Sky UK: Gunmen Seize Foreigners (in Baghdad, 2 Americans, 1 Brit)

[DeepModem Mom]

GUNMEN SEIZE FOREIGNERS

Iraq's Interior Ministry now says that one of the three foreigners snatched by gunmen in Baghdad was British. The other two are American.

The group, believed to be civilians, were staying at a house in the al Mansur district of the city, a wealthy neighbourhood where many foreign businessmen and contractors live if they are not staying in the heavily defended Green Zone.

Interior Ministry spokesman Colonel Adnan Abdel-Rahman said no shots were fired as the men were taken.

He said witnesses had seen the men bundled into a vehicle by the hostage takers and driven off.

He said he believed they were civilians, but there was no confirmation.

British Embassy officials in Baghdad said they were trying to confirm the reports....


http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1151742,00.html

[saigon68]

1. Nice Security ??

But then again Democracy is just around the corner-- I guess these guys didn't get the word.

[bluestateguy]

2. SKY NEWS IS MURDOCH OWNED GARBAGE

None of their news stories ever hold up.

Maybe we should ask for a comment from Vice Presidential nominee Dick Gephardt. :eyes:

[DeepModem Mom]

5. I watch Sky all the time in the UK -- it's not Fox News, or garbage--

Murdoch has to be on better behavior in the UK because Brits wouldn't stand for Fox idiot garbage. The situation in Iraq is not sugar-coated on Sky TV UK.

See post #4, CNN confirming.

[LivingInTheBubble]

31. Sky news isnt good

It is tabloid style with a touch of right wing spin.

They arent as bad as fox I agree.

[21winner]

6. Um

There are other sources. See the other posts.

[leftchick]

19. Sky is very reliable....

has not gotten the Faux treatment... yet!

[JSJ]

3. traditional tactics of resistance by occupied forces nt

[saigon68]

8. KIND OF LIKE THE FRENCH RESISTANCE IN 1943

They dealt harshly with collaborators and spies

[VolcanoJen]

13. saigon, isn't it just killing you, the way the media is ignoring Iraq?

The situation is deteriorating... and it was already at just about rock bottom before September. There's so much more to report now, but no "embeds," no "Navy Seals ROCK!", no nothing.

And, remember Abu Ghraib? They don't seem to.

Has it always been like this?

[alphafemale]

16. Electric Car Windows are much more Important and Deadly

/sarcasm/ :eyes:

[leftchick]

20. it is pissing me off big time Jen!

I have been comparing the coverage on tv the last week or so when so many have been killed and wounded in Iraq. CNN, MSRNC and even the nightly news takes about 2 minutes each to cover the stories that could easily fill a whole half hour! For cripes sakes they take Ivan coverage for 10 minutes at the begining and 10 minutes at the end of each news segment. I am sure if Kerry becomes our pres. it will be bad news from Iraq 24/7. God it is depressing. :(

[Sufi Marmot]

4. CNN now confirming...

:-(

[DeepModem Mom]

7. Thanks, SM -- nt

[Moderator]

9. Kick

Kick

[DeepModem Mom]

10. Additional from Volcano Jen -- men employees of Gulf Services Trading Co.

Link to dupe thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x830686

[VolcanoJen]

11. Some asshat Moderator locked my thread!

}(

Anyhoo... here's what CNN had to report, from my dupe; thanks for the link, DeepModem Mom!

---

The Iraqi Interior Minister confirms the three were forced from their office in an upscale Baghdad neighborhood, on the western side of the river.

Will edit as details emerge.

ON EDIT:

Per CNN:

CNN's Diana Muriel reports from Baghdad that the three men were employees of the Gulf Services Trading Company, a contracting and trading business headquartered in an upscale Baghdad neigborhood where many Western companies have set up base.

At around 6:00, eleven men wearing civilian clothes arrived at the building, six men inside and five outside as lookouts, abducting the three men. They had arrived in a mini-bus and a sedan, but stole a Nissan car when they left. No shots were fired while the men were being abducted.

[OKNancy]

14. Hey, that might be a personal attack

Would you forgive me if I said: Let's send Wes Clark over there to clean up the mess?

-------
On topic: so many threads in LBN about death and danger and then the ones about the pesimisstic outcome in Iraq. It's a sad, sad situation.

