Kubaissi on Danish TV (TV2)
Note Kubaissi’s blaming of the Americans for this man’s death.
UPDATE: Change that to “Note Kubaissi’s sly suggestion that the Americans may have been responsible for this man’s death.” This is a distinction without a difference, as Kubaissi is clearly trying to hang responsibility for his death on the Americans, but for the record, no: he did not directly blame the Americans. He has, as they say in Washington, “plausible deniability.” And it is worth about as much coming from him as it is coming from the pols.
COPENHAGEN (AFP) – A Danish businessman kidnapped in Iraq last week has been found dead, the Danish foreign ministry said.
The man was captured by unidentified attackers while travelling with an Iraqi driver and a Dane of Iraqi origin on a road near the village of Al Taji outside Baghdad. The two others were not taken hostage.
“The ministry was informed overnight by coalition authorities that the Danish national was found dead by Iraqi police on April 12, 2004,” a foreign ministry statement said.
It said the Danish government had no further details about the man’s death nor information about his killers.
“The Iraqi police investigation has been rendered difficult by the situation in Iraq,” it said.
Danish daily Politiken identified the man as 35-year-old Henrik Frandsen, who was in Iraq to start a water purification and electrical appliance store in the southern city of Basra.
The Confederation of Danish Industries has issued a warning discouraging Danish businessmen from travelling to Iraq.
Denmark was a loyal ally of the United States in the war on Iraq, and currently has 500 troops stationed in Basra under British command.
It was initially reported that the man was captured on April 13, but the foreign ministry now said that he was captured on April 10 and it was informed on April 11.
The ministry said that it had “worked intensely on the case since being informed of his capture, and had followed several leads.”
It said it had been in close contact with the US military and Iraqi Governing Council to secure the Dane’s release, and confirmed media reports that it had also been in contact with Sheikh Abdul Salam Kubaissi.
Kubaissi, a senior official of the Committee of Muslim Scholars, has emerged as a key player in efforts to release foreign hostages in Iraq, including two Japanese hostages who were freed on Saturday.
Interviewed in Politiken on Wednesday prior to the announcement of the Dane’s death, Kubaissi said he did not believe the businessman was taken for political reasons “because then we would have heard about it”.
He suggested that the man may have been killed by US troops.
“Maybe he’s been killed by the Americans because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. And when the Americans have their backs against the wall, they shoot and make no distinction between rebels, civilians and foreigners,” Kubaissi said.