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'$5m ransom' for kidnapped journalists By Colin Randall in Paris (Filed: 07/09/2004) Iraqi insurgents who claim to be holding two French journalists in Iraq demanded a $5 million (£2.8 million) ransom yesterday as part of a disturbing set of new conditions for their release. Although France is believed to have paid hostage-takers in the past the ultimatum from the Islamic Army in Iraq also included demands that any western government would find difficult, if not impossible, to meet. The statement, posted on the internet and purporting to come from the kidnappers' "higher command", called for acceptance of a truce with...

BIN LADEN TRUCE DEMAND The group holding two French hostages in Iraq has issued three conditions for their release.   The Islamic Army of Iraq said France had 48 hours to pay a £2.8m ransom, pledge not to get involved in Iraq, and to accept a truce offer from Osama bin Laden. A statement signed by the group's "higher command" was posted on an Islamist website.   Speaking in a taped message in April, bin Laden offered peace to European countries that refrained from attacking Muslims and pulled their troops out of the Islamic world within three months.   European leaders dismissed the offer, saying...

PARIS - As France awaited word on two journalists being held hostage in Iraq, officials made clear that they expected to benefit from their stand against the U.S.-led invasion and occupation. "France has always pleaded for the sovereignty of this country and supported its people," Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said last week as the crisis unfolded. The safe return of the journalists, Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot, would not only end a crisis that has gripped the country but would also ratify the value of French opposition to the Bush administration's Iraq policy, political observers said. In lobbying for...

Clerics order end to Iraq hostage-taking By Adrian Blomfield in Baghdad (Filed: 06/09/2004) Iraq's most senior Sunni religious body said yesterday it would issue a fatwa outlawing the abduction and execution of any foreigner in the country. Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot are still being held While there have been demands from across the Muslim world for the release of two French reporters who have been held captive since August 20, the edict, due to be signed today, is the most significant so far in the six-month hostage crisis. At least 102 foreigners have been abducted since April. Twenty-eight have...

IRAQ'S interim Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, has accused France of deluding itself that it is immune from terrorism because of its opposition to the war to oust Saddam Hussein. In an interview, Mr Allawi also urged European governments, including the French, not to be "half-hearted" in combating terrorism and to close ranks with his country in its battle against the "evil forces" undermining security. "No civilised country can draw back; the campaign against terrorism must be a global one, because the challenge is global," he said. "The French, like all democratic countries, cannot let themselves be satisfied with adopting a...

What with all the bold and brave speechifying in New York City this week to re-nominate President George W. Bush, it's not surprising that the real news of the day — at least for Ye Olde Europeans — has escaped notice. Sacre bleu: Franco-Iraqi relations are at an all-time low.     At about the same time John McCain was standing before the Republican convention to dub our mission in Iraq "necessary, achievable and noble"; and Rudy Giuliani was thanking God for Mr. Bush's wartime leadership; and Ah-nuld was praising the president for understanding "you don't reason with terrorists, you defeat them,"...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A Paris newspaper editor said there had been positive movement in the effort to free two captive French journalists Thursday, while a separate militant group said it had killed three Turkish captives. The kidnappers in Iraq have handed over the pair to an Iraqi Sunni Muslim opposition group, Jean de Belot, managing editor of Le Figaro newspaper, said on France-Info radio. But he stressed that their status wasn't completely clear. "We must be prudent in this kind of mixed-up situation because we know well that until the good news arrives, we can't let ourselves be absolutely reassured."...

Reuters highlights the agony of suspense over the fate of French hostages seized by terrorists. "France faces another day of hostage anguish today after a deadline to revoke a law banning Muslim headscarves in schools passed without news of the fate of two French reporters held by Islamic militants." If the sight of Third World diplomats pleading for the lives of their citizens is heart-rending, the sight of proud France -- for however one may regard that country the fact of its pride is not in dispute -- calling out into the dark for its lost sheep is pure pathos....

Terror: Hostage taking and murder by Islamic extremists sends a message to would-be noncombatant nations. Like it or not, America's fight is their fight, too. What does it take for nations, including the many that seem to believe they can safely stay out of trouble, to recognize that a world war is going on, and that no one can really be neutral? The kidnapping of the journalists must have been a jarring wake-up call for France. It has acted as if it could fight its own Islamic-fundamentalist problem by imposing a dress code, while assuming terrorists would leave it alone...

Last weekend’s kidnapping of two French journalists by Iraqis protesting Jacques Chirac's government’s head scarf ban caught many Frenchmen napping. Nothing unusual about that, except the French had hoped their opposition to the War in Iraq, and their continued and blatant mooning of the Bush Administration would give them a sort of righteous immunity from acts of terror. This despite repeated warnings of mayhem by Islamic militants, at home and abroad, if the ban were enforced. The French haven't been this naively taken in since they let Hitler militarize the Rhineland in 1936. Journalists Christian Chesnot of Radio France Internationale...

