The Iraqi rebels show me their latest victim: a German in a pool of blood

[seemslikeadream]

By Lee Gordon
(Filed: 11/04/2004)



It is only minutes since a white Japanese 4x4 vehicle was forced off the road and its two occupants, both German, killed in a firefight and their bodies dragged from the vehicle when it burst into flames.

Now, a mile away, I have been brought to the scene of their deaths by the heavily-armed mujahideen rebels who oppose the presence of coalition forces in Iraq but have allowed me to live alongside them for two days.

Yards away, the Tigris coils gently through the green countryside; on another day it might be an idyllic spot for a picnic. Under the blazing sun, however, the victims lie stretched out in a lay-by off the highway. Nearby, six Iraqis are digging their graves.

The identification badge in one victim's wallet shows that he was a 25-year-old German. One side of his face is caked in blood. His body is punctured by bullet holes.

An argument is raging between several young Iraqis and the mujahideen commander, a man in his forties with clear blue eyes who tells me he is a former Iraqi special forces officer.



Only yesterday did I learn that German officials were still looking for two of their staff who had gone missing on the way from Amman, the Jordanian capital, to the German embassy in Baghdad. According to some German media reports, the men were anti-terrorist commandos, trained in hostage release


more
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/04/11/wirq11.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/04/11/ixnewstop.html

[seemslikeadream]

1. US hostage faces execution

Justin McCurry in Tokyo and Martin Bright
Sunday April 11, 2004
The Observer


Pictures last night of two blood-covered bodies were said to be those of two men from the German embassy in Baghdad who went missing on Wednesday on a road near Falluja. The two were embassy guards. German television claimed they were members of Germany's elite anti-terror GSG-9 security force.

The first pictures were released last night of the British man missing for six days, who is believed to be this country's first victim of the hostage-taking spree that has marked the escalation of the conflict in Iraq.

Fears have grown over the fate of Gary Teeley, 37, a British civilian contractor working as a consultant to a Qatari laundry firm in the southern Iraqi city of Nasariya.

Teeley was working at an American airbase near the city. Foreign Office officials confirmed his disappearance last Thursday, but have had no further news.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1189963,00.html

[saigon68]

7. Wonder if these Elite Germans belong w/ these guys

The SS Men wore black uniforms with a skeleton's head on their hats, the motto Unsere Ehre heisst Treue on their belts and their symbol was the double S-rune. They had sworn eternal faith to Adolf Hitler and they were his most ruthless henchmen, men often seen as the very personifications of evil. A violent group who rose to power in a democracy and established institutions of legitimized terror.

[Kellanved]

16. no

IMHO a rather tasteless comparison.
Beside: the GSG-9 is an elite police unit, not a military one. The main difference is that, by German law, Soldiers can be send to their death, while policemen are not required to risk their lives.

[saigon68]

17. So why are they in Iraq-Nam then?

Sorry if you think its tasteless.

My father got his ass torn up fighting the NAZIS.

I have little sympathy for thugs who parade around like NAZIS

[Robbien]

2. That was a riveting article

One comes away with the feeling that no negotiated settlement with the interim government will ever be satisfactory for the young men of Iraq. It is all or nothing now.

[seemslikeadream]

3. yes it was, and there's more of the story but I can't log in

During the ensuing high-speed chase, gunfire erupted between the Iraqis and the convoy. When the Iraqis, using rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire, hit the tyres of the last vehicle it swerved off the road and pulled up by a small building that was once a school. There would be no escape.

Only yesterday did I learn that German officials were still looking for two of their staff who had gone missing on the way from Amman, the Jordanian capital, to the German embassy in Baghdad. According to some German media reports, the men were anti-terrorist commandos, trained in hostage release.

