What can you say about this?
The family of British hostage Kenneth Bigley today made a desperate plea to Tony Blair to bow to his kidnappers’ demands as the only way of saving his life.
They face a traumatic 24-hour wait after the deadline for Mr Bigley’s execution was extended, following the beheading on camera of one of his fellow hostages in Iraq, US building contractor Eugene Armstrong.
The kidnappers say Mr Bigley, 62, and their third hostage, American Jack Hensley, will meet the same fate unless Iraqi women held prisoner by the US are freed.
In a televised plea, Mr Bigley’s son Craig, 33, told Mr Blair: “Only you can save him now. You have children and you will understand how I feel at this time.” Mr Bigley’s brother, Philip, said: “We have seen the Prime Minister spending time on trains that can help a commuter save 14 minutes on a journey to London, when he should be devoting his time to saving the life of my brother.
“We are not politicians. He is the political head of our country. It is the Prime Minister who has the power to save Ken’s life. Prime Minister, we as a family are begging you, please help us.”
At the family home in Liverpool, he added: “We feel helpless. We do not have the power to save Ken’s life. The death of the American hostage has proved to us that if nothing is done then the two remaining captives will die by the most horrific means. The only person we can now beg to help us is the Prime Minister.”
Mr Blair has said he will not negotiate with terrorists. Before news of the execution, he said: “Our response has got to stand firm.”
You can’t blame Kenneth Bigley’s relatives. What would you do if it was a member of your family? You can’t blame the journalists – it’s a hot story. Should Blair give in to the demands? Of course not. But if Begley is killed, there’s no doubt Blair will take much of the blame, and we’ll see emotional outbursts from various relatives – and others seeing an opportunity to weigh in. It just needs to be appreciated quite how despicable this is; how Islamic terrorists have sunk, keep sinking, to new lows of behaviour. There’s nothing much more to be said, is there? Threatening to saw off an innocent man’s head live on video unless their demands are met? I mean, could we have believed just a few years ago that we’d be seeing something like this, that some people were capable of such things? Yes, I know we’re all hardened, post-holocaust, to the evils that humanity is capable of, but still…..
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