Allen September 28th, 2004
Recently two journalists were captured by Ansar al-Islam and tortured for several days. I read about it first at Rantingprofs. Cori Dauber quotes extensively from the New York Times article.
The New York Times article singles out Zeynep Tugrul in their article:
Ms. Tugrul, a diplomatic affairs correspondent with the daily newspaper Sabah, was freed last week by Iraqi kidnappers after four days of terror and hope, surviving the double pressure of arguing for her own life while trying to protect a Canadian colleague.
She and Scott Taylor, the publisher of a military affairs magazine in Canada, spent most of their captivity together in the northern Iraqi towns of Tal Afar and Mosul, and in desert shantytowns in between. After being handed from one group of captors to another, they were separated on Sept. 11, the day of her unexpected and unexplained release. Mr. Taylor was let go the next day.
…
Ms. Tugrul could communicate with her captors, at least the Turkish-speaking armed men who held her until the last day. And she shared their religion, although the militants considered her too independent to be a Muslim woman except in name.
None of those factors saved her from being beaten or threatened with beheading. But they gave her a close-up view of the kidnappers’ fascination with death, their view of Islam and the links between ethnically diverse insurgents in northern Iraq.
“These are people who think they are living in the time of the Crusades,” Ms. Tugrul recalled in a four-hour conversation at an Ankara cafe this week. “They say they are fighting for Islam first and Iraq second. They think their religion is being attacked.”
…
All those who held them, she said, were equally hostile to anyone they called kafir, or infidel. Again and again, they lashed out at Mr. Taylor, calling him a “Jewish pig” or an American spy.
“For them, there’s no difference between a Christian and a Jew, a Canadian and an American,” Ms. Tugrul said.
The original kidnappers in Tal Afar appeared ready to release her and Mr. Taylor once they were convinced they were journalists, but other groups expressed only bottomless hate.
“The last group,” she said, shuddering as she recalled how they kicked her and whipped her with a spiked belt, “they just wanted to torture for nothing.”
Ellipses mine. If you examine the NY Times article, you will see to the side a photo of the grief-stricken Ms. Tugrul.
I noticed in the article that Scott Taylor publishes a military affairs magazine in Canada. I googled him and found a bountiful harvest. (Note: Skip the M. Scott Taylor — different person).
I note that Chris has long been an opponent of the war. Christopher Deliso interviewed him for antiwar.com and wrote the following:
Update on Another Downturn in Morale
CD: In the past you have especially noted the poor morale of US soldiers on the ground. Is morale getting better or worse, in your opinion? And did Bush’s much-hyped Thanksgiving visit raise spirits as much as the media said it did?
ST: Every American soldier would have known instantly that the Bush visit was a pile of stage-managed crap. At even the best protected US headquarters, the troops are required to take their weapons and webbing everywhere. You won’t see them head to the toilet without a rifle. But at Bush’s turkey slicing, there wasn’t a weapon in sight. Obviously it would have sent a different message to the US public to see their soldiers hunkered down in fear as they are in reality. If Bush indeed was even really at the Baghdad airport, his plane must have departed a long time before they released the “live” footage of Bush’s speech. (My Iraqi driver lives very near the airport).
For the average Iraqi citizen, the content of Bush’s speech was very symbolic. “This means the US is now claiming to be still winning the war that it claimed to have won back in May” was how Lela Al Saadi (my driver’s wife) summed it up.
CD: Did any soldiers comment specifically on Bush’s visit?
ST: One comment that I got from a US soldier about Bush was in regards to the 21 November peace rally in London, England. “If I could have been there I would have helped pull down that (mock) statue myself,” said Sergeant Nystrom, a 24 year-old serving with the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Kirkuk. It is interesting to note that every one of the dozens of US personnel I spoke with claimed they were going to get out of the Army as soon as possible. One female Military Policewoman even asked if Canada would accept AWOL US troops as “refugees” from the war.
CD is Christopher, ST is Scott Thomas.
His military affairs magazine, Esprit de Corps takes pains to show pictures of civilian causalities and has a feature article on Scott’s ordeal. I recommend that you read his account of the story. I found most interesting this passage (the following is not for the squeamish):
Zeynep whispered that these new men were not Turkmen but Arabs, as she no longer understood their conversation. Mubashir made some sort of statement to them on our behalf and then bade us farewell. He and his men were heading back into Tal Afar to join the fight.
Within minutes of his departure, the Arabs burst into the room and roughly blindfolded me. As I tried to protest, I was kicked in the ribs, knocking the wind out of me. “Shut up American spy!†shouted my assailant.
For the next hour, I was interrogated – beginning again with their presumption that I was either a CIA or Mossad spy. I gave all the possible details of my identity and when asked how I could confirm these “lies†I told them to research my writings on the Internet. In particular, they could not believe that I had written features for al-Jazeera’s website. Although intense, I was relieved when the questioning had ended without any physical force being used. I was premature in my assumption.
I had barely removed the blindfold and taken a sip of water when five men rushed back into the room. I could see the batons and ropes, but I had no time to react before I was pulled to my feet. When I attempted to resist, my feet were knocked out from under me, and I was savagely kicked. They blindfolded me and gagged me with a headscarf. My hands were tied behind my back and I was rolled over with my feet up in the air – tied to a pole. Two men held the pole up when two others began beating my feet with straps and batons.
