Hezbollah, Hamas denounce beheading

[Gabbal]

Hezbollah, Hamas denounce beheading

Saudi Arabia, UAE also weigh in with condemnationsThe Associated Press

Updated: 2:58 p.m. ET May 13, 2004BEIRUT, Lebanon - Two Islamic militant groups, Hezbollah and Hamas, issued strongly worded condemnations Thursday of the videotaped beheading of an American civilian in Iraq.

 

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Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates became the first Arab governments to criticize the slaying of Nicholas Berg, and newspapers in the region, which initially gave little coverage to the gruesome video, began to excoriate the killers.

 

Berg was beheaded Saturday by men claiming to act on behalf of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, an affiliate of Osama bin Laden, as revenge for the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers. The videotape, posted on an al-Qaida-linked Web site Tuesday, drew revulsion around the world.

 

A CIA official said Thursday an analysis of the voice on the video had concluded the masked man who severed Berg’s head was al-Zarqawi.

 

Arab governments and Islamic militant groups, most of which have spoken out repeatedly about the abuse of Iraqi prisoners, initially kept silent about the videotaped slaying.

 

Hezbollah condemns ‘brutal, cruel’ action

On Thursday, however, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the militant Palestinian group Hamas, both labeled terrorist organizations by the United States, said the beheading was appalling and un-Islamic.

 

In a statement faxed to The Associated Press, Hezbollah called the 26-year-old Berg’s killing an “extremely brutal and cruel” act.

 

“Hezbollah condemns this grisly act which has caused great harm to Islam and to Muslims by this group which falsely claims to belong to the religion of mercy, compassion and genuine human values,” the statement said.

 

“By its suspicious actions and links, this group belongs to the Pentagon school — the school of killings, occupation, crime, torture and immoral practices as exposed by the big scandal in the occupation prisons.”

 

Osama Hamdan, Hamas’ representative in Lebanon, denounced both Berg’s killers and President Bush.

 

“I condemn this brutal act and sympathize with the family of the slain American man, who I consider a victim of the wrong U.S. policies in the region,” Hamdan told The Associated Press. “U.S. President George Bush and [berg’s] killers are equally responsible.”

 

Both Hezbollah and Hamas said the beheading hurt Arab causes, and predicted the United States would use it to turn attention away from the prisoner abuse scandal.

 

Both groups have condemned the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, and Hezbollah has denounced a few other major terrorist attacks that targeted civilians, but the language they used Thursday was unusually tough.

 

The other Palestinian militant group, Islamic Jihad, declined to comment on the beheading. The group’s Lebanese representative, Abu Imad Rifai, said he couldn’t be sure Berg was dead.

 

“I cannot comment on the report because I am not sure of its authenticity. I didn’t see the man’s body,” Rifai told AP.

 

First Arab governments speak

Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia became the first Arab governments to denounce the beheading.

 

The Emirates’ information minister, Sheik Abdullah, issued a statement Wednesday night during a visit to Washington.

 

“We are ashamed, because these terrorists carried out this attack in the name of our religion and our culture,” he said. “This brutal act has nothing to do with Islam or our Arab values.”

 

Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States called the decapitation “criminal and inhuman.”

 

“It is not out of character for them (al-Qaida affiliated groups) to commit acts that violate the teachings of Islam, a noble religion that deplores such acts,” Prince Bandar told reporters in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia.

 

News of the videotape broke too late for Wednesday newspaper editions in the Middle East. But on Thursday, the papers spoke out against the killing in columns and editorials.

 

“We have to be ashamed as Arabs and cover our eyes,” wrote Saleh Qalab, Jordan’s former information minister who now writes a column in the newspaper al-Ra’i. “He who does not yet realize how much those organizations (militant groups) have harmed Islam and its civilized message, must look again at those shameful and hideous pictures.”

 

Jordanian press decries ‘horrific’ act

The English-language Jordan Times condemned the beheading in an editorial, calling it “a horrific act of the greatest magnitude.” Dubai’s English daily, Gulf News, called it “a truly barbaric act that served no cause except the brutish bloodlust of his executioners.”

 

The paper said that although there was “justifiable anger” over the U.S. treatment of Iraqi prisoners, “one brutality does not forgive another.”

 

Saudi Arabia’s popular Al-Watan said in an editorial the killing “was nothing but an offense to the image of Muslims and their behavior. The perpetrator could hardly belong to our nation.”

 

Some newspapers defended the killing. Al-Wafd, an Egyptian opposition paper, said the abuse of prisoners drove the killers to act.

