5 Britons kidnapped in Iraq

[faceless]

Apparently 5 British armed security guards were taken hostage in Iraq last week and are still missing. Does anyone care? You can guarantee they were being paid very well for their time and understood the risks, so why should they be given coverage on the news? They might as well have been playing Russian roulette for the amount of sympathy they'll get from me...

[luke]

4 of them are from the massive mercenary army in iraq, private military contractors

america has as many black water mercenaries in iraq as they do troops!

when they give you the dead in iraq, they never include the mercenaries - as the numbers of them in iraq are the same i'd expect the number of them dead are around the same. you've got a mad situation where army peeps are leaving and joining black water because you get paid loads more - and your not accountable. a mercenary can kill an iraqi civilian, gets sent back, then can come back the week later - no charges, nothing.

funny how they say keep saying they were taken by 80 'men wearing police uniforms' ... i think they just mean police, but they can't say that - because there on our side, according to the media. watch them hype up al qaeda or links to iran, with no evidence ... to the media the iraqi resistance doesn't exist, its all terrorists or al qaeda or iran

its like in vietnam where in the end the americans had lost any support and everyone was against them, there was some big base raid they pulled on the americans - and could do it because all the people working in there ( non americans ) were on the side of the resistance - same as is happening in iraq now.

[alan1254]

I know quite a few of these guys several of those companys operate from here, so many employee's come home for 'R&R' every few weeks, they are amazingly well paid and are only to well aware of the risks nearly all are ex special forces and are well used to these extreme conditions, I dont begrudge them the money and think that if your going to do that it should be for as much $ as possible, but it is obvious that to make that kind of money there must be great personal risk and a high level of skill required but by definition there must be casualties unfortunatly.

[major.tom]

There may be an argument to be made that they are at less risk than regular soldiers (better equipped, smaller, stealthier groups, etc.). But undoubtedly they're under less constraints and utterly immune from prosecution for wrong-doing. In a land rendered virtually lawless by Dubya and Blair, the mercenaries are at its apex (or, more appropriately, its depth).

[faceless]

ok, so in related news there has been a video released of Alan Johnson, the BBC reporter who was kidnapped a couple of months or so ago. I do actually care what happens to this guy, even if he was being paid well to put himself in the 'firing line' as he genuinely did try to help the people around him.

The video suggests that he is well and being looked after - which is great to see. I've just watched Bliar from some press conference in South Africa where he expressed his pleasure at the news... bit like a drunk-driver saying "That was lucky" after realising he hadn't caused yet another death...

[alan1254]

[maycm]

[Mandy]

[major.tom]

I care about the fate of Alan Johnson as well. The only photos I saw were fuzzy, but he didn't look exceedingly thin or anything. If there are no obvious signs of mistreatment and the video says he's being treated well, we should give them the benefit of the doubt.

Although I'm not sure why they think holding him will achieve anything but a propaganda win for Israel, Great Britain and the U.S.

[faceless]

I think the way he speaks in the video with more than a hint of his usual presenting style says more about his state than anything. He didn't appear to me to be indicating anything bad in his subtleties.

Even the BBC pretty much validated it as current and valid by mentioning the fact his hair had grown back and that he looked pale compared to the most recent pictures before now (pale in that he's a white guy who's not been in the sun, that is - not from being ill or badly treated).

And you're right major - his kidnapping was a completely idiotic thing and I hope the people who know those who did it treat them as such.

[Mandy]

[faceless]