TWO of the "forgotten" five British hostages who have been held captive in Iraq for more than six months are Scots, the Sunday Herald has learned.
The captives - four security guards and a computer expert - were seized at the Iraqi Finance Ministry on May 29 by a crowd of about 40 gunmen dressed as police. One of the men comes from the outskirts of Glasgow.
The British government is not naming the men, and has put pressure on their families not to speak to the press. So far, the effective "news black-out" policy has failed to win the men their freedom.
Only one communiqué has come from the organisation holding the hostages prisoner - Islamic Shi'ite Resistance in Iraq. This came in the form of a video, released on December 5. The clip was filmed, however, on November 18. It shows a hostage flanked by captors pointing guns at him.
In the video the captors threaten to kill the hostage shown in the video "as a first warning" unless the UK government gives into their demands and British troops are pulled out of Iraq within 10 days. The kidnappers also accused Britain of plundering Iraq's wealth.
Four of the hostages worked for the Canadian firm GardaWorld as security personnel. Joe Gavaghan, GardaWorld director of communications, said: "The company is making every effort and working with all the government authorities - the Iraqis, the British and the US - and all other relevant parties to achieve the safe return of these men.
"We are also supporting their families and doing whatever we can for them. Beyond that we cannot comment further out of concern for the safety of these individuals and at the request of the British government."
It is thought the men were bodyguards protecting the fifth hostage, a computer consultant working for BearingPoint, a US management consultancy firm. BearingPoint said it was taking its lead from the Foreign Office in dealing with the situation.
A statement in the video claimed that the captives had "acknowledged and confessed and detailed the agenda with which they came to steal our wealth under false pretence of being advisers to the Finance Ministry". The video claimed the men's confession would follow later.
In the video clip, which was released to the Dubai-based TV station al-Arabiya, a single hostage was flanked by two masked and armed men and sat before a sign reading "the Islamic Shi'ite Resistance in Iraq". The hostage says: "My name is Jason. Today is November 18 ... I have been here now for 173 days and I feel we have been forgotten."
None of the hostages have been named by the Foreign Office. The government has told British press and broadcasters not to name them, while claiming that "anything that can be done, is being done" to free the men. The Foreign Office added that officials had continued at full capacity over the festive holidays "to work towards their release".
The Mehdi Army, a militia group loyal to the Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, was initially thought to be responsible for kidnapping the men.
However, the armed faction has strongly denied any involvement. Intelligence sources have now suggested that the Islamic Shi'ite Resistance in Iraq movement could be a splinter group controlled by Iran.
NEIL Doyle, an investigative journalist who specialises in monitoring the activities of Islamic terrorists online, said discussion websites used by al-Qaeda - whose adherents are from the Sunni strain of Islam - showed that activists around the world were "puzzled and bewildered" over who was behind the hostage-taking and who the hostage-takers were.
"No-one on these al-Qaeda sites seems to know anything about them or the nature of the group," said Doyle, whose latest book, Terror Base UK, explores the nexus between the internet and Islamic terror.
It is also significant - particularly for British intelligence officers now trying to get leads on who comprises the group or where the operatives are - that the organisation has not posted the full video on a website or issued a written communiqué. Such anonymity removes any opportunity to start tracing the hostage gang.
In an anonymous statement in September the men's families begged for their release, asking the captors to end their "torment" of being separated from "ordinary family men" who were only trying to earn a living.
Downing Street and the Foreign Office condemned the release of the video saying it would only further distress the friends and families of the hostages.
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