We still await news of Ken Bigley. The events over the past 4 days have bought emotions that all Scousers have been struggling with, it has affected us all and the outcome has not yet been determined. But there is still hope.

This website has a few local stories waiting to go up, I apologise for this but the Ken Bigley situation has taken precedence. A few Americans have complained regarding the previous article, rest assured I feel as much for the two confirmed victims and there families as I do for Kens. But I want Ken to live and if trading 2 women helps, or any more that may be hidden away in custody, then I think it has to be done. The people of England and the UK are not interested in Americas 'we don't negotiate' policy. England does negotiate, if there is any chance of saving lives at not too great a cost to us. Jack Straw was quoted today as stating that new labour would not negotiate with terrorists. This is a lie so transparent that Straw himself ought to be ashamed of himself. He also informed the media that "We continue to do everything we can to secure Kenneth Bigley's safe release, but it would be idle to pretend that there's a great deal of hope" Why would it be 'idle' to hold out hope?

Hope

Jack Straw should perhaps keep his mouth shut as Ken is still alive and people from Liverpool and England in general ARE holding out a great deal of hope. Kens family have taken the step of appealing direct to Arab media, this is frowned upon by the Americans but we need to appeal direct. We want the Iraqis and the Arab people to see Ken as a human being who has respect for there culture. He is not there enemy. The best diplomats are the families, and Ken's brother has been magnificent in this respect and we are proud of what he has tried to do. The Bigley family are holding out hope. In a twist of events, another video was posted online, this time it is Ken who is shown repeating the demands regarding the women prisoners being freed. He pleads directly to Tony Blair to save his life and says this is his 'last chance on Gods Earth'. Although the video may be distressing, the fact he is alive is very good news, it at least shows that the Iraqis holding Ken have not exhausted there negotiations. They are holding out. There is hope. This is not idle hope.

I have seen the video and this is a transcript of it below. The transcript is now taken from the new Scotsman website (here) who had a full transcript up.(the original transcript here was taken from a shorter video of Kens message) Please circulate this transcript and e-mail it to as many people as you can. The transcript is 99+% accurate, and has been carefully listened to by someone familiar with the Liverpool accent. Ken is very calm throughout most of the video and no threats are made to him. He does not look ill treated and our only hope is that the Iraqis holding him have realised that Ken Bigley is a decent man who wishes no harm on the Iraqi people. The video itself has an opening title and credits and then shows a photo of Ken taken from a newspaper recently. Ken is then shown dressed in an orange suit sat in a chair before the person filming him.

Transcript of Tahwid and Jihad Ken Bigley Video

Released 22 Sept 2004.

"Mr Blair. My name is Ken Bigley; I come from Liverpool, the Walton district. I'm here in Iraq and I think this is possibly my last chance to speak to somebody who will listen from Europe.

I need you to be compassionate as you've always said you were, and help me, help me to live so I can see my wife and my son and mother and my brothers again, I don't want to die in Iraq. I don't deserve that, and neither do the women deserve to be in prison here in Iraq, Please, please release the female prisoners that are held in Iraqi prisons. Please help them.

I need you to help me Mr Blair because you are the only person on Gods Earth who I can speak to. Please, please help me to see my wife, who cannot, cannot go on without me, she really can't. And my son. I love them so much. Please help me, please help me. And also realise how much these people have suffered, the Iraqis have suffered, the Iraqi children who haven't got there mothers, it's not fair.

A child wants his mother. It's of no use keeping a mother in prison, no use whatsoever. Let the mothers go back to their children, give these people a chance. Please I beg you.

My wife, she can’t even speak very good English. She doesn’t know anything, she rings Paul and asks, ‘Where’s Ken ?’.

Mr Blair, I am nothing to you, it’s just one person in the whole of the United Kingdom that’s all. With a family like you’ve got a family, with children, like your children, your boys, your wife.

Please you can help, I know you can. These people are not asking for the world, they’re asking for their wives and the mothers of their children.

Please Mr Blair, please show some of the compassion you say you have. Please, I don’t know what I can say. Please I wish you could talk back to me, I wish you could tell me what I’ve got to do. I’m nothing, am only a small man. I’m nothing, I have no political gains. I have no ambitions of grandeur. I made the mistake in coming here, but I’ve worked a long time in the Emirates.

