 Kidnappings of foreigners is on the rise in North Africa as criminal cells seek financial and political gain. Four Saudis were killed and three seriously wounded in the latest of a series of kidnapping attempts as they were ambushed in the western Tillaberi region of Niger on Monday. According to a report in the London-based A-Sharq Al-Awsat the assailants were attempting to kidnap the Saudis with the intention of passing them on to Al-Qa'ida for profit. "By any standard the kidnappings are lucrative," Geoff Porter, Director in Eurasia Group's Middle East and Africa division told The Media Line. "By local standards of the Sahara, the kidnappings are astoundingly lucrative." Ransoms are rumored to reach millions of dollars. "Most Nigerians and a large number of Malian live on less than a dollar a day. Obviously, the kidnappings have their associated expenses, so ransoms are not pure profit, but the profit margin has to be higher than many other legal activities in the Sahara." Monday's incident went afoul when one of the Saudis opened fire in self-defense and triggered an exchange of fire, the report claimed. The kidnappers' cell numbers some 30 people and operates mostly on the border between Mali and Niger, and in holiday resorts. Tourists, especially Westerners, are reportedly targeted and handed over to Al-Qa'ida for a cut of the ransom money subsequently paid by governments. Algerian sources said a cell of Arab Nigerians headed by a weapons smuggler identified by the initials M.I. planned Monday's ambush with the intention of selling them to senior Al-Qa'ida member, Mokhtar Belmokhtar. Belmokhtar is associated with Al-Qa'ida Organization in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), an Algerian terrorist group aligned with the global Al-Qa'ida. "In the majority of instances the kidnappers' motives seem to be purely financial," Porter said. "There is one active AQIM member in the Sahara, Abdel Hamid Abu Zaid, who seems to be driven by genuine Salafi-Jihadi hostility toward non-Muslims and Europeans. He seems, however, to be in the distinct minority and even other AQIM members, for example Mokhtar Belmokhtar, seem to be motivated by profit rather than ideology." AQIM has claimed the majority of kidnappings that have plagued North Africa for the past year. The organization has also claimed responsibility for the abduction of an Italian couple earlier this month in Mauritania and the kidnapping of three Spanish nationals in Mauritania in late November. A spokesman for the organization told Al-Arabiyya satellite channel that the abduction of the Italians was tied to what he called Italy's crime in Iraq and Afghanistan. Italy says it will not negotiate with the terror organization and that it will not change its policies in Afghanistan. "The number of kidnappings has risen since December 2008," said Louis Caprioli, Director of the Department of International Security at GEOS, a risk management company. "There are several reasons for this," he told The Media Line. "First, AQIM has intensified its presence in Mauritania, Algeria and in the whole Sahel region." "Second, they are taking advantage of people from Mali and Mauritania to support them and lead their actions in those countries. They're benefiting from the many cells in those countries." "Another reason is that the security services in Mauritania, Mali and Niger do not have the equipment or the ability to fight these organizations," Caprioli added. "There's a huge difficulty in controlling this desert region of the Sahel." "Historically the Sahel is a region where a lot of illegal trafficking takes place," he explained. "Cigarettes, drugs, stolen cars and weapons - all this illegal trafficking has increased the criminality rate in this region. The illegal weapons trafficking benefited from the civil wars in Sierra Leone, Liberia and the Ivory Coast." Governments very rarely admit they have paid ransom to secure the release of their nationals, Caprioli said. "I think that when a hostage is liberated it's not because of the kindness of the kidnappers," Caprioli said. "It's not a good solution but the governments don't have other solutions. The public opinion is also pressuring the governments to pay, so it's their only solution. One of the difficulties in the region is that the liberation of hostages by military means is really difficult. The problem is that the armies in Niger, Mauritania and Mali do not have the material means to lead operations to release hostages. Add to this the problem that usually the hostages are held in regions like north Mali, which are very difficult to access. They're held in no-man's land." Governments in the region are often prevented from accepting military assistance from foreign governments due to sovereignty considerations. "While states may oppose paying ransoms, many companies and some individuals buy Kidnap-and-Ransom insurance," Porter said. "These pay out a ransom in the event of being taken hostage." "Foreign firms that operate in kidnap-vulnerable areas include the cost of K&R insurance in their operating budgets," he added. "Obviously if ransoms were no longer being paid that would remove a huge incentive for the kidnappers, but when someone you know has been kidnapped, you are no longer looking at patterns and trends. Instead, you're focusing on resolving one particular situation and you pay the ransom." "The payment of ransoms has demonstrated that money can be made taking hostages," Porter explained. "Eventually the pace of kidnappings will level out, and then decline as the number of foreigners traveling to the region decreases. Travelers will become more and more aware of the risk and will no longer visit or pass through areas with a high likelihood of being kidnapped." Kidnappings that have taken place in North Africa over the past year: - December 2008. Two Canadian diplomats working for the United Nations are kidnapped in Niger. AQIM claims responsibility. They were released in April. Canada said no ransom was paid. JPost 
 Barack Obama believes it necessary to coo and flatter and fawn over these thugs, so why not Nora Shourd?
