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Artykuł pochodzi z pisma "Guardian"

Deadline for Briton facing Iraq execution

Blair admits 'new conflict' has begun

Luke Harding in Baghdad and Steven Morris
Monday September 20, 2004

Last-ditch attempts to save the life of a British man being held hostage by Iraqi militants were under way last night as a deadline set by his kidnappers loomed.
The families of Kenneth Bigley and the two Americans being held with him begged the kidnappers not to carry out a threat to execute the men when the deadline was reached in the early hours this morning. The Foreign Office took the rare step of putting up an official to make an appeal for help on the Arabic satellite television station, al-Arabiya.
In Iraq officials said authorities were pursuing a number of leads in connection with the kidnapping of the men, who were shown blindfolded and bound in a video released at the weekend. British and US special forces were also thought to be standing by.
Despite George Bush declaring that combat operations were over more than 16 months ago, the growing hostage crisis and insurgency led Tony Blair yesterday to talk of a second war.
In a joint press conference with his Iraqi counterpart, Ayad Allawi, who was on his first visit to Britain yesterday, he said coalition forces were engaged in a "new conflict" now that the "first conflict" to remove Saddam Hussein was over. But the battleground of this fight was global terrorism versus "the side of democracy and liberty".
Fears for Mr Bigley were raised last night when two more videos were released by militants. One purported to show up to 18 members of the Iraqi national guard, who were being held by extremists. The captors claimed they would be killed unless a detained Shia leader was freed.
The second showed the beheading of three Kurdish Democratic party members, possibly seized near Baghdad.
Mr Bigley, an engineer from Liverpool, was kidnapped from the house he was sharing with colleagues Jack Hensley and Eugene Armstrong in Baghdad on Thursday. The men worked for the Qatar-based company Gulf Supplies and Commercial Services.
In a video transmitted by the al-Jazeera TV on Saturday, they were shown blindfolded, with their hands bound.
Al-Jazeera said the men were being held by the Tawhid and Jihad group. It reported the extremists had threatened to kill them within 48 hours unless women prisoners were released from Abu Ghraib and Umm Qasr prisons.
Mr Blair and Mr Allawi said they were doing everything they could to secure the release of the men. But the Iraqi foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, said giving in would set a "very bad precedent". Speaking on the BBC's Breakfast with Frost, he said: "Really our policy is not to negotiate with the terrorists."
In a Foreign Office transcript of the appeal by Mr Bigley's family, his younger brother Philip said: "I'm here today to speak on behalf of our mother, Lil, who's 86 and is too distressed and too confused to give this statement. My mum just wants to see her son home safe and sound."
He added: "Ken has enjoyed working in the Arab world for the last 10 years in civil engineering and has many Arabic friends and is understanding and appreciative of the Islamic culture ... He wanted to help the ordinary Iraqi people, and is just doing his job."
FO official Dean McLoughlin, an Arabic speaker, also appeared on al-Arabiya, to appeal for information. He said it would be dealt with "in the utmost secrecy".
In contrast to French officials, who launched a high-profile diplomatic offensive across the Middle East after two French reporters were kidnapped a month ago, British diplomats have worked quietly behind the scenes.
An official in Iraq said: "We are in the office from early in the morning until after midnight collecting information."
In Saturday's video Mr Bigley sat slumped on the floor of a white room next to the two Americans. A gunman wearing a black hood pointed his Kalashnikov at one of the men before reading their demands.
The Tawhid and Jihad is allegedly linked to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the radical Jordanian who the US accuses of plotting attacks in Iraq.
The group's ultimatum that all female prisoners be freed is baffling. The last woman in Abu Ghraib, Huda Alazawi, who is interviewed in today's Guardian, was freed in July. The US is holding only two females at Baghdad airport - Rihab Taha and Huda Amarsh, both senior scientists who worked on Saddam's alleged biological weapons projects.
More than 100 foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq recently - some 30 executed. At the weekend militants allegedly holding the two Frenchmen said the men had been freed but had chosen to stay and report on the resistance.
The Salafi Brigades of Abu Baqr al-Siddiq yesterday said it was holding 10 hostages working for a US-Turkish firm.

allegedly - przypuszczalnie, rzekomo
baffling- kłopotliwy, zdumiewający
battleground - pole bitwy, pole walki
behind the scenes- za kulisami
blindfolded - z zawiązanymi oczami; to blindfold- zasłaniać oczy, zawiązywać oczy
bound- związany; bind (bound, bound)- zawiązywać, związywać, przywiązywać
captor - porywacz
carry out - wykonać, zrealizować
counterpart- odpowiednik (osoba o analogicznym stanowisku)
deadline - ostateczny termin
hostage - zakładnik
insurgency - rebelia, powstanie
last-ditch - ostateczny
launch - uruchomić, wprowadzić
lead - tu: ślad
loom - nadciągać, zbliżać się, zagrażać
on behalf of - w imieniu (np. mówić w czyimś imieniu)
precedent - precedens
purport - twierdzić, zapewniać
pursue - gonić, ścigać
resistance- opór
safe and sound- cały i zdrów, w dobrym stanie, w dobrej formie
secrecy- tajemnica
seize - zatrzymywać, porywać, aresztować
slump - załamywać się, opadać, ciężko siadać
utmost- najwyższy, największy
versus - kontra, przeciwko

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