Peter Moore

The five British hostages kidnapped in Iraq

2009-12-30T22:01:00.000Z

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/30/five-british-hostages-kidnapped-iraq

Peter Moore, 34, from Lincoln, was working as an IT consultant for BearingPoint when he was kidnapped. He was installing software which would have tracked millions of dollars of funds and aid money passing through Iraq's finance ministry – some of which was believed to be going to Iranian-backed militias.

Moore endured a difficult childhood after his parents, Graeme and Avril, split up when he was one. At seven he moved to Leicester when his mother married Patrick Sweeney.

In 2004 Moore travelled to Guyana to work for Voluntary Service Overseas – he had planned to return to the South American country following his work in Iraq.

After being kidnapped in May 2007, he appeared in a hostage video released by his captors on 26 February 2008. In it Moore called for Gordon Brown to release the prisoners wanted by the kidnappers. He said: "Nothing is happening. To Gordon Brown the deal is simple, release the prisoners, we can go, it's as simple as that, it is a simple exchange of people, that is all they want."

Moore appeared in a second hostage video released to the British embassy in Baghdad on 22 March. This recording has never been broadcast, but according to his mother, Avril Sweeney, who has watched the video, Moore looked well and said he would be home soon.
Alec Maclachlan

Alec Maclachlan, 29, a former paratrooper from Llanelli, was one of four GardaWorld security guards protecting Moore when they were kidnapped from a finance ministry building in Baghdad.

Maclachlan's was the third body to be released by the kidnappers to the British embassy, on 3 September this year. According to autopsy reports he had been killed between March and May 2008 by a single bullet to the head.

The former soldier was the son of Helen and Colin Maclachlan. He had a brother Ross and was father to Kyle.
Alan McMenemy Alan McMenemy.

Alan McMenemy, 34, from Milngavie in Scotland, was a paratrooper for eight years, serving in Africa and Bosnia, before joining GardaWorld as a security guard. He was four days away from finishing a three-month contract with the company when he was kidnapped. His father, Dennis McMenemy, was told by the Foreign Office that his son was killed at the same time as other bodyguards.

In a video released by the kidnappers on 19 July 2008, the former soldier spoke of his personal suffering, saying: "Physically, I'm not doing well. Psychologically I'm doing a lot worse." He was married to Rosalyn McMenemy and had two young children. Today, the foreign secretary, David Miliband, said the government had believed for some time that he was dead and demanded the release of his body.
Jason Creswell

Jason Creswell, 39, from Portlethen, Aberdeen, worked as a chef before joining the army at 16. He was based at St Omer barracks in Aldershot.

While working in Iraq as a security guard for GardaWorld, Creswell trained as a paramedic. Medicine became his passion. During his days off he treated injured soldiers and Iraqi civilians. He was due to take up a place at medical school on returning from Iraq.

Creswell's body was handed over to the British authorities in Baghdad on 19 June. A subsequent autopsy found he had been killed between March and May 2008 – there was evidence of gunshot as well as stab wounds. When news came through of his death his brother Jack Creswell, also in the army, was flown home from the front line in Afghanistan. Jason Creswell leaves a daughter, Maddi.
Jason Swindlehurst

Jason Swindlehurst, 38, from Skelmersdale, Lancashire, was a former soldier who also went into security industry after leaving the forces.

He was shown in a video, dated 18 November 2007 and released by the kidnappers, flanked by gunmen with a sign reading: "the Islamic Shia resistance of Iraq". The video, which was broadcast on al-Arabiya TV, warned that one hostage would be killed unless British troops were withdrawn from Iraq within 10 days. Swindlehurst was pictured saying: "I have been now held for 173 days and I feel as though we have been forgotten. I miss my daughter and family very much and would like to be returned very soon – it seems here that time has no end."

On 19 July 2008 the kidnappers released another video claiming that he had killed himself – this claim was later proved to be false when his body was handed over to the British authorities in Baghdad along with that of Creswell in June of this year.

He is survived by his former wife, Kerry Wallace, and his eight-year-old daughter, Jaye.

Revealed: hand of Iran behind Britons' Baghdad kidnapping

2009-12-30T22:00:00.000Z

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/30/iran-britons-baghdad-kidnapping
The five British men kidnapped in Iraq were taken in an operation led and masterminded by Iran's Revolutionary Guard, according to evidence uncovered during an extensive investigation by the Guardian.

The men – including Peter Moore, who was released today after more than two years in captivity – were taken to Iran within a day of their kidnap from a government ministry building in Baghdad in 2007, several senior sources in Iraq and Iran have told the Guardian.

They were incarcerated in prisons run by the al-Quds force, a unit that specialises in foreign operations on behalf of the Iranian government.

One of the kidnappers has told this paper that three of the Britons – Jason Creswell, Jason Swindlehurst and Alec Maclachlan – were subsequently killed after the British government refused to take ransom demands seriously.

Tonight it emerged that part of the deal that led to the release of Moore involved the handing over of a young Shia cleric, Qais al-Khazali, a leading figure in the Righteous League, which emerged in 2006 and stayed largely in the shadows as a proxy of the Iranian Republican Guards elite unit, the al-Quds brigades. Khazali was tonight handed over by the US military for release by the Iraqi government.

The year-long Guardian investigation can also reveal that:

• Moore was targeted because he was a computer specialist installing a sophisticated tracking system that would show how vast amounts of international aid money from Iraqi institutions was diverted to Iran's militia groups in Iraq.

• Some of the four men were tortured before being killed.

• The bodyguards' bodies were eventually traded in return for the release of Iraqi prisoners.

• They had been probably been dead for at least 18 months before three of their bodies were handed over earlier this year.

• The men's employers, GardaWorld, conceived a plan to pay a $2.5m ransom.

Moore, 37, a computer expert from Lincoln, and the four security guards were taken on 29 May 2007 from the Iraqi ministry of finance's technology centre in central Baghdad. Moore had been a contractor working to install sophisticated new computer software in the ministry to track down billions of dollars in international aid and oil revenues.

A group of up to 100 men entered the building and took the Britons, racing off into Baghdad traffic in a fleet of Toyota Land Cruisers. A sixth man – who the Guardian can reveal was Peter Donkin – was left by the kidnappers after he managed to hide under floorboards.

A former Iranian Revolutionary Guard member, speaking to the Guardian under conditions of anonymity, said the extraordinary kidnap was masterminded by Iran. The man, a former major who worked for 14 years inside the Iranian organisation and claims to have taken part in kidnap operations himself, believes the hostages were held in two al-Quds camps in Iran – one known as Qasser Shiereen military camp, close to the Iraqi border crossing with Mehran, and a second camp known as the Tehran Pars, located near a salt lake north-east of Qom.

"It was an Iranian kidnap, led by the Revolutionary Guard, carried out by the al-Quds brigade," he said. "My contact works for al-Quds. He took part in the planning of the kidnap and he watched the kidnapping as it was taking place. He told me that they spent two days at the Qasser Shiereen camp. They then took them deep inside Iran."

This claim is backed up by a serving Iraqi government minister with close links to Iran. "This was an IRG [Iranian Revolutionary Guard] operation," he said. "You don't think for a moment that those militia groups from Sadr City could have carried out a high-level kidnapping like this one."

A former intelligence chief at the Iraqi ministry of defence has also described to the Guardian how intelligence operatives followed the kidnappers as they took the hostages from a mosque in Baghdad's Sadr City to the Iranian border.

"They were hooded and handcuffed, then the cars drove off in a new direction – they were headed towards the Iranian border," the intelligence chief said.

The others Britons captured with Moore were all security guards. The bodies of Swindlehurst and Creswell were identified in June, followed by Maclachlan in September.

McMenemy is also believed dead, although his body has not been returned.

It is not clear where the men were killed. Their bodies were buried inside Iraq and information about their locations was traded for prisoner releases.

A Guardian report in July revealed evidence that Iraqi officials colluded in the kidnap of the five British men and that one of the motives was to prevent millions of dollars of aid money from being tracked – including an estimated $18bn that had gone missing.

A former senior Iraqi intelligence chief claims that the project that Moore was working on would have laid bare exactly where all Iraq's money was going. He claims there was an Iranian link to the alleged financial cover-up.

The Foreign Office said tonight: "We have no evidence that the British hostages, including Peter Moore, were held in Iran. We are not in a position to say with any certainty where they were held during each and every single day of their two and a half years in captivity."

The people dealing with Peter Moore should keep him from the public gaze

2009-12-30T21:59:00.002Z

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article6971955.ece

Many survivors have a feeling of guilt. Why me? Why have I survived and not my associates? Did I do something that gave rise to their deaths? Or do I have some responsibility, now that I have survived, in some way to honour them?

This is obviously caught up with the whole confusion about coming back to a very different reality.

There is a lot of evidence from the autobiographies of former hostages that they find ways of escaping psychologically. They read or play chess or imagine themselves going on long journeys that they remember very well. Over a couple of years they survive by just treating captivity as daily life.

The important point for the people dealing with Peter Moore will be to try to keep him from the public gaze for a while.

When Terry Waite came back and got off the plane he was quite clearly shocked and stunned. He was a big, powerful man with tremendous personal resources but just facing the crowd of people after having been isolated for so long was a terribly difficult thing.

Surviving kidnapping is rare, particularly when you are looking at groups with a political ideology who often feel that killing the hostage is part of their mission.

Mr Moore is very fortunate to have survived. There will be euphoria and an enormous relief initially and then the need to catch up with all the emotional things that have happened.

We do not know what else has gone on in his life — children, family, whether close relatives have died and other such issues that he may have to come to terms with.

Much depends on the individual and how grounded they are. All the evidence shows that traumatic situations are much mediated by the previous experience that the individual has had and how sound and capable they are before the trauma.

It is whether the individual really has a rooted basis for their day-to-day psychology. Some people would refer to it as a strong ego, a well defended ego, that would help them to cope.

Going into the situation that Mr Moore went into, where he knew that there was a risk of kidnap, may be a strength.

Preparation is very helpful: knowing what the possibilities are and having assessed them and understanding something of the background, and why people may be kidnapping you and what their purposes in doing so may be.

An intelligent man going into a situation he has been advised of has resources to draw on that enable him to cope so he is probably going to pull through it very well.

Peter Moore: Britain stuck to ‘no negotiation’ policy as hostages died

2009-12-30T21:57:00.000Z

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article6972071.ece
The Government’s policy over the five hostages seized in Baghdad two years ago has relied on maximum caution, restrained publicity and discreet behind-the-scenes contacts.

The result has been three, maybe four men, killed, with only Peter Moore surviving. His security protectors, all with military backgrounds, were murdered. But their deaths, solemnly announced by the Foreign Office, did not change the approach adopted by the Government.

Despite criticism from some of the families, the Government has not wavered from its policy of never negotiating with hostage-takers, on the ground that any concessions offered — whether linked to ransoms or the release of extremists from prison — would encourage more kidnappings.

The Foreign Office has attempted, from the beginning to limit the publicity, to the extent that the families of the hostages were advised to say nothing in public. As the months went by, the families decided that some publicity would be beneficial, and interviews were given that included direct pleas for mercy to the kidnappers.

The Foreign Office considered that any personal details would help the kidnappers, and newspapers and broadcast media were asked to reveal as little as possible about the men.

The virtual news blackout when the five men were taken contrasted with the kidnapping of Alan Johnston, the BBC journalist seized in Gaza, who was able to listen to radio reports of attempts to gain his release. He was freed unharmed after four months.

In Iraq more than 200 foreigners have been kidnapped since 2004 and, although the number of British hostages has been relatively low, a high proportion of those seized have died. The challenge for the British Embassy in Baghdad has been to try to unravel the motivations for each of the kidnappings.

For a while the policy has officially remained the same — no negotiations — and each case has offered the potential for peripheral negotiations and for covert operations by special forces. The SAS in Baghdad tried to find Mr Moore and his four security men in the days after their capture, while the trail was still hot, despite the kidnappers warning that they would kill their hostages if any mission were launched to free them.

Behind the scenes, British officials in Baghdad have been trying to reach contacts who might have links to the kidnappers. David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, hinted at this when he said yesterday that there had been no “substantive” concessions to the hostage-takers, suggesting that in return for Mr Moore a number of extremists held in prison may have been released.

The kidnappers, originally calling themselves the Islamic Shiite Resistance in Iraq, warned that the hostages would remain prisoners “for as long as it takes” to secure the release of Qais al-Khazali, a former chief spokesman for the Shia al-Mahdi Army. According to Channel 4 News, the security company for which the three, probably four, murdered contractors worked, offered several million dollars for their release but this was turned down by the kidnappers, who restated their demand for al-Khazali’s release.

Al-Khazali, who led an al-Mahdi faction trained in Iran, was detained by American forces but British officials had no power to free him. In the past few days he has been released into the custody of the Iraqi Administration.

Peter Moore went for a job — and ended up as a hostage for 946 days

2009-12-30T21:55:00.001Z

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article6972065.ece

The lead kidnapper, dressed as an Iraqi police major, shouted “Where are the foreigners?” as he led a team of gunmen, also in uniform, into the Finance Ministry building in Baghdad.

Peter Moore, a computer expert, was giving a lecture to a class of Iraqi civil servants. A second western consultant was also present along with four British security guards, tasked with providing close protection.

Outnumbered and outgunned, Mr Moore and the guards — Alan McMenemy, 34, Alec MacLachlan, 30, Jason Swindlehurst, 38, and Jason Creswell, 39 — were led away. The other consultant managed to escape, hidden by his students.

Carried out just before midday on May 29, 2007, it was the most audacious abduction of westerners since the fall of Saddam Hussein. The kidnapping was also highly political, taking place inside an Iraqi Government compound by an Iranian-backed group of Shia militants, the League of the Righteous.

Within hours an emergency response meeting was held in Whitehall, and hostage rescue experts were sent to the British Embassy in Baghdad.

The SAS conducted nightly raids on suspected hideouts in the Shia slum of Sadr City, East Baghdad, where the hostages were initially held, while an incident room inside the Embassy fielded calls from potential sources.

After a week, Dominic Asquith, then Britain’s Ambassador to Iraq, made the first formal appeal for the hostages’ release, indicating that the Government was prepared to talk to the kidnappers. Such public appeals have been few and far between, but behind the scenes intense efforts were under way to establish contact with the right people — a difficult task, made harder by numerous false leads. “This was not a conventional kidnapping,” said a source who was involved in the investigation during the first few months. “We were dealing with people who were obviously killers.” At one point five fingers were sent to the Embassy with a note attached saying that they were from the five hostages.

DNA tests proved the claim to be untrue. But in the immediate aftermath no one admitted responsibility for the kidnapping, no ransom demand was made and no word was heard from the hostages until December 2007 when the kidnappers released video footage of one of the hostages. They warned that a captive would be killed if British troops did not leave Iraq in ten days.

In later statements, the group, which in Iraq calls itself Asaib al-Haq, also demanded the release of ten prisoners held in US detention in Iraq — a condition that became the key to solving the kidnap, but also meant that the United States rather than Britain held the decisive cards.

Months stretched into years, making the kidnapping Britain’s longest-running hostage crisis in two decades. It was an agonising time for the families of the five men, who made appeals on the anniversaries of their kidnapping and also during the Christmases that their loved ones missed.

By the start of this year the trail had appeared to run cold. The wellbeing and whereabouts of the hostages remained a mystery. Some sources suggested that the men were being held in Iran, others said that some or maybe all had been killed. In July 2008 the kidnappers released a video claiming that one of the hostages had committed suicide, while the Foreign Office maintained publicly that it thought all five hostages were still alive.

In June, however, came the news the hostages’ families had been dreading. The bodies of Mr Swindlehurst and Mr Creswell were handed to the British Embassy in Baghdad. An inquest concluded that they died of multiple gunshot wounds.

While a tragedy for the families, the return of the bodies coincided with the release of Laith al-Khazali from a US detention centre near Baghdad airport. He was one of the detainees with links to the kidnappers. It was the first clear indication that some sort of dialogue was taking place.

More movement took place over the coming months, with the British Government saying in July it believed that the other two guards, Mr McMenemy and Mr MacLachlan, were also dead. Two months later Mr MacLachlan’s body was handed over to the British authorities.

Hopes have always remained, however, that Mr Moore would be released alive. Unlike the four guards — former military men who worked for the Canadian security company Garda World — Mr Moore, 36, was a civilian computer consultant, making him more politically valuable. Also working in his favour was the significant change in Iraq’s political and security climate, an evolution that occurred too late to save the lives of his four colleagues.

Shia militias and militants linked to Sunni Islamist al-Qaeda wielded tremendous power in 2007, but the Government, while still vulnerable, is much stronger today. Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, has met representatives of Asaib al-Haq as part of a wider effort to encourage once militant groups to lay down their arms and join the political process, particularly as the country prepares for a general election in the new year.

Part of this process is a US pledge to hand all those in US detention in Iraq over to the Iraqi authorities for release or prosecution by the end of 2011.

In the ultimate breakthrough that ended Mr Moore’s two-and-a-half year ordeal, Qais al-Khazali, the brother of Laith, was also handed over to the Iraqi authorities. A question mark had always hung over his release because he is accused of being involved in an attack that killed five US soldiers in early 2007, making him a valuable detainee.

Gordon Brown was also under tremendous pressure to bring at least one hostage home alive. He and David Miliband were criticised for failing to do enough after the earlier deaths.

As for the kidnappers, many questions remain about the masterminds behind the plot. Sources suspect that senior Iraqi officials may have had a hand, particularly as the attack was able to take place inside the Finance Ministry building. It remains to be seen whether anyone will ever be prosecuted for the crime.

In addition, the wait continues for the family of Mr McMenemy, whose death has yet to be confirmed and whose body has yet to be returned.

For Mr Moore, at least, there is a happy ending. He is undergoing medical tests in Baghdad, but is expected to be reunited with his family this week.

We can smile again, say family of freed hostage Peter Moore

2009-12-30T21:53:00.000Z

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6972073.ece

Peter Moore’s family reacted with jubilation last night at his release, saying that a great burden had been lifted and they could finally “smile again”.

Popping champagne after their third consecutive dismal Christmas turned into an unexpected celebration, his relatives said that the news was the “best present ever”.

Mr Moore’s mother, Avril Sweeney, 54, described the moment that she was told of her son’s release as a “bolt out of the blue, a complete and wonderful shock”.

Speaking at her home in Thornton, near Blackpool, she said: “It was like carrying something around with you, or straining under a big black cloud. Now it has been lifted. All I want to do now is see him back, happy and healthy. Most of all he has got his freedom.”

Mr Moore spoke to his stepfather, Fran Sweeney, on the phone and told how he thought that he was “going out to get a bullet in the back of the head” before he suddenly realised that he was being set free. He also asked about the fate of his fellow hostages, but had not yet been told that the three were dead.

Mr Sweeney’s wife, Pauline, said she was “euphoric” that her stepson was safe and expected to “lose the plot” once she saw him in person.

She described the years that Mr Moore had been held hostage as horrendous. “We have had three funerals. We are very close to the other families. Today is still tinged with sadness because we have no news of Alan [McMenemy, a fellow hostage]. His wife rang me today. She is elated for us but it was obviously quite a tearful message from her.

“It’s been a real upheaval, a roller-coaster ride.”

Mr Moore’s natural father, Graeme Moore, 60, speaking from his home in Wigston, Leicestershire, told The Times that the news was an amazing Christmas present.

“I’m just overjoyed. When I heard there was going to be a statement from the Foreign Office, I thought the worst. I’m delighted he is free.”

Edna Moore, 84, the former hostage’s grandmother, had been praying for his release and was “completely choked up”, she said. “In situations like this you think the worst and you hope for the best. We have had the best.”

Meanwhile, the news also presented a glimmer of hope for relatives of Mr McMenemy, the only hostage whose fate is unknown.

His wife, Roseleen, 34, speaking from her home in Glasgow, urged her husband’s captors to show compassion and release him. She said: “I’m delighted for Peter and his family. It is great news for them. I just hope that they show the same compassion for Alan and he will be released soon. We now just have to sit, hope and wait.”

Members of Mr Moore’s extended family were divided on their view of how the Foreign Office had dealt with the hostage taking.

Mr and Mrs Sweeney said they were confident that everything possible had been done for their stepson. Mrs Sweeney said: “Every hostage situation is different. I believe everything was done that could have been done.”

However Mr Moore, who has not seen his son since he was 21, said that it was a botched operation. “If they had done it properly, all five would walking out of there,” he said.

He added that he hoped to rekindle a relationship with his son upon his return to Britain. “Our aim is to get him back with his friends and get his life back on track.”

Terry Waite, the former Middle East hostage who has been in touch with the family, said that Mr Moore should “take things step by step”, but he believed there was every chance that he could recover fully from his ordeal.

David Miliband on hostage Peter Moore's release

2009-12-30T17:19:00.000Z

UK hostage Peter Moore released alive in Iraq

2009-12-30T14:24:00.000Z

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8435075.stm

British hostage Peter Moore has been released alive from captivity in Iraq, the Foreign Office has said.

Mr Moore, an IT consultant from Lincoln, was seized at the Iraqi Ministry of Finance in Baghdad in May 2007.

Three fellow guards seized at the same time were later shot dead and their bodies flown back to the UK.

Alan McMenemy, a security guard from Glasgow, is understood to remain a hostage in Iraq.

Mr Moore had been working for US management consultancy Bearingpoint in Iraq. The other men were security contractors employed to guard him.

The bodies of Jason Swindlehurst, from Skelmersdale, Lancashire, and Jason Creswell, of Glasgow, were returned to the UK in June 2009, followed by that of Alec MacLachlan, of Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, in September.

Iraq hostage family 'confident' he is alive

2009-12-20T17:40:00.000Z

http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/international_politics/iraq+hostage+family+aposconfidentapos+he+is+alive/3469402

The family of British hostage Peter Moore have told Channel 4 News they are "confident" he is still alive, two years and seven months since he was kidnapped in Iraq.

Mr Moore, aged 36, was in a group of five British men snatched by gunmen outside a government building in Baghdad in May 2007. He was installing asset tracing software at the Finance Ministry when he was kidnapped.

Jason Creswell, Alec Maclachlan and Jason Swindlehurst were later killed and their bodies returned home. Alan McMenemy is feared dead, leaving Peter Moore, in all probability, the last surviving member of the five hostages.

The IT consultant from Lincoln had been working for BearingPoint, an American management consultancy. Another British BearingPoint contractor was working alongside peter Moore on the day of the kidnapping, but escaped capture after hiding in the building.

It is now 934 days since he was kidnapped. Now, Mr Moore's relatives are facing their third Christmas without him.

His step-parents, Pauline and Fran Sweeney, have told Channel 4 News they believe he is still alive.

"We have to believe that. It's been a long time," Fran said.

Pauline added: "We have to cling onto that. It's been such a long time that it would be absolutely devastating if he didn't come home now."

The couple have issued a new plea for Peter's captors to release him in time for Christmas.

Pauline also told home affairs correspondent Andy Davies: "It's not a time for celebration when he's not with us. For Jason, Jason and Alec's families it is a time for mourning. Enough is enough - please just send them home."

"There hasn't been a lot of news for a while. We really don't know a lot more. We just pray for a fast conclusion."

"Every day it just drags on and on. We would just love to see him home for Christmas," said Fran.

He added: "There's a lot of information we can't get hold of. It does make it very difficult. We have a faith everyone's doing what they need to do to get the release of the two guys."

Pauline described the last three years: "It's just been a total rollercoaster of emotions. Some days you have better days, I won't say good days. Some days you have really bad days. Times of celebrations - birthdays, Christmas - times when we would have all been together as a family, have been very difficult.

"Thank God we've had the other familes to get through it with us. They're the only ones that understand what we're going through."

Tony Blair, who was still prime minister when the men were taken, promised the British government would do everything possible to help free the men. Since then Foreign Secretary David Miliband has insisted the hostages have not been forgotten.

The Foreign Office has today told Channel 4 News no effort is being spared and that they remain in close contact with those in Iraq who may be able to help.

British hostage Peter Moore 'held by Iran', claims Iraqi MP

2009-12-14T18:10:00.000Z

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/6804897/British-hostage-Peter-Moore-held-by-Iran-claims-Iraqi-MP.html

An Iraqi MP has claimed Peter Moore, the British hostage snatched from the finance ministry in Baghdad two years ago, is now being held in Iran by the elite Revolutionary Guard.

By Damien McElroy
Published: 7:30AM GMT 14 Dec 2009

Jamal Aldin claimed Peter Moore, a computer expert seized along with four British security contractors, is in the hands of a general in the Guard. "I understand from good sources he has been moved in and out of Iran," said Mr Aldin.

While the four guards are feared to be dead, Gordon Brown has said he believes that Mr Moore is still alive

Mr Aldin claimed General Qassim Sulaimani, the head of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps IRGC, now controlled the fate of Mr Moore, who was kidnapped by Shia militiamen posing as police officers.

''General Sulaimani effectively controls the revolutionary guard in Iraq who have Mr Moore," he said.

The centrist Iraqi politician who was born in the Iraqi holy city of Najaf, which has close links with Iran's Shia Muslims, has campaigned against Iranian influence in Iraq.

He said David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, should raise Mr Moore's plight with Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. British officials have privately cast doubt on Mr Moore's continued survival.

"The revolutionary guard have absolute control of him," said Mr Aldin. "Nobody knows exactly where he is but I am sure he's been in Tehran."

Mr Aldin warned the Iraqi government was incapable of securing Mr Moore's freedom because it was under the control of Iran. "The real danger in Iraq is Iran. It controls Iraq with a firm fist," he said.

"The Iranian regime will continue to be a problem with a nuclear weapon or not, with interference in Iraq or not.

"The problem is that the regime believes it represents God. If this goes unchecked, its influence will extend to Morocco."

KIDNAPPED BRITON 'BEING HELD IN IRAN'

2009-12-13T11:16:00.000Z

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/145741/Kidnapped-Briton-being-held-in-Iran-

Sunday December 13,2009
By James Murray and Hilary Douglas

BRITISH hostage Peter Moore is being held by kidnappers loyal to Iran’s revolutionary guard and his fate will be determined by an Iranian army general, it has been claimed.

The claims came from moderate Iraq MP Jamal Aldin, who said: “I understand from good sources he has been moved in and out of Iran.

“The revolutionary guard have absolute control of him. Nobody knows exactly where he is but I am sure he’s been in Tehran.” He said Foreign Secretary David Miliband should consider negotiating directly for his release with Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The idea that Iran had a hand in the abduction of Mr Moore and four British bodyguards from a Baghdad office in May 2007 could have serious repercussions for international diplomacy.

In Britain last week, Mr Aldin, who is a marked man in Iraq and has survived six assassination attempts in five years, painted a disturbing picture of how his country is becoming a “satellite province” of Iran.

He said operations were run deep inside Iraq from the border base of Iranian general Kassim Sulaimani. ‘‘General Sulaimani effectively controls the revolutionary guard in Iraq who have Mr Moore.”

IT expert Mr Moore, 36, and his guards were snatched by a 40-strong gang posing as policemen.

Three bodies have so far been handed over to the British embassy, two in June and one in August.

Mr Moore is now believed to be the only hostage still alive.

Mr Aldin said the US is “complicit” in what is going on in Iraq, and deals directly with General Sulaimani. “They ask him to stop the Green Zone being mortared and it happens.

“The US knows Iran is poised to seize control of Iraq the second the allied troops leave Baghdad.”

He believes this is a greater threat than Iran’s nuclear programme. “Pakistan has a nuclear deterrent. It is a backward country, but you never had a problem with a nuclear threat from Pakistan. India, the same.”

Mr Moore’s father, Graham, frustrated by diplomatic efforts, is willing to speak to the kidnappers directly.

UK officials concerned over fate of British hostage Peter Moore

2009-12-02T17:09:00.000Z

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/6703306/UK-officials-concerned-over-fate-of-British-hostage-Peter-Moore.html

British officials have warned prospects for the release of the computer consultant Peter Moore, held hostage in Iraq since 2007, have 'significantly diminished' in recent weeks.

By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
Published: 7:00AM GMT 02 Dec 2009

The warning was issued after talks that would have seen the kidnapping group hand over Mr Moore in return for the release of its leader and a role in Iraqi politics were reported on Tuesday to have collapsed.

The fate of Mr Moore, who is from Swindon, has been tied to the success of a reconciliation agreement in the run-up to Iraq's general election early next year.

Early stages of the negotiations resulted in the return of the remains of four British security guards kidnapped alongside Mr Moore at Baghdad's finance ministry in May 2007.

A senior member of League of the Righteous, the political wing of the terrorist gang thought to be holding Mr Moore in an Iranian-provided safehouse, revealed that its talks with the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, had floundered.

Negotiations over a pact would have seen Qais al-Khazali, the group's leader, released from the American-run Camp Crooper prison in Baghdad in return for Mr Moore's freedom.

"The negotiations with the government have stopped because we have not reached agreement and because they refuse to free Qais al-Khazali," said Salam al-Maliki, a former transport minister.

"For this reason, we will not participate in the upcoming elections."

A senior British official involved in efforts to resolve the crisis said the ending of the talks dealt a major blow to hopes for a successful outcome. "The talks were a lifeline in a situation were there were few options and even less hope," he said. "The signals have diminished to nothing and prospects are now slim to nil. It is not a promising outlook."

The British Government has not had direct contacts with the kidnappers. Instead it pinned its hope on assurances from the Iraqi government that the release of Mr Moore would be a condition of the rehabilitation of the Leagues.

Whitehall was left disappointed and angry when the bodies of the security guards were delivered this summer. Gordon Brown said he was confident that Mr Moore was still alive as recently as July.

Khazali's brother Laith was released from Camp Cropper inJune on the orders of Iraq's Committee for National Reconciliation. But the handover of remains damaged the trust between the group's negotiators and Mr Maliki. Diplomats said that further releases were viewed as the best opportunity to secure Mr Moore's return. "In quite a quiet situation, people had pinned their hopes on release dates planned for prisoners in Iraq," said a British official. "Otherwise its a constrant drip-drip of rumours all the hostages are dead."

Iraq is hoping to stage a general election before the end of March. The Leagues, which has its roots in Moqtada al-Sadr's populist Shia Muslim political movement, had been angling for a place on the electoral alliance formed around Mr Maliki.

The Foreign Office focused its efforts on securing the return of Mr Moore after British police confirmed the identity of the dead men.

The group is also suspected of being behind an attack in January 2007 that killed one US soldier and led to the abduction of four others. They too were later found dead.

Iraqi kidnappers abandon govt talks

2009-12-02T17:08:00.000Z

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g6B50ws38WMquqlnpJcTofWPIJHw

NAJAF, Iraq — The radical Shiite group that kidnapped five Britons in Baghdad more than two years ago said on Tuesday it had broken off talks with Iraq's government over integration into the political process.

