Let's Compare Shall We

Abu Ghraib or the newest issue, Marines standing over dead Taliban.  Inquests, hearings, jail time versus ... we're sorry, they tried to escape and we shot them dead.

Barbarism.

A mentality they would like to spread around the globe.

Body of Iraq hostage Alan McMenemy handed over to Baghdad embassy

Conal Urquhart and agencies

Friday 20 January 2012 18.00 EST

Alan McMenemy, whose body has been handed over to the British embassy in Baghdad. The security guard was kindapped and taken hostage in Iraq in 2007

The body of a Briton, who was taken hostage in Iraq and later killed, has been handed over to the British embassy in Baghdad, it was announced on Friday.

Alan McMenemy, a security guard from Glasgow, was abducted in 2007 as he and three colleagues were guarding a computer consultant working in the Iraqi ministry of finance. Scores of militia men disguised as police officers took over the ministry and abducted the five Britons.

The bodies of Jason Creswell, Jason Swindlehurst and Alan MacLachlan were transferred to the British embassy in 2009. Peter Moore, the consultant, was released alive the same year.

David Cameron said: "It is with great sadness that I can confirm that the British embassy in Baghdad received a body today that has been identified as Alan McMenemy, who was kidnapped in Baghdad in 2007, along with four other men."

"My thoughts are with Alan's family and friends at this time. They have waited so long for his return and I hope that this will allow them to find some peace after an ordeal that no family should ever have to suffer."

An inquest in 2011 heard that Creswell, Swindlehurst and MacLachlan, were subjected to mock executions, regularly beaten and kept chained and blindfolded for long periods before they were shot dead by their captors.

Moore told Channel 4 News this month that when he was released he was told McMenemy's body would be handed over at the same time. "We've been waiting for the body for a long time. When I was released I was told by Qais al-Khazali [the leader of the militia that abducted the men] that the body would be released with me, and obviously that never happened," he said.

Clearly the leader of the pack doesn't feel enough for these men to keep his word and release the body for a Christian burial.  Although I am certain he would demand the release of a dead pack member to bury according to Islamic custom.

"So I've been waiting for the body to be released. It's so long, it's never going to go away from any of our lives. But it is important to move on. We don't have to forget but we have to keep living, and this is the end of the chapter, sort of thing. It's the end of the book."

Rosaleen McMenemy, Alan's widow, said: "Our families have suffered terrible uncertainty and distress over the past four years and eight months. We have worried about Alan every single minute of each waking day. We now know that we will shortly have Alan home again. This will allow us to properly grieve for him and we will draw some comfort from the fact that we have him home at last."

Earlier this year, Qais al-Khazali, the militia leader, apologised for the deaths. He said the four guards were killed when they tried to escape from their captors. "The brothers told me that those four bodyguards tried to escape … they took advantage of a negligent moment and took the weapon of one of their guards and the clash ensued and led to this result. We honestly are sorry for that incident," he said.

"Peter Moore was in another place. They [the kidnappers] knew how important he was and they were expecting a raid or something else. In addition to that, Peter was a civilian and they knew that it was unexpected that he would be any kind of risk. But the confrontation happened with the four guards and led to all of them being killed."

It is not clear why the militia waited more than two years to hand over the body of McMenemy.

In his statement, Cameron noted that the families of Margaret Hassan and Ken Bigley, who were also killed in Iraq, were still waiting for the return of their bodies.

iraq