{"id":318,"date":"2004-11-05T23:35:35","date_gmt":"2004-11-06T05:35:35","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=318"},"modified":"2004-11-05T23:36:44","modified_gmt":"2004-11-06T05:36:44","slug":"iraq-insurgents-call-for-hassans-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=318","title":{"rendered":"Iraq Insurgents Call for Hassan’s Release"},"content":{"rendered":"

The terrorists in Iraq are reportedly hoping to save a hostage’s life<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The militant group al-Qaida in Iraq purportedly called Friday for the release of the kidnapped executive of the CARE charity, Margaret Hassan, and promised to free her if she fell into their hands.<\/p>\n

In a message posted on the Internet, the group led by Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said it wanted the world to know “if (the kidnappers of Margaret Hassan) handed us this captive, we will release her immediately unless it is proven she was conspiring against Muslims.”<\/p>\n

“We are demanding that those who are in charge of her release her unless she is proven to be an agent. If guilty, they should show that to everybody so as not to attribute something to our religion that is alien to it,” the message said.<\/p>\n

The authenticity of the statement could not be verified, but it was signed “al-Qaida in Iraq” and appeared on Web site known for publishing messages from Islamic militant groups. The person who posted it used the pseudonym Abu Maysara al-Iraqi \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the name usually associated with statements from al-Zarqawi’s group. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Are the Islamists suddenly having a change of heart and looking to do their good deed of the day? Hell no. As I stated before<\/a>, they have stumbled badly and are in danger of cutting their own feet out from under themselves. The Iraqi nationals are very opposed to the kidnapping and threatening of the humanitarian Hassan. Knowing that they will now face constant pressure from the Iraqi government and the coalition following President Bush’s re-election, the terrorists are grasping at straws to maintain any local support that they can. The murder of Hassan, while tragic, would only serve to strengthen the government’s hand and undermine the terrorists.<\/p>\n

No, there is no change of heart for the heartless, but evil can be driven to do good out of desperation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The terrorists in Iraq are reportedly hoping to save a hostage’s life. The militant group al-Qaida in Iraq purportedly called Friday for the release of the kidnapped executive of the CARE charity, Margaret Hassan, and promised to free her if she fell into their hands. In a message posted on the Internet, the group led […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-middle-east","category-war-on-terror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}