The talks began four months ago when Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki met members of the League of the Righteous, which has renounced violence, but collapsed because the government refused to free the group's leader from jail, one of its senior members told AFP.

"The negotiations with the government have stopped because we have not reached agreement and because they refuse to free Qais al-Khazaali," Salam al-Maliki, a former transport minister, said.

"For this reason, we will not participate in the upcoming elections," he added of parliamentary elections slated for next year, but whose precise date has not yet been finalised.

Khazaali is being held at a US detention facility in Camp Cropper on Baghdad's outskirts.

In March, the League of the Righteous said it would release the five Britons it had kidnapped in exchange for 10 of its leaders being held by American forces in Iraq.

Since then, four of the Britons have been confirmed dead, with only IT consultant Peter Moore believed to be still alive.

The group kidnapped the five from the finance ministry in Baghdad in May 2007, in an audacious operation by around 40 heavily armed militants posing as security personnel.

The League of the Righteous is made up of militants who broke away from the Mahdi army, the formerly armed militia group loyal to the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

The group is also suspected of being behind an attack in January 2007 that killed one US soldier and led to the abduction of four others. They too were later found dead.

On April 1, Iraq's Committee for National Reconciliation said it had begun talks with the League of the Righteous, but did not make any specific mention of the hostages.

Kidnapped IT worker 'still alive' says Baghdad vicar

2009-11-01T12:16:00.000Z

http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/news/Kidnapped-worker-alive-says-Baghdad-vicar/article-1469263-detail/article.html

The vicar helping to negotiate the release of a kidnapped IT worker in Iraq believes he is still alive.

Canon Andrew White leads the only Anglican church in Baghdad and came to Leicester last night to give a lecture.

Canon White is parish priest to more than 3,000 people at St Georges Church in Iraq and has been involved in trying to secure the release of kidnapped IT worker Peter Moore, 36, whose father Graeme lives in Wigston.

He was one of five hostages taken by armed men at the finance ministry in Baghdad on May 29, 2007.

The bodies of three of the hostages were received by officials earlier this year. Mr Moore and Canon White say they have received information which suggests Peter is being held alive.
Canon White said: "I can't really talk about what I have been doing with Peter's release, all I can say is I'm very involved and I'm not without hope.

"There are two of them who I believe are still alive, which is Peter and Alan McMenemy."

On Sunday, the vicar received the news that his church was one of a group of buildings blown up in a bomb blast which killed 153 people.

Among the dead were colleagues of Canon White.

He said: "I was on the way to London when somebody called to say what had happened.

"Every day I feel like I can't move things forward but you have to keep going, it's very easy to give up but you would leave thousands of people desperate."

Delivery driver Graeme Moore, 59, could not attend the lecture last night but said: "One of my contacts told me on Saturday that they were holding Peter on this own but that he was alive."

Canon White gave the 2009 Provost Derek Hole annual public lecture at the University of Leicester. His talk, The Inter-religious Search For Peace In Iraq, spoke about the delicate relationships between different religious leaders in the country.

Over 100 from Iraqi group who killed Britons freed

2009-09-27T19:05:00.000Z

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gXyQbbLIEpFjcHkXJ2J_QyIrHF3A

BAGHDAD — More than 100 Iraqi Shiite insurgents whose organisation kidnapped five Britons and killed at least three of them have been released from prison in the past week, the group said on Sunday.

"I can confirm the release of a number of our group last night... 23 were freed yesterday," Salam al-Maliki, a spokesman for the League of the Righteous, told AFP.

"Eighty-seven of our group were released last week, and 120 are supposed to be freed this week."

Maliki said the releases "came as part of negotiations we are holding with the Iraqi government."

The League of the Righteous was behind the kidnap of British IT expert Peter Moore and his four bodyguards from the finance ministry in Baghdad in May 2007.

The bodies of two bodyguards, Jason Swindlehurst, 38, and Jason Creswell, 39, were handed over to Britain in June this year.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned the following month that the two other bodyguards, Alan McMenemy and Alec MacLachlan, were "very likely" dead. The latter's body was handed over to Britain earlier this month.

The League of the Righteous is also suspected of being behind an attack in January 2007 that killed one US soldier and led to the abduction of four others, all of whom were later found dead.

"At the request of the government of Iraq and pursuant to the bilateral Iraq-US security agreement, the US released the detainees to guarantors provided by the government of Iraq," US Captain Brad Kimberly told AFP.

"The release was facilitated by the government of Iraq as part of its efforts toward national unity."

Kimberly declined to specify how many members of the group were released or give details of individual detainees.

A spokesman for the British Embassy in Baghdad told AFP that Britain was not negotiating with the group for Moore's release.

Iraq body confirmed as UK hostage

2009-09-03T17:22:00.000Z

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8236730.stm

A body handed to UK authorities in Iraq has been identified as that of Alec MacLachlan - one of five British men seized in Baghdad in 2007.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown confirmed the 30-year-old security guard, of Llanelli, south Wales, had died.

Two of the five hostages' bodies were returned in June. The families of two others were told to expect the worst.

UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband says he believes the fifth man - IT consultant Peter Moore - is alive.

Mr Miliband earlier appealed to the men's captors.

"I renew my call, on behalf of the British government and the British people, to those holding the hostages to return them to their loved ones," he said.

Obscure militia

BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner said Metropolitan Police forensic specialists sent to Iraq had identified the body within 24 hours of it being delivered to the British embassy.

It is believed the hostage-takers killed four of the men some time ago, our correspondent added, and efforts were now concentrating on releasing Mr Moore.
Clockwise from top left: Alan McMenemy, Peter Moore, Alec Maclachlan, Jason Swindlehurst, Jason Creswell

Mr Moore, from Lincoln, had been working for US management consultancy Bearingpoint in Iraq when he was captured.

The other men, including Mr MacLachlan and Alan McMenemy, of Glasgow, were security contractors employed to guard him.

The group was seized at Baghdad's Ministry of Finance in May 2007 by about 40 men disguised as Iraqi policemen.

The captors were understood to belong to an obscure militia known as Islamic Shia Resistance in Iraq, which has demanded the release of up to nine of their associates held in US military custody since early 2007.

The Foreign Office insists the British government has not been directly involved in negotiations and that the Iraqi authorities have been acting as lead negotiator.

Little is known about the captives because of a media blackout during a large period of their captivity. The hostage-takers had said they did not want publicity.

The hostage crisis has been Britain's longest for nearly 20 years.

Body of British hostage given to Iraq authorities

2009-09-03T15:33:00.001Z

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/sep/02/body-third-british-hostage-iraq

Remains of third hostage not yet formally identified
Only one of five kidnapped men is thought to be alive

The body of a third British hostage in Iraq was today delivered to Iraqi officials in an apparent step closer to freedom for the only one of five kidnapped Britons now thought to be alive, the computer programmer Peter Moore.

The Iraqi army and a security company retained by the British embassy received the remains around midday. The body is believed to be that of either Alec Maclachlan, from Llanelli, Wales, or Alan McMenemy, from Dumbarton, Scotland.

The families of both men were told in August that they had almost certainly been killed.

The two, who worked for the Canadian security firm GardaWorld, were captured in Baghdad in 2007, along with fellow security guards Jason Swindlehurst and Jason Creswell – whose bodies were found in June this year – and the man they were guarding, IT consultant Peter Moore.

All five men were seized in May 2007 from the finance ministry by dozens of men wearing national police uniform and driving a convoy of police fleet vehicles.

A Downing Street spokesman tonight said that Gordon Brown was "deeply saddened" by the news. "A process is now under way to urgently establish identity.

"The prime minister's thoughts are with their families at this extremely difficult time," the spokesman said.

In a statement, the foreign secretary, David Miliband, said the government remained in "close contact" with those in Iraq who could be able to help secure the release of the hostages. "Our cross-government effort by teams in London and Baghdad continues unabated," he said.

Today's body was retrieved three months after the remains of Swindlehurst and Creswell were delivered to the embassy in a similar fashion.

Tonight Moore's father, Graham, 59, said: "Until we confirm who it is, we're just in suspense". Speaking from his home in Wigston, Leicestershire, he said they were holding out hope the body was not that of his son. He said: "There's always that little bit of uncertainty, but the information that has come out of Iraq suggested that they separated Peter from the others early on. I dare say we won't be sleeping well tonight."

British police forensic officers working in Iraq were tonight trying to establish the identity of the body. The victim is thought to have been shot.

An official involved in protracted mediation efforts between the Iraqi government and the kidnappers, who are a Shia Islamic militia with political aspirations, known as the Righteous League, night confirmed that the release of the third body was a step towards Moore's release.

There has been no word on Moore's fate since a DVD was handed over to Iraqi officials earlier this year showing him alive. However, the official said the hostage takers had assured the Iraqi government that he was alive. "I am sure about this," he said. "And so are other people involved in the discussions."

Miliband's statement tonight also said the British authorities believe Moore is still alive.

The release of the third body had been widely anticipated since members of the Righteous League were hosted by the Iraqi prime minister, Nour al-Maliki, in July. The group, which has strong links to the Lebanese Hezbollah, has been campaigning for political legitimacy in the run-up to national elections in January.Britain has maintained a policy of not negotiating with the hostage takers and moves towards the release of the captives have been handled by Iraqi mediators, who have attempted to convince them that legitimacy will remain out of reach as long as they hold hostages.

In one positive sign, the group promised in August to lay down its weapons and join the political process. Over the past three months, up to 15 high-profile members of the Righteous League have been freed from American custody in Iraq.

The group had earlier demanded that the released of the British captives be tied to a prisoner release. However, Britain, Iraq and the US have been anxious to avoid such a perception. "There is no direct swap between the hostages and the prisoners," the official said. "However there are expectations tied into the process."

A Downing Street spokeswoman said Prime Minister Gordon Brown "will leave no stone unturned in the government's efforts to secure the release of the remaining hostages."

The bodies of Jason Swindlehurst, 38 and Jason Creswell, 39, were returned in June. It is not clear exactly how they died, though both had suffered multiple gunshot wounds.

Hopes for the Britons rose in June following the release of Laith al-Khazali, a Shiite militant who had been held in U.S. custody. The kidnappers have demanded the release of militiamen including al-Khazali's brother, Qais al-Khazali, in exchange for the British hostages.

But Kim Howells, an ex-British minister for the Middle East and previously involved in the case, has said that since leaving his post, he has questioned whether Britain had been negotiating with the right people. Attempts to win the release of the Britons have been hampered by dealings with middlemen.

• This article was amended on Thursday 3 September 2009. We said the body was believed to be that of either Alan Maclachlan, from Dumbarton, Scotland, or Alec McMenemy, from Glasgow. It is in fact believed to be that of either Alec Maclachlan, from Llanelli, Wales, or Alan McMenemy, from Dumbarton, Scotland. This has been corrected.

US helps reconciliation of Iraqi groups with prisoner release

2009-08-19T05:52:00.001Z

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/article6801297.ece

Britain has always been relatively powerless to resolve its longest-running hostage crisis in two decades because the United States holds the trump cards.

Its decision to release all members of Asaib al-Haq demonstrates the changed political landscape in Iraq, where the Government is trying to reach out to former militant groups and bring them back into the fold, while the US is trying to wind down operations and pull out of the country.

Asaib al-Haq, or the League of the Righteous, is an extremist Shia group that broke away from the Mahdi Army — the largest Shia militia in Iraq — led by Hojatoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical cleric.

It was regarded by the American military as an Iranian-backed “special group” that continued to use violence even after Hojatoleslam al-Sadr ordered his followers to lay down their arms. Iran denies involvement in militia activity in Iraq.

Asaib al-Haq now appears to want to become involved in the political process.

Representatives of the group met Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister of Iraq, recently. They declared that they had renounced violence and wanted to discuss closer political co-operation with Baghdad.

This reconciliation process coincides with a pledge by the US military to hand over all its detainees to the Iraqi authorities for release or prosecution as part of a security agreement with Baghdad.

That even includes high-value suspects such as Qais al-Khazali, a leader of Asaib al-Haq, who is accused of involvement in an ambush in early 2007 in which five US troops were killed.

The key to the release of Peter Moore and the bodies of his two guards will be the freeing of Mr al-Khazali, the most high-profile figure in US detention linked to the kidnap group.

Eight other men, including a member of the Lebanese Hezbollah, are also on the list of detainees whose release is being demanded by Asaib al-Haq.

The kidnappers have shown already that they respond when their demands are met. The bodies of two other security guards were handed over to the British Embassy only days after a tenth detainee requested by the gang was delivered in June to the Iraqi authorities, who set him free.

US to release members of Iraqi group that kidnapped five Britons

2009-08-19T05:51:00.000Z

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article6801281.ece

The US military is to release all detainees linked to a Shia extremist group that kidnapped five British men two years ago. Four of the hostages are thought to be dead.

General Ray Odierno, the top US commander in Iraq, plans to release all members of Asaib al-Haq — League of the Righteous — as part of what he called a wider reconciliation process in the divided country. The number of detained group members is believed to be between 300 and 400.

The bodies of two of the British hostages have been recovered but Peter Moore, a computer consultant, is the only captive who might still be alive.

The main demand of the kidnap group has been the release of ten people held in US detention. The latest move by the US could lead to the release of Mr Moore, if he is still alive, and the handing over of the missing bodies.

Six months ago a video of an apparently healthy Mr Moore was released. In February 2008 another video featuring him was aired by the al-Arabiya television channel, which is based in Dubai. In it he called on Gordon Brown to free the Iraqis in return for the hostages’ freedom.

“This is about reconciliation,” General Odierno said. “We believe Asaib al-Haq has taken initial steps to reconcile with the Government of Iraq.”

He said that active group members were observing a ceasefire and “they have begun to turn in heavy weapons or at least to consolidate heavy weapons that they have”.

The US military is committed to handing over all those in its custody to the Iraqi authorities for prosecution or release by next year as part of a security agreement. Thousands have been released but the main obstacle to releasing members of Asaib al-Haq has been their alleged involvement in attacks on US troops.

The US military had hoped to prosecute anyone who attacked its troops through the Iraqi judicial system but in many cases officials were unable to do so.

“We have to have evidence,” General Odierno told The New York Times. “There’s intelligence \ there’s evidence. Those are two completely different things.” He insisted that “anybody who has blood on their hands will be tried in Iraqi courts” but had to concede that no such moves were currently under way.

The first sign that a mass release might be possible came this year with the freeing of Laith al-Khazali, whose brother Qais al-Khazali is believed to have planned an attack that killed five US soldiers in the southern city of Karbala in 2007. Qais al-Khazali is still in detention.

It is unclear how much longer the remaining detainees will have to wait. The US military holds 9,500 Iraqis at Camp Bucca, a detention facility near Basra that is scheduled to be closed in four weeks. The remaining detainees will be transferred to two other centres.

Representatives of Asaib al-Haq met Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, this month and reiterated their pledge to maintain a ceasefire. Ali Faisal al-Lami, a senior member, said that he had agreed the “final resolution” of the hostage crisis with Mr al-Maliki.

Mr Moore and his four bodyguards were kidnapped by about 40 heavily armed men posing as security personnel in May 2007.

On June 20 the bodies of Jason Swindlehurst, 38, and Jason Creswell, 39, were handed to the British Embassy. Last month Mr Brown said that the other guards, Alan McMenemy and Alec MacLachlan, were “very likely” to be dead. The Prime Minister said that he believed Mr Moore was still alive.

3 august 2009 - Iraqi Group Renounces Violence

2009-08-11T13:29:00.001Z

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/04/world/middleeast/04iraq.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=Shiite%20Group%20Agrees%20to%20Renounce%20Violence%20in%20Iraq&st=cse

AGHDAD — An extremist Shiite group that has boasted of killing five American soldiers and of kidnapping five British contractors has agreed to renounce violence against fellow Iraqis, after meeting with Iraq’s prime minister.

The prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, met with members of the group, Asa’ib al-Haq, or the League of the Righteous, over the weekend, said Ali al-Dabbagh, a spokesman for the prime minister, confirming reports. “They decided they are no longer using violence, and we welcome them,” he said in a telephone interview.

Mr. Dabbagh first revealed the negotiations in remarks on Monday to Al Iraqiya, the state television network. “We have reached an agreement to resolve all problems, especially regarding detainees who do not have Iraqi blood on their hands,” he said. He did not say anything about British victims of the group.

Asked about that later, he added, “Whether it’s British blood or American blood, it is a violation of the law, and we will treat them no differently.”

Salam al-Maliki, the insurgent group’s liaison to the government, said in a telephone interview that the group had not renounced fighting the Americans. “Of course we want to get into the political process, because circumstances have improved, and the United States is out right now,” said Mr. Maliki, who is not related to the prime minister. “We told the government anyone who has Iraqi blood on their hands, you should keep him in jail. We are only fighting the United States.”

Asked about the British hostages, Mr. Maliki said that their status had not been discussed.

Mr. Dabbagh also said that the British hostages had not been discussed. “We cannot negotiate with the kidnappers,” he said. Referring to the hostages, he added, “We do support them coming home safely.”

American officials released the leader of the group, Laith al-Khazali, from detention in June in a move interpreted widely as part of an exchange for some British hostages. Instead, two of the hostages’ bodies were found June 20, and the British prime minister, Gordon Brown, said two others were probably dead. A fifth hostage, Peter Moore, is believed to be alive, Mr. Brown said.

In the past week, two other members of the insurgent group, from Basra and Baghdad, were released from American detention, according to followers of Moktada al-Sadr, the anti-American cleric. Another senior member, Sheikh Abdel Hadi al-Daraji, was released in June.

Asa’ib al-Haq’s leaders were detained after their followers dressed as Iraqi police officers and made a surprise attack in Karbala, killing five American soldiers in 2007. In retaliation, the group seized the five Britons.

They were kidnapped from the Iraqi Finance Ministry, where they had worked. Recently, Iraq’s national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, said that the kidnapping must have had support from within the ministry.

The insurgent group broke away from Mr. Sadr last year, after he declared a truce with the Shiite government. American military officials say the group is supported by Iran.

Officials at the British and American Embassies had no immediate comment. The American military referred requests for information to the Iraqi authorities.

Elsewhere, three Iraqi soldiers and two civilians were killed in the Mosul area in four attacks on Monday, according to a source within the police there who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Separately, bombs hidden on two passenger buses going through Hilla, south of Baghdad, exploded, according to a source in the Interior Ministry.

In one of the attacks, 5 people died and 21 were wounded on the bus, said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to speak publicly. In the second attack, one person was killed and five were wounded.

However, police and hospital officials in Hilla said three people had died in the two bombings.

In Saqlawiya, a town north of Falluja, a bomb in a car exploded in a market area, killing two people and wounding seven, according to the police in the area.

Reporting was contributed by Duraid Adnan and Sam Dagher in Baghdad, and Iraqi employees of The New York Times in Hilla, Baghdad, Falluja and Mosul.

04 August 2009 - Top US general in Iraq calls American role crucial

2009-08-09T11:28:00.001Z

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090804/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq

CAMP RAMADI, Iraq – The top U.S. commander in Iraq said Tuesday an American role over the next 2 1/2 years is crucial to ensuring legitimate national elections and helping Iraq become a long-term U.S. partner in the Middle East.

Gen. Ray Odierno disputed a colonel's call for the military to declare victory and leave ahead of schedule, telling The Associated Press that the American presence is needed even though security is better than expected a month after Iraqi forces assumed responsibility for protecting cities.

"Our goal here given us by the president is a secure, stable sovereign self-reliant Iraq. We're not there yet," he said in a wide-ranging interview after meeting with Iraqi officials at a U.S. base outside the Anbar provincial capital of Ramadi.

Odierno argued that U.S. troops should stay mainly to train and advise Iraqis to avoid a resurgence of major violence that would squander more than six years of enormous U.S. sacrifices. He cautioned that many obstacles remain, particularly Kurdish-Arab tensions that could stoke violence in northern Iraq.

His remarks came five days after the circulation of a controversial memo prepared by Col. Timothy R. Reese, a U.S. Army adviser to the Iraqi military in Baghdad. Reese argued that the American effort to train, equip and advise Iraqi security forces has reached a point of rapidly diminishing returns and the U.S. should go home next summer, 16 months ahead of schedule.

The memo was intended for limited distribution among U.S. officers in Baghdad but ended up being circulated on the Internet last Thursday. It reflected the frustration of many American soldiers who feel they have done as much as they can after more than six years of warfare that has left at least 4,331 service members dead.

Iraq has seen relatively little violence following the June 30 deadline for Americans to pull back from urban areas to rural bases, although there have been periods of intense bombings.

"Overall it's gone very, very well," Odierno acknowledged.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said last month that a combat brigade of 5,000 American troops may be brought home early from Iraq if the trend of reduced violence holds.

But the Obama administration and top Pentagon officials are leery of a premature withdrawal — as much as they are eager to end the war in Iraq and shift more effort and resources to Afghanistan.

The current timeline calls for American combat troops to withdraw by August 2010, leaving behind a residual force of 35,000-50,000 troops to train and advise the Iraqi security forces until a final pullout by the end of 2011.

There are now about 130,000 U.S. forces in Iraq.

The Americans have pinned their hopes on national parliamentary elections scheduled for January to give the national reconciliation process a jump-start by empowering disaffected groups.

Odierno said the Americans can play an important role in maintaining calm as political tensions rise ahead of the vote.

"What we have to be able to do is to make sure that we reduce tensions so that they can solve this politically," he said. "It's important that we're here to make sure that we have legitimate, credible parliamentary elections."

He also emphasized the importance of a stable Iraq for the rest of the Middle East.

"We want to continue to build the institutional capacity of Iraq to move it towards a stable country and we want to make them a long-term partner that would help us to, in my mind, help overall with the security situation in the Middle East. That's what our goals are," Odierno said.

Iraq still needs help developing its fledgling air force and navy. The U.S. military also has liaisons working with the ministries and local councils to promote good governance.

Odierno spoke after meeting with the Anbar provincial governor and other local officials in this former insurgent stronghold, which has seen an escalation in bombings over the past two weeks.

Gov. Qassim al-Fahdawi said Iraqis in the mainly Sunni province still need support from U.S. Marines, complaining that turf wars between provinces and the central government were jeopardizing efforts to target known insurgents who fled to Abu Ghraib and other adjacent areas.

He said another security threat was an influx of former detainees from the southern U.S. detention center Camp Bucca who have returned home to a lack of public services and high unemployment, making them susceptible to militant recruiters.

The U.S. military has released or handed over to the Iraqi government thousands of detainees nationwide as required by a security pact that took effect on Jan. 1.

The Shiite-dominated Iraqi government has been criticized for failing to take advantage of security gains to make progress on achieving national unity.

Odierno cautiously welcomed talks between the Iraqi government and a Shiite extremist group that is blamed for the killing of five American soldiers and the kidnapping of five British contractors two years ago but reportedly has agreed to renounce violence. But he said the group, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, or League of the Righteous, must break their ties with Iran.

The U.S. military believes Tehran is training and arming Shiite militants in Iraq. Iran denies the allegation.

Iraqi officials said Monday that the movement had agreed to lay down arms, and the government promised to seek the release of several detained members.

"This is just the beginning of the process," Odierno said. "They know in order to become a legitimate part of the political process they have to renounce violence so I think that's where they're headed but we'll see."

British hostages: claims of Iraqi government collusion

2009-08-08T18:50:00.003Z

A Guardian investigation reveals allegations that high-ranking Iraqi government officials were involved in the kidnapping of five Britons in Baghdad

Did British bomb attacks in Iran provoke hostage crisis?

2009-08-03T17:33:00.003Z

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/did-british-bomb-attacks-in-iran-provoke-hostage-crisis-1765891.html

Abduction of computer expert and bodyguards in Iraq were an act of revenge by Tehran, source reveals

The abduction of the British computer expert Peter Moore and his four bodyguards was carried out partly in revenge for deadly bomb attacks in south-west Iran which Iranian officials blamed on Britain, according to a well-placed source in Baghdad.

The five men were abducted by an Iranian-backed group in 2007 and it is now believed four of them have been killed. The fate of Mr Moore remains unclear. The Iranians orchestrated the abduction through an Iraqi proxy, the Asaib al-Haq, which they largely controlled, the source said.

Their main motive was to obtain prisoners to be used as a bargaining chip to secure the release of Qais al-Khazali, the leader of Asaib al-Haq, and other imprisoned militants who had split from the movement led by the Shia anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
But the Iranians had a second motive for targeting the British, says the source who, as a member of Mr Sadr's movement, is well-informed about Asaib al-Haq and its supporters. He says Iran was convinced Britain was backing Arab separatist groups in the Iranian oil province of Khuzestan which had made a series of bomb attacks on civilian targets, killing 28 people and wounding 225 in the two years before the kidnapping of the five Britons in Baghdad. Khuzestan has an Arab minority of two million.

These bombings attracted little attention outside Iran, but were taken very seriously by the Iranians who furiously denounced the US and Britain for supporting small gangs of anti-government militants planting the explosives. The attacks included four blasts in a single day in Ahvaz, the Iranian city across the Shatt al-Arab waterway from Basra, on June 2005, which killed 11 people and wounded 87.

The bombs were planted near government offices and a television station. Targets were evidently chosen without regard for civilian casualties. Iran blamed Britain, and British forces in Basra in particular, for the bombings in Ahvaz. These incidents have never really stopped, the latest being the discovery in May this year of an explosive device in the toilet of an Iranian plane flying out of Ahvaz with 131 people on board which was defused before it blew up. After two bombs exploded in Ahvaz in October 2005, killing six people and wounding at least 100, Iran's Deputy Interior Minister, Mohammed Hossein Mousapour, said: "Most probably those involved in the explosion were British agents who were involved in the previous incidents in Ahvaz and Khuzestan." The Foreign Office publicly denied any British involvement for which Iran produced no evidence.

But at the time Mr Moore and his four security guards were kidnapped, America was escalating its own covert war against Iran. It was revealed last year by the US newsletter Counterpunch that President George W Bush had asked Congress for $300m (£180m) to destabilise Iran by funding dissident groups.

"The covert activities involved support of the minority Ahwazi Arab and Baluchi groups and other dissident organisations," added the journalist Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker magazine. He said US special operations forces had been conducting cross-border operations into southern Iran during 2007, seizing members of the al-Quds, the commando arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and bringing them back to Iraq for interrogation.

The fate of Mr Moore and the four British men working for the Canadian security company GardaWorld may have been affected by this tit-for-tat secret war between the Americans and the Iranians. "The Iranians did not want to provoke the Americans into an all-out war, so Britain was a useful target as America's main ally," said one former Iraqi official. He quoted the old Iraqi saying: "If you don't dare fight your neighbour, you beat his dog."

The Foreign Office has been blamed for its conduct of negotiations with the kidnappers, but its officials were faced with a uniquely complicated situation. They had to deal not only with Asaib al-Haq, but with its shadowy Iranian backers and with the Americans, who actually had Qais al-Khazali and other militant leaders in prison.

It is unlikely that Mr Moore was abducted in order to suppress evidence of corruption in the finance ministry whose information service he was seeking to upgrade. Ali Allawi, the former Iraqi finance minister, says the idea is "far-fetched", though bureaucrats in the finance ministry were opposed to a new system of financial management which would have made the flow of government money more visible. Mr Allawi says that official resistance in the finance ministry was sufficient to kill off the scheme.

The abduction by men dressed as interior ministry forces was not out of the ordinary in Baghdad at the time, where there was no clear boundary between police and death squads.

Iraqi government officials may have colluded in British hostages' kidnap

2009-07-30T19:29:00.001Z

Guardian investigation suggests link to multibillion-dollar frauds
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/30/kidnap-men-uncover-corruption

An investigation into the kidnapping of five British men in Iraq has uncovered evidence of possible collusion by Iraqi government officials in their abduction, and a possible motive – to keep secret the whereabouts of billions of dollars in embezzled funds.

A former high-level Iraqi intelligence operative and a current senior government minister, who has been negotiating directly with the hostage takers, have told the Guardian that the kidnapping of IT specialist Peter Moore and his four bodyguards in 2007 was not a simple snatch by a band of militants but a sophisticated operation, almost certainly with inside help. Only Moore is thought still to be alive.

Witnesses to the extraordinary operation which led to the abductions have also told us that they have been warned by superiors to keep quiet.

"This operation was on a state level, not al-Qaida. Only the state has the capability to carry this out," one of the sources said.

The Guardian can also reveal that there was a sixth westerner who was working with Moore at the time of the kidnap. The man – whose identity is known to the Guardian – managed to narrowly avoid being captured by hiding in a toilet at the Iraqi ministry of finance, where the abductions took place.

Over the past 10 months the Guardian has interviewed senior Iraqi figures and eyewitnesses as well as the former British military officer who investigated the kidnap for the men's employers. Their accounts allege that the hostage takers had contacts in the Iraqi government, and also that officials in the ministry of defence warned off witnesses to the kidnap.
Audio: Maggie O'Kane of Guardian Films explains the background Link to this audio

The investigation has also uncovered compelling evidence that the one of the key motives behind the kidnappings may have been the nature of the work the hostages were doing in fighting massive corruption in Iraq's government ministries.

Moore was employed to install a new computer tracking system which would have followed billions of dollars of oil and foreign aid money through the ministry of finance. The "Iraq Financial Management Information System" was nearly complete and about to go online at the time of the kidnap.

The senior intelligence source said: "Many people don't want a high level of corruption to be revealed. Remember this is the information technology centre [at the ministry of finance], this is the place where all the money to do with Iraq and all Iraq's financial matters are housed."

Last month the bodies of two British security guards, Jason Cresswell and Jason Swindlehurst, were handed over to the British embassy in Baghdad. And on Wednesday this week Gordon Brown said that the remaining two guards, Alan McMenemy and Alec MacLachlan were "very likely" to be dead.

Moore is still believed to be alive, although nothing has been heard from him for months.

Today Avril Sweeney, Peter Moore's mother, said of the Guardian investigation: "This is the only thing that makes perfect sense – the only thing that has ever made perfect sense since the kidnap began. If this evidence is correct then there are massive questions that need to be answered. There is no way that 40 armed policemen would be able to storm into that building and take my son. This was all planned.

"Everything has been so tightly controlled. I appeal to the Iraqi government to bring about the safe release of my son."