I just didn’t have real fear, not like I have, today. Please, please help me Mr Blair. You know you can, you know you can. Thankyou, thankyou.

And (inaudible)....also if there’s anyone else that can can help me within the British political world, the Liberal party or the Conservative Party, if you can talk with Mr Blair and assist him.

I know things aren’t easy, I know things aren’t black and white, white and black, but we can overcome this. We can overcome it, I need to live. I need to see my family and these people here need to see their mothers and their wives back in their homes, they do.

I’ve been here a week and they’ve taken good care of me. They have, under the circumstances, they’ve taken very good care of me so please anybody, anybody in England, anybody at all that can talk to you Mr Blair and convince Mr Blair to help me and help the Iraqi people.

This is not only helping me, this is helping the Iraqi people who need help, they don’t need bully boys, they need help, they need care and they need compassion – the things you say you are Mr Blair. Please, anyone at all who can help and also to the British people, you are going to be watching because it is on TV I presume.

You look at yourselves and think of your wife or think of your husband not being home, not because they committed a crime but because they just get arrested and are guilty by association, just thrown inside a jail and the families want these people home like you would want your family, your mothers, your wives, your husbands home.

Please, please lobby Mr Blair. Please lobby all of the political parties that you are involved with and ask them to stop and have a look at the Iraqis plight.

Iraq is suffering and has been suffering too long and it needs its country like you. Would you like the Germans or any other country walking down the street with a gun, in England, in Scotland, I don’t think so. And the Iraqis don’t like foreign troops on their soil walking down the street with guns, it’s not right and it’s not fair. We need to pull the troops out and let the Iraqis run their own country, their own destiny.

And I ask you all, of course I need help, of course I do, that goes without saying but the Iraqis also need help, they need to be left alone to rebuild their country and their own futures at the speed they want to do it and not be pushed and shoved.

People of Britain and people of Liverpool particularly, you are very special people, you are people who can open your mouths and speak and say enough is enough. Enough is enough of playing with Iraq like a toy. Pack your bags and get out and let’s hope we can come back and visit the country as a guest, as a guest of the Iraqis

Please, especially all the people of Liverpool, we all know how important, how special Liverpool is to everybody, people who speak the truth. I’m not afraid to speak the truth, I never have been, that’s probably why all the Liverpudlians have suffered over the years.

I’m begging you, please, please talk to MPs, talk to the Government, talk to anyone. Please, please look at Iraq and help. Me, yes, I want to live, yes I want to live, but please look and help Iraq, Iraqi women and children, women and children.

I’ve been in Iraq some months now, believe me they have nothing, they have nothing only their pride. They’re kind people, please talk to, talk to everybody that you know who can influence people, can talk to politicians, can talk to anybody who can let the decision makers know, people who are close to the Government, who are close to the opposition, Amnesty International, the Red Cross, the Red Crescent, everybody. And the Asian community, the Asian community in England, please, please open your mouths and be listened to and speak up for the freedom of Iraq.

Please.

The video then feature three frames of text, written white on black in Arabic and English.

The first reads: “Does a British (sic) worth anything to Blair.”

The second: “Will he try to save the hostage or will he not care?”

A third asks: “Do leaders really care about their people?”

End of transcript


Liverpool people opposed the war, our contempt for the British Government is well known in the UK.

We ask Mr Blair to heed the demands of Tahwid and Jihad. We have no business being in Iraq and even less business defiling the women of Iraq in the occupation prisons.

Kirkby Times pleads to anyone out there who can help to do so. The people of Liverpool should be on the streets marching and condemning the war.

In the name of humanity, in the name of Muhammad (pbuh) and Jesus (pbuh) the people of Liverpool ask that the life of Ken Bigley be spared.

Our MP's should take heed that we are now calling in our debts. We call on all politicians to ask that the Iraqi women be freed from occupation armies prisons and furthermore serve notice that we demand the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and compensate the Iraqi people in full for the crimes we have committed.

The people of Liverpool despise the War Criminal Bush and his cowards who try to destroy the heart and soul of the Iraqi peoples. The sons of Liverpool should not be dying for the ambitions of America and Israel towards Iraqi oil and territory. The sons of Iraq can rest assured that the people of Liverpool have no fight with you.

Updated at 00.44 hrs