If Hitler kidnapped three Americans in 1938, would everyone be rushing to proclaim how much they respected Germany's ancient and noble civilization? An update on this story. "Mom of US hiker in Iran pleads to supreme leader," by Patrick Condon for AP, December 18: MINNEAPOLIS -- The mother of one of three American hikers jailed in Iran appealed to the Islamic Republic's supreme leader on Friday to release her daughter and her friends for the holidays, according to a new video. It's been almost five months since the three were taken captive in Iran for allegedly straying across the country's border and almost two months since their families have had any word on their condition. "Sarah, Shane and Josh are good people," Nora Shourd of Oakland, Calif., said in the video posted on a Web site dedicated to freeing the three. "They meant no harm to the Islamic Republic of Iran and respect your ancient and noble civilization. If they entered Iran, it was an innocent mistake." The families have previously pleaded for their release to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but Friday's video was the first public outreach to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is Iran's highest-ranking political and religious authority. "We're saying it's the holidays, please be compassionate and send them home," Shourd told The Associated Press on Thursday.... With thanks to JihadWatch
 The Iranians just keep escalating the conflict in the Gulf. It is remarkable how far they are willing to go to support their extremist Houthi allies fighting the Yemeni and Saudi government. First, Iran reacted to the Saudi naval blockade by sending their own warships to the Gulf of Aden. Then, the Iranians tried to instigate riots during the hajj in Saudi Arabia. Now, this: The Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyassa reports, citing Iranian sources, that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has submitted to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei a plan to take over the Yemen and Saudi Embassies in Tehran, like the U.S. Embassy takeover in 1979. The plan, which the report says includes kidnapping Saudi and Yemeni diplomats, was drawn up on Khamenei’s instructions, with the aim of pressuring both countries to stop fighting the Houthi rebels in northern Yemen. Source: Al-Siyassa, Kuwait, December 11, 2009 World Threats
 A spokesman claiming to represent al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has claimed responsibility for the kidnappings last month of four Europeans in Mali and Mauritania. The claim was made in an audiotape obtained by Al Jazeera on Tuesday. "Two units of the valiant mujahedeen managed to kidnap four Europeans in two distinct operations: the first in Mali where Frenchman Pierre Camatte was seized on November 25, and the second in Mauritania where three Spaniards were held on November 29," the spokesman, who identified himself as Saleh Abu Mohammad, said on the tape. He added that "France and Spain will be informed later of the legitimate demands of the mujahedeen", but did not go into detail about the demands. Camatte, the kidnapped Frenchman, was snatched from a hotel in the Sahel region of northern Mali on the night of November 25. The three kidnapped Spaniards were working as volunteers in Mauritania delivering humanitarian aid when they were kidnapped on November 29. They have been named as Albert Vilalta, 35, Alicia Gamez, 35, and Roque Pascual, 50. Earlier this year a US-based monitoring group reported that AQIM had claimed responsibility for killing Briton Edwin Dyer, one of a group of six Westerners kidnapped in Niger in January. The group had said threatened to kill Dyer unless the British government released Abu Qatada, a Muslim cleric, from a UK prison. Al Jazeera
 A CANADIAN journalist freed by Somali kidnappers today with Australian Nigel Brennan says she was beaten and tortured during her 15 months in captivity. Ms Lindhout said they were released today after a ransom "was paid by our families" to the kidnappers, she told Canadian television in a telephone interview from the hotel in Mogadishu were they were taken by Somali officials. "I believe they are taking that money and, as far as I understand, they plan on leaving the country," Ms Lindhout told CTV News Channel. "It's a long story. It's been sort of going on for the last couple of weeks, and tonight finally everything came together and the men who had kidnapped us turned us over to the federal government in Somalia." Ms Lindhout said she was beaten and tortured while in captivity. "It was extremely oppressive. I was kept by myself at all times. I had no one to speak to. I was normally