A Foreign Office spokesman today told the Guardian: "This is a highly complex and challenging case, illustrated by the scale of the original abduction. There has been widespread speculation in Iraq about many aspects of the case.
The kidnappers' tactics Link to this interactive

"We have never ruled out the possibility that the hostage takers may have received advance notice or other assistance from sympathisers who were aware of the hostages' visit to the ministry that day. But since the beginning we have worked closely with Iraqi counterparts at all levels that we can trust, including the police, and continue to have excellent co-operation with them."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2009/jul/30/british-hostages-iraq-government
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2009/jul/30/british-hostages-iraq-kidnappers

Channel 4 News Report 29-07-2009

2009-07-29T19:31:00.001Z

Two more Iraq hostages 'likely' dead

2009-07-29T13:02:00.000Z

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hBa-D5tsf-clee8DrU5OSSK3lBdw

LONDON — Two more hostages from a group of Britons kidnapped in Baghdad two years ago are "very likely" dead, leaving only one whose fate remains unclear, reports said Wednesday.

The Foreign Office told the families of Alan McMenemy and Alec MacLachlan, among five Britons kidnapped in May 2007, that they believed they were dead last week, the BBC and Sky News television reported.

The bodies of two other guards, Jason Swindlehurst, 38, and Jason Creswell, 39, were handed over to the British embassy in Baghdad last month. The fate of the other hostage, British computer consultant Peter Moore, is unknown.

Moore and the four security guards were kidnapped in the Iraqi finance ministry, in an audacious operation by around 40 heavily-armed militants posing as security personnel.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman could not confirm the latest reports.

"We don't discuss the operational details of individual cases. We remain extremely concerned for the safety of the hostages and we continue to work intensively for their release," she said.

In a statement the families of the five hostages said they were "deeply upset and troubled" at the new reports.

"We are all deeply upset and troubled to hear the reports that Alec and Alan have died in the hands of their captors, as well as Jason Swindlehurst and Jason Creswell.

"This is a terrible ordeal for us all. We ask those holding our men for compassion when so many are working hard for reconciliation in Iraq and we continue to pray for the safe return of our men."

Business minister Peter Mandelson said Britain was doing all it could.

"We are intensively engaged through a whole variety of different channels but I don't disguise the fact that we are extremely concerned for the safety of the hostages," he told Sky News.

Moore's father Graham said there was still hope for his son -- but reiterated criticism of the way the Foreign Office handled the kidnapping. For a long time British authorities imposed a media blackout, arguing that publicity could jeopardise the hostages' fate.

"It is just a lottery at the moment as to what happens," he said.

"It is known that the word was that Peter was being treated differently because the others are ex-army and bodyguards and Peter was being treated differently as a civilian.

"At the moment, as things stand, it's all we can hope for."

But he added: "This just proves that the Foreign Office has mishandled it. There were rumours two weeks ago that the two bodyguards had been shot dead.

"(Prime Minister) Gordon Brown was in Leicester on Saturday but he didn't bother to speak to me. At the moment, we are going on the hope that Peter is alive and we can't really say any more than that."

Moore was working for US management consultancy BearingPoint, while the four guards were employed by Canadian firm GardaWorld, one of the security contractors used by firms to protect their staff in Iraq.

The Foreign Office said in March that the Iraqi militant group believed to be holding them, the League of the Righteous, had sent a video featuring one of the captives to the British embassy in Baghdad.

The video was not broadcast, but reports said it showed Moore saying the men were being treated well.

Hopes for the hostages rose last month after an an Iraqi militant linked to the League of the Righteous was freed, although the Foreign Office has sought to downplay the significance, saying Britain never does deals with kidnappers.

British hostage 'may be freed' in Iraq prisoner handover

2009-06-27T22:02:00.000Z

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article6591412.ece

The transfer of dozens of Shi’ite militants from American to Iraqi custody in Baghdad may lead to the release of one of three British hostages kidnapped in May 2007, a source close to the captors claimed yesterday.

American officials have already agreed to hand over a key group of prisoners to the Iraqis and two further transfers are likely to be finalised this week, the source said.

“In return for the men’s release, a hostage will be freed,” he added. The source, who spoke on condition that his identity would be withheld, said the three hostages were alive. The Foreign Office has been unable to confirm this and stresses that the case has been surrounded by misinformation from the start.

The bodies of two other hostages, Jason Swindlehurst, 38, from Skelmersdale, Lancashire, and Jason Creswell, 39, from Glasgow, who died months ago, were flown to Britain on Friday after being recovered a week earlier.

The source said the decision to transfer the detainees had followed talks between British officials and militants connected to the captors, a group called the League of Righteousness.

The group is demanding the release of its leader, Qais al-Khazali, who is being held by US forces over his alleged role in an attack in Karbala in January 2007 in which five American soldiers were killed.

The kidnappers who subsequently seized Peter Moore, a 35-year-old IT consultant from Lincoln, and his four bodyguards from the Iraqi finance ministry in Baghdad, also called for the release of other prisoners, including Khazali’s brother Laith.

It was following the release of Laith earlier this month that the bodies of Swindlehurst and Creswell were handed to British officials in Baghdad.

The source claimed that neither hostage had been murdered but he provided no information about how or when they had died. A video from the captors, which was passed to The Sunday Times last summer, claimed one of them had committed suicide. There has been no corroboration.

It is thought the prisoners being transferred from American custody may soon be freed by the Iraqi authorities.

They are understood to include Haj Shibil, who is said to be an old friend of Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister. Shibil left the prime minister’s Dawa party for the Mahdi Army of Moqtadr al-Sadr, the radical Shi’ite cleric, but has remained a political ally. The League of Righteousness is an Iranian-backed offshoot of the Mahdi army.

Maliki is said to have encouraged a deal for the release of the British hostages and to have pressed the Americans to cooperate by transferring prisoners.

The source claimed that talks about such a deal had been going on for a year.

“The kidnappers’ demands have never changed since the day they took the five hostages,” the source said.

“Why did it take the British government one year to agree to this and to sway the Americans to start freeing the prison-ers? Sadly, it came one year too late. They could have started this right from the beginning and saved the two men’s lives. Nobody should have died and nobody was intended to die.”

A Foreign Office source rejected the claim. “The process of reconciliation with Shi’ite militant groups has gathered pace in the last few months following the Iraqi elections and announcements of US troop withdrawal. I do not believe it could have been jump-started earlier or made to move quicker.” Last week the father of one of the three hostages gave an insight into the suffering of their families as they wait for news.

“I’m feeling really despondent at the moment and I don’t know where I am half the time. I’m in a very dark place and I try hard to have faith but that is proving very difficult in the circumstances,” he said.

“I’m so anxious . . . waiting for the phone to ring or for the [Foreign Office] liaison people to come to the door. I’m just so frightened at the moment.”

21 June 2009 - Hope for the remaining hostages?

2009-06-27T10:17:00.003Z

BBC radio interview:

What can realistically be done to help the remaining British hostages in Iraq? President of the Cordoba Foundation, Anas Altikriti, was involved in the negotiations to free Norman Kember.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8112000/8112304.stm

26 June 2009 - Five British hostages: Timeline

2009-06-27T10:07:00.002Z

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7821021.stm

2009

26 June: The bodies of Jason Swindlehurst and Jason Creswell are flown back to the UK by the RAF.

The Foreign Office says it is doing all it can to ensure the release of the remaining hostages.

21 June: The two bodies are confirmed to be those of security guards Jason Swindlehurst and Jason Creswell.

20 June: Two bodies feared to be those of the British hostages are handed to authorities, Foreign Secretary David Miliband says.

Forensic tests are carried out, but families "fear the worst".

9 June: Shia leader Laith al-Khazali is transferred from US military to Iraqi custody, prompting some hope of a breakthrough.

Al-Khazali is one of the militants whose release has been demanded by the kidnappers.

But US and UK officials insist the handover is not part of a prisoner transfer.

27 May: A day before the second anniversary of the kidnapping, Foreign Secretary David Miliband calls for the men's "immediate and unconditional release".

27 March: The Guardian newspaper reports claims by the kidnappers that they have reached a deal over their captives' release.

A statement from the militants says that Britain and the US have agreed to trade one hostage for 10 detained Sadrist militants. The Foreign Office refuses to comment.

2008

12 Dec: Mr Moore's family holds a vigil for him in London. The following week the families of all five men meet the prime minister to discuss the ongoing captivity.

20 July: A video tape is passed to the Sunday Times claiming one of the men, known only Jason, is dead. The tape says he killed himself on 25 May.

In a statement, the captors blame the "procrastination and foot-dragging and lack of seriousness on the part of the British government" for Jason's "psychological deterioration".

The video also shows another British hostage, Alan, discussing his plight.

"Physically, I'm not doing well. Psychologically, I'm doing a lot worse," he says.

The prime minister calls it an "abhorrent film".

29 May: On the anniversary of the men's capture, their relatives speak to the BBC.

Lisette, the sister of one of the hostages named Jason, says: "Please, please release my brother, he's a father, a son, and a brother to myself. We miss him dearly."

26 Feb: A second video from the kidnappers is aired. The footage shows a man, who gives his name as Peter Moore, appealing to Gordon Brown to help secure the hostages' release.

He asks the prime minister to free nine Iraqis held by coalition forces in exchange for his and his colleagues' freedom.

Later, Downing Street says Mr Brown has spoken with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki by telephone about the situation.

"Both leaders deplored the taking and public parading of hostages and agreed to continue their close co-operation to secure their early release," a spokesman said afterwards.

2007

12 Dec: Former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey appeals for the men's safe return.

4 Dec: A tape, dated 18 November, is released by the kidnappers, who call themselves the Islamic Shia Resistance in Iraq. They say they will kill one of the men as a "first warning" unless UK forces leave the country within 10 days.

In the film, one of the men gives his name as Jason, says he has been held for 173 days and adds: "I feel we have been forgotten." He is flanked by gunmen.

The UK government condemns the video, saying it will "add to the distress of the men's families and friends".

6 Sept: The families of the five men make a plea for their release. The relatives say they are "ordinary family men" and urged the captors to end their "torment".

Foreign Secretary David Miliband promises the government will "do all it can" to secure the hostages' release.

7 June: British ambassador to Iraq Dominic Asquith issues a statement in English and Arabic appealing for information about the men's whereabouts. He says he is "greatly concerned" about them.

30 May: Senior aide of Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr says the Mehdi Army was not behind the kidnap, but searches of the militia's stronghold, Sadr City, continue for several days.

29 May: Five British men are seized at Baghdad's Ministry of Finance. Their captors, a group of about 40, are dressed as Iraqi policemen.

Four of the men abducted are security guards working for a company called Gardaworld. Their names are understood to be Jason, Alan, Jason and Alec.

The man they were protecting - IT expert Peter Moore, who is 32 and from Lincoln - is also taken. He works for American management consultancy Bearingpoint.

26 June 2009 - Bodies of British Iraq hostages return to UK

2009-06-27T09:59:00.001Z

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jun/26/iraq-hostage-bodies-flown-home

Coroner to open inquests into deaths of Jason Swindlehurst and Jason Creswell before releasing bodies released for funerals

The bodies of two British security guards who were held hostage in Iraq for two years were flown back to the UK from Baghdad this morning.

Coffins containing the remains of Jason Swindlehurst and Jason Creswell arrived at RAF Lyneham, the Foreign Office said.

The bodies of Swindlehurst, from Skelmersdale, in Lancashire, and Creswell, from Glasgow, were officially identified on Monday after being handed over to Iraqi authorities at the weekend.

An FCO spokesman said the Oxfordshire coroner had been informed and would open and adjourn inquests into the deaths before releasing the men's bodies to their families for funerals.

The pair worked for the Canadian security firm GardaWorld in Baghdad as guards for the IT consultant Peter Moore, who remains captive along with two more of his guards, known only as Alan, from Scotland, and Alec, from south Wales. The five were seized at the Iraqi finance ministry on 29 May 2007 by about 40 armed men wearing police uniforms.

A spokesman for GardaWorld paid tribute to Creswell and Swindlehurst this week and insisted the company was doing everything it could to bring about the release of the remaining three captives.

"These two professionals were outstanding individuals who commanded the respect of all who knew and worked with them," he said. "They will be deeply missed by their friends and colleagues. We continue to be deeply concerned for the remaining three hostages and are doing everything we can to achieve their release."

Gordon Brown sent his condolences to the dead men's families and called for those holding Moore and his fellow hostages to let them go. "There is no justification for hostage-taking and I call on those people who are holding the other Iraqi and British hostages to release them immediately," said the prime minister.

23 June 2009 - Britain should press US over hostages, says senior Iraqi official

2009-06-25T11:29:00.001Z

The fate of Britain’s three remaining hostages in Iraq rests on the Government putting pressure on the United States to comply with the kidnappers’ demands to release nine detainees, a senior Iraqi official said yesterday.

“The ball is in the American court,” Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, Iraq’s National Security Adviser, told The Times. “The more pressure by the British Government, the better.”

His comments came as a former hostage said that Britain should pay ransoms. Richard Butler, a British journalist who was seized in Iraq last year, said that the Government had failed Britons taken hostage there, noting that France and Italy freed their captives by paying cash.

Gordon Brown is under increasing pressure to bring home safely Peter Moore and his two remaining security guards, known only as Alan and Alec, after the British Embassy in Baghdad received the bodies of two other guards, Jason Creswell and Jason Swindlehurst, last week. Jan Beattie, a friend of Mr Creswell, issued a new appeal on behalf of the relatives: “We ask those still holding Alec, Alan and Peter to release them and allow them to return home to their families as soon as possible. Our grief is profound, but we remain united in our support for each other as a family group.”

The whereabouts of the men remains a mystery, but the Government continues to work on the assumption that they are still alive. Mr Brown said: “I can assure you that we have left no stone unturned in our efforts to release the hostages, to work with the Iraqi authorities to maintain our vigilance about what needs to be done.” He has contacted the families of the dead hostages.

A group of about 40 gunmen in Iraqi police uniform kidnapped the five Britons in Baghdad on May 29, 2007. Communication with the group, known as Asaib al-Haq, is part of a wider political process in Iraq of encouraging militant groups that want to participate in politics to give up violence.

Hopes for the hostages rose earlier in the month when Laith al-Khazali, one of the detainees with links to the kidnappers, was freed from Camp Cropper, a US detention centre next to Baghdad airport.

Mr Rubaie said that the release of the remains of the two guards, who had been dead for some time, was the kidnappers’ way of responding.

“It’s a sad ending for the families, but at least it is closure for their suffering,” he said. “The next step is the list of the prisoners in Cropper to be released by the United States. Asaib al-Haq feels that they have done their bit.”

The US has promised to hand all prisoners to the Iraqi authorities for release or prosecution by the end of 2011 as part of a wider security agreement. Commanders say that they hope to complete the process by early next year. Qais al-Khazali, the brother of Laith, is the main detainee sought by the kidnappers, but his release will be difficult for the US military because he is accused of being involved in an attack that killed five American soldiers in early 2007.

Mr Butler, who works for the US television network CBS, said that the Government was wrong to refuse to pay ransoms. “I used to believe that you do not negotiate because it would likely lead to more people being kidnapped, but I cannot say I have noticed that certain nationalities are more at risk of being kidnapped than others,” he said in his first newspaper interview since being rescued by Iraqi forces in April last year after two months in captivity. “I have changed my stance on it,” he said.

Remains Identified

2009-06-21T15:06:00.000Z

http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/newsroom/latest-news/?view=News&id=19861269

The Foreign & Commonwealth Office in London issued a statement 21 June 2009 on the UK hostages taken in Baghdad, Iraq in May 2007.

It is with deep regret that we have today informed the families of the hostages that, based on very strong indications, the two bodies recovered are highly likely to be those of Jason Creswell, originally from Glasgow, and Jason Swindlehurst, originally from Skelmersdale.

Foreign Office officials are in close contact with all the families. Our thoughts are with them at this sad time, and we ask that the media allow them privacy to deal with this news.

We continue to do everything we can towards the safe release of the other hostages.

Remaining hostages may still be alive

2009-06-21T14:15:00.001Z

http://www.scotsman.com/latestnews/Remaining-hostages-may-still-be.5386675.jp

The handover of the remains of two of five British hostages in Iraq suggests the remaining three are still alive, a respected military expert said today.
Captain Doug Beattie, who recently retired from service with the Royal Irish Regiment, said the bodies were a "signal" to the British Government and the security company which employed the two dead captives.

The evidence would suggest "deep, deep negotiations" are ongoing behind the scenes, Mr Beattie, who served in Iraq and was later decorated for bravery in Afghanistan, added.

The soldier, author of the hit book An Ordinary Soldier, said: "The release of these bodies is no coincidence – it suggests a very deliberate act on behalf of the captors.

"We must all be very careful not to endanger the lives of those still being held, but there is every reason to hope and believe they are still alive.

"There will be deep, deep negotiations going on."

With Peter Moore confirmed as not among the bodies, Mr Beattie said he believed the hostage-takers were targeting GardaWorld, the Canadian security firm which employed his guards.

With £500 per day, tax-free, up for grabs from private security firms, many are drawn to spending a year or so in places like Iraq, working as bodyguards or overseeing convoys.

Most of those who take up the offers are ex-soldiers, from the elite regiments of the armed forces, highly trained in looking after themselves and their charges.

They work for private security companies who hold contracts with either Iraqi businesses or government organisations.

Mr Beattie, who will release a second book, Taskforce Helmand, added: "The firm will be very mindful of the fact that they will be supporting the families of those who have died and will be considering whether they will be able to do that again if the other two security officers are killed.

"It would suggest there are monetary reasons for handing these bodies over and the Government does not give ransoms in these situations."
"We can only hope there could be the imminent release of the remaining three."

He said he sympathised with Mr Moore's father Graeme, who complained of a blackout of information from the Government, but added: "I feel sorry for both sides. There will be reasons the Government has to hold information back.

"Negotiations, particularly at the moment, will be critical."

News broken to familes of dead hostages

Relatives of two dead British hostages handed to authorities in Iraq were coming to terms with their loss today.

The families of five men captured in Baghdad in 2007 were informed this morning whether their relatives were still alive after forensics identified the remains of two bodies handed to authorities on Friday.

Relatives of two of them – Peter Moore and Alec, a bodyguard from south Wales whose identity has not been revealed for security reasons – have confirmed the pair were not among the dead.

Bodies Handed To UK Embassy Are Identified

2009-06-21T10:49:00.001Z

Extract from:
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/British-Hostages-Two-Bodies-Handed-Over-To-British-Embassy-In-Baghdad-Iraq/Article/200906315313365?lpos=World_News_Carousel_Region_2&lid=ARTICLE_15313365_British_Hostages%3A_Two_Bodies_Handed_Over_To_British_Embassy_In_Baghdad%2C_Iraq

Neither was that of Peter Moore, one of five UK hostages who were captured in the Iraqi capital in 2007.

However, their identities have not yet been released.

U.K. Says Bodies Handed Over by Iraq May Be Hostages

2009-06-20T17:38:00.000Z

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=a52tHfYQWaX0

The remains of two bodies handed over to Britain by the Iraqi authorities have yet to be identified, Foreign Secretary David Miliband said.

Miliband said the development late yesterday was “very distressing,” adding that while there was no immediate confirmation of who they were, his thoughts were with the families of five Britons taken hostage in Baghdad over two years ago.

“This is a terrible moment of uncertainty and fear for them,” Miliband said in a televised press conference today.

The five civilian contractors were kidnapped by armed militants at the Ministry of Finance in the Iraqi capital in May 2007. They include IT consultant Peter Moore, who was working for U.S. management consultants BearingPoint Inc., and four security guards.

The Britons’ captors belong to a Shiite Muslim militia calling itself the Islamic Shiite Resistance in Iraq.

Moore, from Lincoln, northeast England, has appeared in several videos released by the kidnappers, most recently in March.

In one broadcast, on Dubai-based TV station Al-Arabiya, the militants warned that a hostage would be killed unless U.K. troops withdrew from Iraq, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported today.

Miliband said the U.K. would not make concessions to those who kidnapped its national.

“Hostage-taking is never justified in any cause,” he said. “Today’s terrible news underlines the gravity of the crimes associated with it.”

The Foreign Secretary reiterated a call for the immediate safe release of “all the remaining hostages” and confirmed his government was “working intensively toward that goal, but I also have to say the threat to them remains very high indeed.”

The four security guards were contractors employed by a company called Gardaworld, according to the BBC. Their names are understood to be Jason, Alan, Jason and Alec.

Release hope for dad held hostage in Iraq

2009-06-11T16:51:00.001Z

http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/news/Release-hope-dad-held-hostage-Iraq/article-1066775-detail/article.html

THE first of five British hostages kidnapped in Baghdad two years ago may be released today.

Signs of a breakthrough mean there is a chance the Llanelli dad, known only as Alec — due to a Government request to keep details in the media to a minimum — may soon be on his way home.

He was working as a bodyguard when he and four other men were snatched by insurgents in May, 2007.

The freeing of Laith al-Khazali, an important member of an Iranian-backed militia group, by America signifies a major step forward in the hope for freedom for the men. The kidnappers had demanded the release of al-Khazali and other militants in return for the five Britons.

The Britons were captured in a highly organised raid on May 29, 2007, while working in the Iraqi Finance Ministry by men dressed as Iraqi policemen.

IT contractor held for 2 years in Iraq could be free in 2 days

2009-06-11T16:49:00.000Z

http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2009/06/11/236391/it-contractor-held-for-2-years-in-iraq-could-be-free-in-2.htm

Hopes have been raised that British IT contractor Peter Moore may soon be free after a two year kidnap ordeal in Iraq.

The US military have freed a senior Shia militia leader, Laith al-Khazali, one of the demands of Moore's kidnappers in return for the release of Moore and his four bodyguards who have been held captive since May 29, 2007.

The US is also expected to hand over his brother Qais al-Khazali, the leader of the kidnapping group Asaib al-Haq, to the Iraqi government in the next five days, despite his suspected links to a bomb attack on a US military base in 2007 which killed five American soldiers.

The Asaib al-Haq group is said to have agreed to renounce violence and join the Iraqi political process, which prompted the US and UK governments to agree to a "hostage exchange" process which they would not normally do. The Iraqi government has told Asaib al-Haq that it cannot join the political process while it holds hostages, and said to the US government that the group could not be expected to renounce violence while its leaders were still in prison.

Mr Moore was working for US consultancy firm BearingPoint at the time of his capture. His father Graeme told the Independent he was please but not taking anything for granted. He said, "This is obviously very exciting news. We have always been told that Peter may be the first one to be released. I heard this afternoon that this may take place within two days. The problem is that we have heard on several occasions in the past that a deal had been done and my son and the others were going to be freed but then this never happened."

09 June - Channel 4 news item

2009-06-10T08:06:00.001Z

09 June - Amber on Channel 4

2009-06-10T08:00:00.001Z

June 09, 2009 - Hope for British hostages in Iraq after release of Shia militant

2009-06-09T10:33:00.000Z

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article6461359.ece

The US military has released a prominent Shia insurgent in Iraq as part of a complex negotiation that could lead to the freeing of five British men kidnapped in Baghdad more than two years ago.

One of the Britons could be released as early as today, according to an unnamed Iraqi source quoted in The New York Times.

Laith al-Khazali, who was freed on Sunday, is a member of Asaib al-Haq (League of the Righteous), an Iranian-backed group that is holding Peter Moore, a computer consultant, and his four security guards hostage.

The group is also accused of killing five US soldiers in a separate attack.

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Britain 'must do more' for Iraq hostages
Footage brings hope
Lieutenant-Colonel Brian Maka, a US military spokesman, told the newspaper: “As part of a reconciliation effort between the Government of Iraq and Asaib al-Haq, the decision has been made to release Laith Khazali.

“Asaib al-Haq has pledged to representatives of the Iraqi Prime Minister to give up violence and move the group towards peaceful integration into Iraqi society.

“An unconditional ceasefire will be undertaken by the group.”

The United States refused to confirm any link to the release of the hostages, but The New York Times quoted two Shia leaders as saying that it was the first stage of a deal that could lead to the freeing of the five Britons.

Qais al-Khazali, Laith’s brother, remains in US detention. His release has been the main demand of the hostage-takers along with that of Ali Mousawi al-Daqdouq, a veteran of Lebanon’s Hezbollah. The group wants a total of ten detainees to be freed.

A senior figure close to Hojatoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr, the influential Shia cleric, told The New York Times that a British hostage would be freed within two days of Mr Khazali’s release. There might also be an agreement to swap one detained member of Asaib al-Haq for each kidnapped Briton.

A comment on the news was not immediately available from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Mr Khazali apparently went into hiding in Sadr City, a Shia slum in the heart of Baghdad, after his release.

The development came just over a week after David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, made a fresh appeal for the freeing of Mr Moore, 35, and the guards — identified as two Jasons, Alan and Alec.

The families also made emotional statements about their loved-ones.

The seven-year-old daughter of one of the two men called Jason wrote her father a letter, scribbling red and blue hearts around the border of the page.

The letter read: “To Daddy — I miss you very much, we all want you to come home. I love you very much. When you come back I will give you the biggest huge hug. We will never give up until you come home. I love you and miss you so much. Lots of kisses, Maddi.”

Up to 40 gunmen seized the five Britons from a Finance Ministry building in Baghdad on May 29, 2007. They are the longest-held British hostages since the Beirut kidnap crisis in the 1980s.

U.S. Frees Suspect in Killing of 5 G.I.’s

2009-06-09T10:24:00.000Z

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/09/world/middleeast/09release.html?_r=1&ref=global-home

BAGHDAD — The American military has released a senior Shiite insurgent said to be backed by Iran who was accused of playing a leading role in a group that killed five American soldiers in Karbala in a sophisticated attack in 2007, according to senior American and Shiite officials.

The release of the insurgent, Laith al-Khazali, a member of the militant Shiite group Asa’ib al-Haq, is part of a complex negotiation aimed at fostering political reconciliation in Iraq. It also appears to involve the release of British hostages who are being held by the organization.

“As part of a reconciliation effort between the government of Iraq and Asa’ib al-Haq, the decision has been made to release Layth Khazali,” said Lt. Col. Brian Maka, a spokesman for the American military commander here, in an e-mailed response to questions from The New York Times.

“Asa’ib al-Haq has pledged to representatives of the Iraqi prime minister to give up violence and move the group towards peaceful integration into Iraqi society,” Colonel Maka said. “An unconditional cease-fire will be undertaken by the group.” While the military statement made no reference to the hostages, two Shiite leaders said the release was the first stage of a deal that could lead to the release of British hostages who have been held since May 2007. The United States refused to confirm any link to the release of the hostages.

Mr. Khazali and his brother, Qais, had been involved in Asa’ib al-Haq, which means “bands of the righteous,” for several years. Qais al-Khazali, the group’s leader, remains in American custody.

American military officials say the group has been supported by Iran. The organization is also believed to hold five British hostages: a computer consultant and his four bodyguards. They were kidnapped from the Iraqi Finance Ministry. Talk of the release began to circulate Monday in Sadr City, home to many so-called “special groups,” Shiite insurgent factions believed to be backed by Iran, and members of the leadership of the Sadr movement. While Asa’ib al-Haq and the Sadr movement consider themselves separate, at times it has been hard to tell where one leaves off and the other begins.

An insurgent leader, Haj Abu Ridha, who led some of the fighting in the sprawling Shiite enclave of Sadr City last spring, said that Mr. Khazali had been released Sunday and that his group picked him up at the Green Zone and took him to Sadr City.

Mr. Khazali went quickly into hiding, Mr. Ridha said, adding that he had been afraid to go visit Mr. Khazali because he believed that the movements of Mr. Khazali and of anyone who went to see him would be tracked.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki said the government did not know about the release. The chief negotiator for the Iraqi government, Sami al-Askari, reached by text message, did not respond to specific questions about the deal.

The concept of an exchange of American-held detainees for British hostages has been under discussion for months. For the Iraqi government, it would remove a threat to their security forces since the special groups have gone after Iraqis as well as Americans and Britons. An exchange would also relieve pressure from the British government, which has been pushing hard on all parties to reach an agreement that would result in the release of their nationals.

A week ago, Mr. Askari said in an interview that Asa’ib al-Haq was willing to “join the political process and to abandon their armed activities,” but that the group could not do so unless its leader, Qais al-Khazali, was released.

Mr. Askari said the release of the British hostages had been part of the negotiations.

“This is a very sensitive topic because you know the position that the Iraqi government, the U.S. and British governments, and all the governments do not accept the idea of exchanging hostages for prisoners,” he said. “So we put it in another format, and we told them that if they want to participate in the political process they cannot do so while they are holding hostages. And we mentioned to the American side that they cannot join in the political process and release their hostages while their leaders are behind bars or imprisoned.”

A senior member of Mr. Sadr’s movement, who would only speak on the condition of anonymity, sketched out how the exchange was expected to take place: a British hostage would be freed within two days of Mr. Khazali’s release, he said, adding that that there might also be an agreement to swap one detained member of Asa’ib al-Haq member for each kidnapped Briton.

Previous efforts to get all parties to agree to a deal failed, and American officials said Asa’ib al-Haq had broken an earlier cease-fire.

The Khazali brothers were captured by the Americans in Basra on March 20, 2007. Qais al-Khazali was accused of being one of the two masterminds of the Karbala killings of the five American soldiers two months earlier.

Along with the brothers, the Americans seized a 22-page document they had on the Karbala attack, said Gen. Kevin J. Bergner, an American military spokesman, in a briefing on July 3, 2007. That document, he said, showed that the Quds Force had gathered detailed information on the activities of American soldiers in Karbala , including shift changes and the defenses at the site where they were seized.

According to General Bergner, in the course of interrogation, Qais al-Khazali said that “senior leadership within the Quds Force knew of and supported planning for the eventual Karbala attack that killed five coalition soldiers.”

On May 29, 2007, about two months after the Americans’ capture of the Khazali brothers, the five British citizens were kidnapped. The attack at the Finance Ministry, like the Karbala attack, was meticulously planned, using men wearing Iraqi police uniforms.

Appeals are preferable to silence

2009-05-29T06:12:00.000Z

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-appeals-are-preferable-to-silence-1692509.html

The Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, pre-empted today's second anniversary of the kidnapping of five Britons in Baghdad by issuing a statement calling for their release. He also defended the Government's low-key approach hitherto, insisting that a dedicated team was working tirelessly with the Iraqi government and others in Baghdad to ensure the men's safe return.
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Mr Miliband's plea in his statement to "anyone else who might be able to help", however, suggested that the search was perhaps not much further forward than it was when the men, who worked for a private company, were first abducted. The decision of Peter Moore's family to speak to The Independent earlier this week showed the mounting frustration of the families with the lack of progress – but also, perhaps, an official change of tack.

It is true that any government faces delicate calculations when its nationals are taken captive in a foreign country by people seeking political or material gain. And, sadly, Britain has at least as much experience in such matters as other countries. The question is whether loud protests are more likely to bring the safe release of the hostages than a softly-softly approach.

