US Covered Up Kim Abduction to Ensure South Korean Troop Dispatch
Korea Times | June 25 2004
Video of Kim Sun-il beheading. Warning, very graphic, should only be
seen by a mature audience.
Comment: Same decor, same orange jump suit. Victim looks already
heavily sedated before beheading. Victim hated George Bush and US
involvement in Iraq (why would Muslims kill him?). Korean government
knew he was taken weeks before it was announced (or US prevented them
from finding out, whichever is true). Is this merely a copycat killing
or is it another Berg style psy-op?
The United States on Tuesday faced allegations that it had
intentionally kept South Korea in the dark about the abduction of Kim
Sun-il, the South Korean interpreter working for a subcontractor to
U.S. forces in Iraq.
According to South Korean government officials, it had become aware of
Kim being kidnapped on June 21, at least three days after he was taken
hostage by an al-Qaida-supported terrorist group.
Kim was an employee of the Gana General Trading Company. In an
interview with South Korean Yonhap News Agency, the president of the
company, Kim Chun-ho, said that he had received a notification from
U.S. forces there about Kim’s abduction on June 16.
The Gana president said that he had consultations with U.S. military
authorities on June 20 before conducting up to six rounds of
negotiations with hostage takers. The Korea Times tried to get in
contact with U.S. forces in Iraq but they were not available.
This has caused South Korean newspapers to question why the U.S.
didn’t inform the South Korean government.
According to officials at South Korea’s Defense Ministry, a
low-ranking representative of U.S. marines stationed in Falluja, where
Kim was kidnapped, told the Gana president of Kim’s abduction but
there are so many foreigners being kidnapped on a daily basis that
Kim’s abduction didn’t go through a chain of command.
The crux of the allegations of a U.S. cover-up is that the Seoul
government confirmed its plan to dispatch an additional 3,000 troops
to Iraq, on July 18, the day after Kim was kidnapped. By the accounts
of the Seoul government, it wasn’t aware of the incident.
This has touched off speculation that the U.S. didn’t inform Seoul of
the kidnapping in order to enable the South Korean government to press
ahead with its confirmation of the dispatch plan. Experts say that if
the kidnapping had been known to the public, the government would have
had a very hard time in pushing ahead with the unpopular dispatch
plan.
Asked whether the U.S. made contact with the South Korean government
to share the information on the kidnapping, a Foreign Ministry
spokesman declined to answer but said, ``We are sorry that we can’t
provide further details because sensitive government efforts are
underway to save his life.’’
Shin said it is inappropriate to provide any information critical to
their negotiations with the kidnappers on the release of the South
Korean hostage.
---------------------------------------------------
Korean Government Accused of Cover-up Over Kim Sun-il Beheading
Korean Herald | June 25 2004
Suspicions are snowballing that the Korean government might have
covered up, or neglected, the kidnapping of Kim Sun-il, the
33-year-old Korean hostage beheaded Tuesday by Islamic militants in
Iraq.
The Associated Press reported yesterday that it had contacted the
Foreign Ministry in the first week of this month to ask whether there
was any Korean with the name Kim Sun-il, or something similar,
kidnapped in Iraq after its television affiliate APTN acquired a
videotape, which showed Kim's early days as a hostage. The ministry
replied "No."
"On June 3, an Associated Press reporter in Seoul telephoned the
Korean Foreign Ministry to ask if the ministry knew whether a Korean
citizen with a name that sounded like Kim Sun-il was missing in Iraq.
An official in the ministry said the ministry was not aware of any
Korean of that name - or any other Korean citizen - was missing or in
captivity," Jack Stokes, director of AP's Media Relations, said in a
statement to the Korean press.
"In conversation with the ministry, the AP reporter did not mention
the videotape in an effort to confirm independently whether a Korean
citizen was missing," Stokes said.
The government said it learned the news of his abduction for the first
time when the Arab television station Al-Jazeera aired a videotape on
June 21 showing Kim pleading for his life, more than three weeks after
he was kidnapped, perhaps on May 31.
After changing his mind several times, the president of Gana General
Trading Co., Kim Chun-ho, confirmed he had not seen his employee since
May 31.
It remains uncertain whether the ministry official reported this
officially to the authorities, or just neglected the phone call.
Whatever the official did, political analysts believe that strong
censure and a far-reaching shake-up of the ministry are inevitable.
The National Security Council has launched an investigation into
Foreign Ministry staff, while the main opposition Grand National Party
is pushing for a parliamentary hearing over the mystery surrounding
Kim's abduction and death.
The Foreign Ministry said it had to confirm the truth and had started
probing its staff in the public relations office and other related
bureaus. The ministry at the same time requested AP to say who in the
news agency telephoned whom in the ministry, what the reporter said
and asked exactly, and when the call was made.
