Downing Street: 4 British hostages held for 2 years by Iran-backed group in Iraq are dead; U.K & U.S. duped?; Iran protests

"...Britain's worst hostage outcome in
living memory," says Channel 4 presenter
Jon Snow.
That was how it was described Wednesday night
across the U.K. after news was issued about the
death of a the third and fourth hostage.

Friends of Peter Moore, lone remaining hostage,
believe the British government must admit that
mistakes were made in their handling of the
hostage situation, including, most fundamentally,
trusting Iraqi govt. officials and intermediaries.

Apparently, the U.S. was also duped by the
same group of people, as they allowed the release
of someone under their custody to effect release.
Result?
After Iranian-backed Shia militant is released
by U.S. military, U.K. was given two bodies of
dead bodyguards last month and a note saying,
oh, by the way, the other two bodyguards are
also dead.
Looks like they were killed TWO years ago.

The Guardian has the timeline here for the
events that have led us to this point,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/30/iraq-hostages-timeline

URL: http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1529573111?bclid=30548878001&bctid=31112820001



Interview with hostage negotiator Dr. James Alvarez,
who has much experience working in Iraq.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1529573111?bclid=30548878001&bctid=31113811001



And early this morning, Sam Marsden's column over
at The Independent says it all:

Questions over Iraq collusion in Britons' kidnap

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/questions-over-iraq-collusion-in-britons-kidnap-1765448.html

Marsden doesn't mess around with his intro,
he gets to the heart of the matter:
"Iraqi government officials may have colluded in the kidnapping of five Britons two years ago in a bid to prevent high-level corruption being exposed, it was reported today..."