This is the story of the last moments of Atwar Bahjat, a well-known Iraq T.V. reporter, who was murdered in Samarra in February. Apparently, the video just surfaced on this.
Warning: This is going to be fairly graphic.
Bahjat, a reporter from al-Aribiya was kidnapped after making live broadcasts from the edge of her native city of Samarra on the day the Golden Mosque was blown up. Apparently she had enraged the Shi’ite militias during her coverage of the bombing of the Samarra mosque by showing the interior minister, Bayan Jabr, ordering Iraqi police to release two Iranians they had arrested.
She was noted for her balanced reporting,and her background-half Shia, half Sunni- gave her a unique insight into both camps. Now that this film of her death has surfaced, there can be no illusions about how she died. Or of the evil nature of the people that killed her.
This account was written by a friend of hers that saw the film:
"Two men drove up in a pick-up truck, asking for her. She appealed to a small crowd that had gathered around her crew but nobody was willing to help her. It was reported at the time that she had been shot dead with her cameraman and sound man.
We now know that it was not that swift for Bahjat. First she was stripped to the waist, a humiliation for any woman but particularly so for a pious Muslim who concealed her hair, arms and legs from men other than her father and brother.
Then her arms were bound behind her back. A golden locket in the shape of Iraq that became her glittering trademark in front of the television cameras must have been removed at some point — it is nowhere to be seen in the grainy film, which was made by someone who pointed a mobile phone at her as she lay on a patch of earth in mortal terror.
By the time filming begins, the condemned woman has been blindfolded with a white bandage.
A large man dressed in military fatigues, boots and cap approaches from behind and covers her mouth with his left hand. In his right hand, he clutches a large knife with a black handle and an 8in blade. He proceeds to cut her throat from the middle, slicing from side to side.
Her cries — “Ah, ah, ah” — can be heard above the “Allahu akbar” (God is greatest) intoned by the holder of the mobile phone.
Even then, there is no quick release for Bahjat. Her executioner suddenly stands up, his job only half done. A second man in a dark T-shirt and camouflage trousers places his right khaki boot on her abdomen and pushes down hard eight times, forcing a rush of blood from her wounds as she moves her head from right to left.
Only now does the executioner return to finish the job. He hacks off her head and drops it to the ground, then picks it up again and perches it on her bare chest so that it faces the film-maker in a grotesque parody of one of her pieces to camera."
There are some other details of Bahjat's death. She had nine electric drill holes in her right arm and 10 in her left. And the drill had also been applied to her legs, her navel and her right eye. Hopefully, these mutilations were done after her death.
The electric drill is said to be a favorite torture implement for the Iranian-backed Badr militia.
She was only 30 years old.
When I read or hear about something like this, I remember that Islamic evil victimizes Muslims more than anyone else, and it baffles me that the entire Muslim world doesn't come forward and condemn this kind of barbarity..not only with mere statements but by actively outing and destroying the jihadis in their midst. I call on them once more, difficult as it is, to choose sides in this war and to make that stand...for this is a war on them, as well as on the rest of us.
This is just another reason why we must fight the pure evil this kind of murder represents. That's what it's about. And that's why we must win. The consequences for losing this war are simply unimaginable.
This is what happens when evil remains unchallenged. We need to remember that.
Hat tip to the Mudville Gazette
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