BRITAIN/IRAQ: The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, and his aides fear that the kidnappers of Ms Margaret Hassan are engaged in a deadly game of political manipulation which is aimed at forcing a significant shift in British public opinion.
Beyond political calculation, however, and with Ms Hassan's safety the immediate and pressing concern, Whitehall's twofold strategy was clearly to stress her "Irish and Iraqi credentials".
It was also to emphasise that diplomatic and security efforts inside the country to secure her release would be led by the Iraqi Interim Government acting on behalf of an Iraqi citizen.
At the same time a senior British government source dismissed a suggestion from one of Ms Hassan's friends, Ms Felicity Arbuthnot, a journalist, that Mr Blair had "sealed her death warrant" by appearing to link her to the British government in comments made while condemning her kidnapping earlier this week.
Ms Arbuthnot said: "When Tony Blair stood up [in the House of Commons] . . . and said 'We can see now what kind of people we are dealing with', he slagged off the kidnappers . . .
"They have her life in their hands, those people. You don't wind them up."
Ms Hassan's harrowing video appeal to Mr Blair came at the end of another difficult week.
It saw the Prime Minister, and his Defence Secretary, Mr Geoff Hoon, face serious questioning inside cabinet as well as from backbench Labour MPs over the redeployment of some 800 soldiers from the Black Watch regiment outside the British-controlled southern sector around Basra.
And anxiety and fear for Ms Hassan's well-being were heightened by her apparent reference to the redeployment decision, when she appealed to the British people to "ask Mr Blair to take the troops out of Iraq, and not bring them here to Baghdad."
The new video footage of Ms Hassan came just hours after the United States welcomed the British government's decision to redeploy the Black Watch regiment in response to its request for assistance in preparation for an expected American assault on the insurgent stronghold of Falluja.
A US State Department spokesman, Mr Richard Boucher, praised Britain's support, saying the cabinet decision on Thursday demonstrated "the kind of role that Britain is prepared to play" in Iraq.
The unanimous approval for the redeployment came after Mr Blair and Mr Hoon had battled suggestions from Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs that the move was an intended boost to President George W. Bush ahead of the presidential election on November 2nd.
Reflecting Mr Blair's and Mr Hoon's insistence that the only relevant election was that planned for Iraq in January, Mr Boucher said:
"It just demonstrates once again the kind of role that Britain is prepared to play in a matter that affects their security and our security, the security of us all, and that is stabilising Iraq and helping the people of Iraq take control of their destiny and reconstruct their country."