The Foreign Office has long favoured the latter course, often warning friends and family of hostages that independent campaigning could reduce the chances of the desired result. An ill-informed intervention by someone unversed in all the complexities, the argument runs, could jeopardise the captive's safety, either by scaring the hostage-takers or cutting across a clandestine diplomatic initiative.

In the days immediately after an abduction, such considerations may well be justified. But it is hard to think of any case – from Beirut, through the kidnapping of the BBC's Gaza correspondent, to the hostages now held in Iraq – where the softly-softly prescription, by itself, or perhaps at all, brought the hostages' release. Once the Government has, rightly, made clear that it will not give in to blackmail, personal appeals could well be the most effective course. In this case, the completion of the British military withdrawal from Iraq only makes the argument for the hostages' release more compelling.

Split among captors hits hope of freedom for British hostages in Iraq

2009-05-28T19:38:00.000Z

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/may/28/british-hostages-in-iraq-negotiations

Split among captors hits hope of freedom for British hostages in Iraq

Negotiations weighed down by complex demands and divisions within Shia kidnap group over how to use captives

Negotiations for the release of five British hostages seized in Iraq two years ago tomorrow have been weighed down by complex demands from their kidnappers, a Shia group riven by factionalism.

The group has yet to make its final demands clear, but they are thought to include calls for the release of several high-profile prisoners and political legitimacy in the run-up to next year's election. Members are said to be deeply divided over how best to use their captives, and to be prepared to bide their time.

British and Iraqi officials say that central to their demands is the release of Khais al-Ghazali, a former spokesman for the Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr who is being held by the US military in Iraq. Ghazali is accused of orchestrating a lethal ambush of five US soldiers in the Shia holy city of Karbala in January 2007. The US military is reluctant to hand him over to the Iraqi justice system because of his suspected role in the killings.

The US is gradually winding down its detention centre programme in Iraq but wants to hold on to what it regards as a hardcore group of extremists.

Some British officials believe the Britons are being held to use in exchange for Ghazali, his brother Laith al-Ghazali and Ali Mahmoud al-Dakduk, a member of the Lebanese group Hezbollah. The three men were captured together in southern Iraq in June 2007.

The Iraqi government has confirmed that Khais al-Ghazali, who has a strong following among hardline Shia Islamists, is central to a national reconciliation plan. Other officials, with intimate knowledge of the hostage negotiations, say he is a pivotal player in determining the fate of the five Britons.

Mohammed al-Saadi, the chairman of Iraq's National Reconciliation Committee, said the American concerns would not affect Iraq's plans for Ghazali. He said the Shia cleric would play an important role in Iraqi society in future.

"Yes, he can be included in the political process when we receive him from the American side," said Saadi. "He is a very important figure in the political situation. He has a large influence, especially on Shia groups. If he renounces violence and joins us this will be a big success for us."

Saadi said a Shia group called the Righteous League had been in contact with the committee and indicated it wanted a political stake in post-war Iraq. The group released a statement in March claiming that a staged deal for the release of the five hostages was under way. Peter Moore, an IT consultant from Lincoln, was due to be released last in exchange for Khais al-Ghazali. Four security guards who were seized with Moore were supposed to be gradually freed beforehand. No timescale was given.

The British ambassador to Iraq, Christopher Prentice, who has led diplomatic talks with the Iraqi government over the hostages, said today: "It is now two years since five British men were abducted from the ministry of finance in Baghdad. Our thoughts are with them and with their families, as they continue to endure the pain and loss of being separated from their loved ones.

"Iraq is a very different place today compared to two years ago. The security situation has improved and there are real signs of progress, reconciliation and mutual respect as the Iraqi people continue to demonstrate their commitment to a democratic, peaceful and prosperous future.

"The British government remains committed to working with the government of Iraq and anyone else who may be able to bring about the safe release of the men. We appeal to those holding the men to release them so that they may return to their families."

Five hostages held in Baghdad for two years 'let down by Britain'

2009-05-28T06:28:00.001Z

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article6374962.ece

Britain should do more to secure the release of five men kidnapped in Baghdad two years ago, Iraq’s national security adviser said yesterday.

His comments came as the father of one of the hostages — the longest-held British captives since the Beirut kidnapping crisis of the 1980s — hit out at the Government for failing his son. Other family members also spoke out to emphasise that the men are always in their thoughts, while David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, made a fresh appeal for their release.

Tomorrow marks the second anniversary of the moment that scores of armed men in police uniform seized computer consultant Peter Moore and his four security guards from a Finance Ministry compound in the capital. A second consultant escaped by hiding among Iraqi officials.

The men were transported to Sadr City, a notorious Shia slum in eastern Baghdad, where they were paraded by their captors. The kidnapping started a hostage crisis that remains a priority for the British Embassy in Baghdad. Negotiations for their release are continuing. Hopes were raised two months ago with the emergence of a video indicating that Mr Moore, 35, and the guards — identified as two Jasons, Alan and Alec — are alive and well. The hostage-takers, thought to be a highly trained group with links to Iran, want to trade the Britons for ten prisoners held in US detention in Iraq, including a former militia spokesman and a veteran of Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Iraq’s National Security Adviser, said that the Iraqi Government was trying its hardest to secure the release of the hostages.

In an e-mail to The Times, he added: “The families of the hostages should work on the Western governments to be much more proactive in their approach towards this problem.”

Mr al-Rubaie declined to comment on whether he was referring to Britain and the United States. They are the two Western powers most closely involved in the kidnap case.

Mr Miliband said that Britain was “totally committed” to working for the safe return of the captives. “There is a dedicated team from across government, including people on the ground in Baghdad, working tirelessly with the Iraqi authorities and coalition partners to help bring this about,” he said.

Graeme Moore, 59, Peter’s father, remained hopeful of his son’s release. “It is a question of when, not if,” said Mr Moore, who lives outside Leicester. He has not had contact with Peter since his son was 21. “I’d like to let him know we are all rooting for him, he’s not forgotten. We are all looking forward to getting him back. You live in hope.”

Mr Moore was unimpressed with Britain’s efforts to free his son. “The Foreign Office and the Government don’t give a damn,” he said. But a source who worked at the embassy in Baghdad at the time of the kidnap said everything possible was done to help. An incident room inside the embassy remains in use, with photographs of the men still on the wall.

“There was an awful lot of talking to an awful lot of people,” the source said. “You were not sat waiting for a call. It was very proactive.” British special forces were out every night hunting possible sites in the immediate aftermath of the kidnapping, but to no avail. “At the end of the day you have to wait and hope.”

One man who knows better than most the terror of kidnap is Terry Waite, the human rights campaigner held hostage in Beirut for almost five years. “It will not be easy, but you do find that many hostages after a period of time develop the capacity for survival,” Mr Waite told The Times, when asked what he thought of the plight of the five men. “They will have had to develop strategies for survival. Their hopes will go up and down.”

The BBC is due to broadcast interviews with other family members of the hostages today. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office maintains that publicity could jeopardise efforts to help the hostages.

Peter Moore worked for BearingPoint, a US management consultancy with a contract to provide financial and technical advice to Iraq. The guards were contracted to GardaWorld, a Canadian security company.

The kidnappers, calling themselves the Leagues of the Righteous, have a main goal: the release of Qais al-Khazaali, a former chief spokesman for the al-Mahdi Army, and his brother, Laith, as well as Ali Mousawi al-Daqdouq, a Hezbollah veteran. Under a deal between Baghdad and Washington, all three are due to be handed over to Iraqi authorities within a year.

Britain appeals for release of kidnapped men in Iraq

2009-05-28T06:26:00.000Z

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gWtc_dIn2ugYyoJxkNiRmHshWS0w

LONDON (AFP) — Foreign Secretary David Miliband called for the immediate and unconditional release of five British men held hostage in Iraq, ahead of the second anniversary of their capture.

He said British and Iraqi officials were working "tirelessly" for the safe release of the men, an IT consultant and his four bodyguards who were abducted from the Iraqi finance ministry in Baghdad on May 29, 2007.

"We call on those holding all hostages to release them immediately and unconditionally and return them safely to their families where they belong," Miliband said in a statement released by the Foreign Office.

"I don't think that any of us can imagine their ordeal nor the anguish that their families and friends have had to suffer during this dreadful time," he added.

Miliband said British authorities were "totally committed" to working for their release and thanked the Iraqi government for their support.

"There is a dedicated team from across government, including people on the ground in Baghdad, working tirelessly with the Iraqi authorities and (Britain's) coalition partners to help bring this about," he said.

Miliband added that Iraq had changed over the past two years, noting signs of reconciliation and saying "hostage-taking has no part in that future."

The Foreign Office said in March that the group who seized the men had sent a video featuring one of the captives to the British embassy in Baghdad.

It did not elaborate but British news programme Channel 4 News said the video showed IT consultant Peter Moore saying the group was being treated well.

In a video released in July, the group claimed that one of the five men had committed suicide, but this has not been confirmed.

Hostage families' agony goes on

2009-05-28T06:22:00.000Z

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8071167.stm

The "Baghdad Five" case is the UK's longest-running hostage crisis since Terry Waite and John McCarthy were held in Lebanon a generation ago. BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner has spoken to the families of those being held captive.

When Pauline Sweeney saw new video footage featuring her stepson Peter Moore, it gave her fresh hope.

She said Mr Moore - a computer expert captured with his four security guards whilst working in Iraq's Finance Ministry in May 2007 - seemed in a much better state.

"He looked a lot, lot healthier, a lot better than the first video which was very distressing," she said.

Marie, mother of hostage Jason
Jason's not one to take his own life, no way
Marie, mother of Jason

"All the way through the video he spoke in the plural," said Mrs Sweeney, of the most recent footage released by his captors in March as a "goodwill" gesture to the UK government.

"All the videos have been in the singular in the past, which made us think that probably they are all together now.

"[That] is wonderful as far as I'm concerned because they'll all be there bullying each other along."

This is a key detail, because last year it was announced that one of the hostages, known only as Jason, had committed suicide.

His mother Marie refuses to believe this.

"Jason is a very strong guy," she said.

"So when we got the news that he had taken his own life we just didn't believe it.

"Jason's not that sort of guy, he's very strong, very wilful, very outspoken and he's not one to take his own life, no way."

The families have been told that the atmosphere in Iraq is much more conducive now to a peaceful resolution.

Constant ordeal

But for them, every day remains an ordeal.

Jan, a friend of another captive, also called Jason, said his seven-year-old daughter Maddi had written her missing father a letter.

"She sent me this last night, she asked if I could get a message to her dad."

Maddi's letter
To Daddy - I miss you very much

Read Maddi's letter in full

It reads: "To Daddy, I miss you very much, we all want you to come home. I love you very much...

"When you come back I will give you the biggest huge hug.

"We will never give up until you come home. I love you and miss you so much. Lots of kisses, Maddi."

But insights like this into the lives of the hostage families are rare.

For most of the time there has been a media blackout on this story.

Roseleen, the wife of a hostage called Alan, said both the families and the Foreign Office had decided it should apply.

"Initially it was the Foreign Office advice but we followed that and I think as families I think we are all happy with the limited coverage that there is at the moment," she said.

"We believe it is in the best interests of our loved ones".

The media blackout, added Mrs Sweeney, originally came from the insurgents who said they did not want publicity.

But in December 2007 they broke their silence with a video showing a hostage flanked by gunmen and threatening to kill him.

Since then there have been on-off negotiations conducted through intermediaries.

Confusing world

The Foreign Office says Britain has a longstanding and proven policy of never making substantial concessions to kidnappers.

However, in the confusing world of Iraqi tribal politics and power broking there are many who would like to see this crisis brought to a peaceful end.

The prospects for the men's release, many believe, are better now than they were a year ago and have just been put back by the recent upsurge in general violence.

But the Iraq of today, says UK Foreign Secretary David Milliband, is a different place to that of two years ago.

"There are signs of progress and reconciliation as the Iraqi people show their commitment to a democratic and peaceful future," he said.

"Hostage-taking has no part in that future.

"We call on those holding all hostages to release them immediately and unconditionally and return them safely to their families where they belong."

For the families of the five Britons now preparing to begin their third year in captivity, the hope is that the men will somehow get to hear that their plight is not forgotten, that their families are waiting for the day they come home and that life for their loved ones can resume.

Lament of a hostage's father: My son has been abandoned

2009-05-26T15:36:00.000Z

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/lament-of-a-hostages-father-my-son-has-been-abandoned-1690631.html

It is almost two years since five Britons were kidnapped at gunpoint in Iraq. Graeme Moore's son was among them. He tells Kim Sengupta why the captives have been let down by their own Government

The father of one of five Britons kidnapped in Iraq has accused Gordon Brown and his Government of "abandoning" the men after it emerged that the SAS unit which was supposed to mount a rescue operation has been transferred to Afghanistan.
Related articles

This week marks the second anniversary of the disappearance of Peter Moore, a computer consultant from Lincoln, and four bodyguards: two men from Scotland, Alan and Jason, and two from Wales, Alec and another Jason. All five were kidnapped on May 29, 2007 by 40 men wearing police uniforms at the Iraqi finance ministry. The bodyguards' full names have been withheld at the Government's request.

Relatives of the hostages were asked by the Foreign Office and the Canadian security company which employs the guards not to speak about the issue because it might jeopardise their chances of release. But Mr Moore's father Graeme, 59, a delivery driver from Leicestershire, said he felt the plight of the five had been forgotten. Relatives were not told about the SAS leaving Iraq, he added.

"I have received no help from the Foreign Office. They have not told me what is going on and what little news I get is from other sources," he said. "It has been a very long time now since they were kidnapped. I feel they have been abandoned.

"The worst thing is not knowing what is going on, not being told why Peter and the others are still not back. I hear from people that Peter is alright, but I feel angry that the Government is not giving me any information."

The hostages' families have endured a harrowing time since the abduction. Three videos showing the men, looking ill and distressed, have been released by their captors. On one Mr Moore is heard to say: "I just want to get out of here. Nothing is happening."

In July, a Shia militant group released a video claiming that one of the men named Jason had become depressed and committed suicide, but this has not been officially confirmed. There have also been intermittent reports that the men will be freed, only for their families' hopes to be dashed.

SAS soldiers have carried out several raids with Iraqi and US forces in an attempt to free the hostages, but General David Petraeus, the American commander of allied forces in Iraq at the time, said: "There have been several operations to try to rescue them, We just have not had the right intelligence".

Rescue missions may in future be carried out by Iraqi and US troops, although the latter are due to leave the country by 2011. British and American officials acknowledge that the absence of UK troops after their withdrawal from Iraq might mean the issue of the British hostages will slip down the list of priorities for the Iraqi regime.

An Arabic website claimed recently that talks about the British prisoners were taking place between the Asaib Ahl al-Haq, or "League of the Righteous", militia group and the government in Baghdad. It reported that the kidnappers believed a deal was imminent, but that it was conditional on the release of Laith al-Khazali, the brother of the group's founder Qais al-Khazali, and Ali Moussa Daqduq, a Lebanese Hizbollah commander who was captured in Iraq in 2007. However, a senior interior ministry official said yesterday that no agreement had been reached with the kidnappers, although the talks would continue.

Mr Moore took a lucrative job in Iraq to pay off his student loan after years of voluntary service overseas on an allowance of £140 a month. He was working for the US management consultancy BearingPoint when he was seized in Sadr City. The other men were working for GardaWorld, an international security company based in Montreal. A public relations firm working for GardaWorld said it was handling all matters relating to hostages' families, although it did not represent Mr Moore's father.

Friends of Mr Moore have set up the For Pete's Sake website with the intention of mirroring campaigns that led to the release of the former Middle East hostages Terry Waite and Alan Johnston, because they felt his case was being forgotten by the public.

Mr Moore Snr said: "I keep hoping I will be hearing soon that Peter will be released. We are all hoping the negotiations work out and all of them will be freed. I am very glad his friends have set up this website because I don't think we can rely on the Government to tell us what is going on."

A friend of the Moore family, businessman Malcolm Moore (who is not related to the computer expert), said: "In the past, when we have had kidnappings like Terry Waite and John McCarthy, and Alan Johnston, there have been campaigns to keep their names in the public eye. We have had nothing like that with Peter and the others because we are told that is what the Foreign Office wants. I do think it is important to keep reminding people that these people are missing and hoping and praying that they get back."

The 57-year-old added that a candle for Peter was burning at Lincoln Cathedral and would "remain lit until he returns". David Thomas, a friend who helped set up the website, added: "Peter is a wonderful man who spent a lot of his time doing voluntary work abroad. He may not be a public figure but he deserves to be remembered."

Last night, the Government insisted that everything possible was being done to secure the safe return of the men. However, it maintained its stance that there would be no direct talks with the kidnappers, no ransoms would be paid and no Iraqi prisoners would be swapped for the Britons. A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: "We continue to do everything we can to try and secure the safe release of the hostages and remain extremely concerned about their safety. We call on those holding them to release them immediately and unconditionally so that they can reunited their families and friends."

The SAS: Scourge of Iraq's kidnappers

*Little has been revealed about the role of the SAS in Baghdad – partly because of the desire of some senior officers in the UK military for inherent secrecy in regards to special forces and partly because the British government did not want publicity about working alongside the Americans in an unpopular war and often controversial operations.

The SAS were deployed in the Iraqi capital as part of a clandestine unit called "Task Force Black" which also included the US Delta Forces and at least on one operation, the rescue of British hostage Norman Kember, James Loney and Harmeet Sooden, both Canadian JTF2 commandos.

The main task of the UK special forces in central Iraq – which along with an SAS sabre squadron included the Special Reconnaissance Regiment, the Special Forces Support Group and 18 (UKSF) Signal Regiment – was counter-insurgency and the troops had been credited by the Americans with a number of triumphs.

But the British SF also took the lead in the hunt for British subjects who had been kidnapped. As well as the successful freeing of Mr Kember and his companions, they had taken part in the ultimately failed attempts to save Ken Bigley and Margaret Hassan.

The achievements of the SAS in Iraq led to the US requesting their presence in Afghanistan for the expected 'surge' against the Taliban. They will be fighting alongside members of the SBS who have had their successes in that war.

Kim Sengputa: To talk or not to talk: the dilemma of the relatives

2009-05-26T15:35:00.002Z

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/kim-sengputa-to-talk-or-not-to-talk-the-dilemma-of-the-relatives-1690630.html

Peter Moore and his bodyguards were taken hostage by an armed gang in daylight from a government building in a heavily fortified part of Baghdad – an example of the power and reach of gunmen in a society in a state of disintegration.
Related articles

There was immediate suspicion of official collusion. The kidnappers were wearing police uniforms and reached their targets after passing through a number of military checkpoints. This meant that they were almost certainly Shias, as it would have been extremely difficult for Sunni insurgents to negotiate such a route past Shia-dominated security forces with the two sides engaged in a savage sectarian civil war at the time.

Attention focused on the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army which, at the time, was involved in fighting with British forces in the south of the country, and that was the reason – it was believed – that UK citizens had been targeted.

The Shia dimension, however, was a source of hope that Mr Moore and his colleagues could be freed unharmed through negotiations. One of the few perceived "rules" in the anarchy of Iraq was that if a foreigner ended up in the hands of Sunni militants there was a real risk of execution. The Shias, on the other hand, were not known for murdering foreign hostages.

The thinking then was that it would only be a matter of time before Shia prisoners taken by the British would be released in return for the five men being freed. There was a request from the Foreign Office to the British media to withhold the hostages' identities and most abided by this.

Many of the families of the kidnapped have continued to maintain public silence on the issue. It is not clear, however, whether this is at the request of the Foreign Office or GardaWorld, the security company which employed Mr Moore's bodyguards. The abductors have released videos of the hostages and there have been claims that one has committed suicide.

The hostages remain in the hands of the militias and the SAS, which had led the hunt for them, has been withdrawn to fight another front in the "War on Terror". With the second anniversary of the kidnappings coming up questions are bound to be asked about the UK Government's so far unsuccessful attempts to secure freedom for five of its forgotten citizens.

28 March 2009 - Iraq kidnappers claim deal to free Britons

2009-03-28T09:56:00.002Z

http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=NjEzNDYyNTM1

BAGHDAD: A group that kidnapped five British men in Baghdad nearly two years ago claims a deal is in place to release the hostages in exchange for prisoners being held by US forces in Iraq. "There is an agreement between Britain and the US and our group," Abu Ali, a leader of the Shiite Iraqi movement claiming to hold the hostages, said in an interview with Arabic online newspaper Elaph published on Thursday.

One of the hostages will be released very soon after the British side carries out its promise to us to convince the American side to release 10 of our leaders," he said.

The British embassy in Baghdad yesterday said it was aware of the report but would not comment on "ongoing events". "We are doing everything we can to release the hostages and we encourage the hostage-takers to release them unconditionally so that they can be reunited with their families," an embassy spokesman told AFP.

The interview emerged after a video of one of the captives, IT consultant Peter Moore, was sent last week to the embassy by the kidnappers, a group calling itself the Leagues of the Righteous. "If things go well, another hostage will be released very soon as well, in exchange for a group of Sadrist detainees," Abu Ali said in a reference to supporters of the anti-US Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Among the men the group wants released from US custody in Iraq are Laith al-Khazaali, also known as Abu Sajjad,
Hassan Salem, Rahim Al-Shamoosi, Saad Sewar, and a Lebanese explosives expert named Ali Mussa Daqduq.

The negotiations, according to the report, are being handled by Khazaali's brother Sheikh Qais al-Khazaali, who is currently in US custody at Camp Cropper, an American-run prison near Baghdad airport. The British hostages-Moore and his four bodyguards-were seized by 40 gunmen wearing police uniforms in a kidnapping at the Iraqi finance ministry in Baghdad in May 2007. Moore, from the eastern English city of Lincoln, was working for US management consultancy BearingPoint.

Describing the terms of the supposed deal, the kidnappers said "the British expert", meaning Moore, would be last of the Britons to be released, in exchange for Daqduq, who was arrested near the southern city of Basra in 2007. The identity of the other four British men has not been revealed, although it is known they were employed by Canadian security firm GardaWorld to guard Moore.

In June 2007 General David Petraeus, the then top commander of US forces in Iraq, said in an interview with the Times newspaper in London that the hostages were kidnapped by a group funded, trained and armed by Iran.

Petraeus said there had been repeated attempts to free the Britons and identified the kidnappers as a secret cell of the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia loyal to Sadr, who in September 2007 ordered the suspension of its armed activities. The families of the kidnapped Britons have campaigned for their freedom and issued a televised appeal in December that same year urging the abductors to release them. Britain, the top US ally in the 2003 US-led war on Iraq, has about 4,000 troops based in the province of Ba
sra. They are due to complete their mission by May 31, with a pullout set to be completed by July 31. - AFP

27 March 2009 - Kidnappers claim deal struck to free British hostages seized in Iraq

2009-03-27T11:42:00.000Z

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/26/kidnap-hostage-free-iraq

Months of covert negotiations could see imminent release of five Britons after two years in captivity

The kidnappers of five Britons held in Iraq claim to have agreed to trade one of their hostages for 10 detained militants as part of a deal that could soon see all five men freed after two years in captivity.

In a statement released yesterday, a spokesman for the hostage-takers said an agreement had been reached with Britain and the US to free the Britons gradually in return for the group of Sadrist militants, which includes a former spokesman for the Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, and a Lebanese Hezbollah leader captured in Iraq in 2007.

The deal, outlined by a Shia-aligned group called Leagues of the Righteous, sheds light on almost two years of covert negotiations between the British government and the hostage-takers.

It also confirms suspicions that the hostages have been pawns in a power struggle that draws in Shia militant interests across Iraq, Lebanon and Iran.

Efforts to finalise the deal were a factor in Britain's move to re-engage publicly with Hezbollah's political wing in Lebanon this month.

A spokesman for the kidnappers, who identified himself as Abu Ali, said the handing over of a videotape last week, which showed one of the hostages, computer consultant Peter Moore, alive and well, was the first phase of the release agreement brokered with Britain.

The tape was handed to the British embassy in Baghdad by an Iraqi member of parliament.

The spokesman said one of the hostages would be freed soon, along with up to eight men, all Sadrist loyalists, who are currently being held by the US army in Iraq.

The first to be freed is expected to be Laith al-Khazali. The final stage of the deal would see the Hezbollah figure Ali Mousawi al-Daqdouq, and Qais al-Khazali, Laith's brother and Sadr's former spokesman, freed in return for Moore.

The trio were captured by British forces in southern Iraq on 20 March 2007.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We've seen similar reports. This is a sensitive case. We are not going to comment on one media report on alleged remarks by people claiming to be hostage-takers.

"We continue to do everything we can to try and secure the safe release of the hostages and remain extremely concerned for their safety. We call on those holding the hostages to release them immediately and unconditionally so that they can be reunited with their families and friends."

Britain has always insisted it would not make substantive concessions to hostage-takers.

The US has long objected to the release of Qais al-Khazali, whom it accuses of co-ordinating an ambush in January 2007 in Karbala during which five US troops were killed.

The US army claims the attack was facilitated by the elite al-Quds Brigades of the Iranian army's Revolutionary Guards, who western intelligence officials allege were training Shia militants from across the Arab world and using them as proxies in Iraq.

American officials have until now insisted he remain in custody to maintain a ceasefire between Sadr's Mahdi Army and coalition forces.

Daqdouq's future has been equally contentious. He is accused of being a 24-year veteran of Hezbollah's military wing, intrinsically linked to the Iranian Republican Guards. He is wanted by Israel, which claims he helped direct military operations against its forces throughout the 1990s and during the 2006 war in Lebanon.

The kidnappers yesterday for the first time acknowledged that Daqdouq was a senior member of the Lebanese organisation, branding him a "Hezbollah leader".

The five Britons were seized in Baghdad two months later, on 27 May 2007, from a building linked to the Iraqi finance ministry.

Moore was a computer consultant who was training Iraqis. Four security consultants from the Canada-based security company Garda World were seized with him. All five are believed to be in good health.

The British embassy and MI6 have had contact with Iraqi politicians trying to persuade the hostage-takers to release their captives. The Sadrist-aligned spokesman told the Elaph website that Qais al-Khazali conducted negotiations with the US from the American-run Camp Cropper detention centre in Baghdad.

A Sadrist MP who did not want to be named said two advisers in Iraqi prime minister Nour al-Maliki's office had been instrumental in brokering the deal. Sadr's spokesman could not be reached last night.

27 March 2009 - Kidnappers in Iraq claim swap deal

2009-03-27T11:39:00.001Z

http://news.uk.msn.com/world/article.aspx?cp-documentid=15424732

Kidnappers holding five Britons in Iraq are claiming they have agreed to trade one hostage for 10 detained militants, it has been reported.

The agreement was said to be the first step in a deal to free all five men, according to a spokesman for the Shia-aligned Leagues of the Righteous.

The group released a statement claiming it had reached an agreement with Britain and the US to free the Britons gradually in return for the group of Sadrist militants, reported The Guardian.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We've seen similar reports. This is a sensitive case. We are not going to comment on one media report on alleged remarks by people claiming to be hostage-takers.

"We continue to do everything we can to try and secure the safe release of the hostages and remain extremely concerned for their safety.

"We call on those holding the hostages to release them immediately and unconditionally so that they can be reunited with their families and friends."

The five Britons, who have not been officially named, were seized by about 40 gunmen wearing police uniforms at the Iraqi Finance Ministry in Baghdad on May 29, 2007.
At the time Iraqi officials blamed the Mahdi Army, the militia controlled by the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

It was thought to be a retaliatory attack for the killing by British forces of the militia's commander in Basra, southern Iraq, a week earlier.

But al-Sadr's followers have denied responsibility and suspicion has since fallen on splinter groups which the US believes are controlled by Iran.

27 March 2009 - Kidnappers in Iraq claim swap deal

2009-03-27T11:34:00.000Z

http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/world/kidnappers+in+iraq+claim+swap+deal/3050682

Kidnappers holding five Britons in Iraq are claiming they have agreed to trade one hostage for 10 detained militants, it has been reported.

The agreement was said to be the first step in a deal to free all five men, according to a spokesman for the Shia-aligned Leagues of the Righteous.

The group released a statement claiming it had reached an agreement with Britain and the US to free the Britons gradually in return for the group of Sadrist militants, reported The Guardian.

Cycle that entrapped Iraq hostages could be broken after two years of struggle

2009-03-27T07:18:00.000Z

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/27/iraq-kidnapping-hostages-hezbollah
Friendly faces in familiar uniforms waved in the American patrol as it entered Karbala. Every 100 metres, another man wearing US fatigues ushered the convoy towards the governor's compound. Safe inside, the five soldiers left their vehicles and entered the office, a low-set building in the heart of the shrine city.

They had been inside only minutes when the ambush was sprung. The Americans had next to no chance. The men they hailed as colleagues stormed the compound in overwhelming numbers. Soon all five lay dead.

That ambush, in January 2007, set the scene for the British hostages' ordeal over the past 22 months, putting in play a cycle of vengeance, then negotiations, and now - maybe - compromise that could lead to their release after talks that have been extraordinary in their complexity and secrecy.

Within hours of the Karbala killings, the US army claimed that the ambush had been uniquely sophisticated. Later it upped the ante, alleging that Iranian militants had backed the operation or taken part in it.

The strike took place in the Shia heartland, making the Sunni terror group, al-Qaida in Iraq, a highly unlikely suspect.

Karbala is home to many of Shia Islam's sacred sites. It was then a safe haven for the Mahdi army and the milieu of militants loyal to the firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who were spearheading one side of an erupting civil war.

The Americans soon had their suspect, an up-and-coming former spokesman for Sadr, named Qais al-Khazali. In the two years since, the Americans have pieced together an intelligence case against Khazali that suggests he was a key conduit between Iraq's Sadrists and Iran's elite military unit, the al-Quds Brigades of the Republican Guards. Central Iraq witnessed a convergence of Shia militant interests that was about to lead Britain and America into a costly trap.

US intelligence officials believe the men in replica American uniforms were Iranian-trained and organised and tasked to strike a lethal blow at the occupying forces at a time when they had lost control of Iraq.

Three months later, on 20 March 2007, a coalition unit caught up with Khazali and his brother Laith. British forces, rather than the pursuing Americans, tracked both down near Basra. They also picked up a third man. For one month after his capture, the man made out that he was deaf and dumb.

By May of that year they had established he was Ali Mousawi al-Daqdouq, a senior figure in the military wing of the Lebanese Hezbollah, a group that usually focused its efforts on Israel.

Daqdouq had allegedly been with Hezbollah since months after its inception in 1982. He was second in status only to Imad Mugniyeh, the military wing leader slain in Damascus last year in a hit widely blamed on Israel's Mossad. Having both Khazalis and Daqdouq in the hands of the enemy was a serious blow to the Sadrists and an affront to their backers.