 

“The brutal violations practiced by the American and British occupying forces against Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison led to retaliating responses against Americans in Iraq,” it said. “The pictures of rape and torture ... forced Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s group to execute an American citizen by the sword.”

 

© 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[Liqaye]

Took me three hours to download the thing.

Not very colourfull.

[Fyr]

I downloaded it too, but didnt have enough courage to watch it, so I delete it.

[must4fa]

Casey nice Picture of the somaliland flag.

[AYOUB]

A CIA official said Thursday an analysis of the voice on the video had concluded the masked man who severed Berg’s head was al-Zarqawi.

This from the people who had to do a DNA test on Saddam to identify him. Sorry but but i'm not buying that sir.

 

“Hezbollah condemns this grisly act which has caused great harm to Islam and to Muslims by this group which falsely claims to belong to the religion of mercy, compassion and genuine human values,” the statement said.

 

“

By its suspicious actions and links, this group belongs to the Pentagon school

— the school of killings, occupation, crime, torture and immoral practices as exposed by the big scandal in the occupation prisons.”

The plot thickens:

 

Family says US held man who was beheaded

 

CIA links video execution to al-Qaida

 

Julian Borger in Washington

Friday May 14, 2004

The Guardian

 

The parents of Nick Berg, the freelance contractor brutally murdered on video, yesterday stepped up their campaign to expose the Pentagon's role in their son's final days, releasing an email from a US official saying he was being detained by American troops.

Amid continued confusion about what led to Berg's kidnapping and brutal murder, the CIA said there was a "high probability" that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian extremist with links to al-Qaida, was the masked man who beheaded Berg in a murder that was recorded and broadcast over the internet.

 

However, an email released by the family raises serious doubts about denials this week from the US occupation authorities that Berg was ever in American custody. It was sent to the family by a US diplomat on April 1, when the family had lost contact with their son for several days.

 

"I have confirmed that your son, Nick, is being detained by the US military in Mosul. He is safe. He was picked up approximately one week ago. We will try to obtain additional information regarding his detention and a contact person you can communicate with directly," said the email from a consular official identified as Beth Payne. The email was obtained by the Associated Press.

 

The family argues that Berg's fate was sealed by his detention, which delayed his departure until April, when Iraq was in chaos, and it was dangerous to travel.

 

Berg's father, Michael, also demanded that the Bush administration answer claims from the killers that they had offered to trade his life for Iraqi prisoners.

 

"If that is true... I think the people of the United States of America need to know what the fate of their sons and daughters might be in the hands of the Bush administration," he said.

 

The US authorities vigorously denied holding Berg, who had travelled to Iraq in the hope of finding contract work putting up communications antennae.

 

Dan Senor, a spokesman for the coalition provisional authority in Baghdad, said FBI officials had visited Berg in an Iraqi cell in Mosul, but insisted the American had never been in US custody.

 

However, the Iraqi police chief in Mosul told CNN his forces had detained Berg, but released him within hours to the US military.

 

Amid the dispute, the horror at Berg's killing continued to reverberate around the world yesterday, with sworn enemies of the US such as Hizbullah and Hamas condemning the murder.

 

The video shows Berg, 26, from Philadelphia, sitting in an orange jumpsuit in front of five masked and armed men. One of them speaks to the camera declaring that Berg's killing was in revenge for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US guards at Abu Ghraib. The same man draws a long knife and cuts off Berg's head. The video was titled: "Sheikh Abu Musab al-Zarqawi slaughters an American infidel with his own hands."

 

Despite initial doubts about the killer's accent, a CIA official said that a technical analysis of the video had shown it was very likely to be Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born ethnic Palestinian, who is believed to be masterminding attacks on coalition targets in Iraq in the name of al-Qaida.

 

Zarqawi's presence in Iraq before the war and his suspected links with Osama bin Laden were cited by US officials as among the justifications for the invasion last March. However, his links to the Saddam regime were never corroborated.

 

More recently US forces claimed to have intercepted a letter from Zarqawi to the al-Qaida leadership, calling for help in the battle against coalition forces in Iraq.

 

He is also believed to have organised the shooting of an American diplomat, Laurence Foley, two years ago in Amman, Jordan. The reference to him as a "sheikh" on the video recording suggests he is attempting to present himself as a leader in his own right.

 

The website which broadcast the execution video, www.al-ansar.biz, was closed down yesterday by the Malaysian company which runs the server that hosted it.

 

The Saudi ambassador to the US, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, called the murder "criminal and inhuman", a description echoed around much of the Arab world.