Changing the title of this to Canadian beheadings thread

Politics International Politics
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ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/s … TopStories

Canadian abducted in Pakistan pleads for life in video
Updated Fri. Mar. 20 2009 11:26 AM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

A Canadian woman being held hostage in Pakistan says time is running out and her militant captors will behead her soon if a ransom isn’t paid.

Vancouver’s Beverly Giesbrecht, who converted to Islam and is now known as Khadija Abdul Qahaar, has been held since November.

The independent journalist was kidnapped at gunpoint while doing freelance work for the Al Jazeera Arab network, in a tribally ruled region of northern Pakistan.

“We have very short time now. I am going to be killed at any time as you can see the dagger,” she says in the video, referring to a knife hung on the wall behind her.

Giesbrecht’s captors have demanded a ransom and the release of Taliban prisoners, in exchange for her return.
According to some reports, the Taliban will free her for US$375,000 in ransom.

The 52-year-old pleads for her life in the video, saying her fate will be the same as Piotr Stanczak, a Polish engineer who was executed last month.

“I am going to be beheaded just like the Polish engineer, probably by the end of the month. The deadline is by the end of March, and that’s basically, I don’t know, 18 days or 16 days,” she says, closing her eyes.

“I’m not quite sure how long that is but the time is very short and my life is going to end.”

The short video was sent to The Globe and Mail.

:frowning:

Say it ain’t so.
Pakistan sure is a dangerous place. I have always wanted to visit. Some people have told me that the news is exaggerated and it really isn’t that bad.

I used to think Canadians didn’t get beheaded. I used to think being Mulim-friendly would save you.
I used to think being Anti-American would save you. This woman was the poster child for Muslim accomodation. Why are they beheading her?

I just found out about this story but I guess she was kidnapped in November. how come Canadians never talk about it?

VIDEO: liveleak.com/view?i=5cf_1237578950

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This article gives me hope for Canada:

The Canadian government, it may be mentioned here, has reportedly refused to either negotiate with Taliban militants or pay them any ransom for the release of its national. Rather, it pledged to send its own security personnel to assist Pakistani law-enforcement agencies in their efforts for recovery of the aged lady journalist and her two Pakistani helpers. The Taliban demanded two million dollars for her release.

Government officials said the Canadian government in a letter to the Pakistan government refused to either negotiate or pay any ransom to the kidnappers.
thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=167914

I hope Canada’s finest burst in there and kick some Taliban butt. :fume:

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I don’t get it. The country can pledge umpteen amounts of dollars to get a company out of shtuk because of the financial crisis so that their employees don’t have to lose their jobs, but they can’t save a woman’s life for a few more printed up dollars because that would be immoral?
Seems odd to me when I don’t believe there is any morality when dealing with money these days.

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Are these really Taliban or just bandits? No political demands - all they want is money.

My brother lived in Peshawar for a while. Rather him than me. I’m really glad he got out of there before it got this bad.

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Good point Juba. Long time no see BTW.

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They are Taliban militants.

What really rips me up is that this woman was a citizen journalist who went to Taliban country to try and understand the Taliban after the anti-Islamicness of the post-911 world. She went there as a peacemaker. She didn’t go to fight the taliban, she went to extend the olive branch to them.

Canadian. Peacemaker. Open-minded towards Islam. Respectful. Female. And they kidnap her and threaten to chop off her head.

If a woman like this cannot go there and be safe then none of us are safe. It kills me.

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Since when has conflict ever made sense?

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You seem quite sure of this. Since nothing in the article would substantiate this, is your belief based on insude knowledge?

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You seem quite sure of this. Since nothing in the article would substantiate this, is your belief based on insude knowledge?[/quote]

I don’t have any insude knowledge. It’s just in a lot of news stories about her. This is a big story outside of Asia.

here:

‘Please help me,’ Taliban hostage begs Posted: Friday, March 20, 2009 12:25 PM
Filed Under: Islamabad, Pakistan
By NBC News Mushtaq Yusufzai
PESHAWAR, Pakistan – “I am Khadija Abdul Qahaar. I am a convert to Islam. I have been advised to make this video. I am going to be killed at anytime.” So began a chilling video released on Wednesday by Taliban militants who are holding Qahaar, a Canadian woman, hostage somewhere in the tribal areas of Pakistan.

worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/ … 44071.aspx

:unamused: I hate that MSNBC use her Islamic name. Her given name is Beverly Giesbrecht.

