Japanese Hostages still under threat of death

[mtnester]

April 11 — DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Jazeera television broadcast an interview with a man claiming to have visited leaders of guerrillas holding three Japanese prisoners on Sunday, who said they told him they would kill the hostages within 24 hours.

A man described as Muzhir al-Duleimi, head of the League for the Defense of the Rights of the Iraqi People, told a correspondent for Al Jazeera in Baghdad that previous reports that the hostage-takers were about to free the Japanese had been untrue.

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/reuters20040411_80.html

Meanwhile:

Cheney Monitors Hostage Crisis From Tokyo

TOKYO (AP) - Vice President Dick Cheney was pledging U.S. support to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in pressing ahead with plans to double Japan's noncombat forces in Iraq despite the furor over the abduction of three citizens, U.S. officials said Sunday.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3965614,00.html

NOTE: The Guardian post above is DIFFERENT than it was earlier this morning. Earlier, it mentioned organized protests in Japan on Cheney's visit, but that reference is gone now. I wish I would have pasted that text earlier, so you only have the word of what I read this morning to go on.

[brainshrub]

1. The Japanese need the oil even more than we do.

They are in Iraq to stay.

[Onlooker]

2. This is so terribly sad

From the little I read, the Japanese are apparently naive, young idealists who were visiting Iraq for humanitarian reasons. They are being held by sadists. If the "Defense of the Rights of the Iraqi People" kill them, they're not going to win over any hearts. If they kill them by burning them alive, then it will make it easier for many people to understand the harsh measures taken by the occupation forces. I got one will begin to care less, believing that this is a war between unjust forces.