Here in the lawless Sunni Triangle, the mujahideen had been on edge, waiting nervously for US marines to launch a powerful attack in the area in retaliation for the murder of four American security contractors in Fallujah, a hotbed of anti-American resistance west of the Iraqi capital. Even though I was British, and therefore deeply suspect, the mujahideen had agreed to let me live among them in a small town a few miles from Fallujah, giving me a rare insight into their way of life as they braced themselves for American reprisals.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/04/11/wirq11.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/04/11/ixnewstop.html

[Dirk39]

4. "Anti-terrorist commandos"

Hello from Germany,
if the information we get here in Germany is correct, these guys were just securing the german embassy, not supporting the so-called coalition forces. According to the german media, it's still not sure that the two missing guys are dead. To me it seems to be sure that they are dead, but I don't know, if I should believe the information given about their job.
I'm with the Iraqis anyway. In a asymetrical war, they have no other weapons.
Dirk

[seemslikeadream]

6. Thanks so much Dirk

please post if you hear anything else, like what firm they work for, thanks


I guess its these guys?

[Barrett808]

5. In spite of the lurid headline, this is a rather sympathetic story

At 6pm, my driver and I pulled off the main road in our battered Toyota and spotted a heavily pregnant woman, her husband and mother struggling with baggage. The 19-year-old woman had been walking since 8am. Dehydrated and exhausted, she weaved slowly behind her husband and, when we offered a lift, almost fell into the car.

Their house had been burned almost to the ground after being struck by a mortar bomb. A nearby mosque had also been hit, causing dozens of casualties, said the woman's 32-year-old husband.

Another man, Ali Hussein, a former army officer, said his family had left behind all their possessions. His brother and his brother's family were missing. He would return to Fallujah to join the mujahideen after leaving his family in Baghdad.

Everywhere, we heard the same story. Desperate families, terrified of what was to come, abandoning their homes. Some hoped to reach Baghdad; others hoped to stay with families in nearby villages - now blocked by advancing troops.

The happy face of collective punishment. This will haunt the US for generations.

[Robbien]

8. There was also the part about the sniper

picking off pedestrians and drivers of cars on the road. This part was a little unclear, but thoses snipers are US troops? Probably so, but that is no way to fight a war honorably.

[0007]

9. I'd like to hear the outcome, very interesting.

[seemslikeadream]

10. Two German security men missing

The two went missing near troubled Fallujah Wednesday.


German media reports Saturday said they were part of a convoy driving from Amman, Jordan, to Baghdad three days ago.

The reports said the rest of the convoy made it safely to the embassy, a small office where a handful of diplomats are working.

ARD television reported that the two were agents with GSG-9, an elite counterterrorism unit trained for freeing hostages and other commando missions.

Germany's ZDF television said the two missing people were believed to be embassy guards.

One of the men is 38-years-old and the other is 25. They were arriving for a normal rotation at the embassy, the German Foreign Ministry told CNN.

Reuters reported that an Iraqi newspaper printed pictures of two men who went missing on April 7 on a road near the volatile Sunni town of Fallujah
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/04/10/iraq.missing.germans/index.html


About Global Trade Solutions, Inc.
Global Trade Solutions, Inc. provides security and safety oriented products and investigative services.

The President and CEO Gerald Heigenhauser was born in Salzburg, Austria and attended the Austrian Military Academy. Upon graduation, Mr. Heigenhauser worked for two elite military units, Germany's GSG9 and Britain's SAS. Mr. Heigenhauser went on to study at Oxford University in preparation for a career as a diplomatic aide.


Mr. Heigenhauser worked for Secretary of State Casper Weinberger, and for General Colin Powell, then U.S. General for N.A.T.O. Mr. Heigenhauser has also been called upon by the Vatican as a consultant on highly sensitive issues involving business activities throughout Europe.

In 1997, Gerald Heigenhauser moved to Chicago, Illinois with a vision of using his varied experiences and talents to build a unique company - a company that could bring together manufacturers and end-users of security related technology worldwide.
http://newsroom.eworldwire.com/view_release.php?id=10122

[seemslikeadream]

15. Note to self

About Global Trade Solutions, Inc.
Global Trade Solutions, Inc. provides security and safety oriented products and investigative services.

