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Season Four Research Files
Episode Two
8:00am - 9:00am
Iraqi extremists have been sending out videotaped messages of hostages demanding that their home countries remove troops from Iraq. Although most American news outlets refuse to show the footage, videos have been spread over the internet and broadcast on Arabic TV station Al-Jazeera.
Recent videos have shown a Polish hostage held in Iraq, which demanded that Poland remove all its troops and that Iraqi female prisoners be released. A Japanese hostage who was shown in a video says that his captors would behead him in 48 hours unless Japan withdraws its troops from Iraq, a demand Tokyo rejected. Al-Jazeera broadcast a videotape showing what it says is an American contractor of Lebanese origin held hostage in Iraq. Humanitarian worker Margaret Hassan, an Irish-British-Iraqi woman who appeared in a video on Al-Jazeera, pleads for Britain to act to save her life.
American businessman Nick Berg was decapitated on film in 2004, and the footage was subsequently released on the internet, reportedly by the Islamic organization al-Ansars. His killers claimed that his death was carried out to avenge abuses of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison. A group claiming to be al-Qaida posted a video of another American businessman, Paul Johnson, on an Islamist website. Johnson was blindfolded, and a man armed with an AK-47 could be seen next to him. Johnson made some statements similar to the ones made by Berg in his video.
In 2002, CBS News set off a fierce debate when it aired portions of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl's hostage video -- the same one where Pearl's captors behead him. That portion was not shown. CBS News obtained the video through a Saudi Arabian journalist who found it on an Arabic website. According to those who have seen the entire tape, Pearl is clearly being forced to make certain statements.
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