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Original poster

Kenneth Bigley - finding this so, so distressing

122 replies

Tinker · 23/09/2004 19:07

Am finding myself thinking a lot about what this poor man and his family must be going through. Absolutely hideous terror. Really couldn't sleep last night, kept dwelling on it.

OP posts:
Original poster
Tinker · 08/10/2004 18:37

Found the press conference by the family in Liverpool very upsetting, think they have been amazing under such strain.

OP posts:
blossomhill · 08/10/2004 18:38

Really don't think I can watch it
Why do I feel so sad about someone that I have never met??

lilibet · 08/10/2004 18:40

I really didn't think that it would happen, I thought that there would have been some mileage in releasing him as it would stir up trouble in America, "the British managed to get their man out, why are all ours being killed"

But I was wrong

AuntyQuated · 08/10/2004 18:40

how very sad...have just watched the 6 o'clock news; his family are amazing, they have done everyhting possible to try and get him released. even knowing TB didn't help, they said that he and the gov had done all they could.
i hope the press listen to him and leave them alone after today. i for one won't be buying a paper tomorrow. leave the poor family alone.

MistressMary · 08/10/2004 18:43

i'm in floods here. What the hell is this life coming to? I'm sick to the very core and I really don't want to bring our children up into this environment. However there is little choice.

Uhu · 08/10/2004 19:32

Just watched the C4 news and the family have shown such stoicism and dignity. I hope the media will leave them alone and respect their privacy.

It appears that the government did enter into dialogue with the kidnappers through an intermediary but whilst this was going on, they killed Mr Bigley. They have played the media and used it as oxygen to maximise publicity. They no doubt led the government on through this ruse to enter into dialogue. At the end of the day, Mr Bigley's fate was sealed from day one and these medieval barbarians are not interested in negotiations of any kind. They are murderers, pure and simple and will go anywhere in the world to satisfy their psychopathic bloodlust.

Socci · 08/10/2004 22:32

Message withdrawn

JanH · 08/10/2004 22:39

One of Ken Bigley's brothers has been quoted as saying "Please, please stop this war and prevent other lives being lost. It's illegal. It has to stop. Tony Blair has blood on his hands." I don't see that and it deflects responsibility away from where it belongs.

nutcracker · 08/10/2004 22:51

I really don't follow politics at all or stuff about the war and whos right or wrong e.t.c, but i am so very shocked by this and i just keep thinkng how awful he must of felt that his own country didn't help him.

littlemissbossy · 08/10/2004 23:08

I don't usually get involved in politics either, but this really is horrendous... btw nutty it turns out the government was in contact with the kidnappers... but only in the last few days which was probably too late. Although I think Ken Bigley's fate was decided 3 weeks ago

Socci · 08/10/2004 23:20

Message withdrawn

nutcracker · 08/10/2004 23:23

Yeah i know LMB i just can't help thinking how let down he would have felt.

I mean if i were in trouble like that i would expect my country to come and get me, but like i said i don't really know enough about it, just hate to think of him feeling so abandoned iykwim.

littlemissbossy · 08/10/2004 23:29

Nutty, IKWYM, it's hard to imagine what he must have gone through and the ending's so barbaric.. it's just too awful to think about it

Socci · 08/10/2004 23:32

Message withdrawn

marthamoo · 08/10/2004 23:45

I am no great fan of TB but I really don't see what else he could have done. To give in to these people would have been to open the floodgates and make the world a more dangerous place for all of us. Tbh, I think the poor man was dead as soon as he was kidnapped. There is no reasoning with terrorists.

scaredmum · 08/10/2004 23:53

this is horrific and terrifying.Without going into too many details we have close family living in the middle east.Everytime something like this happens,we get scared because we think 'there but for the grace of god..'
They have chosen to be there and could come home but choose not too.We have to respect their decision but it makes me very angry .and scared.

FeelingAngry · 09/10/2004 00:26

Scaredmum ... I feel for you ... I really do ... but I don't have that much sympathy for the people who insist on staying in such dangerous places when they don't have to.
What are they trying to prove? The Kenneth Bigley thing proves that no one is safe ... no one. Why cause so much grief for your family when you don't have to?

scaredmum · 09/10/2004 00:31

fa, their argument is that if they leave then the terrorists have won.They have achieved their aim of destabilising the region.Which is all very well but I do fervently wish that they would come home.But it's their life, I guess.

scaredmum · 09/10/2004 00:32

and when I say angry, I mean angry with them.

aloha · 09/10/2004 09:18

Uhu, the peace process in Northern Ireland preceeded 9/11 by many years (Clinton was involved!). The two are not connected in the slightest. It is not true to say that 'because US funding dried up, the IRA was forced to seek an agreement'. This is in no way in support of the IRA, or the government for that matter, but an historical fact.
As for no sympathy with people working on reconstructin in Iraq, well, as Westerners have blown the place to bits, desroying the infrastructure that we tend to take for granted (clean water on tap, lighting, electricity etc) I hardly think it is fair to accuse the people who are working to restore it as somehow being mercenaries. I would rather blame those who wrecked the country rather than those who were quietly trying to rebuild it.
And yes, it's the most horrible, sickening news, but does it make it such a specially terrible world to bring our kids up in? Is it worse than in ancient Rome when women were disenfranchised, and there were slaves kept specially to be killed for entertainment? Or in the 1930s 40s when Hitler and Stalin were involved in their mass murders and genocides? The world has always been a pretty terrible place in that way but people still like living here. Even poor Ken Bigley had a pretty good life until his horrible end.

BigCookBen · 09/10/2004 09:21

On the radio news this morning it said that there'd been unconfirmed reports that KB had been killed after he was caught trying to escape "with insider help". Anyone heard any more about this?

Caligula · 09/10/2004 15:57

Yes, there have been several news reports that he tried to escape with the help of one of his captors, which was possibly the catalyst for his death. Maybe they got jittery. Who knows.

Socci · 09/10/2004 20:51

Message withdrawn

hmb · 09/10/2004 21:05

I think that they put them on the internet because they want the act to continue to terrorise. It is no accident that they choose a murder method that will cause the maximum revulsion in the west.

They want to destroy the West and they will try to do it by terror.

KateandtheGirls · 09/10/2004 22:20

It's very sad, of course, but I don't understand why anyone would put themselves in the position that he did knowing what could happen.

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