 A Jordanian held hostage in Iraq for more than two weeks has called on King Abdallah II to save his life by freeing an Iraqi woman held over the hotel bombings in Amman, according to a video broadcast on Arabic television yesterday. âI appeal to God and to the Jordanian government and its head his majesty the King, to take pity on me and exchange me for the prisoner Sajida Al-Rishawi,â said the hostage, identified as Mahmud Salman Saaidiyat.
| I think an appropriate response would be "Saaidiyat dies, Rishawi dies the same way." I know that won't happen, of course, but it would be appropriate. It would also negate the value of taking hostages in exchange for jailbirds, wouldn't it? |
The man, a driver for the Jordanian ambassador to Iraq who was snatched in south Baghdad on Dec. 20, was speaking in a videotape shown on Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television. In a statement accompanying the video read out by Al-Arabiya, the group said it was again extending its deadline âin response to appeals from the hostageâs wife and from other insurgent groups,â but gave no new expiry date. The kidnappers, known as the âHawks Brigade,â had already twice announced three-day extensions, once on Dec. 26 and again on Tuesday. âI express my thanks to the resistance for extending their deadline,â the hostage said in the video footage.
| "It's pretty nice, having my head on my shoulders..." |
Rishawi was arrested by the Jordanian authorities after the November triple bombings in Amman and later shown on state television making a confession about her role in the attacks which killed 57 people plus the bombers, one of them her husband, Ali Hussein Al-Shammari. |