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- The militant demand that a French ban on Islamic head scarves be overturned has raised an unprecedented backlash among religious and political leaders in the Middle East, who have often been silent about hostage slayings and other terrorism. They say those holding two French journalists have desecrated Islam and mindlessly struck out at a country considered a friend to Arabs.''This is a brutal operation on the human level, a bad one on the Islamic level and a losing one on the political level,'' Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, Lebanon's most senior Shiite Muslim cleric, told the Associated...

PARIS - France criticized Iraq's interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi Monday for saying states which did not actively fight terrorists would become their targets, after two Frenchmen were kidnapped in Iraq. Allawi's comments in Le Monde daily came as France raced against the clock to secure the release of two French journalists kidnapped in Iraq by militants who told Paris to drop its ban on Muslim headscarves in schools by Monday evening. "The French, like all democratic countries, cannot let themselves be satisfied with adopting a passive position," Allawi told Le Monde in an interview. "Governments that decide to stay...

Hostage journalists shown on Arabic TV By Colin Randall in Paris (Filed: 31/08/2004) Two French journalists being held captive in Iraq appeared last night in a video urging France to lift the ban on Muslim headscarves in schools as their kidnappers extended their deadline for a further 24 hours. The video, broadcast on Arabic television station Al-Jazeera, showed the journalists speaking to the camera asking French people to hold protests and persuade the government to rescind the ban. A previous 48-hour deadline expired last night. The ultimatum issued by the so-called Islamic Army in Iraq passed without immediate news of...

DUBAI (AFP) - The release of two French journalists held hostage in Iraq is "imminent", Al-Arabiya television reported, citing unidentified sources of the Dubai-based channel. The station reported the news in an on-scree flash, without providing any details. Contacted by AFP, Al-Arabiya would not give details on its sources. Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, who went missing August 20, are being held by a Sunni Muslim group calling itself the Islamic Army of Iraq. The group gave France an initial 48-hour ultimatum to revoke a controversial law banning Islamic headscarves from state schools but has extended its ultimatum by 24...

PARIS (AP) _ French officials gathered for crisis talks Tuesday to save the lives of two journalists held hostage in Iraq, while aides to rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called for the release of the French reporters as a deadline set by militants neared. Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot were shown on a video released by Al-Jazeera television late Monday pleading with President Jacques Chirac to save their lives by giving in to militants' demands to rescind a ban on head scarves in French schools. France has ruled out lifting the ban, and Muslim leaders in France and abroad have criticized...

AMMAN (Reuters) - An anxious French government accelerated its diplomatic bid to save two French reporters held hostage in Iraq on Tuesday as a fresh kidnapper deadline neared for Paris to scrap a ban on Muslim headscarves in schools. With the Tuesday evening deadline approaching, the gravity of the reporters' plight was clearly highlighted when Iraqi militants said they had killed 12 Nepali hostages. President Jacques Chirac, refusing to back down over the headscarf ban, led an unprecedented diplomatic push to appeal to the militants holding Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot, shown on Arab television on Monday fearing for their...

If the French are not seeking to pay monetary or some other type of ransom to obtain the release of the two Frenchmen kidnapped by Iraqi terrorists nothing in their actions of the past few days makes sense. The French Foreign Minister, Michel Barner, is on tour of Middle Eastern capitals to seek support for the release of the hostages. The Taipei Times says: In Paris the foreign ministry said its outgoing secretary-general, Hubert Colin de Verdihre, just named ambassador to Algeria, had arrived in the Iraqi capital to boost the French embassy in the Iraqi capital. Barnier said he...

French Hostages Call on Their Government to End Head Scarf Ban to Save Their Lives By Elaine Ganley Associated Press Writer Published: Aug 30, 2004 PARIS (AP) - Two French journalists held hostage by Islamic militants in Iraq appealed late Monday for their countrymen and president to save their lives by giving in to their captors' demand to rescind a ban on Muslim head scarves in French schools. A video of the reporters was broadcast by Al-Jazeera television hours after France insisted it would go ahead with the ban when schools open Thursday. "I appeal to the French people to...

France refuses Iraqi kidnappers' ultimatum Associated Press Monday August 30, 2004 The French government today refused to bow to the demands of militants who have kidnapped two French journalists in Iraq, insisting that a law banning Muslim headscarves in school would go ahead. Government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope told Canal Plus television that France would not compromise its values to win the release of the journalists. Militants claiming to hold them demanded the law be overturned within 48 hours, a deadline that expires later today. "The law will be applied," Mr Cope said, rejecting the militants' warning. The law, which bans...

Hostages urge France to lift veil ban DUBAI (Reuters) - Militants holding two French journalists hostage in Iraq have given France another 24 hours to agree to their demands and scrap a ban on Muslim headscarves in schools, Al Jazeera reports. The Arabic TV station on Monday showed a tape of the two journalists urging the French people to hold protests to persuade their government to retract the headscarf law or they might be killed. The kidnappers gave the French government one more day to overturn the ban after a previous 48-hour deadline expired on Monday, Al Jazeera said, quoting...