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| Britain | |
| Saddam's men filmed murder of two soldiers in 2003 | |
| 2006-10-03 | |
| IRAQI officers loyal to Saddam Hussain filmed their cold-blooded murder of two British bomb disposal officers who were captured after a roadside ambush. An inquest was told that Staff Sergeant Simon Cullingworth, 36, and Sapper Luke Allsopp, 24, thought that they were being taken to hospital for treatment, but instead they were moved to a compound run by Saddam’s military intelligence. The harrowing ordeal lasted for hours until Iraqi agents killed the pair. The soldiers were buried in a shallow grave. At the inquest yesterday the coroner, Andrew Walker, severely criticised army chiefs for failing to ensure that the soldiers avoided driving into alZubayr, which is known as a lawless town. Other British convoys had already been attacked there. Mr Walker said “The failure to adequately plan for and warn of the dangers was, in my view, a contributory factor to their deaths.” Last night the Ministry of Defence denied that their commanders had been negligent, saying that members of the convoy had been given a detailed briefing of the risks they faced. A spokesman said: “During operations, by the nature of the complex, dangerous and challenging environment in Iraq, no amount of preparation or familarisation will entirely diminish the level of risk.” The deaths in March 2003 led to a public row when Tony Blair accused the Iraqis of executing the soldiers. The Army had told next of kin that the men had been killed instantly in combat. Details revealed during the two-day inquest in Oxfordshire appear to suggest that Mr Blair was given an accurate version within hours of the killings. The coroner ruled that the men had been unlawfully killed.
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| Posted by:Steve |
| #8 It couldn't possibly be Zenster in disguise, there aren't any names in boldface, and he generally misspells cusswords to be polite. Besides, Tony(UK) has 5 pints in him at the moment, and strong opinions always. ;-) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-10-03 21:35 |
| #7 Zenster, stop using Tony's name! |
| Posted by: Darrell 2006-10-03 21:12 |
| #6 Fuck this 'detailed briefing of the risks they faced' - they were murdered in cold blood. Level alZubayr, salt it and seed it with anthrax. Execute the murderers, dismember the corpses and bury the bits in the rubble. Why should we abide by the GC? |
| Posted by: Tony (UK) 2006-10-03 20:35 |
| #5 Right on anon5089. Actually none of our enemies have adhered to the Geneva Convention. Don't forget about Japan's and Germany's many atrocities. NoKors- no, Chi Com- no, Vietnamese- no. It's not worth the paper it's printed on. |
| Posted by: texhooey 2006-10-03 15:35 |
| #4 Gc is NOT a one way street. Problem is we have not enforced them. Because GC essential premise is that violating them must not pay: if you violate them you are no longer protected by them AND you are a war criminal who can be shot in the act. |
| Posted by: JFM 2006-10-03 15:21 |
| #3 Please, do tell me, when exactly was GC upholded by a single adversary of any given western army since say WWII? The only one I can think of is the argentineans during the Falkland war. Not a single commie "people's liberation army", not a single muslim army, not a single african army. Gc is a one-way street, unless you're dealing with an another western army (heck, even the germans during WWII were more observant of GC, at least with allied prisoners, than any of those mentioned above)... and it is the way it should be, for the tranzis, IE an another cord holding down Gulliver, western soldiers (especially US ones, or worse, joooooos) fighting with an arm tied behind their back and under the microscopical scrutiny of the msm (think of the coverage of even one single paleo death, or each and every bomb going off in irak), while there's NO expectation of "fair play" or basic decency from their adversaries. Btw, Captain Ed has a good observation, the UK really should prosecute saddam, if only out of respect both for those two men, and to respect the spirit of the GC by making the iraqis pay the piper. |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2006-10-03 15:08 |
| #2 Iraq signed the Geneva Convention in 1956, I believe. Didn't help them, did it Senator McCain? I'm sure that it's the US's fault somehow. Maybe they're not treating them nice enough yet. |
| Posted by: gorb 2006-10-03 15:01 |
| #1 Captain Ed has good commentary on it |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-10-03 13:21 |