kept in a room with a light, no window, I had nothing to write on or with. There was very little food. I was allowed to use the toilet exactly five times a day," she said. "There were times that I was beaten, that I was tortured. It was an extremely, extremely difficult situation." She said the kidnappers told her they were beating her because the money "wasn't coming quickly enough". "They seemed to think that if they beat me enough, then when I was able to speak to my mother - which they would put me on the line with her every couple of months - that I would be able to say the right thing to convince her to pay the ransom for me, which was $1 million," she said. "Of course, my family didn't have $1 million and it didn't matter what I said to them. But they didn't really understand that. They thought: She's Canadian, everyone in Canada is rich. She must have $1 million." One of the kidnappers, who refused to identify himself, said that a ransom of $US1 million ($1.08 million) had been paid for the pair's release. Their release was confirmed by an independent source in the Somali capital Mogadishu to an AFP journalist. Ms Lindhout and Mr Brennan were in a Mogadishu hotel today, pending their departure from Somalia tomorrow. A hotel employee said the two journalists were "very tired" following the end of their ordeal, one of the longest-running of many kidnappings in the lawless country. Mr Brennan has told Australia's Channel 7 network he is relieved and safe and looking forward to going home. A Somali journalist and two drivers were also taken hostage but were freed after 177 days in captivity. They were unable to identify their captors or the motives for the kidnappings. The Australian
 Iraqi children are becoming prominent targets of terrorist attacks in the form of kidnappings, rape and murder, Iraqi officials say. An official at the Iraqi Interior Ministry said there were several cases where organized gangs were carrying out these crimes, but added that many of the criminals had been arrested and brought to justice, according to the London-based A-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper. Safia a-Suheil, an Iraqi MP, said, "Recently the practice of targeting children by killing, kidnapping and raping them has mushroomed." These kidnappings constituted a "new terrorism tactic" since it was undermining the country as a whole, she said. In many cases, children are abducted and the kidnappers demand a ransom in exchange for their safe return. "It's been going on since the beginning of the war," an international aid worker in Iraq told The Media Line. "But it's been getting a lot more attention lately." Penalties for such cases include the death sentence. "There's an obvious failure to tackle issues related to children in Iraq," Suheil said. "There are several practices which have spread in Iraqi society and that need to be addressed and tackled, including child labor, which has become one of the most dangerous forms of violence that children are facing. "A high number of Iraqi children look for work on the streets and in markets because of difficult living conditions, which is partially a result of terrorism suffered by those looking after them," she said. "That shouldn't prevent a search for new and alternative means, including allocating part of the Iraqi state budget to provide for them and their families." Suheil recommended that a special unit be set up in the Interior Ministry's division for combating terrorism, to tackle this problem by increasing security around schools and public parks, which have become popular spots for families since the security situation began to improve. JPost
 Twenty-one people who were among a group abducted in the southern Philippines have been killed by armed men. Major General Alfredo Cayton said in a radio interview on Monday that the bodies had been found, but could not confirm who carried out the killings. "Our army troopers have reached the area where the vehicles and those held were taken ... they were shot by the armed men," Cayton said. "We have recovered 21 bodies. Our men are continuing to scour the area to find the others," he said. Hostage-takers earlier seized 29 people, among them the wife of Esmael Mangundadatu, a local mayor, his aides, supporters and journalists. Military officials said Mangundadatu's wife was among the dead. The journalists taken captive were accompanying Mangundadatu's group to a local elections office to file his candidacy for governorship of the predominantly Muslim Maguindanao province in the autonomous Mindanao region in the May 2010 vote when they were captured by the kidnappers. The Mangundadatu family is known to have a