Retaliation came in Baghdad on 27 May 2007. Computer consultant Peter Moore and his four guards were at work at the Computer Services Institute. Moore, who was working at the nearby finance ministry, was conducting a course for local Iraqis. It was, by all accounts, one of the most meticulously planned kidnappings carried out in postwar Iraq.

"That morning, 14 cars came in," said one witness. "Most were wearing Iraqi national police uniforms, but others were wearing black. They fired two shots and told us this is a private mission. Then they walked them all away handcuffed."

Then began the Britons' life of solitude. Soon after the kidnapping, contact was established with the group responsible. But the list of possible conspirators was so wide that it was difficult for British negotiators to decide on where to apply pressure points.

Videos demanding the release of Iraqi prisoners and the withdrawal of British forces surfaced several times but there was no trace of the captives, believed by some to be over the border in Iran.

The most recent sighting was last Sunday when a video featuring Moore was handed to a British official in Baghdad - perhaps the first move in a carefully orchestrated trade. Until then there had been no official news of the captives for more than a year.

Last July Gordon Brown said he was taking seriously an Iraqi claim that one of the hostages had killed himself. In February 2008, a video featuring Moore was aired by al-Arabiya television in which he called on the prime minister to free nine Iraqis in return for their freedom.

Claims of the impending deal were reported yesterday on the Saudi-owned Iraqi news website Elaph, which named the hostage-taking Asaib Ahl al-Haq, the League of the Righteous.

The US refused to play ball on Khazali, partly because of his alleged role in the Karbala ambush, but also because they saw his ongoing detention as being key to a nascent ceasefire between US forces and the Mahdi army.

With efforts to free the hostages snagged on the kidnappers' demands that Khazali and up to 20 other Sadrist militants be freed, Britain turned its attention to a possible second track.

Early this month, the British government announced it was re-engaging Hezbollah's political wing, which had been shunned by the west throughout much of the terms of George Bush and Tony Blair.

British officials insist the opening to Hezbollah is designed to facilitate contact with its MPs. "We are just testing the water and taking things step by step," a senior diplomat said yesterday.

If the hostages are indeed about to be freed it would be part of the last act of Britain's presence in Iraq. Just over six years after the war started, Britain has 4,100 troops left at the Basra air base.

The vast majority will be gone by the end of July.
The long wait: appeals and warnings

29 May 2007 Five Britons, including four guards, seized by about 40 men

21 June General David Petraeus, US commander in Iraq, says hostages held by cell of Mahdi army militia.

4 December Kidnappers issue video warning that one hostage will be killed "as a first warning" unless UK troops are withdrawn from Iraq in 10 days.

12 December Families make televised appeal for hostages to be freed, before Christmas message read by former archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey

3 January 2008 Gordon Brown discusses hostages with Iraqi prime minister Nouri Maliki in Downing Street

26 February Another video is released showing Peter Moore asking Brown to free nine Iraqis in exchange for the release of the five Britons

29 February In a statement read by Pauline Sweeney, Moore's stepmother, families of hostages say to kidnappers: "Please, show the world your true humanity, and let our loved ones go"

5 March Group replies: "We understand your feelings ... we ask you in return to feel for the Iraqi mothers"

16 May Carey records a video statement in English and Arabic in which he addresses the kidnappers as "honourable men" and calls for release

July A video passed to the Sunday Times claims one of the five men killed himself on 25 May

March 2009 New video of Peter Moore is sent to British embassy in Baghdad

26 March The kidnappers say a deal has been struck to release the hostages

Kidnappers claim deal struck to free British hostages seized in Iraq

2009-03-27T07:17:00.001Z

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/26/kidnap-hostage-free-iraq
The kidnappers of five Britons held in Iraq claim to have agreed to trade one of their hostages for 10 detained militants as part of a deal that could soon see all five men freed after two years in captivity.

In a statement released yesterday, a spokesman for the hostage-takers said an agreement had been reached with Britain and the US to free the Britons gradually in return for the group of Sadrist militants, which includes a former spokesman for the Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, and a Lebanese Hezbollah leader captured in Iraq in 2007.

The deal, outlined by a Shia-aligned group called Leagues of the Righteous, sheds light on almost two years of covert negotiations between the British government and the hostage-takers.

It also confirms suspicions that the hostages have been pawns in a power struggle that draws in Shia militant interests across Iraq, Lebanon and Iran.

Efforts to finalise the deal were a factor in Britain's move to re-engage publicly with Hezbollah's political wing in Lebanon this month.

A spokesman for the kidnappers, who identified himself as Abu Ali, said the handing over of a videotape last week, which showed one of the hostages, computer consultant Peter Moore, alive and well, was the first phase of the release agreement brokered with Britain.

The tape was handed to the British embassy in Baghdad by an Iraqi member of parliament.

The spokesman said one of the hostages would be freed soon, along with up to eight men, all Sadrist loyalists, who are currently being held by the US army in Iraq.

The first to be freed is expected to be Laith al-Khazali. The final stage of the deal would see the Hezbollah figure Ali Mousawi al-Daqdouq, and Qais al-Khazali, Laith's brother and Sadr's former spokesman, freed in return for Moore.

The trio were captured by British forces in southern Iraq on 20 March 2007.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We've seen similar reports. This is a sensitive case. We are not going to comment on one media report on alleged remarks by people claiming to be hostage-takers.

"We continue to do everything we can to try and secure the safe release of the hostages and remain extremely concerned for their safety. We call on those holding the hostages to release them immediately and unconditionally so that they can be reunited with their families and friends."

Britain has always insisted it would not make substantive concessions to hostage-takers.

The US has long objected to the release of Qais al-Khazali, whom it accuses of co-ordinating an ambush in January 2007 in Karbala during which five US troops were killed.

The US army claims the attack was facilitated by the elite al-Quds Brigades of the Iranian army's Revolutionary Guards, who western intelligence officials allege were training Shia militants from across the Arab world and using them as proxies in Iraq.

American officials have until now insisted he remain in custody to maintain a ceasefire between Sadr's Mahdi Army and coalition forces.

Daqdouq's future has been equally contentious. He is accused of being a 24-year veteran of Hezbollah's military wing, intrinsically linked to the Iranian Republican Guards. He is wanted by Israel, which claims he helped direct military operations against its forces throughout the 1990s and during the 2006 war in Lebanon.

The kidnappers yesterday for the first time acknowledged that Daqdouq was a senior member of the Lebanese organisation, branding him a "Hezbollah leader".

The five Britons were seized in Baghdad two months later, on 27 May 2007, from a building linked to the Iraqi finance ministry.

Moore was a computer consultant who was training Iraqis. Four security consultants from the Canada-based security company Garda World were seized with him. All five are believed to be in good health.

The British embassy and MI6 have had contact with Iraqi politicians trying to persuade the hostage-takers to release their captives. The Sadrist-aligned spokesman told the Elaph website that Qais al-Khazali conducted negotiations with the US from the American-run Camp Cropper detention centre in Baghdad.

A Sadrist MP who did not want to be named said two advisers in Iraqi prime minister Nour al-Maliki's office had been instrumental in brokering the deal. Sadr's spokesman could not be reached last night.

24 March 2009 - 'I won't forget my hostage son'

2009-03-25T08:10:00.001Z

http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/news/won-t-forget-hostage-son/article-838923-detail/article.html

The father of a British man who has been held hostage for nearly two years said a new video of his son has given him fresh hope that he could soon be freed.
Graham Moore's son, Peter, was seized in May 2007, along with his four British bodyguards, when up to 40 armed militants disguised as Iraqi policeman stormed the Baghdad building where he worked.

Footage of the computer consultant, who grew up in Leicester before he moved to Lincoln as a schoolboy, emerged over the weekend after it was released to the British Embassy in Iraq.

Speaking for the first time about his 35-year-old son's plight, Mr Moore, 59, from Wigston, said: "Peter is well. He looks much better than he did in the last video.
"I was overjoyed to see how well he is doing under the circumstances. It has brought me a lot of comfort. My thoughts have always been very optimistic, but to see him looking so well has given me fresh optimism.

I've always believed that he would be freed one day, and this has just reinforced that feeling. The only question now is when."

In the video Peter, who worked for the US management consultancy BearingPoint, calls on the British Government to respond to a request by his kidnappers, the Shi'ite Islamic Resistance in Iraq, to free nine Iraqi prisoners being held by the US. Mr Moore said, while it "looked like Peter was reading from something", he appeared to be doing so voluntarily.

The footage, which has not been publicly released, is the first time Peter has been seen by his father since a previous video in February 2008.

In the months between the two films, he said he received little information from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, but "dribs and drabs" had made it through.

He said: "The whole ordeal has been upsetting, especially the lack of information, but I have never given up hope for him.

"I like to think Peter knows what is going on and somewhere along the line he has got the message through that his dad has not forgotten about him. It is thoughts like that that keep me going."

Peter and his bodyguards, identified only by their first names as two Jasons, Alan and Alec, are among the last Western hostages still being held in Iraq. They have been referred to as the forgotten prisoners.

However, Mr Moore said he had never given up hope for Peter. He said: "I have not forgotten him. My brother has not forgotten him and his friends have not forgotten him."

A Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesman said: "We have received a video of one of the British hostages taken in 2007.
"We are not prepared to comment on any details, but this is a significant development.

"We are continuing to work actively for the safe release of all of the hostages."

23 march 2009 - Hopes rise for British hostages held in Iraq

2009-03-23T10:41:00.001Z

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5956532.ece

Hope grew last night for Britain’s five “forgotten” hostages in Iraq after the emergence of a video of one of the men indicating that they are alive and well. The kidnappers claimed in a previous video that one of the men had committed suicide.

Peter Moore, a computer consultant, and his four bodyguards, who have only been identified by their first names, were seized from a Finance Ministry building in Baghdad in May 2007 by up to 40 militants disguised as Iraqi policemen.

The midday raid made headlines around the world but the trail has run cold since. Videos demanding the release of prisoners and the withdrawal of British forces have surfaced but there has been no trace of the captives, believed by some to be in Iran.

A spokesman for the British Embassy in Baghdad confirmed receipt of the video but declined to discuss its content. “This is clearly a significant development. We are continuing to work actively for the release of the hostages,” he said. Asked why it was significant, he replied: “This is proof of life.”

A source monitoring the kidnap case, who has watched the footage, said that it showed Mr Moore, 32, talking to the camera. “It shows they are all all right, doing well and being looked after,” he said.

Mr Moore and his guards – identified as two Jasons, Alan and Alec – are among the last Western hostages still missing in Iraq, where scores of foreigners have been abducted since the 2003 invasion; some were killed, others released or rescued. The kidnappers claimed in a video last July that one of the hostages, identified only as Jason, had killed himself. The latest video, however, appears to indicate that all five men are alive. “That is what it seemed to imply,” the source told The Times. He said that it was filmed just over a week ago.

Mr Moore, the only person in the clip, looked better than he had in a video released a year ago in which he appeared tired and drawn. “I spoke to Peter’s father yesterday. He was quite pleased to see Peter alive and looking better than before,” the source said.

In the video, Mr Moore, who worked for the US management consultancy BearingPoint, again calls on the British Government to respond to a request by the kidnappers to free a number of Iraqi prisoners.

The plight of the hostages may come to a head soon. The British military plans to withdraw most of its 4,100 remaining forces from Iraq by the summer – one of the initial demands of the kidnappers – while negotiations regarding prisoners are believed to be continuing.

Pressure is also growing on Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials. After the kidnapping, they imposed a virtual news blackout on reporting details of the victims, believing that this would help to accelerate their release. Questions are being asked about the effectiveness of the policy as time passes without a result.

One of the captives, Alan, a father of two, appeared pale and anxious in the video released last July. “Physically, I’m not doing well. Psychologically, I’m doing a lot worse. I want to see my family again,” he is heard saying.

Mr Moore, from Lincoln, featured in a video released in February last year in which he urged Gordon Brown to release nine Iraqi prisoners. In the first video, aired in December 2007, another captive who identified himself as Jason said the kidnappers would kill one of the five unless Britain withdrew its troops from Iraq. He added: “I feel like we have been forgotten.”

24 January 2009 - Iraq government negotiates Britons release

2009-02-02T07:56:00.001Z

http://www.alsumaria.tv/en/Iraq-News/1-27120-Iraq-government-negotiates-Britons-release.html#

A close source to special groups told Al Hayat Newspaper that a team of governmental officials has been working for more than six months to reach an agreement with special groups' leaders. The agreement stipulates the release of five British abducts kidnapped from a Finances Ministry directorate on May 29, 2007 in exchange of freeing some of the groups' members held by US Forces after they were handed by the government. Yet, the two parties are expected to offer trustworthy guarantors.
The source noted that armed groups had chosen a former Shiite MP whom Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki trusts as guarantor.

For its part, the government chose a close person to Al Maliki to guarantee the implementation of the agreement. The source expects to end talks next month noting that an agreement could have been reached about a year ago when kidnappers called to release their mates; however, US Forces rejected their conditions.

Negotiations resumed anew after signing the US-Iraqi pact to cash on the provision of handing detainees to the government. It noted that negotiations have expanded to deal with the future of special groups as part of the armed resistance, as there is no need for its action, they should be turned into political entities and rehabilitate its members to engage in the civil society.

For its part, a source close to Al Maliki acknowledged talks in a statement to Al Hayat Newspaper and affirmed that dialogue is ongoing.

Iraqi Security Forces launched some crackdowns on Sadr City positions early last year in search of the British abducts whose families received in September a video showing their sons before a black banner reading "The Islamic Shiite Resistance in Iraq". The US accuses Iran of supporting these special groups in Iraq mainly "Assaeb Ahl Al Haq" and Mehdi Army dissident "Hezbollah Brigades in Iraq".

22 December - BBC news

2008-12-22T21:11:00.007Z

BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7796491.stm

Some of the families and friends of five British men being held hostage in Iraq have spoken about how they are missing their loved ones.

Roseleen, the wife of Alan, Caroline, the sister-in-law of Alan, and Jan, a friend of Jason, spoke to the BBC's security correspondent Frank Gardner.

22 december 2008 - Fresh appeal for Iraq hostages

2008-12-22T21:03:00.001Z

Channel4 article: http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/international_politics/fresh+appeal+for+iraq+hostages/2890827

Video of families: http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1184614595/bctid5556664001

Channel 4 News speaks to the relatives one of the hostages and the friend of another - both were seized in Baghdad nineteen months ago.

It has been more than a year and a half without their loved ones - the second time a mother has had to tell her children their father will not be coming home for Christmas.

Nineteen months after five British hostages were seized in Iraq, Channel 4 News has spoken to some of their friends and relatives including one of their wives, who has given her first broadcast interview on the subject.

The men, one IT consultant and his four bodyguards, were snatched in Baghdad in May 2007. Since then contact with them has been limited, it seems, to hostage videos released by their captors.

17 December 2008 - Brown Travels to Iraq, Sets Pullout Date of May 31

2008-12-18T07:00:00.006Z

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122951785398714029.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

BAGHDAD -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Wednesday his country, the second-largest military presence in Iraq after the U.S., will end its mission in Iraq by May 31.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said troops will leave by the end of May 2009, but stressed the U.K. will continue to support Iraq. Video courtesy of Fox News.

Britain had previously said the 4,000-strong mission would conclude in the early summer, and Mr. Brown's statement appeared to accelerate that timetable.

The announcement came on a violent day in Iraq, where police said a double bombing in eastern Baghdad targeting traffic police left at least 18 people dead and 52 others wounded.

"We have agreed today that the mission will end no later than 31st May," Mr. Brown said at a news conference with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

The news conference took place without disruption, in contrast to one on Sunday with President George W. Bush, when an Iraqi journalist hurled both his shoes at Mr. Bush. The journalist, Muntadhar al-Zeidi, appeared before a judge Wednesday in his jail cell.

"We thank (British troops) for the efforts they have made for getting rid of dictatorship and terrorism. They have made a lot of sacrifices," Mr. Maliki said.

Mr. Brown also said he and Mr. Maliki discussed the fate of five Britons who were kidnapped by a Shiite militia a year and a half ago. The men -- information technology consultant Peter Moore and four guards -- were seized from the Iraqi Finance Ministry compound in Baghdad in a brazen raid on May 29, 2007.

Little information on the five has come since, although a British newspaper reported this summer that the militia said one of the hostages had committed suicide.

"I call for all those who are holding them to let them return to their families immediately and without condition," Mr. Brown said.

Britain's withdrawal plans come amid a general improvement of security in Iraq. But severe problems remain, underlined by Wednesday's double bombing.

An Iraqi police official says the first blast Wednesday morning was from a car bomb. Moments later, a roadside bomb went off nearby targeting people rushing to the scene. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the news media.

The U.S. military says a roadside bomb exploded near an American patrol hours earlier in the same area but that there were no deaths or injuries.

12 December 2008 - Vigil For British Hostages In Iraq

2008-12-15T18:30:00.002Z

Sky News

Friends of a British man kidnapped in Iraq are defying a Government news blackout by holding a vigil today for him and his captive colleagues.

They believe the official freeze on reporting is hampering efforts to release Peter Moore and his four British bodyguards.

All five were kidnapped on May 29, 2007 by 40 men wearing police uniforms at the Iraqi finance ministry in Baghdad.

The bodyguards have been named only as Alan, a father-of-two from Scotland, Alec, and two men who are both called Jason.

Their full names have been withheld at the request of the Foreign Office.

Friends of Mr Moore, 32, are holding a protest outside St Bride's Church in central London.
Past experiences have shown that sustained campaigns for the release of hostages can produce results - Terry Waite and Alan Johnston for example.For Pete's Sake website

The group has released a statement on the For Pete's Sake website outlining their reasons for the vigil.

"It is hoped that if more can be known about Pete and the ideals he represents, then pressure can be brought to bear upon those in a position to negotiate for his and his fellow captives release," it says.

Mr Moore took a lucrative job in Iraq to pay off his student loan after years of Voluntary Service Overseas on an allowance of £140 a month.

The IT consultant from Lincoln was working for the US management consultancy BearingPoint when he was seized in Sadr City.

The other four men were working for GardaWorld, a Montreal-based international security firm.
In July, a militant Shia group released a video claiming one of the men, named as Jason, had become depressed and committed suicide. This has not been officially confirmed.

Organisers of today's vigil say Mr Moore, a motorbike enthusiast, is strong-willed and will not be defeated by his ordeal.

In February, his kidnappers released a video showing him asking Gordon Brown to free nine Iraqis in exchange for the release of the five Britons.

13 December 2008 - Fight goes on for kidnapped Briton

2008-12-13T22:00:00.005Z

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7780181.stm

Peter Moore's family is meeting the prime minister on Thursday
The family of a British man kidnapped in Iraq is preparing to spend its second Christmas without him as efforts continue to secure his release.

Video: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7780011.stm

On Friday, almost 19 months after Peter Moore and four other Britons were abducted, about 35 friends held a vigil at St Bride's Church in London's Fleet Street, saying his case needs a higher profile.

Mr Moore's stepmother Pauline Sweeney, and the families of the other captured men, are meeting Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Thursday.

She told BBC News: "There is an awful lot being done behind the scenes. We're privy to sensitive information we can't share.

"Although we're very touched by the vigil, we do reiterate please not to take things into your own hands no matter how well intentioned. It could jeopardise matters."

She said the families have also had contact and support from former hostage Terry Waite.

Mr Moore, 32, was working as a technology consultant at the Ministry of Finance building in Baghdad when he and four other men were abducted on 29 May, 2007.

A tape, purporting to come from the kidnappers, has since alleged one of them, a man known as Jason, killed himself on 25 May 2008.

The names of the men held with Mr Moore have been withheld at the request of the Foreign Office.

In May friends who worked and travelled with the IT worker set up an internet blog plus a group on the social networking site Facebook.

Their campaigning website, For Pete's Sake, explained why.

"It is hoped that if more can be known about Pete and the ideals he represents, then pressure can be brought to bear upon those in a position to negotiate for his and his fellow captives release," it stated.

"Past experiences have shown that sustained campaigns for the release of hostages can produce results - Terry Waite and Alan Johnston for example."

Boredom

Mrs Sweeney, from Lincoln, said: "At this time of year it's particularly difficult, you have to try and remain positive and carry on for the family.

"You have good and bad days, something will remind you of him. At this time of year we'd be asking when we'd see him and about presents.

"He'll cope better than most... he's a very amiable chap who's done lots of volunteer work. People gravitate towards him, but after 19 months who's to say how anyone will be coping?

"He is someone that copes well, but it's the boredom and stuff like that that pulls you down."

British peace activist and former Iraqi hostage Norman Kember said his case had an enormous amount of publicity.

"I had weekly vigils in Trafalgar Square and in most cities in this country...so we were very high profile from that point of view," he told BBC News.

"Whether or not the Foreign Office liked it, I don't know, it plays everything very close to its chest and likes to work quietly behind the scenes.

"We were certainly well in the public eye. I can't say if that was a good thing, but it was a great support to my wife to feel there was this support for her.

"Whether or not it speeded up our release one second, I don't know, I don't think it slowed it down shall we say."

He said the Foreign Office's news blackout policy was "reasonable" as long as the relatives were kept well informed.

He added: "The families have to keep hoping. The current situation in Iraq is so much in flux that you don't know what is going to happen. You have to keep holding on."

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We continue to do everything we can to try and secure the safe release of the hostages and our sympathy is with the families.

"We call on those holding British and other hostages to release them immediately and unconditionally so they can be reunited with their families and friends.

"It's our policy when lives are at risk not to discuss the details of cases such as these, especially the personal details of those being held."

Peter's friends

2008-12-02T21:39:00.002Z

http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/international_politics/peters+friends/2861797

By: Andy Davies

Friends of the hostage Peter Moore speak out as they launch a campaign to secure his release.

IT consultant Moore and four security guards, Alec, Alan, Jason and Jason, were taken hostage in Baghdad 18 months ago.

Their story rarely makes the news, with minimal coverage of the case largely at the request of the foreign office.

But the young computer consultant's friends, with the backing of his family, have now decided to speak out, to challenge this virtual news blackout, and pay public tribute to their friend.

Friends will be holding a vigil for Peter Moore at 5.30pm on Friday 12 December at St. Brides, Fleet Street

30 nov 2008 - Terry Waite called in to help free Britons held hostage in Iraq

2008-11-30T10:59:00.001Z

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1090572/Terry-Waite-called-help-free-Britons-held-hostage-Iraq.html

Terry Waite has been asked by the Foreign Office to try to help secure the release of a group of British hostages held by Iraqi insurgents for more than a year.

Mr Waite, who was kidnapped in Lebanon in 1987 and held captive for more than four years, is advising on delicate negotiations aimed at ending the men’s ordeal.

The 69-year-old was once a Church of England envoy and negotiated the release of several hostages in the Eighties. It was on one such mission to Beirut that he himself was captured.

Now Mr Waite and a specialist team from his charity Hostage UK are using their expertise to try to bring home IT consultant Peter Moore and his four security guards, all from Britain.

The men were snatched while they were working at the Iraqi Ministry of Finance in May 2007.
They were driven towards the Shia enclave of Sadr City and little has been heard of them since.
A source said: ‘Mr Waite was introduced to the men’s families by the Foreign Office. He has been asked by the families to act on their behalf and he is also giving them advice and support.’

Sources close to Mr Waite also confirmed he was offering ‘pastoral care’ to the men’s families.
The five captives are understood to be being held by an allegedly Iranian-backed group.

16 november 2008 - Friends fight for ‘forgotten’ hostage

2008-11-16T09:56:00.005Z

Campaigners are defying an official news blackout in a bid to win the freedom of a Briton held in Iraq

Hala Jaber

Visit the website that Peter Moore's friends have set up: http://www.4pete.org/

Friends of a motorcycle- loving computer consultant who was kidnapped with his bodyguards as he worked in Iraq’s finance ministry 18 months ago are launching a campaign to increase pressure for the men’s release.

They say Peter Moore, 32, who took a lucrative job in Baghdad to pay off his student loan after years of Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) on an allowance of £140 a month, is strong-willed and will not be defeated by his ordeal.

However, they fear he and the other hostages — two Jasons, Alan, a father of two from Scotland, and Alec — have been forgotten because of a virtual news blackout imposed by the government. Their full names have been withheld at the request of the Foreign Office’s advice to the families.

Moore’s friends have set up a website — http://www.4pete.org/ — which explains why they are defying the official line that publicity could jeopardise efforts to help the hostages.

“It is to be hoped that if more can be known about Pete and the ideals he represented, then pressure can be brought to bear upon those in a position to negotiate for his and his fellow captives’ release,” the site says.

It claims that the cases of Terry Waite, the Church of England envoy freed in Beirut in 1991 after four years in captivity, and Alan Johnston, the BBC journalist who was held in Gaza for four months last year, suggest that sustained campaigns can produce results.

This weekend two of Moore’s friends released extracts from his e-mails to show how frightening life had become in the two months between his arrival in Baghdad and his abduction. No sooner had he reached the beleaguered city than he came under fire in the green zone where he lived while working for BearingPoint, a US management and technology consultancy.

“On my second day I was walking down the road in the green zone when a mortar landed about 50 metres away. Scared the hell out of me. Had to hide in a bunker for half an hour,” he wrote to a Dutch friend, Koenraad Backers, a business consultant.

He added: “Can’t do any motorcycling here. Whenever I go out I have to go in a vehicle convoy with loads of guards.”

To Amber Foley, an occupational therapist from Portlaoise in Ireland, Moore wrote: “We had a mortar hit the side of the building I was working in today. I was sat at a desk inside, on the other side of the wall. I am OK . . . but one person was injured — they were leaning on the wall when it was hit. Sorry to go on but this was a bit too close for my liking.”

On May 16, 2007, he told Foley he was due to start IT training in the finance ministry — outside the green zone — the following week. “To be honest, I sometimes feel safer there as I am less of a target,” he said. He added that he hoped to visit Foley in June or July.

Instead, he was seized with his guards on May 29 when about 40 armed men in police uniforms stormed the ministry. Nothing was heard of Moore until February, when he appeared in a video appealing to Gordon Brown to free some Iraqi prisoners. The main aim of the hostage takers, the

Shi’ite Islamic Resistance in Iraq, is the release of Qais al-Khazaali, a former chief spokesman for the Mahdi Army, who is in American detention.

In July the captors claimed in another video passed to The Sunday Times that a bodyguard, named as Jason, had committed suicide. This has not been officially confirmed.

Moore’s friend Judith Dutton, an occupational therapist from Gloucester, said she had repeatedly contacted Gillian Merron, the MP for his home town of Lincoln. “Every time I mention him she has nothing to come back with,” Dutton said. “It’s a total shutdown.”

She added: “We don’t want to be fobbed off any more. It’s time to start something new.”

Gina Carew-Jones, a teacher trainer from Braintree, Essex, said that even in Guyana, where Moore did his VSO, there had been a vigil for him. “Yet here, nothing,” she said. “We feel no one is fighting for him.”

Several friends who knew Moore in Guyana gathered last week to discuss tactics at the Oxford home of David Thomas, 36, an engineer. The two flew out to Guyana together in 2004.

Moore was teaching computer studies, but his class had no computers. “Pete made computers out of cardboard boxes, complete with return and delete keys, to teach his students,” Thomas recalled with a smile.

Moore turned down better-paid work in Africa in part because he believed he could “help Iraq’s government to help its people”, his friends said.

“Pete is someone worth fighting for and I want to see those in a position to work for his and his fellow captives’ release redouble their efforts,” said Thomas.

The Foreign Office said: “We remain deeply concerned about the five hostages. We and their families have called for their unconditional humanitarian release. We are working closely with the Iraq government and US authorities and remain willing to work with any others who can help.”

Moore’s friends plan a vigil at St Bride’s church in Fleet Street, London, on December 12 and they continue to write. “We send e-mails to Peter, knowing that he is definitely not getting them. But at least when he comes out he would know that he was never forgotten,” Thomas said.

14 Sept 2008 - We will spill British blood, warns Sheikh Ahmad Fartusi

2008-10-06T12:47:00.002Z

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article4748991.ece

Take out of article:
...

He claimed British forces had reneged on the deal that allowed them to withdraw peacefully from central Basra to an airbase outside the city, reportedly in return for the release of 120 Mahdi Army prisoners.

The agreement had been broken, he said, when the British returned to Basra last March following Maliki’s 15,000-strong “charge of the knights” to seize control from the Mahdi Army and other militias.

“The British forces will regret breaching the deal, which was aimed at preventing the spilling of blood,” Fartusi said. “The deal is now over. Attacks on the British forces will resume, as will the bombardment of their bases. Even their convoys will not be spared.”
Fartusi also described how he had helped to recover the bodies of four American hostages and one Austrian killed in Basra. He said he was concerned that a group of British hostages kidnapped by Mahdi fighters in Baghdad could be at risk if negotiations for their release did not resume soon.

His comments were a reminder that, although the violence in Iraq has abated in recent months, the dangers remain. Here in the relaxed surroundings of a coast-road cafe far from the frictions of Iraq’s great cities was a militia commander in constant communication with his men through a laptop and two mobile phones.

...

British officials visited him twice in prison, he said, once to negotiate the withdrawal of their forces from the centre of Basra and a second time at the Americans’ request to seek his help in establishing the fate of four kidnapped US contractors.

He discovered through an intermediary that they and an Austrian hostage had been killed seven months earlier because their captors saw nothing to gain from keeping them alive. They demanded $100,000 for each body.

Fartusi asked for proof that the bodies were accessible and one finger was sent from each man. He talked the price down to $20,000 per body, which Fartusi said he had paid. The bodies were then handed over in exchange for the release of 20 prisoners held by the US.
According to Fartusi, the Americans have failed to return the favour to the UK by releasing prisoners demanded by the kidnappers of five British hostages seized from the Iraqi finance ministry last year. Their captors claimed in a video in July that one hostage had committed suicide.

Fartusi said the Americans had detained an Iraqi government official, Haj Shibil al-Zu-baidi, who had been trying to negotiate the release of the British hostages. No further talks had taken place since his arrest in March.

“The danger is that the fate of the British hostages ends up similar to the fate of the Americans,” Fartusi said.

“The longer the case drags on, the more indifferent the kidnappers become. The fear is that eventually they too come to see their hostages as a dangerous liability and end up killing them.”
As for his fight against the British, Fartusi says he is ready to start all over again, even though Mahdi Army attacks on their base have fallen to one a month and Sadr has ordered all but an elite force to disarm.

28 Sept 2008 - Captors offer body of British hostage for Iraqis’ release

2008-10-06T12:10:00.003Z

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article4838033.ece

THE kidnappers of five British men seized in Baghdad have offered to hand over the body of one of the hostages who is said to have committed suicide.

