Al -Qaeda’s Ultimatum

Freedom's Cost ^ | 04/27/09 | Chaim

[chaimke]

Al-Qaeda’s North African arm has threatened to kill a British hostage within 20 days unless Britain releases the extremist cleric Abu Qatada from a maximum security jail.

In a message posted on a well-known jihadist website, the group demanded the release of the Palestinian preacher in return for that of a British hostage captured this year.

[Vaduz]

Will obama talk to them and save the day?

[Owl_Eagle]

The unnamed Briton is thought to be one of a group of European tourists who were kidnapped in January on the border between Mali and Niger after attending the African music “Festival in the Desert” near Timbuktu.

Lord Almighty, what possesses people to take trips to such dangerous, isolated places?

You can go on virtualtourist.com and read travelogues from yobs (usually europeans) that say things like "After four days of tracking a roving Junta sponsored death squad in the hills of Northern Togo, we stopped to take in a crafts fair."

Sorry Limey, you put yourself in harm's way, you pay the consequences.

[Go Gordon]

Al-Qaeda’s North African arm has threatened to kill a British hostage within 20 days unless Britain releases the extremist cleric Abu Qatada from a maximum security jail.

If I were king: Response to Al Qaeda - You kill the Brit, we'll kill the cleric. Return the Brit within 24 hours, or the cleric is a deadman.

[AngelesCrestHighway]

The unnamed Briton is thought to be one of a group of European tourists who were kidnapped in January on the border between Mali and Niger after attending the African music “Festival in the Desert” near Timbuktu.....

Looks like “Festival in the Desert” could have been skipped by one unamed Briton. Why in hell would any westerner outside of an emergency travel to any of these out of the way places? If the crap hits the fan in one of these areas...you are SOL!

[Wyatt's Torch]

One side is fighting this as a war...

[KarenMarie]

“If I were king: Response to Al Qaeda - You kill the Brit, we’ll kill the cleric. Return the Brit within 24 hours, or the cleric is a deadman.”

There is not one person in power in the free world (or what’s left of it) with the balls to do that.

Plus, if they said that, they would have to live up to it. And if they live up to it... they will not only be labeled murders and vilified by the rest of the world but they would also unleash the wrath of the Muslims. No one will help them defend themselves against that, even tho they are in the right.

[Young Werther]

Article 0(Obama) of the Geneva Convention says that civilians can be kidnapped and murdered and you betta do what the kidnappers demand or you can be tried for torturist behavior!

[Billthedrill]

Hostage dies, string Abu Qatada up. It’ll never happen but it is, actually, the optimal solution, both for this specific instance and the prevention of a recurrence. It’s the sort of thing that sounds high-handed and barbaric and Obama’s moralistic bunch would have a collective case of the vapors if we tried it in this country, but in fact I don’t see it as any more ethical to allow this problem to continue and more innocent people to be harmed when it actually can be solved. That seldom enters the moral calculus of the sanctimonious but it happens to be a fact.

[chaimke]

That would make him a martyr! On the other hand, if instead of killing him they just castrate him that would would be fitting punishment... Why, can you imagine going through eternity looking at the seventy beautiful doe eyed virgin houries and being unable to do anything about it? A couple of decades back when it was fashionable for any self respecting terrorist group, to kidnap foreigners in Lebanon, they made the grievous mistake of kidnapping for Russian diplomats. The Russians in return kidnapped four of Sheikhs. When the terrorists made their demands, the Russians castrated one and let him loose, by the afternoon the four Russians were freed unharmed. The point is that to deal with these thugs you have to speak a language they will unequivocally understand!

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Who is our modern day Jean Parisot de la Valette?

[Munson]

If they kill the hostage i think the UK should execute the guy Al Queda wants freed. But the UK is spineless.