long-running feud with the family of Andal Ampatuan, Maguindanao's incumbent governor. Marga Ortigas, Al Jazeera's correspondent in the Philippines, said the families were well known to be political rivals. "This particular governor position is hotly contested because it is the seat of the autonomous region of Muslim Mindanao and the incumbent has been there for years." Lieutenant Colonel Romeo Brawner, a military spokesman, said that the hostage-takers had links to Amputuan. Brawner said there were about 100 armed men, most of whom were deputised as government guards by Ampatuan's family. He said the leader of the group that staged the kidnapping was one of Ampatuan's sons. Ampatuan was not immediately reachable for comment. Ortigas noted that Maguindanao was one of the most politically tense provinces in the country. "It is the site of three different armed insurgent movements," she said. "Elections in the Philippines over the last few years are becoming more and more violent, particularly in the area." Al Jazeera
 SANA’A: One week after a Japanese engineer was kidnapped by Yemeni tribesmen, there are conflicting reports about the fate of the man, including the possibility he was taken by al Qa’eda members.
“The Japanese engineer who was held at Bait al Gob village in Arhab district was kidnapped by members of al Qa’eda, to which one of the tribesmen in jail belongs,” said Abduljaleel Sinan, one of the negotiation committee members seeking the release the hostage.
Japanese media have identified the man as Takeo Mashimo, 63.
“The relatives of the kidnappers were about to release the Japanese hostage, but one tribesman who belongs to al Qa’eda snatched the hostage Friday night and fled to unidentified area in al Jawf,” Mr Sinan told NewsYemen, an independent local online news site, yesterday.
Abdulrehman al Marwani, another negotiator, however, dismissed the idea that al Qa’eda had kidnapped the Japanese hostage. “It is not true that al Qa’eda kidnapped the hostage. We have been told the kidnappers moved their hostage into a village in al Jawf just to avoid the tribal negotiators’ pressure on them, though I expect he is still in Arhab,” Mr al Marwani said. “We were about to reach an agreement with the kidnappers that they would release the hostage and we will write them a letter to guarantee the release of their relative in a month’s time. They were also seeking guarantees that they would not be arrested by the government.”
Mr Mashimo worked for a Japanese development agency in Yemen. He was kidnapped last Sunday along with his Yemeni driver by armed tribesmen in Arhab, 45km north-east of the capital, Sana’a, while on his way to to supervise the construction of a school building. The kidnappers have said they would set him free in exchange for the release of a 22-year-old family member identified as Hussein Abdullah Gob.
Gob was imprisoned by US forces for a year in Iraq along with other jihadists and was later jailed for another year in Syria before he was handed to the Yemeni government.
Yemen has held Gob in jail for two years without trial, according to his relatives. More at the National
 Hundreds of Muslim protesters on Saturday burnt Christian-owned shops in southern Egypt and attacked a police station where they believed a Christian accused of raping a Muslim girl was being held, a police official said. Police repelled the demonstrators in the town of Farshut using tear gas and also arrested 60 people during the clashes in which seven Coptic Christian-owned shops were destroyed, the official said. The protesters hurled stones at the police station after they heard that a Coptic Christian man accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 12-year-old Muslim was being held there, he said. Roughly ten percent of Egypt's 80-million-strong population are Coptic Christians, who complain of discrimination and are sometimes the target of sectarian attacks. Breitbart
 TEHRAN: An Iranian former deputy defence minister who has been missing for nearly three years was abducted by Israeli agents and was now being held in Israel, several Iranian news websites reported yesterday. Ali Reza Asgari, a retired general who served in Iran's Revolutionary Guard, disappeared while on a private trip to Turkey in December, 2006. In March of this year, a former German Defence Ministry official said Mr Asgari had defected and was providing information to the West on Iran's nuclear program. Iranian officials and Mr Asgari's family have claimed that he was abducted. One of yesterday's web reports, on a site called Alef, said German and British intelligence services assisted Israeli agents in abducting Mr Asgari and taking him to Israel.