In return the abductors have demanded the release of 10 Iraqi women held by the Americans and an unspecified number of elderly Iraqi detain-ees. An intermediary who relayed the proposal to The Sunday Times said that if the conditions were met, the body of the hostage - named only as Jason - would be delivered to Iraqi officials.

A video passed to this newspaper two months ago entitled Intihar (Arabic for suicide) and depicting Jason claimed he had killed himself on May 25, four days before the first anniversary of the abduction. The Foreign Office has received no corroboration of the claim.

Last week a source with knowledge of the kidnappers’ intentions said they were offering Jason’s body as a gesture of goodwill to mark the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month.

“He will be handed over to the Iraqi government, who in turn can hand him to the British and to his family on condition that all women prisoners being held in American prisons, as well as the old and innocent aged men, are freed,” said the intermediary.

He said 10 Iraqi women were being held in US jails simply for “being related to alleged terrorists”. He added: “These women have committed no crime.”

The intermediary emphasised that such a deal would not affect the position of the remaining hostages. “The other four captives will continue to be held until [the kidnappers’] main demands are met,” the go-between explained.

“If the other side [the British and US governments] do not respond, then let it be known and seen by all that it is they who are hindering the end of this saga as well as prolonging the ordeal of the hostages.”

Armed militants disguised as police captured Peter Moore, an IT consultant, and his four bodyguards at the finance ministry in Baghdad in May 2007.

Two of the guards are called Jason and the others are named as Alan, a father of two from Scotland, and Alec. Their full names have been withheld at the request of their families.

In the video used to announce Jason’s death, the captors referred to themselves as the Shi’ite Islamic Resistance in Iraq. Their main demand is for the release of nine men who, they claim, were arrested by British forces in the southern port of Basra.

These prisoners are understood to include Qais al-Khazaali, a former chief spokesman for the Shi’ite Mahdi Army. Khazaali, who led a faction trained in Iran, is now detained by the Americans in connection with a raid on a base in which five US soldiers were killed.

Last week the intermediary said: “One hostage has already committed suicide and despite our appeals there has been no movement on the case. The British and Americans appear to be indifferent to the plight of the captives. Do they want the others to commit suicide as well?”

This weekend Jason’s sister, Lisette, refused to accept that her brother had died and appealed to his captors for his release.

“Please, please return Jason to our family,” she said. “We have suffered enough. We know you feel you have your reasons for holding our loved ones, but they are innocent human beings. We as a family know there is a piece missing and cannot function until his safe return.

“We would like Jason to know that we love and miss him so much; we think of you every day.
Despite what has been written in the media, we know you are stronger than that and this cannot and will not be true.”

Lisette continued: “This has been a horrific time for us and we are appealing for everybody, including the government, to step forward and face what is really going on here. This is my brother, a son and a dad. We just want all our loved ones home.”

The video announcing Jason’s death also featured foot-age of Alan. “Despite my good treatment over the last year, physically, I’m not doing well,” he told viewers. “Psychologically, I’m doing a lot worse. The thought of not seeing my family again . . . just isn’t doing well with me at all.” His wife Roseleen said this weekend: “I would like Alan to know how much we miss him, how much we love him and how eager we are to see him safely home. He is constantly in our thoughts and prayers.”

She also signalled a significant change in the families’ approach to securing the men’s release. She said: “Many people have worked hard behind the scenes to try to secure the release of Alan, Jason, Alec, Peter and Jason. As family members we have felt powerless to influence the situation.

“Now we believe we need to take personal action to do what we can: we publicly appeal to the Iraqi PM, the British PM and President Bush to intervene and request personal meetings with them at the earliest possible opportunity.

“For over a year our families have suffered and we’d call on them to imagine the efforts they would make if their own husbands, fathers, brothers, sons were held hostage.”

She said she agreed with the captors when they spoke of the anguish suffered by the families of their own prisoners. “We call on both the hostage takers and the US and British forces to release innocent people in their custody.”

Last night the Foreign Office rejected the kidnappers’ offer. “Hostage taking can never be justified,” said a spokesman.

“We call on all those holding hostages in Iraq to let them go now and without conditions. We remain extremely concerned for the safety of the British hostages. We continue to be ready to talk to anyone who can help secure their safe release.”

11 September 2008 - British hostages fate now in hands of most extreme kidnappers

2008-10-05T10:26:00.001Z

Fears for five Britons held hostage in Iraq for more than a year have grown after British officials concluded the men have come under the control of "hardliners" in the kidnapping gang.

Intermediaries in contact with the group holding the men have reported increasing difficulties in maintaining communications with the kidnappers.

Officials have since decided that a ceasefire by the Shia leader Moqtada al-Sadr has resulted in defections by the most pragmatic members from the gang.

"We've assumed that militia commanders involved in this can exercise leadership and are interested in using these men for their purposes," said one British official. "But the recent ceasefire and the general pressure on militias to seek a new role has resulted in the commanders walking away from the situation.

"The intermediaries are not bringing anything back from their contacts anymore and are blaming the real hardliners, who are now in control." The five men, a computer expert and his four-man security detail, were seized from the Ministry of Finance in Baghdad in May, 2007.

Little hard proof has emerged about their conditions of captivity but the kidnappers claimed one of the men had killed himself in a video released in July.

Officials say there has been no verification of any death, either from information provided by the kidnappers or the extensive special forces operations in the Shia Muslim heartland of Iraq.
Gordon Brown has appealed for the release of the men on humanitarian grounds but British officials refuse to enter direct or even arms length political discussions with the kidnappers.

The ascendancy of the most extreme kidnappers has led to concerns that any opportunity to negotiate the men's release has been lost. Key officials involved have lost confidence in the current recommendations on influencing the kidnappers.

The Iranian-funded Lebanese terrorist group, Hizbollah, which trains and directs Iraqi Shia fighters both within the country and at bases in Iran is also believed to be playing an increasingly important role in the situation.

"Less and less is coming from the channels as we see a phenomenon of splintering among the splinter group that is holding these men," said one official with on the ground duties in Baghdad.

"This is now a situation where the Hizbollah loyalists who have no where to go politically, are in charge."

The kidnapping of the five Britons has been described by Whitehall officials as "planned and executed from the Hizbollah playbook". As Shia militia violence has slumped in Iraq, commanders have sought to establish new identities as community leaders, business men and government contractors.

Sadr last month announced that he was dissolving his notorious Mahdi Army into two strategic groups. The vast majority of his followers were told to renounce violence, while a small guardforce of gunmen was authorised to remain on standby for the "resistance". But the shifting political landscape in Iraq does not appear to have benefited the British captives.

One Whitehall official said the involvement of Hizbollah raised the probability that the men, like hostages in Lebanon a generation ago, will either die in captivity or be held for many years.

Meanwhile, the outgoing commander of US troops in Iraq, General David Petraeus, has said he will never declare victory there.

The General, who has been credited with leading the successful troop surge, said that the US still faced a "long struggle".

In an interview with BBC's Newsnight he said: "This is not the sort of struggle where you take a hill, plant the flag and go home to a victory parade."

Five years after President Bush stood aboard a frigate in front of a banner declaring "Mission Accomplished", General Petraeus said: "It's not war with a simple slogan."

4 October 2008 - US officials 'not interested' in release of British hostages in Iraq

2008-10-05T10:20:00.001Z

http://www.journalisted.com/article?id=884641
American commanders in Iraq dismissed a plea from the family of one of the British hostages in Baghdad for a goodwill gesture of prisoner releases during the holy month of Ramadan.

04 August 2008 - Caught in the Crossfire

2008-08-07T14:15:00.001Z

http://hprsite.squarespace.com/caught-in-the-crossfire-072008/

Some thoughts on Iraq from the “Vicar of Baghdad”

The Reverend Canon Andrew White is the pastor of St. George’s Church, the only Anglican denomination in Iraq. He is also Founder and President of the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East, an organization devoted to promoting religious harmony throughout the region. During a recent stint as a visiting fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics, Canon White discussed his experiences in Iraq with the HPR.

Harvard Political Review: Are you optimistic about the situation in Iraq? Do you believe that sectarian violence is intensifying or subsiding?

Canon Andrew White: If you’d asked me three months ago, I would have been very optimistic. If you ask me now after we have all been rocketed every day at least fifteen times for the last two months, it’s very difficult to be positive at the moment. But we realize that there is no short answer to everything that’s happening. We are rebuilding a nation, and that’s highly complex and takes time.

HPR: Do you think that Iraq has to be rebuilt as a federation of three religions?

AW: I think that it’s important that we try and get across that the primary thing is first and foremost being Iraqi. At the moment it’s still the first thing is your tribe, the second thing is your religion, the third is your political work. So the whole issue of one’s personal politics is completely wound up with your personal religious beliefs. Religion and politics are intrinsically linked and we can’t separate them like in the West.

HPR: Does the fact that Americans are almost as religious as Iraqis but still maintain a constitutional separation of church and state make you optimistic about what can happen in Iraq?

AW: No. It doesn’t make me optimistic at all. I think it is incredibly hard to deal with religion and politics, and when religion goes wrong it goes very wrong. We have got to find a way to navigate closely between religious and politics in a positive way. It will take a long time.

HPR: Have the Sunni and Shia factions been genuine, in your opinion, in seeking peace, or are they wrapped up in the environment and in distrust and power-seeking?

AW: You just said a word that was absolutely awesome: power-seeking. You’ve got to see that terrorism as a whole is stewed loss. People have ultimately lost power, and what they ultimately want back is power—power for their own security, for their own well being, for the well-being of their people. Understanding that is really crucial. Some of these religious leaders are genuine, and others aren’t.

HPR: Have you found that coalition troops on the ground are expressive of their Christian faith? If so, what is the effect when they deal with Iraqis?

AW: Yes, they are—particularly the Americans. This is not as true for other members of the coalition. I look after the chapel of the coalition and the Americans are very committed. And with regard to people we’re working with, the more committed you are to your faith the more that they will deal with you. Iraqis want people to believe in their faith, even if, as it is in this case, that faith is different.

HPR: What are your dealings with General Petraeus? What are your impressions of him?

AW: I speak with him regularly. I like his style of leadership. He’s really, really good. He’s an outstanding soldier, and the really nice thing is that if I can’t get a word across to him during the week, I can always preach it on Sunday, because he’s also in my congregation. It’s very interesting—even when we’re dealing with the Iraqi religious leaders, they will often say to us, “We want to know what General Petraeus thinks about this.” And they trust him.

HPR: What parallels can you draw, if any, between sectarian conflict in Iraq and the religious wars in Europe in the sixteenth century?

AW: Well, we can see that so much of the inter-religious violence that we are seeing in Iraq today is very similar to the violence perpetrated by Christians of earlier times, not least the Crusades. You think that people are wrong and you go to get them.

HPR: Does the fact that the religious wars were so long and so brutal make you despair at all, because in some respects religious conflict in Iraq is only beginning?

AW: Absolutely. It makes you very worried, and very afraid, and very determined to find a way not to allow the violence to descend to a certain level. One of the things I always make very clear is that the violence we’ve seen today has been seen before. And the perpetrators then were Christians.

HPR: You’ve advised governments in negotiating hostages with religious groups. How are religiously-inspired crimes generally different from secular crimes?

AW: The whole approach is totally and utterly different, because so much violence and even death has been inflicted in the name of God. And therefore you have to work for solutions in the name of God. So the whole methodology and approach is completely and utterly different. And most people do not understand that. Most people do not realize that religion and politics are intimately linked. Madeline Albright wrote a book recently, well after she was secretary of state, called The Almighty and the Mighty, and she said in that book she only realized afterward how closely religion and politics were linked. And unless we are willing to engage between politics and various religions we will seriously misunderstand everything that’s going on around us.

HPR: Do you feel a special responsibility in your role, then, as someone who embodies this mix of religious and political interests?

AW: I do. I see the one thing that I can offer that other people can’t is an ability to enhance the issue of how religion and politics meet together. And the two are vitally important. You must have this connection between religious and politics. And we cannot pretend that we can continue to keep it separate.

HPR: You also have medical training. Do you think being a man of faith and a man of science is at times contradictory, and if so how do you resolve it?

AW: I couldn’t do my present job right now if I hadn’t had the medical training. Even though my medical career was relatively short, I learned so much about crises. And today I deal with crises. And when somebody gets blown up, it’s not much good preaching your sermon. They need to be looked after and given some urgent medical treatment, which, fortunately, I can do.

04 August 2008 - British hostages in Iraq have been separated

2008-08-04T13:21:00.001Z

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/2494862/British-hostages-in-Iraq-have-been-separated.html

A group of British hostages in Iraq is being held individually in separate compounds across Baghdad, according to officials in the city.

An intensive series of raids by coalition forces has uncovered four sites that have been used to hold some of the five men for over a year.

Security officials in Baghdad said evidence was found that some of the five men had been recently moved from at least one of the compounds raided by special forces in the operations. Samples of DNA were retrieved.

Up to 30 hiding places were targeted during the raids, many of which took place in the lead up to the first anniversary of their capture in May, officials said.

The SAS and other elite British units were involved alongside American and Iraqi counterparts in the majority of the rescue attempts.

The conditions under which the men were held in Shia districts around Sadr City and New Baghdad were described as spartan but relatively comfortable.

The men are believed to have access to satellite television and were allowed to exercise with gym equipment and weights.

The group had access to showers and plenty of bedding at all the locations.

When they were moved in convoys they were also wrapped in carpets, according to an informant.

The five men were seized from Iraq's finance ministry last year by a well-organised squad of up to 40 armed men.

The Britons include a computer specialist from Lincoln and his four-man security detail. A second team in the same complex was able to escape.

The current whereabouts of the captives is unknown, as is the fate of one of the men, known only as Jason, who the kidnappers claimed had committed suicide as the anniversary approached.

More Iraqi army checkpoints and patrols may have forced the kidnappers to move to more rural strongholds south of the capital.

In a video released last month a second captive, Alan, complained they felt abandoned by the British Government. In a short statement on the video, Alan said his psychological and physical health was not good.

The Government said it had no collaboration of the suicide claim. Officials have denied newspaper claims that the government has lost contact with the kidnappers.

The British Embassy in Baghdad is believed to be dealing with intermediaries who have a "direct line of communications" with the kidnappers. The intermediaries have been appointed by the Iraqi government.

The kidnappers have been told through this chain of dialogue that the Government will not ask the Americans to grant their principal demand for the release of Qais al-Khazali.

Khazali and his brother are being held for a series of crimes including the murder of five American soldiers.

The kidnappers are believed to be a criminal splinter group of the militia loyal to the radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

British officials have appealed for the hostages' release on humanitarian grounds.

01 August 2008 - Shia leader warns against security pact with US

2008-08-03T20:24:00.003Z

Iraq:
Baghdad, 1 August(AKI) - Radical Shia leader Moqtada al-Sadr has pledged his "political and popular support" for the Iraqi government provided it avoids endorsing a long-term security agreement with the United States.

"The Iraqi people must rally their ranks to stand up against this agreement through political and peaceful means," Sadr said in a statement released by his office and published by the news agency, Voices of Iraq, on Thursday.

The government was supposed to sign a long-term security agreement with the US by the end of July regarding troop numbers in Iraq as well as broader political, military and economic relations. But the plan faced strong opposition from certain politicians and others."

The principle of resistance is a legitimate one. However, arms should not be in the hands of anyone," Sadr said, stressing the need to have "arms exclusively in the hands of the resistance".

Gunmen belonging to the Mahdi Army, the military wing of the Sadrist bloc, were involved in fierce battles with US forces in April and August 2004. The past five months have also seen relentless clashes between government forces and the Mahdi militiamen.

Last month gunmen ambushed and killed Sheik Saffaa al-Lami, an al-Sadr functionary who headed the group's office in the east of Baghdad.

Hundreds of al-Sadr's supporters have been killed or wounded in clashes that erupted in the provinces of Basra and Missan as well as the eastern Baghdad district of Sadr City.

The fighting ended when representatives from the Sadrist bloc signed an agreement with the Shiite Unified Iraqi Coalition (UIC), to which incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki belongs.

1 August 2008 - Dogs of War: Are PMCs POWs?

2008-08-03T20:07:00.002Z

http://www.upi.com/Emerging_Threats/2008/08/01/Dogs_of_War_Are_PMCs_POWs/UPI-68951217630627/

WASHINGTON, Aug. 1 (UPI) -- The recent rescue of three U.S. private military contractors, held for more than five years by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, highlights one of the perils of the industry -- they don't get the same legal protections as regular military combatants.

Keith Stansell, Marc Gonsalves and Thomas Howes were not the first PMC personnel to find themselves captives of a hostile power.

In 1995 William Barloon and David Daliberti, both civilian employees working for McDonnell Douglas Corp. pursuant to a contract with Kuwait, strayed into Iraq by mistake. They were detained, convicted by an Iraqi court of entering the country illegally and sentenced to eight years in prison.

The principal relevant statutes of international humanitarian law are the 1949 Third Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war, known as Geneva III, and the First Additional Protocol to the 1949 conventions, which deals with protection of victims of international armed conflicts, known as Geneva Protocol I.

While there is no established legal consensus, employees of PMCs only qualify for protection if they can be brought under the relevant terms of these instruments. That, however, is easier said than done. For example, the applicability of Geneva III to many of the low-intensity combat situations in which PMCs operate may be questionable, if they are internal conflicts.

Under its Article 2, the protocol applies to all cases of declared war or of any other armed conflict that may arise between two or more of the High Contracting Parties, even if the state of war is not recognized by one of them. That was not the case in Colombia. Nor, for that matter, is it the case in Iraq.

Furthermore, some lawyers feel there are two relevant conditions that need to be satisfied. First is that the level of disturbance required by the phrase "armed conflict" goes beyond, for example, sporadic banditry or riot and requires a rebel force that has coherence and significant scale in terms of its own organization and operations.

Second, two State Parties must be involved, so that a purely internal rebellion, rather than an international conflict, does not qualify. Only when those conditions are satisfied can contractors employed by one of the State Parties be eligible as a "militia" forming part of the armed forces of the state under Article 4. Other state-contracted PMC personnel also might fall within Article 4 as "persons who accompany the armed forces without actually being members thereof, such as civilian members of military aircraft crews, war correspondents, supply contractors, members of labor units or of services responsible for the welfare of the armed forces; provided that they have received authorization from the armed forces which they accompany, who shall provide them for that purpose with an identity card."

However, some lawyers argue that Geneva Protocol I excludes contractors, as it confers POW status on "combatants." And combatants are defined as "all organized armed forces, groups and units which are under a command responsible to that Party for the conduct of its subordinates." That would exclude, for example, security contractors in Iraq who are protecting U.S. State Department personnel.

Generally, with certain exceptions, private military contractors do not work directly for the United States, but rather for third parties. For contractor employees, command and control are tied to the terms and conditions of the government contract. Contractor employees are not under the direct supervision of military personnel in the chain of command.
The lack of command over contract employees effectively bars them from being declared lawful combatants.

Private contractors do not wear uniforms denoting combatant status, seldom fall under the formal command of military personnel and generally lie beyond the reach of military discipline that the armed forces use to enforce adherence to the "laws and customs of war" -- although the law passed in 2006 making contractors subject to the authority of the Uniform Code of Military Justice may change that, it would be a stretch to style them as members of the armed forces.
And something seemingly simple, like wearing uniforms, also can be confusing. In past years both the Army and the Air Force indicated that contractors should not wear military uniforms. Contractors' policies on wearing uniforms can be as varied as military guidelines.

At one point, DynCorp seemed to consider the wearing of uniforms by its personnel as one of the keys to success. On the other hand, its employees in Colombia appear to dress less formally. Another major contractor, KBR, prohibited its employees from wearing "military garb" so as to avoid confusion.

In short, the Geneva Conventions' rules affect only national government authorities or sizable, organized and sustained insurgency forces that are clearly recognized and capable of acting in accordance with international humanitarian law. For private contractors, the problems relate to scope and applicability, with many situations in which PMCs are operative likely to be treated as wholly internal matters not reaching the level of international law and with gray areas relating to the status of those who provide non-combat support services.

Simply put, those who participate in hostilities without the status of lawful combatant do not benefit from prisoner-of-war protections. And while private military contractors are clearly not civilians, in most cases they are not considered lawful combatants.

Of course, if one is dealing with people who don't respect international law, the difference between lawful combatants and those who aren't may not matter much. But for contractors still being held prisoner, such as the five British hostages kidnapped 14 months ago in Iraq, an IT consultant and four bodyguards, two of them employed by Canadian security firm Garda World, the fact that they may not be considered lawful combatants entitled to POW status makes their situation even worse.

21 July 2008 - Iraq hostage crisis: Government makes little progress

2008-07-29T08:37:00.002Z

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/2437897/Iraq-hostage-crisis-Government-makes-little-progress.html

An insider in the effort to free the five British men held hostage in Iraq yesterday reduced the British Government's responsibilities to two objectives: keep the men alive, then secure their freedom.

If the claim that one of the men has committed suicide is verified - by no means certain in the psychological game waged by hostage takers - the Government will have manifestly failed in the first. Since the men have been held for 14 months, Whitehall is clearly not making identifiable headway in the second.

A hostage crisis is one of the most difficult challenges a British Government can face. Unlike most nations, the UK does not barter the freedom of its subjects. Yet it faces the same public pressures to bring our compatriots home.

The case in Iraq is made doubly difficult by the fact the hostage takers appear to have one irreducible goal: the freedom of a leader who is being held for the murder of five American soldiers. America will never give this man up, no matter how special its relationship with the UK.

From the outset the Government has steered away from the kind of high-profile public campaign waged in 2007 for the BBC correspondent Alan Johnston, and in previous decades for the hostages in Lebanon, Terry Waite and John McCarthy.

Officials involved mount a strong private defence of the low-profile strategy. The men must be viewed as a group, which means a large number of relatives speaking out could amount to a discordant chorus. Far from coming under pressure to free the men, the kidnappers could gain the windfall of a Government run ragged by a series of public embarrassments.

Limited media contact means none of the relatives has taken on the role of a figurehead, once ably performed by Mr McCarthy's girlfriend Jill Morrell. Instead there have been scripted statements by individuals and a group interview with the BBC on the first anniversary.
None of these initiatives have had any discernable impact.

The apparent sophistication of kidnappers poses the biggest challenge to a swift resolution of the ordeal. As an off-shoot of a Shia militia, the kidnappers have almost certainly benefited from Iranian training.

Their affiliates include Lebanese Hizbollah, perhaps the world's toughest, most ruthless specialist in kidnapping as a terror tactic. One expert who examined the video said Alan's statement was carefully produced to appear freely given. But the security guard consulted notes at least once and appeared at another point to deliver a coded signal.

The British Embassy in Baghdad maintains a hostage team but lacks the weight to make the men's plight a compelling issue. Pleas by religious figures made headlines in Britain but had no noticeable impact where it matters, in Iraq and perhaps Tehran.

In the absence of a breakthrough, the crisis is on a long, slow-burning fuse. As traumatic as the weekend's developments were for the families, there are no signs that a turning point can be engineered.

28 July 2008 - Time for change of tactics over secret hostages?

2008-07-28T12:03:00.002Z

http://news.scotsman.com/opinion/Time-for-change-of-tactics.4327614.jp

It is 14 months since the five Britons were seized in Baghdad and we still don't even know their surnames.

STEPHEN McGINTY wonders what the future holds

THERE are no ordinary days in Baghdad, but for Peter Moore, a computer specialist from Lincoln, and his four British security guards, 29 May, 2007, looked on paper to be routine.
The task at hand was educating Iraqi civil servants on computer spreadsheets, accountancy software and the intricacies of IT. At the finance ministry, an office block in a walled compound in the heart of the Iraqi capital, a class of civil servants was seated in an office listening to Mr Moore's lecture when gunmen stormed the room.

A few minutes earlier, a force of about 40 armed men, dressed in the uniforms of the Iraqi army and police, had penetrated the compound walls.

At the time, Mr Moore, who worked for BearingPoint, an American management consultancy, was under the armed protection of four private security consultants employed by GardaWorld, a Canadian security firm.

The two waiting outside the building were quickly overpowered, while the pair in the classroom were also disarmed. The five men were then bundled into some of the 19 waiting vehicles and driven off through the crowded streets towards the Shia enclave of Sadr City.There was one lucky escape: another consultant was able to hide among the civil servants and raise the alarm.In any kidnap scenario, time is a crucial factor.

But what exactly has taken place in the hours, days, weeks and months since those events remains under a shroud of secrecy, with only the occasional event or comment giving some kind of shape to the chronology.

Back in Britain, the news of the kidnapping was immediately accompanied by a note from the Foreign Office urging the media not to report on the identities of the four security consultants, for fear that their backgrounds, if disclosed, could aid their captors. Fourteen months on, we know them only as Alec from Wales, Jason from Wales, Jason from Aberdeenshire and Alan from Glasgow.

Their case cannot be described as forgotten, as it was never properly known. Yet last weekend, their plight, lost amid the chaos and confusion of Iraq, reappeared in the media, with the release of a video and an unconfirmed report that one hostage had taken his own life. At first, the media reported that the hostage was Jason from Aberdeenshire, before it was corrected by the Foreign Office as being Jason from Wales.

A statement, from the Shiite Islamic Resistance in Iraq, read: "(The] procrastination and foot-dragging and lack of seriousness on the part of the British government has prolonged their psychological deterioration, pushing one of them, Jason, to commit suicide on 25 May. He surprised our brethren who were taking care of him, with his suicide."The statement was accompanied by a video featuring Alan from Glasgow.

In it, he said: "This is a message to the British government to ask why after one year I've received no attention – I've received nothing. Over the past year, the treatment from my captors has been very good, to say the least. I'd like to thank my captors and the Iraqi resistance for that treatment. I'd like for the release of all Iraqi prisoners, especially female and religious prisoners, and I'd like that to be done within one month.

"I would like for the British government to please hurry up. I'm appealing to you to please hurry and try and get this resolved as soon as possible."In the immediate aftermath of the kidnappings, a team of hostage rescue experts flew from Britain to supplement a team already in place at the British Embassy in Baghdad's Green Zone.

In such situations, embassy staff, supported by MI6 officers and British military intelligence, quiz contacts for information, while mobile phones are monitored for clues, with input from the Iraqi government and the United States army. In this case, a series of raids on safe houses used by insurgents were unsuccessful.

In the days that followed, no-one claimed responsibility and no ransom demand was issued. Seven days after the kidnapping, Dominic Asquith, then Britain's ambassador to Iraq, made the first formal appeal for the hostages' release and indicated the government was prepared to talk to the kidnappers. A few days later, a rescue mission was launched by US forces, who believed they knew the hostages' location.

On 21 June, 2007, General David Petraeus admitted his men had narrowly missed freeing them, a comment that angered the Foreign Office.

Kidnappings of foreign nationals are common in Iraq, and the majority have been released. In the three years after the 2003 invasion, more than 250 foreigners were abducted. At least 44 were killed, 135 were released, six were rescued and three escaped. The fate of the others is unknown.

The British hostages are being held by an extremist Shiite group seeking the release of nine people held by the Americans and thought to have been responsible for the deaths of US soldiers in an attack on one of their military bases. Any negotiation is extremely difficult, as it involves both the Iraqi government and the US military.

In addition, according to one source, British security services no longer have a reliable way of communicating with the group. The location and condition of the Britons is unknown. It has been reported they may well be in Iran, and they would almost certainly be kept at separate locations to reduce the risk of a successful rescue. Richard Butler, the photojournalist freed by Iraqi soldiers after two months in captivity, reported that, while well-fed, he was handcuffed and had to wear a hood for the duration of his ordeal.

After 14 months, the effectiveness of the British government's request for a "softly-softly" approach, with minimal press coverage, is being questioned. When Sean Langan, the British TV journalist, was kidnapped in Afghanistan earlier this year, Channel 4 and his family decided to keep it quiet, and not to involve the British government directly, to allow the production company to pay a ransom of £150,000 for his release.

Bob Shepherd, a former SAS soldier who works as a private security contractor, thinks it may come to that for the five British captives. Mr Shepherd, who stressed he would not say anything to jeopardise the men's fate, said: "If the group who have them do not get what they want, the best-case scenario is they are 'bought' or passed on to a gang who will hold them to ransom." Mr Shepherd, who stopped working in Iraq in 2004 as he believed the security situation made protecting his clients impossible, believes it is in the British government's own interest to keep the kidnappings quiet.

"In my view, there is a lot of spin – they want to maintain the erroneous image that Iraq is a place where people can do business," he said.Last week, a middle-aged man with multiple sclerosis, who walks leaning heavily on a cane, returned to Baghdad carrying the hopes of the kidnapped men's families.

Canon Andrew White is the so-called vicar of Baghdad and the minister of St George's, the only Anglican church still standing in Iraq. On the day of the abduction, he began meeting religious leaders and has invested a huge amount of time trying to track them down. "So many times we have thought we were nearly there and we have not been," he said. "But you cannot give up." That is a sentiment backed by Mr Shepherd, who said his message to the relatives was simple: "Stay strong."

Yet for the families of the two Scottish hostages, the anguish of watching their loved ones in grainy film footage makes such a message hard. For them, too, there are no more ordinary days.Difficulties must not be underestimatedProfessor Paul Wilkinson says Britain cannot act alone

Professor Paul Wilkinson Emeritus professor of international relations at St Andrews University

THE Shiite Islamic Resistance in Iraq, the group holding the British hostages, demands the release of nine prisoners held by the Americans as the price for the release of the hostages.

The prisoners are thought to include a former senior member of the Shiite Mahdi Army, Qais al-Khazaali, believed by the Americans to have been involved in an attack that killed five US soldiers.An initiative involving mediators appointed by the Iraqi government proved unsuccessful. There are grounds for hope.

They are not being held by al-Qaeda, the kind of group that abducted and later beheaded Ken Bigley, and others. Judging from the message from Alan, the hostages are managing to withstand the physical strains. It is even possible that a degree of bonding between captors and hostages will have made it less likely that the hostages will be killed. However, it would be foolish to underestimate the difficulties of securing their release.

There is a natural urge to concede to demands to free hostages, but governments have a responsibility to others who in the future might be at higher risk if terrorists can see the government has previously caved in to demands. In any case Britain does not have the power to meet the demands unilaterally. It has to work closely with its US allies and the Iraqi government and explore all possible options for resolving the situation, including rescue.

21 july 2008 - FAMILY FACE 'NERVOUS TIME' AFTER HOSTAGE SUICIDE CLAIM

2008-07-25T14:16:00.001Z

http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=156582&command=displayContent&sourceNode=156408&contentPK=21123630&folderPk=87028&pNodeId=156139

The family of a Lincoln man kidnapped in Iraq have admitted they face fresh anxiety after claims that one of his fellow hostages has killed himself.

