B E B E R E

Comment dire "hook, line and sinker" en français?(...or, a little translation exercise during my lunchbreak.)

Un soldat américain otage en Irak: Un groupe islamiste menace d'égorger John Adam dans les 72 heures.

American Soldier taken hostage in Iraq: Islamic group threatens to cut the throat of John Adam in 72 hours.

Foreigners and Iraqis continue to be the targets of kidnappings in Iraq. An armed group claimed, in a communique published yesterday on an Islamist website and accompanied with a photo, to be holding an American soldier hostage and threatened to cut his throat. "Our heros in the Squadron of the Mujahadin in Iraq captured an American Soldier, John Adam, after having killed a number of his camarades(...). We are going to cut his throat if our prisoners held in prisons of the Occupation (in Iraq) are not liberated within 72 hours after the date of publication of this communique", claims the message, signed "Squadron of the Mujahadin - Iraq," which has no date, and which could not be authenticated.

On its side, The International Confederation of Free-Trade Unions (CISL), condemned, yesterday, in a communique, the kidnapping of Iraqi Trade Unionist Talib Khadim al-Tayee last Thursday after the assassination of another Union leader. The President of the IMM & PU, Iraqi union of mechanics, metallurgists and rinters, was kidnapped on January 27th "by six armed individuals," reports the CISL. "This kidnapping, which occurred after the torture and murder on January 4, 2005, of Jadi Saleh, International Secretary of the Iraqi federation of Trade Unions, clearly shows the dangers pursuing the Trade Unionists vis-a-vis the antidemocratic forces," stated the CISL. Hadi Saleh, also a member of the Communist Party, was found at his home in Baghdad strangled, eyes covered and hands bound by wire, an assassination perpetrated, according to Iraqi Union sources, by ex-agents of the Mukharabat, the secret police of Saddam Hussein.

The draconian security plan put in place for the polls, however, has been progressively rolled back, as Baghdad compiles the results of Sunday's elections that took place in all of Iraq. The definitive results will be made public the beginning of next week. (AFP, Reuter)"

For all intents and purposes, La Libération is the French equivalent of the Guardian - so maybe it's a collaborative effort. (I didn't see anything about wire services used for the Guardian story, so don't know if they're pulling from the same places.)

-rémerciements à Pablo!

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Attendez!

Soldat américain ou poupée mannequin?

American Soldier or poseable doll?

Islamist net surfers claimed on Wednesday that the message accompanied by a photo, and published yesterday on a website in which an armed group in Iraq claimed to be holding an American soldier is a fake. The authors of this statement, signed "Squadrons of the Mujahadin - Iraq," that has no date, threaten to cut the throat of the soldier named "John Adam" if Iraqis held in American prisons in Iraq were not set free within 72 hours.

This statement was sent out with a photo of a "man of color" in uniform, seated on the ground, hands tied behind his back, and with a machine gun held against his head. The text and photo were put online at a site used regularly by armed Islamist groups in Iraq. American military authorities stated that they had "no knowledge of anyone currently missing."

An American company that manufactures poseable dolls, Dragon Models USA, Inc, announced on Tuesday that one of its dolls could have been used for the photo. The face "shows, in our opinion, a striking resemblance" to the "Cody" model," stated one of the managers. The facial characteristics, the uniform, the shoes and the equipment belonging to the person in the picture were, in effect, identical to those on the doll manufactured by the California-based company."

(snort). I've yet to see any anything like this listed in the Guardian, however. Eventually, maybe. Or not. Who knows.

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For more on this story, go check out the usual suspects.