The site, www.alef.ir, is close to a conservative Iranian law-maker. "On the basis of a two-year investigation carried out by concerned bodies, Asgari was abducted by foreign intelligence services and is being held in a Zionist prison," the site reported, apparently referring to an Iranian intelligence probe into the matter. Israel's Foreign Ministry refused to comment. Hans Ruehle, a former chief of the planning staff of the German Defence Ministry, wrote in a Swiss newspaper in March that Mr Asgari told the West that Iran was financing North Korean steps to transform Syria into a nuclear weapons power, leading to an Israeli air-strike that targeted a site in Syria on September 6, 2007. The US claims the site was a nearly finished nuclear reactor, but Syria denies that and says the facility was an unused military installation. Mr Ruehle said Mr Asgari, who was instrumental in establishing the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, "changed sides" and provided information to the West on Iran's own nuclear program. The US and its European allies, as well as Israel, suspect Iran is intent on using a civilian nuclear program as a cover for developing nuclear weapons. Iranian officials have said Mr Asgari was not linked to Iran's nuclear program, but Western media reports have said he has co-operated with US intelligence and is considered a "high value" defector. Mr Asgari arrived in Turkey on December 7, 2006, and disappeared on December 9. The Australian
 A 79-year-old Irish Roman Catholic priest abducted in the Philippines a month ago was freed early Thursday and neither country paid any of the kidnappers' $2 million ransom demand, Irish and Filipino authorities said. The Rev. Michael Sinnott said he was not harmed but complained of arduous journeys as kidnappers took him by sea and through jungles to evade government troops. "I was treated well. Once I had been kidnapped and brought to the boat, that was very rough," he told Manila's ABS-CBN television from a military camp in southern Zamboanga city. He said he was not angry with the kidnappers, whom the Philippine government suspected had ties with a large Muslim rebel group. "They gave me lectures on their ideology but apart from that, they treated me well." Irish President Mary McAleese called Sinnott's freedom the answer to the shared prayers of millions in both countries. "He is clearly a man of great resilience, strength and courage and we wish him well as he seeks to recover from such a trying ordeal," Mrs. McAleese said. And Prime Minister Brian Cowen said the government would help the priest enjoy "a speedy reunion with his family and friends." Six armed men abducted Sinnott Oct. 11 from his missionary home on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, escaped by speedboat, and took him into the jungle. Officials had feared he could suffer a fatal heart attack because he was still recovering from heart-bypass surgery. Rumors persisted that he had died in captivity. Philippine security officials blamed Rev. Sinnott's kidnaping on the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a separatist group that has fought for decades for Muslim self-rule in the predominantly Catholic country. But the rebels denied involvement. Rebel leader Mohagher Iqbal said his group applied "pressure and our moral authority" on the kidnappers to release Rev. Sinnott. Chief Philippine negotiator Rafael Seguis credited Moro rebel leadership with persuading the kidnappers to hand over the priest. Senior military commander Maj. Gen. Benjamin Dolorfino said Sinnott was debriefed in the southern military camp before flying to Manila later Thursday to be greeted by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Maj. Dolorfino and Mr. Seguis said Philippine authorities paid no ransom. Read more here,,,, Source: WSJ
 Somali pirates who kidnapped a British couple from their yacht last week have warned against any effort to rescue them, saying they would “burn their bones” should such an attempt be made.
The couple and the pirates had both been in touch with a number of media outlets recently.
While the couple voiced concerns about their safety and spoke of their ordeal, the pirates made ransom demands in their phone interviews.