The President and CEO Gerald Heigenhauser was born in Salzburg, Austria and attended the Austrian Military Academy. Upon graduation, Mr. Heigenhauser worked for two elite military units, Germany's GSG9 and Britain's SAS. Mr. Heigenhauser went on to study at Oxford University in preparation for a career as a diplomatic aide.


Mr. Heigenhauser worked for Secretary of State Casper Weinberger, and for General Colin Powell, then U.S. General for N.A.T.O. Mr. Heigenhauser has also been called upon by the Vatican as a consultant on highly sensitive issues involving business activities throughout Europe.

[daleo]

11. Normally, I wouldn't recommend the Telegraph

It was formerly owned by Conrad Black and has Richard Perle of PNAC fame on the Board of Directors. But this was a surprisingly good, objective story - perhaps because the reporter had promised to be fair and objective, reporting only what he saw. Breaking that promise wouldn't be healthy.

Here are a couple of representative paragraphs:

"The mujahideen, many of them grandfathers, shopkeepers, young men and even boys, were at first deeply suspicious of me, a Briton in their midst. They had tailed my car in three battered Japanese saloons, each full of armed and masked men, gunbelts over their shoulders."

"We do not hate the Americans and British, we hate the ideas they have brought here. We will now fight every person who tries to bring those ideas, including the Iraqi Governing Council.
"We do not want their capitalism, we do not want communism. We have our own ideas about how we want our country to be run in a Muslim way. We support the Shia leader Muqtada Sadr, not because of his ideas; they are not good or bad. We are supporting him with money, weapons and men because he is against the Americans."

[dArKeR]

12. German men 'may be dead' - News24

Berlin - Two members of Germany's crack GSG-9 security police team serving with their mission in Baghdad have gone missing and may be dead, German government officials confirmed on Saturday.

From Amman, it was reported that the two were last seen when their diplomatic convoy was pounded by rockets and gunfire last Wednesday.

A driver who had been with the convoy described how it was attacked near the rebel bastion of Fallujah, where US forces were on Saturday engaged in a seventh day of fierce combat against insurgents.

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,6119,2-10-1460_1510777,00.html

[dArKeR]

13. Coalition control crumbles in Iraq - MG

A year after seizing Baghdad with much fanfare, United States-led forces struggled on Friday to maintain crumbling control of much of central and southern Iraq against stiff resistance from Sunni and Shiite insurgents.

Occupation troops, facing a June 30 deadline for restoring Iraqi self-rule, were locked in fierce fighting or forced to back off in cities west, east and south of the capital as well as the key southern port of Basra.

The scenes of combat were in stark contrast to images of confident US troops rolling through the capital a year ago on Friday, greeted by enthusiastic Iraqis as they toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein.

http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=33983

[seemslikeadream]

14. Kidnappers set deadline for killing hostage

Kidnappers set deadline for killing hostage



By Colin Freeman in Baghdad and Philip Sherwell
(Filed: 11/04/2004)


As the rash of kidnappings continued, two teams of armed ex-Special Forces soldiers were sent into Iraq last night on undercover rescue missions to extract British workers from the country. One team was sent to retrieve members of a prominent City law firm, the other to bring out workers from a major British building company.

"We have Japanese, Bulgarian, Israeli, American, Spanish and Korean hostages," said a masked and armed man. "If America doesn't lift its blockade of Fallujah, their heads will be cut off." He added: "We announce the killing of four soldiers and we have the bodies."


Bodies are littering the streets after six days of clashes that have claimed hundreds of lives. Five fighters from Egypt, Sudan and Syria were among 60 guerrillas detained by US marines. Battles flared in Baghdad as insurgents fought US troops in the Adhamiya district, a Sunni stronghold.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/04/11/wknap1...

[mistertrickster]

18. Looks like Bush was right--"you're either with us, or against us."

The Iraqis are apparently against us . . . and anybody who aids and abets us. Duh.