat.
It should be noted the Times has not yet commented on the situation.
And it should be obvious that none of this diminishes the horror of either event - the killing of this man or the murder of Atwar Bahjat.
Despite the fact the video is a phony when it comes to the death of Atwar Bahjat, it changes nothing. The blogosphere has reacted with a "OK, the video is a hoax, but it still shows the barbarism and hatred of our enemy." I have to agree.
Publius II
(Bumped To Monday with an Update at the Bottom)
OK. If this doesn't get the Left's attention, then I doubt anything will ...
Michelle Malkin brings us this "wonderful" story that just rips my stomach up (I have an ulcer as it is, and this just aggravates the crap out of it). From Greyhawk of the Mudville Gazette:
Warning: The following contains a graphic description of a brutal murder - probably exceeding what you imagine one human being could do to another. However, it is typical of the work of Islamic terrorists. Read on only if you want a bit of insight into the nature of the enemy in this global war. If not, please skip to the final paragraph.
Shortly after the bombing of the Samarra shrine, an Iraqi journalist covering the aftermath was kidnapped and murdered. Her story was mentioned briefly in the western media, but was covered extensively in the Middle East.
Now a video of the brutal murder has surfaced, apparently made with a mobile phone with video capability.
Two men drove up in a pick-up truck, asking for her. She appealed to a small crowd that had gathered around her crew but nobody was willing to help her. It was reported at the time that she had been shot dead with her cameraman and sound man.
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.
Just as Bahjat bore witness to countless atrocities that she covered for her television station, Al-Arabiya, during Iraq’s descent into sectarian conflict, so the recording of her execution embodies the depths of the country’s depravity after three years of war.
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 world’s most highly regarded and outspoken journalists has been silenced. She was 30.
For those wondering how she was abducted, the London Times explains:
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 family’s worst fears of what might have happened have been far exceeded by the reality.
Bahjat was abducted after making three live broadcasts from the edge of her native city of Samarra on the day its golden-domed Shi’ite mosque was blown up, allegedly by Sunni terrorists.
Roadblocks prevented her from entering the city and her anxiety was obvious to everyone who saw her final report. Night was falling and tensions were high.
Two men drove up in a pick-up truck, asking for her. She appealed to a small crowd that had gathered around her crew but nobody was willing to help her. It was reported at the time that she had been shot dead with her cameraman and sound man.
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.
Greyhawk also adds this disgusting detail:
Other gruesome details from a family friend: 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.
Her funeral procession was attacked twice:
On Saturday two attacks targeted the funeral procession for Atwar Bahjat, the well-known Al Arabiya correspondent killed with two crew members Wednesday while reporting on the violence engulfing Samarra, where the Al-Askariya "Golden" Mosque was bombed.
Two police officers were killed and five others wounded, as the cortege, led and guarded by Iraqi police and soldiers, entered the western Baghdad neighborhood of Abu Ghraib, Iraqi Emergency Police told CNN.<...>The incident happened near the home of Harith Al-Dari, the head of the Muslim Scholars Association, and along a road that splits, linking Baghdad with Syria and Jordan.
When the shots rang out, security officers ordered people in the convoy to abandon their vehicles and hide behind nearby houses.
Later, as the procession resumed toward the cemetery, a roadside bomb exploded, causing an unknown number of casualties, including deaths, said al-Nasery.
THIS IS WHAT OUR ENEMY DOES! Did I say it loud enough and clear enough for the Left out there? Do you moonbats get it now? WE didn't cause this. THIS is how they live. This is their ideology. This is within the beliefs they follow. To them, this is righteous. ANY clear thinking individual out there that reads this and says, "Yeah, so, we're still to blame" I swear to all that's Holy I will wring their necks.
This woman was committed to seeing a better Iraq. She was a journalist that ought to put every member of the MSM to f**king shame. This woman did what she believed in, and took risks that few others (Bill Roggio, Robert Kaplan, and Michael Yon just to name three) were willing to do. Cover the efforts of our troops and the rebuilding of a nation. As such an outspoken voice, and because of her dual heritage (she was half-Sunni and half-Shi'ite), she was a target. We should remember her for her accomplishments, but also for how she died; a martyr in the cause of creating a free and liberated Iraq.
These animals can't be reasoned with or bartered with. They don't want concessions other than our surrender. The Left would be willing to play dhimmis to these people. We can't allow that to happen.
We can't allow this woman's death--or anyone's death in this mission--to go in vain. We must stay the course. And we need to remember her as one of the heroes of the new Iraq. Greyhawk adds this in conclusion:
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:
Just as Bahjat bore witness to countless atrocities that she covered for her television station, Al-Arabiya, during Iraq’s descent into sectarian conflict, so the recording of her execution embodies the depths of the country’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 of 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.
Or excuse it.
Or simply look the other way.
We, at the Asylum, aren't looking away. We're not excusing it. We're no accepting it. And neither is Greyhawk, or any of the other bloggers on the following list. We're just as committed as Atwar Bahjat was.
Michelle Malkin
Jeff Goldstein
Kim Priestap
Joe Gandelman
The Jawa Report
Riehl World View
Powerline
LGF
Ace of Spades
Jihad Watch
Ed Morrisey
Blue Crab Boulevard
Publius II
UPDATE: (4:44 p.m. AZ Time)
John at PowerLine weighs in with this:
The enemy is evil, and those who try to excuse that evil, or who lavish ridiculous amounts of news coverage on stories like Abu Ghraib while leaving their readers in the dark about the real atrocities perpetrated by the Islamic terrorists, are complicit.
WE agree, and I hope that the idiotarians in the MSM take note of this. Complicity is a tricky thing concept though, and with their lack of legal knowledge, I doubt they comprehend the idea. After all, Bill Keller of the New York Times tried to justify the Times reporting the NSA surveillance program. Funny how they'd rather not be held accountable in affecting the very methods we use in the war, and they love to celebrate our enemies. They love to point out their victories, their methods, and at the same time slamming the administration for it's prosecution of the war.
In my world, complicity doesn't begin to cut it, but it's spot-on target right now.
Publius II
UPDATE: (Monday, 8 May. 2:14 p.m. AZ Time)
Greyhawk has an addendum to the story, as does Dr. Rusty Shackleford. From Greyhawk:
Update 8 May 1550 UTC:: Questions have been raised concerning the identity of the victim in the video described in this story. According to this wikipedia entry photos of Atwar Bahjat's body prove she was not decapitated. The photos linked from the entry, while gruesome, are not conclusive.
What's known at this time: Atwar Bahjat was kidnapped and murdered while covering the Samarra bombing. The author of the London Times' story has been with the paper for some time, and is self-identified as "a friend of Bahjat who had worked with her on a variety of tough assignments". According to that Times story, the paper received a video of an execution that concludes with a close-up of the victim's face. The author has seen the video. The video is "cell phone" quality. The author says the victim is Atwar Bahjat.
More (8 May 1930 UTC) Update: The Jawa report says the Times has been hoaxed. From the evidence, if this is the same video the Times has the reporter must have very poor eyesight, or memory. The victim is a dark haired man who looks nothing like Atwar Bahjat.
It should be noted the Times has not yet commented on the situation.
And it should be obvious that none of this diminishes the horror of either event - the killing of this man or the murder of Atwar Bahjat.
Despite the fact the video is a phony when it comes to the death of Atwar Bahjat, it changes nothing. The blogosphere has reacted with a "OK, the video is a hoax, but it still shows the barbarism and hatred of our enemy." I have to agree.
Publius II
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 2:18 PM
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