NationStates Jolt Archive

'Protest against Bush – or we'll behead hostages'
By ASSOCIATED PRESS

BAGHDAD, Iraq

Kidnappers linked to al-Qaida threatened to behead three Turkish hostages unless Turks protest US policies in Iraq, fanning tensions as US President George W. Bush is to visit Turkey on Sunday ahead of a NATO summit.

The kidnappers demanded the Turks hold demonstrations protesting the visit by the "criminal" Bush and that Turkish companies stop working in Iraq - or else the hostages would be killed.

The bloodshed and the abduction - the latest claimed by Musab al-Zarqawi's movement, which beheaded an American and a South Korean hostages earlier - threatened to cast a shadow over a NATO summit opening in Istanbul on Monday, where Bush is seeking the alliance's help in stabilizing Iraq.

The United States has blamed much of the violence on al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad movement, and reiterated appeals to the Iraqi people to come forward with any information that might lead to his capture. Coalition spokesman Dan Senor suggested that a $10 million reward on al-Zarqawi's head would be paid quickly and noted that the person who turned in Saddam's sons last year received their multimillion dollar reward within a week.

The Arab television station Al-Jazeera aired a video issued by the kidnappers, showing the three Turks kneeling on the ground in front of two black-clothed gunmen and a black banner emblazoned with the name of al-Zarqawi's organization. The men held up Turkish passports.

In a written statement, the group demanded Turkish companies stop doing business with American forces in Iraq and called for "large demonstrations" in Turkey against the visit of "Bush the criminal."

It said that if Turkey refused their demands the hostages "will receive the just punishment of being beheaded."

The abductions are likely to stoke anti-war sentiment in Turkey, where Bush is already extremely unpopular. Hours ahead of his arrival in Ankara, police battled scores of protesters Saturday, eventually firing tear gas to disperse them.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1088305772236

The same story on the BBC- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3843155.stm

What do you think of this new phenomena? Terrorists demanding mass protests in their favor... oh sorry, against Bush?

If you're a pro-Jihad terrorist who believes that GW Bush is bring about the Jihad, what message are you going to send to the American public?

A) Bush is great! (and since you hate me you've vote against him)

or

B) We hate Bush! (send him around for another 4 years)

It isn't doing them any harm in Turkey either. Shame we squandered all the good will we had come therre...

What do I think? I think we ought to send troops after those guys. What's that? We don't have any troops to send because they're all tied up in Iraq? Well whose stupid idea was it to go after Hussein when he wasn't a threat instead of going after Zarqawi when he was in the northern no-fly zone?

Oops.

Bush is incompetent--fire his ass.

this just proves that on a covert level Bush is in bed with the terrorists

I wonder if the terrorists will keep their word and not kill the hostages when people protest against Bush. This is almost like saying, "Breathe or else we will kill these people!"