Iraq's unclear detainee policy

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A senior Iraqi official said Wednesday that a decision had been made to release a top female germ-warfare scientist for Saddam Hussein, but Iraq's leader and U.S. officials moved quickly to squelch the idea that she would be freed soon. Iraqi militants who beheaded two Americans have threatened to kill a Briton unless female detainees are let go.

A videotape posted on an Islamic Web site later Wednesday showed a man identifying himself as British hostage Kenneth Bigley pleading for British Prime Minister Tony Blair to help save his life.

"To Mr. Blair, my name is Ken Bigley, from Liverpool," the man said in the grainy videotape. "I think this is possibly my last chance. I don't want to die."

"Please, please, release the female prisoners that are held in Iraqi prisons," the speaker said. "Please help them. I need you to help me Mr. Blair because you are the only person now on God's Earth that I can speak to. Please, please help me see my wife, who cannot go on without me."

The speaker wore an orange jumpsuit, the kind that kidnappers put on their hostages before killing them. He sobbed in the middle of his message and wiped his forehead.

It was not known if there was any connection between the release of the new video showing Bigley pleading for his life and Wednesday's confusion over a possible prisoner release.

After the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said there would be no immediate release of either of the two women in U.S. custody, Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said there were no immediate plans to free the detainees, disputing the earlier statement by his Justice Department that a decision was made to release one of them.

Allawi said that his government has begun reviewing the status of its detainees, including the two female scientists known as "Dr. Germ" and "Mrs. Anthrax" for their involvement in Saddam Hussein's biological weapons programs.

But he said the review process had nothing to do with the current hostage situation and had started weeks ago in Iraq.

"We have not been negotiating and we will not negotiate with terrorists on the release of hostages," he said in a telephone interview from New York. "No release takes place unless I authorize it."

A decapitated body was found in Baghdad on Wednesday. The family of hostage Jack Hensley said it had received confirmation that the body was Hensley, whose slaying was announced a day earlier by the al-Qaida-linked militant group loyal to Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Later, a videotape appeared on an Islamic Web site purportedly showing Hensley's beheading.

A blindfolded man who was killed wore an orange jumpsuit and sat in front of five masked militants dressed in black. One militant read a statement as the five stood before a Tawhid and Jihad banner.

After the militant finished reading the statement, he pulled a knife and jumped on the blindfolded man from behind and cut his head. Then the head was placed on the body.

The conflicting U.S. and Iraqi statements raised questions over who has authority in the country, even after the handover of sovereignty to Allawi's interim government in June. U.S. officials have been saying that they have been giving more decision-making power to Iraqis, including over security matters.

The U.S. military says it has two Iraqi women in custody, both high-profile security detainees held at an undisclosed location -- Rihab Rashid Taha, a scientist who became known as "Dr. Germ" for helping Iraq make weapons out of anthrax, and Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, a biotech researcher known as "Mrs. Anthrax."

Justice Ministry spokesman Noori Abdul-Rahim Ibrahim announced that "Iraqi authorities have agreed with coalition forces to conditionally release Rihab Rashid Taha on bail." He added that the decision "has nothing to do with the threat made by the kidnappers."

But soon afterward, a U.S. Embassy spokesman ruled out any immediate release. The two female scientists from Saddam's regime "are in our legal and physical custody. Legal status of these two and many others is under constant review," the spokesman said.

Representatives of the Iraqi government and U.S. coalition forces have identified a group of about 14 high-value detainees, including Taha, who may be eligible for release because they are no longer needed for questioning and do not pose a security threat, a multinational force official said on condition of anonymity.

The Iraqi government has already assented to all the names on the list, the official said. The list has gone to coalition forces and the U.S. Embassy for final approval.

The Iraqi government has also made a special request for the release of Ammash on humanitarian grounds, the official said. But because she is one of the top 55 most-wanted Iraqis on the so-called deck of cards, her case requires a Pentagon review.

"We want to make certain that there is no connection between the decision to release her with al-Zarqawi's demands," a Western official also said on condition of anonymity.

Al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group announced Tuesday it killed Hensley, saying their demands had not been met. He would have marked his 49th birthday Wednesday. On Monday, the group released a video showing the beheading of another American, Eugene Armstrong, whose body was found in Baghdad the same day.

The group warned in a Web statement Tuesday that Bigley, 62, would be the next to die unless all Iraqi women are released from jail -- though it did not set a deadline as it has in past statements.

Hensley, Armstrong and Bigley were kidnapped Sept. 16 from a house that the three civil engineers shared in an upscale Baghdad neighborhood.

Britiain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw appeared to hold out little hope for saving Bigley.

"We continue to do everything we can to secure Kenneth Bigley's safe release, but it would be idle to pretend that there's a great deal of hope," Straw told reporters in New York, where he is attending the United Nations General Assembly.

Straw stressed that Britain would not give in to the hostage takers' demands. "We cannot get into a situation, and I believe the family understand this, where we start bargaining with terrorists and kidnappers," he said.

Bigley's brother recorded a message Wednesday to be broadcast on Arabic language TV station Al-Jazeera urging his captors to free him.

Hensley's body and its severed head were found Wednesday in a black plastic bag in western Baghdad and was turned over to the United States, according to Iraqi authorities. The family was told later that the body was Hensley's.

Hensley's wife, Pati, was "extraordinarily devastated," said the slain hostage's brother, Ty, on NBC's "Today."

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the Hensley family," said Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman traveling with President Bush. "Their strength during a difficult time is amazing. The terrorists want to shake our will, but they will not. "

The latest beheading "shows the true barbaric nature of the enemies we face in Iraq that they would take innocent civilian life," McClellan said. "They will be defeated, they will not prevail."

Tawhid and Jihad -- Arabic for "Monotheism and Holy War" -- has claimed responsibility for the slaying of at least seven hostages, including American Nicholas Berg. The group has also said it is behind a number of bombings and gun attacks.

Its spiritual leader, Sheik Abu Anas al-Shami, 35, was killed when a missile hit his car on Friday in western Baghdad, according to al-Shami's father. The U.S. military had no comment.