IT consultant Peter Moore was snatched more than a year ago by a militant group in Iraq.

Now a video released by the Shi'ite Islamic Resistance in Iraq claims that one of the four bodyguards who were snatched with him has committed suicide.

The man is identified only as Jason, and the Foreign Office has been unable to confirm if the video is genuine.

Mr Moore, who grew up in the Brant Road area of Lincoln, was kidnapped from the Iraqi finance ministry in May last year by about 40 armed men.

Patrick Sweeney, who is married to Mr Moore's step-mother Pauline Sweeney, said that the family's thoughts were with the relatives of all of the men.

"We are all in the same boat as all the other men's families," said Mr Sweeney, of Ellesmere Avenue, off Monks Road."Whether it's fact or fiction, it raises the ante."

Like every other time there's a video or a statement, it's a nervous time."

We have the continued support of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and a police family liaison officer but this is yet another twist in the story."

21 july 2008 - So close to rescue: Coalition forces 'nearly saved British hostages in Iraq'

2008-07-21T18:45:00.001Z

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/so-close-to-rescue-coalition-forces-nearly-saved-british-hostages-in-iraq-872817.html

A rescue team came came within hours of freeing five British hostages being held in Iraq during a series of raids carried out during the last few months as part of a secret military mission.

Details of the searches by British, American and Iraqi forces emerged as the kidnappers issued a videotaped statement claiming that one of the abducted Britons had killed himself.

The British Government had acknowledged that indirect talks had been taking place with Shia fighters believed to be holding the men in retaliation for the arrest by Americans of Iranian officials and a prominent militia leader. It can be revealed, however, that at the same time coalition and Iraqi troops have been carrying out operations in and outside Baghdad in an effort to locate the hostages.

According to defence sources the men were almost found around four months ago during a drive by American and Iraqi troops against the radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militia. A specialist squad, including members of a SAS contingent based at the British embassy in Baghdad, raided a house in Sadr City, the sprawling Shia area adjacent to Baghdad, to find that the men had been moved out just hours ago.

A previous raid, this time carried out by US troops on two houses in the Shia district of Kadhamiya in Baghdad also proved fruitless. The American commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, insists that the Britons have been kidnapped by an Iranian-backed militia – a charge strongly denied by Tehran. Iraqi officials say they remain in the country but the tempo of searches has increased amid worries that the kidnapped men may be moved across the border into Iran.

The newly released video, entitled Intihar – Arabic for suicide – shows a man wearing a football shirt, identified as Jason in a statement, which appears on screen in Arabic and is signed, "The Shia Islamic Resistance in Iraq". It accuses the British Government of neglecting the hostages by failing to respond to messages from the kidnappers and their captives and ignoring warnings about the men's psychological trauma. "This procrastination and foot-dragging and lack of seriousness on the part of the British Government has prolonged their psychological deterioration, pushing one of them, Jason, to commit suicide on 25/5/2008," the statement says. "He surprised our brethren, who were taking care of him, with his suicide."

UK officials in London and Baghdad stressed yesterday that there was no "immediate" verification that one of the hostages – identified by his first name Jason – died on 25 May. The tape with the suicide claim was released as Gordon Brown was in Iraq declaring that the security situation was improving in the country and laying down a timetable for withdrawal of UK troops from Basra.

Another hostage, named Alan, is shown on the same video, looking pale and apprehensive, appealing to the British Government to help him and his colleagues obtain their freedom. "Physically, I'm not doing well," he says. "Psychologically, I'm doing a lot worse. I want to see my family again. I would like for the British Government to please hurry," says Alan, who appeared anxious. "Please hurry and try and get this resolved as soon as possible." Several seconds after his appeal, a caption appears saying "Home 0, Visitors 0".

Alan's wife Roseleen said she was relieved to have received any communication from him after nearly 14 months of separation and worry. "Our family miss him desperately and really want him to come home soon. I want to ask his captors to release him unharmed."

Jason, the kidnappers say, had tried to take his own life twice before. He was previously shown in another video last year saying: "Today is November 18 ... I have been here now for 173 days, and I feel we have been forgotten."

The Britons, an IT consultant named Peter Moore and four bodyguards, two of whom were called Jason, and Alan and Alec, were kidnapped from the Finance Ministry in Baghdad in May last year. Mr Moore worked for BearingPoint, a US management consulting firm based in Virginia, and the guards were employed by the Canadian security firm GardaWorld.

The abductors are said to have demanded the release of a group of Iranians detained by American forces in Baghdad last January. It is also claimed that the men are being held to secure the release of Qais al-Khazaali, a former chief spokesman for the Mehdi army, held by American forces after a raid on a US base in which five solders were killed.

In late February, the families of the men released their own video, read by Pauline Sweeney, Mr Moore's stepmother, pleading for their release. The kidnappers responded a month later with a posting on a militant website rejecting the plea as inspired by the British Government. In May, the former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey lent his voice to the families' appeal, addressing the kidnappers as "honorable men" and "men of faith".

Speaking during a visit to Jerusalem, Gordon Brown said yesterday: "This abhorrent film will only add to the anguish of families who have suffered a great deal over a year for their loved ones who have been kept in captivity.

"I raised the matter with Prime Minister Maliki yesterday when I was in Iraq. I have also raised it on a number of occasions, not only with the Iraqi Government, but with the Americans and others who are active in Iraq."

20 July 2008 - news item on claimed suicide

2008-07-21T12:30:00.001Z

http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=NcI6RXQo0k4&feature=related

http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=1F8_CAB7_0Y&feature=related

20 july 2008 - Brown's reaction

2008-07-21T12:24:00.002Z

http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=p4rn5V2j0Pg

20 july 2008 - videolink

2008-07-20T09:20:00.002Z

Link to the newsitem video:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/times_online_tv/?vxSiteId=d8fa78dc-d7ad-4d5a-8886-e420d4bc4200&vxChannel=Times%20Online%20News&vxClipId=1152_timesonline0983&vxBitrate=300

20 july 2008 - Kidnappers claim British hostage in Iraq has killed himself

2008-07-20T09:05:00.001Z

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article4364352.ece

The kidnappers of five British hostages seized in Baghdad last year have claimed in a videotaped statement that one of the men has killed himself.

According to the statement, the hostage — named only as Jason — died on May 25, four days before the first anniversary of the abduction.

The claim is made in a video passed to The Sunday Times in Baghdad last week. Another hostage is shown appealing for the British government to hasten the men’s release.

“Physically, I’m not doing well,” he says. “Psychologically, I’m doing a lot worse. I want to see my family again.”
Related Links

* British hostage: why have you abandoned us?

* Troops may be home in a year

* Stark message for families of British hostages

British officials said there was “no immediate corroboration” of the kidnappers’ claim that Jason was dead.

An intermediary who handed the video to a representative of this newspaper said the hostage had made two previous attempts at suicide. He said proof of death would be provided only if the British government agreed to negotiate.

The hostages, an IT consultant named Peter Moore and four bodyguards, were kidnapped almost 14 months ago from the Iraqi finance ministry by a Shi’ite group. They are seeking the release of nine prisoners in American detention.

Two of the guards are called Jason and the others are named Alan and Alec. Their full names have been withheld at their families’ request.

The video, entitled Intihar — Arabic for suicide — opens with a photograph of a man wearing a football shirt. He is identified as Jason in the statement, which appears on screen in Arabic and is signed, “The Shi’ite Islamic Resistance in Iraq”.

The statement accuses the British government of responding indifferently to messages from the kidnappers and their captives. It claims that despite repeated warnings about the men’s psychological condition, little has been done to end their ordeal.

“This procrastination and foot-dragging and lack of seriousness on the part of the British government has prolonged their psychological deterioration, pushing one of them, Jason, to commit suicide on 25/5/2008,” the statement says. “He surprised our brethren, who were taking care of him, with his suicide.”

The captors say they regret Jason’s death but hold the British government responsible for the hostages’ fate.

Gordon Brown raised their plight in talks with Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, during a visit to Baghdad yesterday. “We both share a desire to see them returned safely to their families,” he said last night.

“Clearly this is a very distressing development. We are taking this very seriously. There are many people working behind the scenes trying to find a solution.”

According to the intermediary, the appeal from one of the hostages for more government action was included in the video to authenticate the opening statement.

The hostage who speaks on camera is Alan, a father of children aged 14 and three, from Scotland. “I would like for the British government to please hurry,” says Alan, who looks pale and anxious. “Please hurry and try and get this resolved as soon as possible.”

Several seconds after his appeal, a caption appears saying “Home 0, Visitors 0”, a possible reference to the stalemate in efforts to secure the captives’ release.

Alan’s wife Roseleen said yesterday she was relieved to have any communication from him after nearly 14 months of separation and worry.

“Our family miss him desperately and really want him to come home soon. I want to ask his captors to release him unharmed.”

20 July 2008 - Why have you abandoned us, asks British hostage held for a year in Iraq

2008-07-20T08:59:00.002Z

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article4364440.ece

Video from kidnappers puts pressure on Britain to negotiate prisoner release

His tone is flat but the words are poignant. The hostage staring into the camera makes what appears to be a well-rehearsed opening statement, thanking his captors for treating him well, but when he refers to his family he falters for a moment.

“Despite my good treatment over the last year, physically I’m not doing well,” he says in a soft Scottish accent, shaking his head slightly. “Psychologically I’m doing a lot worse.

“The thought of not seeing my family again . . . just isn’t doing well with me at all.”

The hostage is Alan, the husband of Roseleen and father of two children aged 14 and three, who went to Iraq to make good money for his family in the security sector, only to become a victim of the capital’s lawlessness last year.

Nearly 14 months after he was abducted with three colleagues and an IT consultant they were guarding in the finance ministry in Baghdad, Alan is a pallid prisoner with little prospect of imminent release.

“This is a message to the British government to ask why after one year I’ve received no attention – I’ve received nothing,” he says. “I would like for the British government to please hurry. I’m appealing to you to please hurry and try and get this resolved as soon as possible.”

Alan’s reference to having been held for one year suggests that the film was recorded shortly before or after May 29, the anniversary of the abduction. He makes no reference to the fate of his fellow captive, Jason, who is said by the hostage-takers to have died four days earlier.

Dressed in a black T-shirt and seated on a blue plastic chair against a bare wall, he pauses between sentences and glances down as if referring to notes before calling for the release of all Iraqi prisoners, “especially females and religious prisoners”, within one month.

However, an intermediary who passed the video to The Sunday Times in Baghdad last week said the true purpose of Alan’s participation was to add credence to the statement in Arabic text with which the film begins.

This statement says the captors wrote to the British government warning that the five men’s physical health and psychological state had deteriorated to such an extent that it had resulted in “more than one attempt at suicide”.

“We stopped them from carrying this out through our attempts at calming their fears and assuring them that they would be freed soon, given that our demands are simple and in the hands of your government,” it continues.

The kidnappers’ main demand, reiterated in the statement, is for the release of nine prisoners who, it says, were arrested by British forces in the southern port city of Basra.

The men are understood to include Qais al-Khazaali, a former chief spokesman for the Shi’ite Mahdi Army. Khazaali, who led a faction trained in Iran, is now detained by the Americans in connection with a raid on a base in which five US soldiers were killed.

“If they return to their families, you will return to your families and country,” the videotaped statement says.

It goes on to accuse the British government of procrastinating and concludes by claiming that the prolonged psychological deterioration of Jason culminated in his suicide on May 25.

“Even though we had hoped the situation would not reach such extremes, we regret that it has, as a result of which we hold the British government responsible for what has happened and what may happen to the other four remaining hostages,” the statement says.

It is signed, “The Shi’ite Islamic Resistance in Iraq”.

No evidence has been provided to support the claim of suicide. During another kidnapping last year, it was alleged that Alan Johnston, the BBC correspondent in Gaza, had been killed. That claim seemed intended to heighten emotion around the case and to put pressure on the authorities. It was swiftly discounted and Johnston was safely released.

The intermediary who handed over the video insisted that Jason was dead and said his fellow hostages had been further demoralised by his suicide. However, the captors would not release proof of death or details of how he had taken his own life until negotiations with the British government resumed, he said.

The intermediary read from scribbled notes as he made a series of points during a clandestine meeting in the Iraqi capital.

He said no significant negotiations had taken place for months and called for the hostage-takers to be allowed to appoint Iraqi politicians or officials to mediate on their behalf. They are believed to have been unhappy with the efforts of two mediators appointed by Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister.

According to the intermediary, the kidnappers believe the British government will try to involve other states to help secure the hostages’ release. This would serve no purpose, they claim. They say no outside intervention will win the hostages’ freedom unless the nine Iraqi prisoners are freed first.

The hostages were seized in one of the most audacious operations to have been mounted against westerners since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Peter Moore, the IT consultant, who comes from Lincolnshire, had been employed by an American company, Bearing-Point, on a project in the finance ministry. His guards worked for the Canadian security company, GardaWorld.

Soon after they entered the ministry, a group of up to 40 armed men in police uniforms burst in, their leader shouting: “Where are the foreigners?”

In the confusion, another western business consultant escaped but the British men were taken and driven away under guard.

They were reported to have been seen heading in the direction of Sadr city, a sprawling Shi’ite slum of Baghdad which was then a stronghold of the Iranian-backed Mahdi Army under Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shi’ite cleric.

Conflicting information has since emerged suggesting that the hostages were being held in Sadr city, Diyala province between Baghdad and the Iranian border or in Iran itself. Iraqi sources in Baghdad now insist that they are in Iraq, not Iran, but little is known for certain.

A British source said yesterday: “This is possibly the most complicated and challenging case we have had to deal with in recent years.”

British officials reject criticism from some relatives and friends that they have allowed the men to become “forgotten hostages” by discouraging publicity. A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We are confident that we have done everything we should have done.”

David Miliband, the foreign secretary, responded to the release of the video with a statement last night condemning hostage-taking as a “disgusting crime” which is never justified.

“Our officials in Iraq continue to be ready to work with anyone prepared to help in this case,” he said.

However harrowing the video may have been to watch, it has provided Alan’s family with its first glimpse of him in more than a year. Alan’s father, who asked to be named only as Dennis, said it was comforting to see him looking reasonably healthy.

His wife Roseleen said she could not imagine what he had gone through during the past 14 months. “But quite clearly from the video, he is still coping well and doing everything he can to be strong for his family,” she said.

Unlike some of the hostages’ relatives, Roseleen says she has no doubt that everything possible is being done to secure their release. “I want the hostage-takers to find a peaceful way to resolve their grievances and to release our loved ones,” she added.

Alan’s message

This is a message to the British government to ask why after one year I’ve received no attention – I’ve received nothing.

Over the past year the treatment from my captors has been very good, to say the least. I’d like to thank my captors and the Iraqi resistance for that treatment. I’d like for the release of all Iraqi prisoners, especially females and religious prisoners, and I’d like that to be done within one month.

Despite my good treatment, physically I’m not doing well . . . psychologically I’m doing a lot worse. The thought of not seeing my family again just isn’t doing well with me at all. I’d like for the British government to please hurry . . . I’m appealing to you to please hurry and try and get this resolved as soon as possible.

Captors’ note

We told them that we have nine innocent prisoners who were arrested by the British in Basra whose release we are demanding. If they return to their families you will return to your families and country.

But this procrastination and foot-dragging and lack of seriousness on the part of the British government has prolonged their psychological deterioration, pushing one of them, Jason, to commit suicide on 25/5/2008. He surprised our brethren, who were taking care of him, with his suicide.

13 July 2008 - MI6 accused of bungling as phone clues were missed in hunt for Iraq hostages

2008-07-19T10:48:00.002Z

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1034585/MI6-accused-bungling-phone-clues-missed-hunt-Iraq-hostages.html

Let down by MI6: Hostage Peter Moore

MI6 has been accused of a blunder that might have cost the chance of an early rescue for Britain’s so-called forgotten hostages in Iraq.

The Secret Intelligence Service failed to track a mobile phone carried by one of the men which could have revealed the captives’ location, it is alleged.

It was used repeatedly in the weeks after the men were seized by insurgents in Baghdad more than a year ago. And sophisticated triangulation techniques could have pinpointed the phone’s location to within a few yards, paving the way for an SAS rescue.

However, MI6 has been accused of failing to follow up the vital lead.
The claim came during a high-level meeting at the Foreign Office two weeks after the men were grabbed by gunmen wearing police uniforms.

British IT consultant Peter Moore and his four-man security detail were snatched from where they were working at the Iraqi Ministry of Finance in May, 2007 and driven towards the Shia enclave of Sadr City. Little has been heard of them since.

At the FO meeting, security firm GardaWorld, which employed the four unnamed British bodyguards, revealed how it had discovered that it was still paying large bills for a mobile phone belonging to one of the hostages.

The firm said it had examined the itemised bill and highlighted a large number of calls and text messages to numbers in Shia strongholds in Iraq and other calls to Iran.

The company – whose delegation included security consultant Natalie Hicks-Loebbecke, a one-time girlfriend of Prince William – questioned Foreign Office officials about what they and MI6 were doing with the information from the phone.

But David Richmond, the Director General for Defence and Intelligence, the Foreign Office’s counter intelligence chief, told them he knew nothing about any mobile phone.

A source said: ‘He said he was unaware that any of the men had had mobile phones or that they were still being used or that calls were going in and out of Iran.

‘This was the Foreign Office’s most senior intelligence official and he appeared to be saying a major clue had not been investigated.’

A source close to the investigation says that GardaWorld was astonished by Mr Richmond’s reaction.

‘All the details of the mobile phone and other information were passed to investigators in Iraq immediately after the men were abducted. GCHQ could have tracked that phone to within a few feet. Calls could have been intercepted. But it seems that did not happen.’

However, a Government source last night said: ‘We did not drop the ball on this. The phone would have been looked at. It may have been taken from the hostages as soon as they were abducted and thrown out of the getaway car.

‘It could then have been picked up by anyone and used to call relatives and friends. If this was the case, it would have been checked out and discounted.’

Carl Newns, a senior FO official in the meeting and now Foreign Secretary David Miliband’s Press secretary, said: ‘We are confident that we properly and appropriately investigated all the leads available to us.’

06 July 2008 - When the life of a hostage lies in their hands

2008-07-10T06:57:00.001Z

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/when-the-life-of-a-hostage-lies-in-their-hands-860888.html

Ingrid Betancourt was freed last week with help from 'kidnap and ransom' consultants

Ingrid Betancourt, a former presidential candidate in Colombia, was rescued last week after six years of captivity by Marxist Farc guerrillas in one of the most spectacular pieces of trickery in the history of kidnapping. A few days earlier it emerged that Sean Langan, a Channel 4 journalist, had been freed by his Afghan captors after a ransom, reported to have been £150,000, was paid.

On the face of it, the two cases have very little resemblance, but there is a common factor: the involvement of "kidnap and ransom" consultants, whose whole business relies on almost pathological discretion. "It's like Fight Club," said one informant. "The first rule is that you don't talk about it." But a consultant revealed that three American anti-narcotics agents handed over with Ms Betancourt in the same "sting" operation had been insured against kidnap. Their employers had called in a "K&R" team, although the Colombian authorities have strongly denied that any ransom was paid.

"That was a once-in-a-lifetime coup," said the consultant. "In our line of business we very much discourage rescue attempts, because the hostages are likely to get hurt."

Mr Langan's case was far more typical. "In our experience, 99 per cent of kidnappings are quietly brought to a successful financial conclusion," he said. "Hundreds of Farc kidnaps have been settled that way. Where people are beheaded or kept for years, it's because a financial deal cannot be reached for one reason or another. Many kidnappers who claim to be political or religious are simply in it for the money."

The Foreign Office was reported to be "furious" at the payment of a ransom in the Langan case, believing it will increase the risk of Britons being kidnapped in future. Behind the scenes, however, diplomats have contacts with all kinds of intermediaries. Rachel Briggs, director of Hostage UK, which supports Britons taken hostage overseas and their families, said the charity did not endorse the payment of ransoms, "because we have a long-term interest in making kidnapping unprofitable". But she added: "We don't seek to judge families who might take that option. Negotiators will say every case is different. Sometimes there is no choice but to pay."

Ms Briggs began doing research into kidnapping after her uncle was held for seven months in Colombia 12 years ago. ("I believe a ransom was paid," she said.) Hostage UK, which has the former Beirut hostage Terry Waite among its trustees, hopes to compile authoritative statistics soon, but according to its director, the five worst countries have remained constant in recent years. Mexico is currently top, followed by Venezuela, Nigeria and Pakistan. Colombia is only fifth, though seven years ago it was far out in front. Despite high-profile kidnappings, Iraq and Afghanistan come lower down the list in terms of numbers, making up the top 10 with India, Brazil and the Philippines, where occasional mass kidnappings take place.

Last year the Foreign Office dealt with 19 kidnappings of Britons, including that of the BBC journalist Alan Johnston, who was freed after 114 days in Gaza. But five British nationals – an IT consultant and his bodyguards – remain in captivity more than a year after they were taken in Baghdad in May 2007.

Hostage UK does not reveal how many people it helps, or who they are, just as the K&R consultant was unwilling to discuss methods – such as those used to establish "proof of life" after a kidnapping. The consultants, most of whom have a police or military background, usually work for private security and military companies, several of which are based in Britain.

"There are about four or five top-rank teams, recognised by the insurers and government bodies like the FBI and the Foreign Office," said the consultant. "Each team is under contract to a particular insurer." Some companies consider kidnap insurance too expensive, and carry the risk themselves. Naming one of Britain's biggest multinationals, with thousands of employees abroad, the consultant said: "They have estimated that if one of their people gets kidnapped only once every three years or so, they will still come out ahead without insurance." The going rate for a consultant is about £1,500 a day. "It gets expensive if a kidnapping is not settled for a year, or if there is more than one consultant on the ground," said the specialist.

In one case, his team had been approached by a company whose employee had been held for some time, and only after his kidnappers had threatened to kill him within 48 hours. "We agreed to take the case on, but only if we saw it through to the end," said the consultant. "The company said they couldn't afford that – they only wanted to hire us for a week. We said we didn't work that way. Of course the kidnappers didn't carry out their threat, but the poor employee is stuck in limbo."

05 July 2008 - US firm earns £1m from our 'forgotten' hostages

2008-07-10T06:54:00.001Z

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1032398/US-firm-earns-1m-forgotten-hostages.html

A private security firm that employs four of the 'forgotten' British hostages held in Iraq for more than a year has charged about £1million for its 'services' while they have been in captivity.

The company, which earns millions of pounds a year protecting British diplomats in Iraq, also
has no kidnap and ransom insurance - meaning there is no guaranteed money available to secure the men's freedom.

The claims, in a US court case, come weeks after the men's families broke a year-long news blackout imposed by the Foreign Office to highlight their plight.

The four men, who work for US-based Garda World, were protecting British IT consultant Peter Moore, who was installing anti-corruption software at the Iraqi finance ministry, when they were seized by armed men in police uniforms. The five were driven towards the Shia enclave of Sadr City. Little has been heard of them since.

Now a lawsuit filed by Garda World against ex-Parachute Regiment officer Paul Wood, who was head of its security operations in Iraq at the time of the kidnapping, raises serious questions about the affair.

Mr Wood was sacked this year and is being sued for allegedly using insider knowledge to set up his own security business. But in documents filed at the US District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, Mr Wood claimed he was planning to leave.

And Mr Wood also said he and his boss, Garda World president LeMarque Sheppard, 'did not see eye to eye... and the tension between the two heightened' when the four security staff were seized in Iraq.

He added: 'A significant problem was Sheppard's failure - before the hostages were taken - to obtain kidnap and ransom insurance for the affected security operators and their peers.'
Kidnap and ransom insurance would normally pay for a hostage negotiator to work full-time on securing someone's release. Mr Wood told the court: 'The lack of kidnap and ransom insurance has affected, and will continue to affect, the company's analysis of whether to make financial payments for information regarding the hostages, and whether and how much ransom would be paid to secure their return.'

He claimed that the men's families and Garda World's shareholders had not been told about the lack of kidnap insurance for the hostages.

He also told the court that despite the men being taken hostage in May 2007, Garda has continued to charge USAID, the American international development department, more than $1,000 a day for protecting fellow hostage Mr Moore.

Mr Wood said: 'Garda World has continued to profit from the captured hostages, as Garda World has continued to charge, at a high profit margin, for the services of the hostages.' Last night the father of one of the British hostages said the families had not been aware that Garda did not have kidnap and ransom insurance.

Colin, whose surname has been withheld and who has heard nothing from his son Alec since he was taken hostage, said: 'It is obviously concerning. If the facts are right, then it just adds to our misery.'

Sources close to the case said US government contracts normally stipulate that firms can continue billing for their people in kidnap situations.

The source also said not all security firms in Iraq had kidnap and ransom cover and instead employed their own experts to deal with hostage situations.

Last night Mr Wood refused comment, as did Garda World.

02 July 08 - Hizbollah 'planned kidnap of British workers in Iraq'

2008-07-03T08:09:00.001Z

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2236044/Hizbollah-'planned-kidnap-of-British-workers-in-Iraq'.html

The military wing of the political party Hizbollah has been put on the UK's list of banned terrorist groups as the organisation was accused of planning the kidnapping of British security workers in Iraq.

The Government took the step in an attempt to send a message to Iran that its interference in Iraq is not welcome.

Hizbollah, a Shia Islamic group formed in the 1980s and based in Lebanon, relies heavily on the Iranians for financial and military support.

The Government accused Hizbollah of offering "active support to militants in Iraq" responsible for attacks on British troops as well as supporting attacks in the Palestinian Occupied Territories.

At the same time two Iraqi MPs accused Hizbollah of planning and supervising the kidnapping of five Britons from the Iraqi Finance Ministry in Baghdad in May 2007.

The men are still being held and their families have made an emotional plea for their return.
The two Shia MPs also claimed that Hizbollah has been running training camps on behalf of the Iranians because they speak Arabic like their Iraqi recruits rather than Farsi.

According to an Iraqi military officer, British troops detained a Hizbollah operative called Faris during fighting in April, who was later turned over to the Americans.

The developments suggest Iran is switching the focus of Hizbollah away from Israel and into Iraq in order to cause greater unrest in the Shia population.

British Government sources accused Hizbollah of training Palestinian terrorists working for Hamas and Islamic Jihad but also pointedly included the Mahdi army in Iraq headed by the Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Announcing the ban, Tony McNulty, the Home Office minister, said: "Hizbollah's military wing is providing active support to militants in Iraq who are responsible for attacks both on coalition forces and on Iraqi civilians, including providing training in the use of deadly roadside bombs.

"Hizbollah's military wing also provides support to Palestinian terrorist groups in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad. It is because of this support for terrorism in Iraq and Occupied Palestinian Territories that the Government has taken this action.

"We continue to call on Hizballah to end terrorist activity and its support for terrorism in Iraq and Occupied Palestinian Territories, abandon its status as an armed group and participate in the democratic process on the same terms as other Lebanese political parties."

The ban means it will be a criminal offence to belong to, fundraise and encourage support for the military wing of the organisation but the Government was keen to point out it would not affect the groups humanitarian activities in southern Lebannon where it has a huge political presence.
Mr McNulty added: "Proscription of Hizballah's military wing will not affect the legitimate political, social and humanitarian role Hizbollah plays in Lebanon, but it sends out a clear message that we condemn Hizbollah's violence and support for terrorism."

The "external security" arm of the military was already on the list, drawn up under counter-terror legislation passed in 2000, but the new ban extends to any military activity by Hizbollah, which calls the military wing al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya [the Islamic resistance].

So far there have been no prosecutions of Hizbollah-connected militants in this country and the new ban was not accompanied by the freezing of any assets.

It emerged at the weekend that two Israeli soldiers kidnapped by Hizbollah in 2006, provoking an Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon, had died almost as soon as they were captured.
The list of proscribed organisations now features 45 international terror groups including al-Qa'eda.

Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, told MPs in the House of Commons that the decision to proscribe Hizbollah’s military wing was taken “on the sole grounds of new evidence of involvement in terrorism in Iraq and the occupied Palestinian territories”.

He called on Hizbollah to “end its status as an armed group and to participate in the Lebanese democratic process and to do so on the same terms as other political parties.”

02 July 08 - Hezbollah said to train Shiite militiamen in Iraq

2008-07-03T07:46:00.000Z

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iI1VyTpxrFiAXNADiw70L4PcIsxQD91LCTEG0

BAGHDAD (AP) — Hezbollah instructors trained Shiite militiamen at remote camps in southern Iraq until three months ago when they slipped across the border to Iran — presumably to continue instruction on Iranian soil, according to two Shiite lawmakers and a top army officer.
The three Iraqis claim the Lebanese Shiites were also involved in planning some of the most brazen attacks against U.S.-led forces, including the January 2007 raid on a provincial government compound in Karbala in which five Americans died.

The allegations, made in separate interviews with The Associated Press, point not only to an Iranian hand in the Iraq war, but also to Hezbollah's willingness to expand beyond its Lebanese base and assume a broader role in the struggle against U.S. influence in the Middle East.
All this suggests that Shiite-dominated Iran is waging a proxy war against the United States to secure a dominant role in majority-Shiite Iraq, which has supplanted Lebanon as Tehran's top priority in the Middle East.

"The stakes are much higher in Iraq, where there is a Shiite majority, oil, the shrine cities and borders with Saudi Arabia," said analyst Farid al-Khazen, a Christian Lebanese lawmaker whose party is allied with Hezbollah.

"The big story is Iraq, and the Americans unwittingly opened it up for the Iranians" by their invasion in 2003, al-Khazen said.

The allegations come as the United States and Iran are engaged in a showdown over Tehran's nuclear program and each country's role in Iraq.

Iran, Hezbollah's mentor, denies giving any support to Shiite extremists in Iraq.
But the three Iraqis who spoke to the AP said the Iranians prefer to use Hezbollah instructors because as Arabs, they can communicate better with the Iraqi Shiites and maintain a lower profile than Farsi-speakers from Iran.

For Hezbollah, a high-risk role in Iraq could give the Lebanese movement leverage with the United States and broaden its appeal within the Arab world where anti-American sentiment remains strong.

Iraqi officials have said little about a Hezbollah role in this country. However, President Jalal Talabani told U.S.-funded Alhurra television this week that "there have been several occasions" when Hezbollah members or those who "claim to belong to Hezbollah" have been detained in Iraq.

He gave no further details.

But the two Iraqi lawmakers and the military officer said Hezbollah instructors work only with members of the Iraqi Shiite "special groups," the U.S. military's name for splinter factions of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia. The U.S. believes that Iran's elite Quds Force, a branch of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, supports the special groups.
All three Iraqis spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not supposed to release the information.

