22 September 2004
White House Report, September 22; Iraq, Terrorism
White House urges resolve, extends condolences to family of slain American hostage
White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan condemned the reported beheading of American Jack Hensley in Iraq and said the United States would continue to show resolve in the face of terrorism.
Speaking to the press September 22 en route to King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, McClellan said Hensley's captors and other terrorists "want to shake our will, but they will not."
The action, he said, "shows the true barbaric nature of the enemies we face in Iraq."
"Jack Hensley was in Iraq to help the Iraqi people. He was there to help them realize a better future. And [Abu Musab al-] Zarqawi and the other terrorists will be defeated," McClellan said.
Hensley and two colleagues, American Eugene Armstrong and Kenneth Bigley, a British citizen, were kidnapped from their home in Baghdad September 16. Armstrong was killed by his captors September 21, according to press reports.
"This is a time for us to stand with the Iraqi people, with our troops and with our allies in Iraq and to send a clear message to the enemy that we will prevail, they will be defeated," McClellan said.
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
This page printed from: http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2004&m=September&x=20040922162002pjnnamppiL1.475161e-02&t=livefeeds/wf-latest.html
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