Paul and Rachel Chandler were sailing from the Seychelles to Tanzania in the Indian Ocean on their 11.6-metre boat called Lynn Rival when they were kidnapped. A distress signal was sent out on October 23.
The pirates forced the pair to sail towards Somalia after their boat was captured.
The British navy found their empty yacht on Thursday and it is believed the couple were taken to the pirate stronghold of Harardhere, a coastal town which lies within Somali borders. Among talks that the pirates have had with the media, one included a call to a Spanish television station that was monitored by a EU-led warship, in which Mohammed Hussein, a pirate, threatened to “burn their bones”.
“We are telling Britain that any bullet of our friends on the yacht will be big cries for the families of the two old people we held,” said Mr Hussein in broken English. Read more here,,,, Source: The National
 Able to observe the Taliban close up for an extended period, a New York Times reporter discovers that they aren't actually the moderate nationalists that his own paper may have led him to believe they were. "7 Months, 10 Days in Captivity," by David Rohde in the New York Times, October 17 Over those months, I came to a simple realization. After seven years of reporting in the region, I did not fully understand how extreme many of the Taliban had become.
Before the kidnapping, I viewed the organization as a form of "Al Qaeda lite," a religiously motivated movement primarily focused on controlling Afghanistan. Living side by side with the Haqqanis' followers, I learned that the goal of the hard-line Taliban was far more ambitious. Contact with foreign militants in the tribal areas appeared to have deeply affected many young Taliban fighters.
They wanted to create a fundamentalist Islamic emirate with Al Qaeda that spanned the Muslim world. And beyond. As Beitullah Mehsud put it in 2007, "We will continue our struggle until foreign troops are thrown out. Then we will attack them in the US and Britain until they either accept Islam or agree to pay jazia (a tax in Islam for non-Muslims living in an Islamic state)." Source: JihadWatch
 LUXOR, Egypt — Egyptian police say they have arrested a woman who had claimed she was kidnapped together with her young female cousin in hopes of bilking relatives out of the $55,000 ransom. Brigadier el-Shafei Mohammed Hassan, chief investigator in the southern city of Luxor, told reporters Sunday that the 20-year-old woman had come up with the kidnapping scheme with her father to extract the money from the wealthy parents of her 4-year-old cousin. They wanted the money to help out her father and pay for her wedding plans. Hassan said the woman was arrested in downtown Cairo and she led police to where the young girl was being kept. Kidnapping for ransom is uncommon in Egypt. But hundreds of people go missing every year, and many of the cases go unsolved. Source: FoxNews
 CAIRO — Egyptian police say kidnappers have snatched a young girl and her cousin in the southern city of Luxor and are demanding about $55,000 for their release. Al-Shafei Mohamed, a police investigator in Luxor, says the girl's father, a wealthy businessman, reported the kidnapping Saturday. Ahmed Hassan, a family friend, says the 4-year-old girl and her 20-year-old female cousin were kidnapped during a family celebration Friday night. He said it was unclear who carried out the kidnapping. Kidnapping for ransom is uncommon in Egypt. But hundreds of people go missing every year, and many of the cases go unsolved. Luxor, where the kidnapping took place, is a famed ancient city known for its pharaonic temples. Source: FoxNews
 An Irish priest was kidnapped Sunday in the southern Philippines, his missionary society said. Father Michael Sinnott, part of the Missionary Society of St. Columban, was kidnapped at about 7:30 p.m. local time (7:30 a.m. ET) “from outside his home in Pagadian City, Province of Zamboanga del Sur, Mindanao, as he was taking an evening stroll in the garden,” the society said in a statement. “Four or five armed men burst into the garden and bundled Fr (Father) Michael into a pickup truck and drove to a local beach. The vehicle was abandoned and burnt. Fr Michael was taken away in a speed boat.” The Mindanao area has been gripped by violence and repeated kidnappings as government forces battle Islamic militants who seek a separate Islamic state. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has described dire conditions in the region, with hundreds of thousands of people displaced, many of them holed up at evacuation sites. Source: CNN Wire
 Richard Kerbaj, Baghdad Even then he was able to gather only $US8000 ($9035) of the $US50,000 demanded by Ahmed's captors. The kidnappers eventually dropped their ransom to $US20,000 - still more than twice the amount Mr Amoore could possibly raise- after the confectionery shop owner in east Baghdad pleaded that their information about his supposed wealth was untrue. Mr Amoore, angered and tormented by the kidnappers, then decided to gamble with his son's life. "Just kill him," said the father of four during a heated telephone negotiation with the lead captor. "Just kill him and I'll consider I've given his soul as a gift to God." Four hours later the kidnappers released Ahmed unharmed, but only after they had received $US10,000 in payment. Kidnapping has overtaken burglaries, robberies, car theft and other crimes to become the biggest criminal activity in many areas of Baghdad.