The lawmakers belong to al-Sadr's movement and were involved in the creation of the Mahdi Army in 2003. The military officer's job gives him access to highly classified intelligence information.

They said Hezbollah began training Shiite militiamen in the second half of 2006 at two camps — Deir and Kutaiban — east of Basra near the Iranian border. They fled across the border in late March or early April this year after U.S.-backed Iraqi forces launched a crackdown against militias in Basra, Iraq's second-largest city.

In Iran, training resumed in camps once used by Iraqi exiles who fought with Iranian forces during the 1980s war between the two countries, the lawmakers said. Instruction includes explosives, ambushes and use of rockets and mortars.

Citing testimony from special groups members in custody, the officer said the Hezbollah instructors never numbered more than 10 at any one time, kept a low profile and moved back and forth over the Iranian border.

Indications that Hezbollah was playing a role in Iraq first surfaced last July when the U.S. military announced the arrest of Ali Musa Daqduq, a Lebanese-born Hezbollah operative allegedly training Iraqi Shiite militiamen.

At least one other Hezbollah operative, identified only as Faris, was detained in Basra during fighting there in April and was handed over to the Americans, the Iraqi military officer said.
The U.S. military has said little publicly about Hezbollah's involvement here since announcing Daqduq's arrest, though it has frequently alleged an Iranian role in arming, equipping and training Shiite extremists.

"At this point in time, we do not have any new, releasable information regarding Hezbollah's involvement with special groups in Iran and Iraq," a military spokesman, Capt. Charles Calio, said in an e-mail to the AP.

A Hezbollah spokesman in Beirut, Lebanon, refused to comment on any role for his organization.
However, Ibrahim al-Ameen, a Lebanese newspaper editor close to Hezbollah, said in a recent interview in Beirut that Hezbollah's leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, spends several hours daily dealing with "the situation in Iraq."

Nasrallah, who studied Shiite theology in Iraq, spoke at length about Iraqi "resistance" during a speech last May that analysts believed was aimed at bolstering his image as a godfather of Arab opposition to the United States and Israel throughout the Middle East.

Beside its alleged role in Iraq, Hezbollah is known to have ties to the Palestinian militant Hamas group. The charismatic Nasrallah has become a sort of folk hero in the mostly Sunni Arab world after his guerrillas fought Israeli forces to a standstill in a 34-day war in 2006.

A senior Western diplomat based in the Middle East said his government has information suggesting a growing Hezbollah interest in events in Iraq. However, the diplomat would say no more and insisted on anonymity because the subject is so sensitive.

Hezbollah's possible role in direct attacks against U.S.-led forces is murkier and more explosive.
The two Iraqi lawmakers said Hezbollah operatives planned and supervised both the Karbala attack and the brazen daylight kidnapping of five British nationals from a Finance Ministry compound in Baghdad in May 2007. The Britons are still being held.

In the Karbala attack, English-speaking militants wearing American uniforms and carrying American weapons stormed the compound, killing one U.S. soldier and abducting four. The four were later found dead.

A senior Mahdi Army commander in Baghdad, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, said Hezbollah's operations in Iraq had been supervised by Imad Mughniyeh, a top commander of the guerrilla group killed in a car bomb in Syria last February.

The shadowy figure was suspected of a role in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut and the 1992 attack on the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

02 July 2008 - Bishop in appeal for Iraq hostages

2008-07-03T07:43:00.001Z

http://www.religiousintelligence.co.uk/news/?NewsID=2234

The Bishop of Cyprus and the Gulf has appealed to the captors of five Britons for their release.

On June 20, the Rt Rev Michael Lewis asked the captors, believed to be Shiite militants to “consider messages that are being passed to them from many sources asking for mercy and compassion."

On his first pastoral visit to St George’s Memorial Church in Baghdad last week, Bishop Lewis met with senior Iraqi government and religious leaders and raised the issue of the five kidnapped Britons.

Following his meeting with the bishop, national security advisor Mowaffak al-Rubai'e told the BBC the government had “very good, strong intelligence telling us [the hostages] are alive and we roughly know the area where they are.” However, the government does not “want to be aggressive in our approach, not to risk their lives."

The vicar of Baghdad, Canon Andrew White, who has spearheaded attempts to free the hostages stated he hoped the hostages would be released soon. The bishop’s visitation at St George’s was a memorable event, Canon White reported.

“There we were rejoicing in war torn Iraq and our Bishop was finally with us.“He had come all the way to see us at great risk to himself. The Bishop is so important in Oriental society and for weeks our people had been looking forward to this wonderful day,” he said.

Bishop Lewis also opened a medical and dental clinic built in the former parish hall, and led a joint Episcopal/Lutheran service for coalition forces within Baghdad’s Green Zone.

27 June 2008 - No Cure For The Arab Curse?

2008-06-29T17:50:00.000Z

http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/iraq/articles/20080627.aspx

In East Baghdad, and Shia cities throughout the south, the Mahdi Army is no more. The Iran supported group was taken apart by government security forces during the last two months. All that's left of radical cleric Muqtada al Sadr's private army are a few hundred die hard members who are, for the moment, keeping their heads down. And for good reason. While appreciated in 2006 -7 for keeping Sunni Arab terrorists out of Shia neighborhoods, the Mahdi Army quickly evolved into a collection of self-serving thugs. Once civilians realized that the army and police were stronger, and moving in to stay, the cell phones came out and the police were buried in tips about Mahdi Army safe houses and arms caches. Sadr has been hiding out in Iran through all this.

Sunni Arab terrorist diehards are undergoing the same experience up north, but with more violence. Around Mosul, U.S. Special Forces teams, which have been chasing al Qaeda leaders for years, are having enormous success. The surge offensive drove many al Qaeda, and Iraqi Sunni Arab terrorist leaders to the Mosul area, where a spectacular last stand was supposed to give the terrorists a badly needed victory. Didn't work out that way, and now the terrorist leaders are either hunkering down, or running for the border. Either way, they are getting caught. The combination of wide spread cell phone availability, and anti-terrorist Iraqis, is giving the police and Special Forces the tips they need.

The downside of all this is that U.S. troops are now regularly travelling to areas, long been labeled "extremely hostile", they have never been in before. While those Sunni Arab towns are generally considered safe and well policed for Iraqis, there are still scattered groups of terrorists about, capable of pulling off an impromptu ambush or suicide bombing against foreigners. The terrorists are also using more women as bombers, there having been an outbreak of Islamic feminism on the Internet, where the women demanded that they be allowed to participate and die for the cause. Since women suicide bombers have been, and still are, quite rare, their chances of evading security are better. The overall result of this new freedom-of-movement is a near doubling of American combat deaths (from the record low last month of 19).

Several terrorist groups are trying to negotiate some kind of amnesty deal, using kidnapping victims as trade bait. These hostages have, in some cases, been held for a long time. The most prominent of these, five British citizens, have been captives for a year (as terrorists demanded the release of nine pro-Iran killers). This has put the government in a difficult position, as hundreds of Iraqis are being held (some may actually be dead, but even getting "proof-of-life" requires giving the kidnappers something.) While most Iraqis want the hostages released, they also do not want to reward the terrorists.

The defeat of the major terrorist organizations is bringing the spotlight back to Iraq (and the Arab worlds) primary problem; corruption. With reconstruction money and police pouring into Sunni Arab towns for the first time in seven years, there's been some culture shock. The Sunni Arabs have long been accustomed to the old rules (which Saddam Hussein exploited artfully) whereby local strongmen were paid off, and then these tough guys did whatever it took (murder, kidnapping, mutilation, etc) to keep the locals quiet. The new Shia government is trying (with mixed success) to get away from the old ways. It isn't easy. Centuries of tradition don't willingly change overnight. There will be more violence, as corrupt locals decide old school customs are worth killing for. Actually, they always have been, which is why most Arab nations are police states, where murder, or the threat of it, is the final arbiter of disputes with the government. Meanwhile, reconstruction efforts are delayed, or derailed, by rampant theft, lies and deception supplied by local officials.

U.S. troops are back to their pre-surge strength of 15 brigades, although troop strength is a little higher (142,000 versus 135,000) because some additional support units are still around. The surge offensive that began in early 2007 has reduced Iraqi civilian casualties by 80 percent and lowered violence against U.S. troops to 2004 levels. But a lot of this security is held together by U.S. troops, who still advise and assist Iraqi troops and police. American commanders believe that it's only a matter of time before all Iraqi units are capable of doing their jobs on their own, but for now only about ten percent of Iraqi police and military units are in that category. It may take 5-10 years to get everyone able to operate on their own. Meanwhile, ten of Iraq's 18 provinces have their security provided by Iraqi security forces, with Iraqis in charge (and U.S. forces just on call.)

21 June 2008 - British hostages 'alive' in Iraq

2008-06-23T07:19:00.002Z

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7467607.stm

Link to video: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7467641.stm

Five British hostages who were seized in Baghdad more than a year ago are still alive, Iraq's most senior security official believes.

Mowaffak al-Rubai'e told the BBC: "We have a very good, strong intelligence telling us they are alive and we roughly know the area where they are.

"But we don't want to be aggressive in our approach, not to risk their lives."

Armed militants seized the men - a computer expert and four guards - at Iraq's Ministry of Finance in May 2007.

One of them has been named as IT consultant Peter Moore, from Lincoln, who was working for Bearingpoint, an American management consultancy.

The other four men, who were employed by a security firm to guard Mr Moore, have not been
officially identified.

Mr al-Rubai'e was speaking after a visit by a senior Anglican churchman, who appealed for the men to be freed for the sake of their families.

The Right Reverend Michael Lewis made his first visit to Baghdad, which is included in his diocese.

He did not go specifically to seek the hostages' release, but met senior religious and political figures including Mr al-Rabai'e and Ayatollah Hussain Sadr, cousin of the radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr.

'Show mercy'

The bishop made an appeal for the release: "It can be an appeal that remembers the families of the five who are held and I make that appeal.

"I ask them to consider messages that are being passed to them from many sources asking for mercy and compassion."

Since the abduction the kidnappers, calling themselves the Islamic Shiite Resistance in Iraq, have released two videos of the captives.

In December, a film was broadcast on Dubai-based TV station Al-Arabiya which warned one hostage would be killed unless British troops withdrew from Iraq.

The threat to kill the hostage was apparently not carried out.

One of the men, who identified himself as Jason, was seen to say in the clip that the kidnapped men felt they had been "forgotten".

A second video, broadcast by Al-Arabiya in February, showed Mr Moore asking Prime Minister Gordon Brown to free nine Iraqis in exchange for the Britons' release.

Meanwhile the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, took what was seen as an unusual step earlier this month, of recording a direct video appeal to the kidnappers.

03 June 2008 - Father's plea to kidnappers

2008-06-04T08:44:00.000Z

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/7425894.stm

The father of a Scot who is among five British men being held hostage in Iraq has spoken exclusively to BBC Scotland. David Kerr reports.

29 May 2008 - Iraqi troops race to free British hostages before anniversary

2008-06-02T18:09:00.002Z

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2028003/Iraqi-troops-race-to-free-British-hostages-before-anniversary.html

Iraqi troops have launched a fresh manhunt in Baghdad for five British hostages with the goal of freeing the men before the first anniversary of their abduction later this week.

The five men, a computer consultant and four security guards, have been held by a Shia extremist group since May 29 last year.

A dossier given to Iraqi ground commanders, who entered the Sadr City slum last week under the terms of a ceasefire agreed with the forces of Moqtada al-Sadr, the Shia cleric, contains the men's names, photographs and an intelligence briefing summarising information about their captors.

"These people are top of the list of people we're interested in finding here," said an American officer who delivered the documents to his Iraqi counterparts.

"We have no proof of a specific address but we have a few areas in the northern part of Sadr City we want the Iraqis to target."

The kidnappers have given warning that they will hold the men until the US government releases a leading terrorist, Qais al-Khazali, and his brother from detention.
Control of Sadr City has rested with the Mahdi army, which is loyal to Sadr, since Saddam Hussein's downfall in 2003.

However, following weeks of violence, Sadr has agreed to an Iraqi military presence in his stronghold but American commanders have expressed fears that parts of the area will remain no-go zones.

British officials have cautiously orchestrated a campaign for the men's release centred on Sadr City, and the SAS has been involved in raids on suspected compounds. Speculation that the Britons might have been taken to Iran has not been supported by any evidence.

"Sadr City is a place where the men have been held, according to the best current understanding," said one official.

"It's a place that until now necessitated a lot of fighting to get in and out of while, at the same time, they could be moved around. But it's only as good a place as any."
Canon Andrew White, the Anglican vicar of Baghdad, has devoted much of his time to a private initiative to secure the men's freedom.

He claimed last week that the kidnappers had expressed satisfaction at a video message recorded by Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury.

He has appealed to the kidnappers as "honourable men" to end the anguish suffered by the hostages' families.

Little is known about the conditions the Britons have been held under since they were snatched from a finance ministry complex by a group wearing police uniforms. Several family members have publicly appealed for their release but the Foreign Office has advised that a low-key approach should be taken towards securing their release. An appeal for information was distributed across Baghdad earlier this year but failed to elicit any firm response.

An Iraqi army officer told The Daily Telegraph that raids in search of the men had already been carried out.

A body, which is believed to be that of a prominent Iraqi official, was found at one building used by kidnappers.

01 june 2008 - Captors give stark message to families of British hostages

2008-06-01T16:30:00.001Z

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article4039887.ece

The kidnappers of five British hostages abducted in Baghdad have reiterated that they will keep them for “as long as it takes” to satisfy their demand for the release of a Shi’ite militia leader and 11 of his associates.

“The hostages will not return to British territory until the prisoners we are seeking are released by coalition forces,” said a source linked to the captors.

“They will not receive freedom, either through military means or through negotiations, until this demand is met.”

The warning came after the hostages’ families marked the first anniversary of the kidnapping with a fresh appeal last Thursday for their release.

Peter Moore, an IT consultant from Lincoln, and four unidentified men guarding him were seized from the finance ministry in Baghdad on May 29 last year.

The source confirmed that all five are “alive and well” despite a threat in December to kill one of them unless British troops were withdrawn from Iraq.

But he said negotiations with British officials had been suspended since late last year after it became clear that they could not secure the release of Qais al-Khazaali, a former chief spokesman for the Shi’ite Mahdi Army, who is held by US forces.

According to another source in Baghdad, the kidnappers responded to an appeal by Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, last month by sending a letter to an influential Iraqi government official.

It was intended to be passed to Canon Andrew White, the Anglican vicar of St George’s Church in Baghdad.

However, the source linked to the captors said they had since decided to halt dealings with White because they no longer trusted him to act as an independent intermediary.

The source urged the hostages’ relatives to consider the needs of the Iraqi prisoners’ families. “The kidnappers sympathise with the families of the captives but they also call on them to sympathise with the families of the men imprisoned by coalition forces,” he added.

He said the families should urge the British government to press America to release Khazaali and his associates.

Khazaali was detained after apparently masterminding a raid on a US base in which five Americans were killed. According to the source, Khazaali was in charge of a Mahdi Army special forces group known as Asa’ab Ahel al-Haq.

The source said Khazaali was not a murderer but had been “resisting occupiers” who had killed Iraqi civilians.

He dismissed reports that the hostages were being held in Iran. “We assure everyone that the five men are being held on Iraqi territory,” he said.

“Neither the Iranian government nor any Iranian group is or was linked with the hostage issue. They were not involved in the kidnapping, are not privy to the location and have no influence over any negotiations.”

31 May 2008 - Silence won't release the hostages

2008-05-31T10:13:00.003Z

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article4036051.ece

The Government's low-level diplomacy is unlikely to work in Iraq. A public campaign is needed

Brian Keenan

One year has passed since five British citizens disappeared into the mean streets of chaotic Baghdad. This is hell and hell has no exit doors. I wonder how those five invisible men - whose names have not even been officially released by the Government - celebrated their first year in Hades. Most of us rarely have nightmares. They disturb us in our sleep for a little while; then they are gone, unconscious phantoms play-acting in the dark side of our psyche.

But for five men in Baghdad the nightmare is no fantastic projection of the mind. For them the nightmare is very real and they are the ghosts who inhabit it second by second, week by week, month by month, enduring a gruesome eternity to find that it has only been a year, one long utterly terrifying and horrific year. The news footage of one of the hostages speaking to camera resurrected nightmares that I had long since forgotten.

Why has it been a year? That's the big question that every one of the hostages is asking himself. Then they start drowning in an ocean of whys. Why am I here? Why doesn't someone do something? Why do they treat me like this? Why don't they understand that I am human, not an animal? And so it goes on until you start beating your head against a wall, trying to numb yourself from all the questions.

The answer to all those questions lies in that well-worn phrase, “the British Government does not talk to terrorists”. Though why it should continue to assert this is beyond me. It is not only irresponsible, it is a lie.

Britain has frequently consorted with so-called terrorists in its history. In my own country, Ireland, it has now admitted to having secret meetings with leading IRA figures. It negotiated with Israeli terrorists who were shooting British troops in Palestine before the establishment of Israel. Britain has a long history of talking to the enemy. Lines of communication are always opened up with the enemy tent. It is how wars are progressed to their ultimate conclusion. Every conflict is always and only resolved by dialogue. Talking and listening are the only and ultimate arbiters. They need to be meticulously, honestly and openly worked out.

The five men chained up in Baghdad have to do it every day with their captors, their companions and, more painfully, with themselves just to survive and stay sane. So who are their captors, who describe themselves with shadowy Islamic acronyms? They don't see themselves as terrorists but as fighters against an army of occupation, responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. So the Iraqis fight back against the overwhelming might of the invader with the only weapons they can. Hostage-taking is ammunition and five human beings have been caught up in this hideous firefight between misguided military adventurism and equally misguided religious and national fervour.

It is absurd that anyone can talk of a softly-softly, low-profile diplomatic approach while British and American troops are patrolling the streets and their tanks are bulldozing an already bulldozed city. Softly-softly, low-profile approaches have a place but they work only when they move quickly. After a year you're probably getting closer to nowhere than to getting anyone out of anywhere. The Middle East is a mercurial place. Things change suddenly, events happen quickly and in a very real sense nobody has any grasp of reality. The longer the captivity goes on, the harder it becomes to focus: too many people have too many irons in the fire.

A public campaign should be raised on behalf of the five hostages whose families have been kept out of the public gaze. It could represent, in a tangible, collective way, the public's deepening uncertainty about Iraq. But that could also explain why the Government insists on a quietly- quietly approach.

Public campaigns are good for the hostage. Just to know that out there people care is powerfully sustaining. It gives you hope, a sense of a future, a reason to live. It's good for families, for they too are helplessly locked up. They need to be assured that their husbands, sons or brothers are cared about and that the British Government values all its citizens. Public campaigns are also very good for collective morality. They empower people to be actively and personally concerned about issues that are more important than the sordid politics of neocolonialist enterprises.

Governments don't like such public campaigns. Governments love high-sounding rhetoric, such as not doing business with terrorists. They love talk of democracy, freedom from oppression and a people's right to choose their own future. But they don't like it when the public demand that they act upon such cherished idealism - especially when it is something as inconvenient as five human beings trying to survive in a godforsaken, filthy corner of the Earth.

I watched the hostage speaking on the grainy video. I tried to study his eyes. Eyes tell you everything about a man. The footage was too short and the image unclear. I couldn't read his eyes, but I can tell the reader this. You can die in captivity without someone killing you. When you are facing into another year in hell, another piece of you dies.

Brian Keenan was kidnapped by Islamic Jihad and held hostage for more than four years in Lebanon

30 May 2008 - Hostages: a year in captivity

2008-05-30T09:43:00.002Z

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article4029475.ece

It has been a year since a group of armed Iraqis, disguised as police, burst into the Finance Ministry in Baghdad and seized five Britons. Little was known of the kidnappers, who called themselves the Islamic Shia Resistance, and little has been heard since their abduction of the hostages. Apart from two videos, which included a threat that one man would be killed if British troops were not withdrawn from Iraq, little has been heard of the captives. Their names have not been released. Their families have not appeared on television. Their plight remains largely unknown. It is little wonder that, in the words of one of the men named only as Jason, the hostages feel that they have been “forgotten”.

The publicity blackout is deliberate. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office insisted from the start that this low-key approach would make negotiations easier and was less likely to jeopardise the men's lives. One year on, it is time for the diplomats to think again. The British Ambassador in Iraq yesterday virtually admitted the point: “It has been a long and extremely difficult year for these men's families, who only wish to have their loved ones back.” And the families themselves have now issued a joint appeal for the men's release, to try to remind the world that, whatever negotiations are still going on behind the scenes, the kidnapped victims seem to be no nearer to freedom.

A case can be made, at various times and on various issues, that quiet diplomacy achieves the best results. It is hard to see what it has yielded in this case. Publicity, by contrast, can be a powerful tool. It is certainly one understood by the zealots and criminals who have kidnapped hundreds of foreigners and thousands of Iraqis in the past five years. They have ruthlessly and gruesomely exploited the anguish, the feelings of helplessness and the frustration of governments and families alike. Indeed, as Terry Waite, a former hostage in Beirut, remarked, when someone is seized, it is not only the individual who is captured - the whole family is taken hostage.

Undoubtedly the vigorous and admirable campaign mounted by the BBC in support of Alan Johnston, its correspondent in Gaza, played a key role in turning Palestinian opinion against his kidnappers and stepping up the efforts on the ground to locate him. Kidnappers seize people either for publicity or for money. Those counting on the publicity - the threats, the violence, the videos and the deadlines - hope that their brutality will intimidate their enemies, bolster their standing and demonstrate their ideological commitment. But if there is no subsequent publicity, the hostages lose their value to their captors. Men callous enough to use such tactics have little compunction in killing diminishing assets.

There is a further obvious reason why the softly-softly approach has made little headway. The Foreign Office no longer carries any clout within Iraq. Britain's diminished military role and its self-effacing political influence have given militants intent on driving out Westerners little reason to fear or to heed reaction in London. The hostages have become instead pawns in the drive by the Iraqi Government to establish its authority and crack down on gangs and militias. In such a climate, it is vital that these men are not forgotten. The appeals, especially by Lord Carey of Clifton, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, and Canon Andrew White, the Anglican chaplain to Iraq, give moral authority to the campaign to publicise the captives' plight, in Britain and in Iraq. Now it must continue until they are free.

29 may 2008 - Video appeal by Pete's family

2008-05-30T09:23:00.001Z

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/7425902.stm

The family of hostage Peter Moore have made an emotional appeal for his release on the anniversary of his abduction.

29 May 2008 - Relatives remember kidnapped Britons

2008-05-29T13:33:00.002Z

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7424860.stm

It is exactly one year this Thursday since five British men were kidnapped in Baghdad's Finance Ministry in broad daylight by more than 40 gunmen disguised as policemen.

The Britons - a computer expert and his four bodyguards - are believed to be held by an offshoot Shiite militia calling itself "The Islamic Shiite Resistance in Iraq" and demanding the release of fellow militiamen in US custody.

Their plight has received little public attention apart from two videos released by the kidnappers and a small number of appeals by relatives and religious figures.
But now for the first time, the men's families have gathered together for this anniversary to speak exclusively to the BBC.

Sister's appeal
Lisette, the sister of Jason, the hostage who appeared in the first public "proof-of-life" video in December flanked by two unidentified gunmen, was first to speak.

She said: "Please, please release my brother, he's a father, a son, and a brother to myself.
"We miss him dearly. You know, make the 12 months... give him back, let him come home to his family. We really miss him, there's not a day, or a minute or anything that goes by without us thinking about Jason. We really want him home."

The five Britons were driven away that day in a convoy towards the sprawling Shiite district of Sadr City.

Within hours, Iraqi police cordoned off whole streets and carried out a series of raids, but in vain.
The kidnappers eventually made contact, calling for the release of a man called Qais Al-Khazaali and other Shia figures held by US forces.

Yet they asked for a media blackout and the British government complied, wary of doing anything that could jeopardise the captives' safety.
Since then, hostage negotiators have been quietly conducting a dialogue with intermediaries in Iraq.

They say the kidnappers are not extremist fanatics, they are behaving professionally, they have negotiable aims and appear to want to keep their prisoners alive and well-treated for an eventual exchange.

'Shell shock'
One year on since the kidnap, Colin, the father of another hostage, Alec, is still hoping for a peaceful outcome.

"Well we've got to believe that the outcome's going to be positive. And we do believe that. I think that the initial shock - the first week - was a complete blank.

"To be honest, we were so shocked by the news. Because, like every individual, one often thinks it will never happen to you, it will always happen to someone else.

"When the reality sets in that it's actually your son, things pale into insignificance for the first three days, shell shock.

"As things develop you sort of live with it, although you never completely get used to it, you've got to live with it, otherwise it will destroy you.

"So as a family we are very strong and positive that he will return. And we just hope that it will be sooner than later."

Good memories
In fact all the families are trying hard to stay strong. For them, this last year has been a living nightmare, made worse by the scarcity of any news.

But rather than wringing their hands in despair, they want to cheer the men up with memories of good times they hope will be repeated.

This was Jan, a friend of a third hostage who, confusingly, is also called Jason.

"My favourite memory of Jason I remember when his daughter was born, just seeing the look on his face. I'll never forget that as long as I live, when his only daughter was born.

"The look of happiness. I was the first person in there after she was born and it was a really poignant moment for me, a moment I'll never forget, just the look on his face when he held her.... yes he loves her dearly, his only daughter.

"She loves him very, very much as well and misses him massively."

Another relative, Caroline, spoke of her brother-in-law, Alan.

"I think about Alan as somebody who's a very vibrant personality, lots of enthusiasm, very much a risk-taker. Loves motor-biking, sky diving, in fact I think his daughter has inherited that from him. Last year, they were due to go on holiday and do some sky diving."

That appointment, she says, is on hold until he gets out. When that will be, nobody but the kidnappers can tell.

As so often happens with hostage situations, it's a case of waiting, hoping and praying.

29 May 2008 - Iraq abduction anniversary marked

2008-05-29T09:17:00.002Z

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7424947.stm

The families of five British men being held hostage in Iraq are marking a year without their loved ones. The civilian contractors were kidnapped by armed militants at the Iraqi Ministry of Finance in Baghdad.

Some of their friends and relatives have marked the anniversary with an exclusive interview with the BBC.

In it, the sister of one man, named only as Jason, has pleaded for the kidnappers to release her brother, saying: "We miss him dearly."

Jason's sister, Lisette, told Radio 5 Live: "Give him back, let him come home to his family.

'It will destroy you'
"We really miss him, there's not a day, or a minute or anything that goes by without us thinking about Jason. We really want him home."

A man identified only as Colin, father of a hostage named Alec, told the radio programme he had to "believe that the outcome's going to be positive", but described how he went into "shock" when he heard his son had been seized.

"When the reality sets in, that it's actually your son, things pale into insignificance for the first three days, shell shock," he said.

"As things develop you sort of live with it, although you never completely get used to it, you've got to live with it, otherwise it will destroy you."

I'll never forget that as long as I live, when his only daughter was born

A friend of another of those held tells how much the man, also named Jason, loves his only daughter and how much the child misses her father.

She recalled her favourite memories of her friend: "My favourite memory of Jason, I remember when his daughter was born, just seeing the look on his face.

"I'll never forget that as long as I live, when his only daughter was born."
And Caroline, the sister-in-law of another hostage, Alan, described him as someone with "a very vibrant personality", who loved motor biking and sky diving.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office says sensitive negotiations for the men's release are going on behind the scenes.

But earlier this month, the father of one of the captives accused the government of not keeping the families fully informed.

One of the hostages has been named as IT consultant Peter Moore, from Lincoln, who was working for Bearingpoint, an American management consultancy.
The other four men, who were employed by a security firm to guard Mr Moore, have not been officially identified

Over the past 12 months the kidnappers, calling themselves the Islamic Shiite Resistance in Iraq, have released two videos of the captives.

In December, a film was broadcast on Dubai-based TV station Al-Arabiya warning one hostage would be killed unless British troops were withdrawn from Iraq.

Media blackout
One of the men, who said his name was Jason, was shown in the clip complaining that the kidnapped men felt they had been "forgotten".

A second video, broadcast by Al-Arabiya in February, showed Mr Moore asking Prime Minister Gordon Brown to free nine Iraqis in exchange for the Britons' release.

The threat to kill the hostage was apparently not carried out.

The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, took the unusual step of recording a direct video appeal to the kidnappers earlier this month.

The case has not featured in the media as much as other kidnappings in Iraq - including those of Ken Bigley and Margaret Hassan - because of a Foreign Office request for minimal coverage, made in keeping with the wishes of the men's families.

The kidnappers had asked for a media blackout and the Foreign Office said it did not want anything to get in the way of its negotiations, through third parties, to get the men released.

Link to videos

2008-05-29T09:15:00.001Z

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7425116.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7424972.stm

29 May 2008 - Britain makes one-year anniversary appeal for release of hostages in Iraq

2008-05-29T09:09:00.002Z

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article4025016.ece

Britain made a fresh appeal today for the release of five British men who were kidnapped exactly one year ago from a finance ministry building in Baghdad.

Christopher Prentice, the British Ambassador to Iraq, said: “The British Government remains committed to working for the release of all those held and I appeal again to those responsible to release these men, in order that they may return home.” The hostages, Peter Moore, a computer consultant, and his four security guards, were seized by a gang of about 40 gunmen wearing police uniform from the Finance Ministry compound in a brazen mid-morning attack on May 29, 2007.

The kidnapping sparked a major manhunt by US, British and Iraqi forces that is still ongoing. The men have yet to be found, however. There is speculation that the five might have been taking to a hideout in Iran.

Mr Prentice highlighted the plight of the men’s loved ones back home.

“It has been a long and extremely difficult year for these men’s families, who only wish to have their loved ones back home, safe from their ordeal,” he said in a statement timed to coincide with the first anniversary of the kidnapping.

The Ambassador repeated an appeal for information.

“Here in the British Embassy in Baghdad, and in our consulates in Basra and Irbil, we wish to hear from any person who has information about these five men or anyone who may be able to bring about their safe release.” The comments come just over a week after the former Archbishop of Canterbury broke a year-long government news blackout to appeal directly to the group holding the five “forgotten” hostages.

Lord Carey of Clifton released a video statement through Times Online in which he greeted the hostage-takers as “honourable men” and “men of faith”.

The former Archbishop was accompanied by Canon Andrew White, his former Middle East envoy and now Anglican chaplain to Iraq. Canon White has devoted much of the past year to working with Iraqi religious and tribal leaders to try to open lines of communication and engage in dialogue with the hostage-takers.