On the videotape, broadcast yesterday by the Korean media, a voice off
camera asks Kim questions and he replies in halting English.
He gives his name, says he was born Sept. 13, 1970, and gives his
place of birth as Busan. He also describes U.S. President George W.
Bush as a terrorist and says he does not like the United States
because they are killing Iraqis.
"I saw George Bush attack here because of Iraqi oil," he said. "So I
don't like George Bush or America."
"I like Iraqi people. The Iraqi people are very kind," Kim said. "I
think they are poor because of war."
AP said the video was delivered to APTN on June 3, but was not aired
because it was unclear if Kim was being held against his will.
However, then suspicious is why AP only released the video tape three
days after Kim's kidnapping was made public.
"It has not yet been confirmed whether we received any such phone call
from AP. We are requesting details about the phone call from AP
headquarters in New York and demanding their immediate response,"
Foreign Ministry spokesman Shin Bong-kil told a news briefing
yesterday.
Shin reaffirmed the government first learned the news of Kim's
kidnapping through the al-Jazeera report.
"There are more than 1,000 staff at the ministry and everyone receives
countless phone calls every day. So, if the reporter called us and
asked if there was any Korean hostage in Iraq, without mentioning the
name of Kim Sun-il and his videotape, I can say it's almost impossible
to find out who received the phone call," another ministry official
said.
Al-Qaida-linked militants in Iraq beheaded Kim Tuesday, after their
24-hour deadline expired, when Seoul refused to cancel plans to send
an additional 3,000 troops to Iraq.
Many Koreans have blamed the government for failing to secure Kim's
safe release by standing firm on the troop dispatch plan and by
dealing with the case belatedly and ineffectively.
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| User: "SchizoFisto" |
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| Title: Re: US covered up Kim abduction |
25 Jun 2004 01:44:12 PM |
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"Victim hated George Bush and US
involvement in Iraq (why would Muslims kill him?)."
Why do they blow up women and children in market places?
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: US covered up Kim abduction |
25 Jun 2004 03:52:40 PM |
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On 25 Jun 2004 18:44:12 GMT, (SchizoFisto) wrote:
"Victim hated George Bush and US
involvement in Iraq (why would Muslims kill him?)."
Why do they blow up women and children in market places?
Who actually is blowing up all these women and children. Is it really
the fanatics, or perhaps US mercaneries, Mossad, Cia to make it look
like the Muslims are doing it in order to prolong this illegal war?
"Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction is obliged
to stick with possibilities:truth isin't"
Mark Twain
.
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| User: "Woodswun" |
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| Title: Re: US covered up Kim abduction |
25 Jun 2004 11:05:50 PM |
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In article <i14pd01ar6o6l5jt6phfnr57vck0tgl27s@4ax.com>, wrote:
On 25 Jun 2004 18:44:12 GMT, (SchizoFisto) wrote:
"Victim hated George Bush and US
involvement in Iraq (why would Muslims kill him?)."
Why do they blow up women and children in market places?
Who actually is blowing up all these women and children. Is it really
the fanatics, or perhaps US mercaneries, Mossad, Cia to make it look
like the Muslims are doing it in order to prolong this illegal war?
It takes a lot more effort to kidnap an individual and behead him, and get
someone with an authentic Arabic accent to read off a piece of paper, than it
does to set a roadside bomb.You don't get that much more "us versus them" result
from the beheading, in comparison to the roadside bomb, to make it worth the
effort. IMHO, of course.
Face it, there are some very sick. demented people in Iraq.
Woods
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: US covered up Kim abduction |
26 Jun 2004 05:54:05 AM |
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On Sat, 26 Jun 2004 04:05:50 GMT, (Woodswun)
wrote:
In article <i14pd01ar6o6l5jt6phfnr57vck0tgl27s@4ax.com>, wrote:
On 25 Jun 2004 18:44:12 GMT, (SchizoFisto) wrote:
"Victim hated George Bush and US
involvement in Iraq (why would Muslims kill him?)."
Why do they blow up women and children in market places?
Who actually is blowing up all these women and children. Is it really
the fanatics, or perhaps US mercaneries, Mossad, Cia to make it look
like the Muslims are doing it in order to prolong this illegal war?
It takes a lot more effort to kidnap an individual and behead him, and get
someone with an authentic Arabic accent to read off a piece of paper, than it
does to set a roadside bomb.You don't get that much more "us versus them" result
from the beheading, in comparison to the roadside bomb, to make it worth the
effort. IMHO, of course.
Face it, there are some very sick. demented people in Iraq.
Woods
On both sides.
"Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction is obliged to stick with possibilities:truth isin't"
Mark Twain
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