[VolcanoJen]

15. Forgiven!

:D

[VolcanoJen]

12. AP Link

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20040916_320.html

The CNN reporter's account in post #11 seems to provide more details; the reports aren't really matching up, though.

At any rate, add these three unfortunate souls to the two Italian peace workers and two French journalists among the missing.

Excerpt from AP:

Gunmen kidnapped two Americans and a Briton from a house in the heart of the Iraqi capital Thursday, the Interior Ministry and witnesses said.

The three were seized from a two-story house surrounded by a wall in Baghdad's al-Mansour neighborhood at dawn, said Col. Adnan Abdel-Rahman, a ministry official. Rahman had initially said the three were all British nationals.

He said they were employed by Gulf Services Company, a Middle East-based construction firm.

<snip>

A police official who asked that his name not be used said a car was missing from the house where the hostages were believed to have been kidnapped. He said the three were apparently in the garden when the attack took place and that there was no sign of a fight.

Neighbors said they heard two vehicles drive up to the house around dawn and later noticed that the normally closed sliding iron gate was open, so they called the police. They declined to give their names and said they didn't know exactly who was living there.

[leftchick]

22. sadly this reminds me of Sy Hersh's statement the other night on

Tweety's show. He laughed when telling it in an ironic way. He was saying a special OPS contact of his was being wooed by an American Company hoping to hire him for security. The OPS guy said America is DONE in Iraq, you will NEVER be able to do business there!

[saracat]

17. Goodie. Bush can get his jollies while watching two more

Americans be tortured and die. He has how many that are dead now? And to think the Reugs were all over Carter for his hostage situation and they lived! Why can't these things be used against him? Maybe no one cares any more.They say the polls indicate we don't care about the casualties.

[DeepModem Mom]

18. Sky TV reporting men had tape on their mouths, and were handcuffed...

when taken from house.

[Disturbed]

21. Safety.

If these people living in an upscale neighborhood aren't safe from abduction it seems only people in the Green Zone are safe, at least so far. If the Insurgency gets hold of stinger missles the Green Zone won't be safe either.

[leftchick]

23. infiltration....

all the Resistance needs is someone willing to be hired or hire someone already working in the green zone to assainate someone.

[Disturbed]

24. To be clear.

I am not advocating violence of any kind with my statement. Am presuming no one else posting is either.

I have wondered several times why the Insurgency has not stolen a helicopter and flown over the Green Zone a fired missles into it.

[leftchick]

27. pure speculation on my part.....

and a knowledge of some history brings me to my conclusions.

[DS1]

32. Helicopters are a bitch to fly, and I imagine the officers of the

former Iraqi Army are already getting paid handsomely to do nothing

[Aidoneus]

25. the so-called "Green Zone" and its safety..

the area is rocketed almost nightly, entrances and exits often bombed (the "notorious Haifa Street" runs north from it, and that's where the Bradley vehicle became toasty the other day), and the like.

The occupyers and collaborating agents packed into that sardine can are not safe either, but the moqawama has yet to mount a really massive attack on it as yet.

The defenses of the area are too good for a perfectly damaging Beirut'83-style martyr-operation against one of the big government compounds, so the attacks have mostly been perimeter battles and steady mortar barrages. I hear the mortars are being used as a dinner bell by the sardines, since KBR never came through on the promises they made about providing actual dinner bells.

[bushisanidiot]

26. During the buildup to the Iraq invasion, the US ordered all US citizens

out of Iraq. Am I dreaming, or did that happen? When did the US announce that Iraq was now safe for US citizens to take up residence anywhere in the country? Why would any US citizen live in a house outside a US military compound in Iraq when the violence there is increasing every day??

Sorry, but this is looking like another "old brown shoe" to me..

[0007]

28. I've always thought Sky news was excellent, but what do I know?

[biftonnorton]

29. Quit Bringing It On

Funny how we're hiring folks who had been in Saddam's Republican Guard to help rout the other thugs. Maybe we also need to put Saddam back in power to calm things down. 'Course, W would have to give his pistol back to him... Lest we forget Why Bush Sr. Didn't Remove Saddam

[Tight_rope]

30. Mission Accomplished (NOT)..............n/t

[leftchick]

33. kick

:kick: