This is a guest post by Catsmeow
Here’s an excerpt from tonight’s regular ‘Snowmail’ email, which previews the upcoming Channel 4 news bulletin.
“Greetings all – Alex Thomson here. This is our current thinking for tonight’s Channel 4 News at 6.30…
It seems the two bodies handed to British authorities are those of Jason Creswell and Jason Swindlehurst, two British security guards assigned to protect IT consultant Peter Moore when they were abducted in Baghdad more than two years ago.
The Foreign Office said it was still very concerned about the safety of the three other men who are still thought to be held captive.
Tonight we hope to speak to the father of Peter Moore. He is less than happy about the way the government went about giving him news on this.
He says he hopes his son is alive but feels desperate for the other families.
Perhaps too in the ghastliness of this we all need to stand back.
These were men in Iraq making big money on the back of an invasion of another country, which had caused the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqis. They knew the risks.
That’s why the money was big. That’s not to excuse, still less condone what’s happened. But it is to give it some context.
In that light we hope to talk to a security consultant involved in Iraq.”
Or, in other words, they were greedy parasites and asking for it.
The broadcast itself wasn’t so strongly worded, Alex Thomson passing the buck somewhat by saying to the security guard rep:
“This is a difficult one, but I have to put it to you, because a number of our viewers have been putting it to us throughout the day, that people going into Iraq are going into a country where they will be perceived, rightly or wrongly, they will be perceived as taking sides. This is a country where thousands of Iraqis have been killed, they know the risks, this is not to condemn, er, condone the taking and killing of hostages, goodness knows, but they know the risks, that’s why the money is so big”
(apologies if that’s not 100% accurate, but I’m on a Mac and the Channel 4 News Player is a sod to use).
There hasn’t been much in the media about the dead men – we haven’t even heard their full names till today – but as far as I can gather they are from areas of Britain with high unemployment, and had families to support. They were working as security guards protecting someone – an IT consultant – presumably involved in the reconstruction of Iraq, from being killed by the same people responsible for ‘the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqis’.
Their salaries would have been many times what they could earn in Skelmersdale, but probably not ‘big money’ when compared to the salary of a London TV presenter.
That’s a ‘context’ that wasn’t mentioned by Mr. Thomson
