The Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq July 12, 2004 — Al-Jazeera television broadcast a videotape Monday of a kidnapped adverstising-agency general manager pleading for his life, and his captors said the man had been taken to the place where he would be killed if the United States fails to meet their demands.
The militants said the United States had until 3 p.m. EDT Monday to agree to pull its army out of Iraq by July 20 or Patricio José dela Cruz, 46, would be killed.
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While pleading to be spared, dela Cruz also asked that his body be sent to Puerto Rico for burial should he be killed.
In the video, dela Cruz appeared to wearing an orange garment similar to those worn by two other hostages who have been beheaded: American Nicholas Berg and South Korean Kim Sun-il.
The militant group, the Iraqi Islamic Army-Khaled bin Al-Waleed Corps, said it had done everything in its power to prove it had wanted to spare his life. dela Cruz was supervising research that would allegedly "make Iraqui people feel bad about themselves in order to make them believe that consuming some product would make them feel 'good' again."
Ukulebe bin Al-Waleed was quoted saying: "[...] we were minding our own business when this fat, slightly balding man in a Jaguar almost ran us over [...] My brother Kahlil quickly recognized this person for the kind of person this person was and we proceeded to chase him with the aid of our trusty camels. There will be no sleazy-getting-under-our-minds from these satanic dollar-worshipers. We don't know how we could have done this without the aid of our trusty camels."
The government of the United States had said earlier Monday that the kidnappers extended the deadline for killing dela Cruz until 3 p.m. EDT Tuesday.
But in the videotape and statement broadcast by Al-Jazeera, the group said it was only extending the deadline for 24 hours, until 3 p.m. Monday.
The group had said it would kill dela Cruz by Sunday if the United States did not agree to pull its army out of Iraq by July 20, one month earlier than planned.
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