{"id":1347,"date":"2004-10-08T13:46:38","date_gmt":"2004-10-08T20:46:38","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2004-10-08T13:46:38","modified_gmt":"2004-10-08T20:46:38","slug":"uk-hostage-bigley-reportedly-beheaded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2004\/10\/08\/uk-hostage-bigley-reportedly-beheaded\/","title":{"rendered":"UK hostage Bigley reportedly beheaded"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/ancapistan.typepad.com\/photos\/uncategorized\/bigley_1.jpg\" onclick=\"window.open(this.href, '_blank', 'width=203,height=152,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0'); return false\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Bigley_1\" title=\"Bigley_1\" src=\"http:\/\/ancapistan.typepad.com\/unfairwitness\/images\/bigley_1.jpg\" width=\"175\" height=\"131\" border=\"0\" style=\"float: left; margin: 0px 5px 5px 0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Various sources are reporting that British hostage Ken Bigley has been beheaded in Iraq.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&#038;storyID=6452753\" target=\"_blank\">FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters)<\/a> &#8211; British hostage Ken Bigley was beheaded near Baghdad on Thursday afternoon, insurgent sources in the rebel-held town of Falluja said on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Abu Dhabi Television, quoting &#8220;informed&#8221; sources in Iraq, had said earlier that the militant group led by al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had killed Bigley.<\/p>\n<p>Britain&#8217;s Foreign Office said it was aware of the reports. &#8220;We cannot corroborate the reports &#8230; We are in close touch with Mr. Bigley&#8217;s family at this difficult time,&#8221; a Foreign Office spokesman told Reuters in London.<\/p>\n<p>The insurgent sources said Bigley was killed in the town of Latifiya, about 35 km (22 miles) southwest of the Iraqi capital.<\/p>\n<p>They declined to say how they had got their information.<\/p>\n<p>Britain&#8217;s Sky TV, quoting British government sources, also said Bigley had been killed. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Bigley was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ogrish.com\/movies\/ogrish-dot-com-bigley-pleading-in-cage.wmv\" target=\"_blank\">last seen in a cage<\/a>, begging Tony Blair for his life, beneath a Tawhid and Jihad flag.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Last week, Bigley appealed, in a video tape released by his kidnappers, to British Prime Minister Tony Blair to meet the captor&#8217;s demands to save his life.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Tony Blair is lying, he is lying when he said he&#8217;s negotiated. He has not negotiated. My life is cheap. He doesn&#8217;t care about me,&#8221; Bigley said while squatting behind metal meshing and looking distraught.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am begging you for my life. Have some compassion please,&#8221; he said, his voice cracking with emotion.<\/p>\n<p>Blair has said his government will not negotiate with the hostage takers. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I think <a href=\"http:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/mercer\/\" target=\"_blank\">Ilana Mercer<\/a> has said what needs to be said about these despicable heads of State who put so little value on human life.  <\/p>\n<p><b>UPDATE:<\/b>  <a href=\"http:\/\/story.news.yahoo.com\/news?tmpl=story&#038;cid=564&#038;ncid=732&#038;e=3&#038;u=\/nm\/20041008\/ts_nm\/iraq_britain_hostage_dc\" target=\"_blank\">Reuters <\/a>is reporting that a video showing the Bigley beheading has surfaced, confirming his death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Various sources are reporting that British hostage Ken Bigley has been beheaded in Iraq. FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) &#8211; British hostage Ken Bigley was beheaded near Baghdad on Thursday afternoon, insurgent sources in the rebel-held town of Falluja said on Friday. Abu Dhabi Television, quoting &#8220;informed&#8221; sources in Iraq, had said earlier that the militant group [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[676],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-antiwar-movement"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1347\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1347"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}