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I don’t know what the rules here are from posting things from other forums, but this thread on the topic from
councilofexmuslims.com/index … pic=4726.0
is worth a look.

their poll:

[quote]Question: How should Canada respond to Beverly Giesbrecht’s kidnapping? Pay the ransom in full. 0 (0%)
Hire drunk Russian anti-terror mercenaries to “rescue” her. 2 (8.7%)
Respond to Taliban only in french. 4 (17.4%)
Offer them $375 to keep her. 6 (26.1%)
Demand taliban pay a dowry for her. 11 (47.8%)

Total Voters: 15
[/quote]

a response that I think is in bad taste but I just want to share it:

[quote]I would have hoped you all vote for option #5 you cheeky bastards. In Canada, we spent all those moneys and years to educate her at little expense to her family, to offer her top notch free universal care, to elevate her in our society as a woman like few others can, and gave her a pedesal from where she can freely ooze her opinions. And now the least thing we deserve is a goddamn dowry. and the dowry better be in a currency we can pronounce, but we can take chicken and mountain goats.

They can keep her. She probably fell for Stockholm’s syndrome already and probably few hours after her capture. By now they got her convinced she is working for them trying to get them money for their cause, and that she will become famous in the process.

To make the best of this situation, we want some money from the taliban instead of giving it to them, and then we want them to keep her. Pay us a dowry damnit. According to islam, the dowry should only go to the woman. But we are not muslims.

[/quote]

I still feel sorry for her. I feel sorriest most of all for what it means for the rest of us. Do I have to be afraid to go to Bali now?

EDIT: I think those quotes I posted are in bad taste. But I think the fact that an ex_Muslim forum talks like that is interesting.
I hope she is still safe at the end of the month and gets home and therapy somehow.

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I think you may missed the point. The term Taliban does have a precise meaning. It isn’t really relevant to me that journalists use it to describe every armed group of Afghanis not aligned with the USA. Perhaps you can understand that some readers might then find it strange the way you attribute Islamic principles groups whose only identification comes from journalists.

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Oh, I think she “understands” them now alright.

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It seems like she is being painted as an innocent victim in this, which she is not. She ran a website called “Jihad Unspun” in which she called American and Canadian military forces the real terrorists and painted the Taliban as “freedom fighters”.

Her story is tragic, but her decisions come with consequences.

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She was allowed to place a phone call to the Globe andf Mail on Satellite telephone yesterday.

theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ … ional/home

so, excuse me Scott, for being mislead. Perhaps you can sort this out and tell us who the kidnappers really are, yes?

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You seem to be taking this a little personally. Perhaps forumosa’s too rough a place for you. I’m just surprised that Ms. Giesbracht is now an expert on these matters. I don’t believe it’s standard practice for kidnappers to identify themselves to their victims, do you? Why do you think she had any better idea of who had taken her than your typical reporter has of Taiwan affairs? My experience has been that journalists are surprisingly uninformed people - especially citizen journalists. I generally disregard any interpretation that journalists spin onto things they see, unless I have some other reason to believe it.

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I think your tone is belittling and unkind. The rest of the posters here are A-OK with me.

I’d like to get back on topic as this story develops with anyone else who doesn’t enjoy personal attacks.

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[quote=“petrarch1603”]It seems like she is being painted as an innocent victim in this, which she is not. She ran a website called “Jihad Unspun” in which she called American and Canadian military forces the real terrorists and painted the Taliban as “freedom fighters”.

Her story is tragic, but her decisions come with consequences.[/quote]

That might be why the government isn’t too keen on paying ransom for her. It could end up being used to fight Canadian forces. :fume:
They are in diplomatic talks of some kind.
I just feel so soory for her family. This is the worst thing I can imagine happening to a sister or daughter regardless of the decisions she had made.

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The plot thickens…
altmuslim.com/a/a/d/2987/

[quote]Taliban kidnappings
Irony, thy name is Giesbrecht
Posted by Zahed Amanullah on March 24, 2009

Terror unspun

You may not have heard of the bizarre case of a Canadian hostage held by the Taliban, somewhere along the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan, and threatened with beheading by the end of the month. Kidnapped in November of last year, the hostage has released two videos pleading for her life and urging the Canadian or Pakistani governments to meet the Taliban’s demands. It was the Taliban who recently beheaded a Polish engineer when their demands to release fellow Taliban prisoners was not met.

But this new hostage is not your usual Western infiltrator. It’s Khadija Abdul Qahaar, formerly known as Beverly Giesbrecht, a 52-year old convert to Islam and editor of a controversial website that has, for the past seven years, raised eyebrows on both sides of the Muslim world-Western divide. The site, jihadunspun.com, is devoted to criticizing the “war on terror,” though by doing such things has reprising Al Qaeda’s views of events and expressing support for… the Taliban.

