Jack Hensley

Jack Hensley, 49, from Marietta, GA., was abducted and held hostage by Muslim extremists in Iraq, in September, 2004. Hensley and two colleagues, Eugene Armstrong and Kenneth Bigley, all worked for a United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based building company GSCS Gulf which has contracts with US army bases. The three were kidnapped from an upscale neighborhood in Baghdad by a terrorist group called Tawhid and Jihad, which is affiliated with Al Qaeda. The leader of the group, Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, said that the three would be beheaded if the U.S. did not release Iraqi women being held in U.S.-run prisons in Iraq. U.S. authorities said they only have two women in their custody in Iraq -- both of them scientists allegedly involved in former leader Saddam Hussein's weapons program.

Hensley was beheaded on September 22, 2004, and Bigley was beheaded in October, 2004.

Last updated: October 10, 2004.

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Hensley prior to his death

Jack Hensley (September 22, 1955 – September 21, 2004) was an American engineer from Marietta, Cobb County, Georgia, near Atlanta.

While working in Iraq he was kidnapped and beheaded by terrorists. His colleague, Eugene Armstrong, was beheaded the previous day.^[1] Hours after Hensley was beheaded, Tawhid and Jihad posted a videotape on the Internet of British hostage Kenneth Bigley pleading to then Prime Minister Tony Blair to have his life spared.^[2] Bigley was beheaded three weeks later, on October 8, 2004.^[3]

The internet service provider of Tawhid and Jihad's website showing his murder, HostingAnime, has defended showing the content citing free speech.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Iraq
  • 2003 invasion of Iraq
  • Human rights in post-invasion Iraq
• Decapitation
  • Nick Berg
  • Eugene Armstrong
  • Kim Sun-il
  • Kenneth Bigley
  • Shosei Koda
  • Seif Adnan Kanaan
  • Daniel Pearl
  • Piotr Stańczak
  • Paul Marshall Johnson, Jr.

References

1. ^ Faraj, Caroline; Thaira al-Hilli, Bassem Muhy, Faris Qasira and Mohammed Tawfeeq (21 September 2004). "Report: Al-Zarqawi group kills American hostage". CNN.com. http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/09/21/iraq.beheading/index.html. Retrieved 22 August 2009. 
2. ^ "Kidnappers 'renew death threat'". BBC News. 21 September 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3678150.stm. Retrieved 22 August 2009. 
3. ^ "Bigley body claims investigated". BBC News. 22 April 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4933490.stm. Retrieved 22 August 2009. 

External links

• Iraqi Video Shows Beheading of Man Said to Be American (The New York Times) (must be registered)

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