At first I could not see the blows coming. In his pent up fury, one of my attackers struck my face several times with his fist knocking my blindfold aside. I mentally promised myself not to give them the satisfaction of hearing me scream until after the 20th blow. I bit down hard on the cloth and focussed on counting rather than the pain. I kept my promise, but on the 21st strike I screamed out, “F - - k!†the cloth muffling the sound somewhat. With each successive blow I uttered the same expletive. They deliberately hit the same spot on my thigh repeatedly. For the first four or five blows the pain would increase incrementally and then the final strike would force an involuntary convulsion. I could feel the pain explode in my head and my body jack-knifed upwards reflexively.
In these instances I found myself blurting out “Jeeesus Christ!†through my gritted teeth. I lost all track of time – I could have been tortured for 5 minutes or 25 – I have no real conception of the actual duration. I do remember that despite the excruciating pain in my legs, I kept fearing that the next blow would be to my genitals. With my legs splayed apart and upended I felt incredibly vulnerable. When the beating finally stopped, I felt a tremendous sense of relief that they had not used the batons on my crotch.
After my feet were cut loose, I was roughly pulled upright and the interrogator handed me a pen and paper. “You will write down all the websites you think might help to confirm that you are in fact a Canadian journalistâ€, he said. I made some remark that I would have gladly done so without the beating, but my attempt at black humour was wasted.
I had been badly beaten and as I walked out of the anteroom back into the main parlour, most of the Arab ‘pupils’ had gathered to see my reaction. I tried my best not to let them see any weakness by pressing the pen hard against the paper so that they could not see my hands shaking. Taking the list of websites from me, the interrogator told me, “If this checks out, you’ll live… if you lied – you die.â€
A few minutes later, I was ushered into an adjacent room, told to lie face down on the floor and a gun barrel was placed against the back of my neck. It was Zeynep’s turn to be beaten, and as she cried out in pain, the guard behind me kept repeating, “You can spare her the pain – simply confess that you are a spy.†As I kept uttering denials, he spat on my head and said, “Only a dog would let a woman suffer like that!†I thought to myself, “And what kind of animal would torture a woman?â€
For several hours after the beating, I was kept alone in that room. My legs were aching and would occasionally seize up on me. I tried to stand, but the guards insisted that I remain seated on a mat. When the interrogator finally re-entered my holding cell he said, “You failed the test on the internet. Prepare yourself to die – tonightâ€. As the door banged shut behind him, I once again had an all-consuming sense of dread. The next time the door opened it was an armed guard and one of the ‘pupils’ carrying a platter of food. Once again I was being encouraged to eat my final meal.
I did not know it at the time, Zeynep and the UNICEF driver had been set free, while both of them were told that I had been beheaded.
After I picked away at my food, the dishes were cleared away and a heavy set young Arab entered the room. He was grinning from ear to ear and I recognized him as one of my torturers. “I am the lucky one who has been chosen to kill you, American dog,†he said.
It was at this time I decided to play my final card. Zeynep had always told me that I should tell our captors I wished to convert to Islam – even if I wasn’t sincere, she thought it might buy me time (if not freedom). “I want you to teach me an Islamic prayer before you kill me.†I said, “A man about to die should have a God to pray to – shouldn’t he?†Other guards and pupils had overheard this and they seemed excited at the prospect of converting a ‘Kaffir’ and then executing him.
As they started to explain the conversion process and necessary prayers, one of the clerics returned to the house. He put an end to the commotion by informing me my religious conversion was no longer necessary as I was “free to goâ€. Thinking this may be yet another test of my resolve to convert, I explained that in that case it was even more important, “as a man needs a God to thank for sparing him his life.â€
I was advised that the procedure would have to be performed at a later date, as a car was waiting to take me to a safe house in preparation for my release. Once again, I dared to start believing that I might actually survive this ordeal.
And what about this anti-war reporter who publishes the magazine Esprit de Corps?
From Ex-soldier fights uphill battle:
The monthly magazine, published from an office on Somerset Street West, contains a mix of history and current affairs relating to the Canadian military.
Once a strictly pro-military publication, it shifted in the early ‘90s to a more critical stance. The change earned Taylor and the magazine infamy with the Department of National Defence – the reason for his perennial shoestring budget.
Taylor served a three-year term in the military in the mid-‘80s. He enlisted in his early twenties, after graduating from the Ontario College of Art, looking for adventure.
“I was keen on all the real front-end stuff,†he says. “I didn’t want to join the army and count socks.†Now 41, with brush cut dark hair, a muscular build and a straightforward manner, he could easily pass for a long-term military man.
His wife, Katherine, was his high school sweetheart and has been with him his entire adult life. She now works at the magazine, taking care of advertising and balancing the books.
“He could have become one of the boys,†she says. Instead, the military is now referred to as “they.â€
Finally, I note that NPR interviewed him today on Morning Edition. I didn’t hear the whole thing. I will listen to it on the web and provide a link once it becomes available. Update:NPR interview here.
My thoughts are that the only thing that saved Scott was his anti-establishment screeds at his site and antiwar.com. Scott should be glad that being a dhimmi still counts for something.