All this makes Giesbrecht’s situation so difficult to get one’s head around. Many critics (including a fellow site sympathetic to Al Qaeda) have long suspected that the site is a CIA front designed to entrap curious visitors, something which Giesbrecht denies. Yet now, she is threatened with death by the very people whose story she sought to tell - and not for the release of political prisoners, but for $2 million ransom. The Taliban, reportedly, is suffering from the credit crunch like the rest of us.

So is Giesbrecht’s capture a genuine and unfortunate turn of events, or a money-raising publicity stunt? It’s one thing for the Taliban to behead a foreign (male) worker. It’s quite another to kill a Muslim woman, especially one with a plausible and documented sympathy for the Taliban’s activities. Giesbrecht complained of lack of progress by Canada or Pakistan towards her release in her videos, but for those aware of her sympathies, cooperation between Giesbrecht and the Taliban seems a little too plausible. Giesbrecht is no Margaret Hassan.

In all likelihood, the Taliban can’t afford to bluff, having already crossed the beheading threshold with the Polish engineer (who Giesbrecht also refers to in her videos). Money is money and hostages are hostages. Giesbrecht now seems destined for an unusually ironic and cruel fate, one that establishes both the principles of the Taliban - and those like Giesbrecht who supported them - as woefully and tragically misguided.
[/quote]

What depresses me most aboout this whole debacle is that it is positive proof that appeasement doesn’t work. Obama are you listening?

To claim that a Canadian woman from Vancouver could possibly be a CIA front - have these people ever been to Vancouver? I imagine Vancouverites are still sipping their lattes talking about how Islam is a beautiful religion. :unamused:

Maybe she is cooperating with the Taliban, after all.

She’s a real woman. Isn’t Harper going to do anything?

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According to the The Globe and Mail:

jihadunspun.com/index.php
Apparently this plea for cash was the site’s last output since her kidnapping.

[quote]
An Urgent Request From Khadija Abdul Qahaar
Oct 22, 2008
By Khadija Abdul Qahaar | Jihad Unspun

Assalamualeikum Wa Rahmatulahi Wa Barakatu

In The Name Of Allah The Most Gracious The Most Merciful

Dear Brother And Sisters,

May this reach you in the best of health and strongest of Imaan. Ameen.

I apologize for writing this letter of request particularly to you those of you who has been such a great contributor to our site but unfortunately I must. As you know, the JUS team is in Pakistan making a documentary film and shoring up direct contacts for our news report which have become very weak in recent years due to third hand reporting and a variety of other challenges.

While we have made tremendous progress, Pakistan is now erupting into a full scale war zone. We have been in some very sensitive areas and even Islamabad is now locked down. As foreigners we must leave the country however we do not have the funds to get out. Our visas are expiring and they will not be renewed as the Canadian and British embassies are demanding all foreign national to leave due to the security situation.

Allah knows that I really dislike having to ask but please know how hard we work for Allah. We have managed to get very good material out of the country to our production group but our physical safety is now paramount. I make this personal and urgent appeal to you to send whatever ontribution you can to assist us to return to Canada and Britain (I am Canadian, our other member with me is from Britain and we also have some local Pakistanis who can not leave the country I am afraid). As a woman, I have already had a few close calls in the tribal areas as kidnappers and thieves are running loose even in Peshawar but alhamdulilah Allah has helped us.

This matter is urgent and inshaAllah I can count on our good supporters to help. Again I must apologize for having to make this request but at this time I have no other alternatives. With no family, it is my brothers and sisters that I must turn to for help. Please

This war is coming to each and every Muslim and the Ummah must act as one hand. I urgently ask that you assist us as a means of honouring the obligation that currently exists for every Muslim to protect our blessed deen. We serve a great and Mighty God, the one and only Allah who is capable of raising up His true servants. Please answer our call for His sake.
May Allah reward you for assisting us to safety in this important work. Ameen.

For Paypal contributions and credit card processing, please go to

jihadunspun.com/articles/200 … rtner2.php

For contributions through Western Union, please contact khadija@jusonenews.com for details.

Brothers and Sisters, we desperately need your help! Please answer this urgent call.

Khadija Abdul Qahaar
Publisher, JUS[/quote]

I wonder if Allah is going to help her…
:ponder:

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Ya lay down with dogs…you wake up scratchin flea bites.

Sin loi