Posted on 09/29/2004 9:12:51 AM PDT by Ace
Ransom payments seen fuelling Iraq's hostage crisis
By Luke Baker BAGHDAD, Sept 29 (Reuters) - The release of two Italian aid workers in Iraq has raised hopes other hostages may soon be freed, but reports that a large ransom was paid may only feed the burgeoning hostage crisis.
The two Italians, Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, had been seized along with two Iraqi colleagues from a central Baghdad office in a brazen attack witnesses described as very organised and probably carried out by a criminal gang.
Gustavo Selva, an Italian lawmaker, told French radio a ransom of around $1 million had been handed over.
"In principle, we shouldn't give in to blackmail but this time we had to. Although it's a dangerous path to take because, obviously, it could encourage others to take hostages, either for political reasons or for criminal reasons," Selva told RTL.
"The sum ($1 million) is probably correct," he added.
Over the past year or more, hundreds of Iraqis -- doctors, surgeons and prominent businessmen -- have been kidnapped by criminal gangs who demand ransoms of up to $100,000.
Now, with so many easily-identifiable foreigners in Iraq, criminals appear to have branched out, targeting more lucrative Westerners and foreign workers as well as locals.
Kadhim estimates that about 90 percent of the kidnappings in Iraq are carried out by criminal gangs, who then trade the captives on to militant Islamic groups and other factions.
"If the criminals don't get their money within 72 hours or so, they sell them up the chain to other groups," said a British security consultant who has been operating in Iraq for a year.
"There's vast amounts of money being paid, whether it's by companies, families or governments. It's a very, very good business," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.netscape.cnn.com ...
C'mon. What he thinks really doesn't matter. Why'd you bother asking?
There are articles about 'chipping' being done in Mexico to prevent it. It's not a bad connection. You should consider sending that idea to the government for use there.
This Pope, has been a let down in the last 20 years.
The only ones who made a big mistake were the two woman the moment they joined their leftist, anti-Christian, anti-Western Culture Gramnscian group and went to Baghdad with their Iraqi companions.
The Italian government is not to blame. The Italian people are not to blame, nor the woman's families are to blame. The women, and the women only are to blame for the whole ordeal.
Expect these two brainwashed imbecils to soon return to Iraq after preaching of their islamist captors' respect and benevolence and of their conversion to islam.
The first quote mentions clerics, all right--those who know the kidnappers. "kidnappers are being paid, perhaps not directly by governments, but via other channels, through clerics and others who have contact with the kidnappers." That is, they didn't put up the money but act as go-betweens. The second quote is this:
"some Iraqi clerics have profited from acting as intermediaries in talks with kidnappers. And the security consultant said some of the money fuels the insurgency."
Your anti-papist bigotry got the better of you here. You might have gotten away with a stretch saying that the clerics were Catholic and taking a cut, but there is nothing in this article to even remotely imply that the 'Vatican funds terrorists.' You simply have the tinfoil hat on and your SuperMasonic powers tuned too high.
That your comment hasn't been deleted already is a shame.
That's one opinion. It's not mine, though.
That's the most fearfully crushing responsibility on the planet.
You could get one quickly at RandMcNally.com. I don't know where you can get a clue. I was born with one.
I think you've been all your life.
Tell me, can you pronounce your Italian surname?
But, I never made a personal attack on you, violating posting rules, now did I? Can you say the same?
It is a sign of desperation.
-PJ
Way to encourage the terrorists in their behavior!
Truth is a defense to slander. A personal attack is one which unfairly tarnishes the argument of someone by attacking their person instead of their argument; I fail to see where I've done that, since your comments speak directly to everything I've posted about you.
But I'll gladly retract each and every comment I've posted about you if you'll admit your smear of the Vatican was motivated by your bias against it, and not because of any support in the article here. Honest bigots actually have some value to the world.
How does one actually pay such a ransom? Unmarked bills in a paper bag? Electronic transfer? Personal check? Gold coins?
Understood..
:)
Your more scurrilous posts been deleted already. So enjoy your tirading. As a special favor to me, could you include the words "Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion" in there somewhere, so the kids get a little history lesson as to the rewards of bigotry when they look the phrase up?
There are plenty of reasons to dislike the Catholic church. Please pick one of those and lobby the Vatican directly, instead of doing what you're doing. It might result in the Vatican doing something to change the things you dislike.
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - A top Vatican official said Tuesday he felt pity and compassion for Saddam Hussein and criticized the U.S. military for showing video footage of him being treated “like a cow.”
Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the Vatican’s Justice and Peace department and a former papal envoy to the United Nations, told a news conference it would be “illusory” to think the arrest of the former Iraqi president would heal all the damage caused by a war which the Holy See opposed.
“I felt pity to see this man destroyed, (the military) looking at his teeth as if he were a cow. They could have spared us these pictures,” he said.
“Seeing him like this, a man in his tragedy, despite all the heavy blame he bears, I had a sense of compassion for him,” he said in answer to questions about Saddam’s arrest.
I didn't mean my post quite as seriously as some folks on this forum took it. I'm not very good at humor. But I'm in the middle of studying and haven't had the time to qualify it.
And yes, I do know how to pronouce my Italian surname. I thank you for your condescension.
And this relates to your earlier assertion how?
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