Insurgents and gangsters are increasingly abducting children to raise funds for terrorism or line their pockets. These days, money has become the main motive for kidnapping, unlike during the civil war in Baghdad in 2006 and 2007 when people were captured and killed for sectarian reasons, according to Brigadier General Faisal Malik Mohsin, commander of the Iraqi Federal Police's al-Rasheed district in southwest Baghdad. Women are playing a bigger role because they are less likely to arouse suspicion, he said. They are paid by gangs to abduct the children, but negotiations for the captive's return are handled by male gang leaders. Read more here,,,, Source: The Australian
 DAMASCUS, Syria — The exiled leader of the militant Hamas group is threatening to capture more Israeli soldiers in order to win the release of Palestinian prisoners. In a speech in Damascus, Syria, Khaled Mashaal congratulated the Palestinian people on Israel's release Friday of 19 female prisoners in return for a video of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit. Mashaal promised to work for the release of thousands of Palestinians held by Israel. He said those who were able to capture Schalit and hold him safely for more than three years are capable of capturing "Schalit and Schalit and Schalit until there is not even one prisoner in the enemy's jails." Source: FoxNews
 EXCLUSIVE: Sally Neighbour The directive has been issued by veteran al-Qa'ida adviser Mustafa Hamid, also known as Abu Walid al-Masri, who was married to Australian Rabiah Hutchinson in Afghanistan in 2001. Hamid has been detained in Iran since 2003 but remains an influential figure in the militant movement and has maintained contact with his followers through jihadist websites, despite his imprisonment. In an edict titled "The US Soldier in Afghanistan - the first step for the release of all prisoners of the war on terror", Hamid argues that the capture of an American soldier by Taliban forces earlier this year should be used as a precedent in a campaign of abducting Western civilians to use as bargaining chips to negotiate the release of Taliban and al-Qa'ida detainees. In the document uncovered by former Australian Federal Police senior counter-terrorism intelligence analyst Leah Farrall, Hamid argues that the US has "changed the rules of the game" on the treatment of prisoners of war by its detention and torture of inmates at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere. He says it is now time for the Afghan mujaheddin to "change the rules" and "accept the principle approved and implemented by the enemy - the abduction of civilians who have nothing to do with the battle". Hamid writes that soldiers from foreign countries such as Australia are fair targets. "Governments that send armies to fight against our people in Iraq and Afghanistan bear full responsibility and they can therefore be exposed to the effects of any change in the special laws on prisoners. Force is the only thing that is respected by the West, and without it what has been taken will never be returned to its owners, and no prisoner will be returned to his family." The document was discovered by Ms Farrall, formerly a senior counter-terrorism intelligence analyst with the Australian Federal Police, who is currently completing a PhD on al-Qa'ida at Monash University and specialises in unearthing al-Qa'ida documents. "This is one of the most important things I've seen for a very long time," she said. "I have not (previously) seen any senior militant figure sanction a targeted campaign in direct response to American detainee policies and I find this extremely concerning." Rabiah Hutchinson, who was married to Hamid - who she refers to as Abu Walid - until they separated in Iran in 2003, has not seen the document but said it sounded like his work. "Abu Walid is one of the most pragmatic people I have met in my life. To him it would be just a strategy," she said. "I could quite see Abu Walid saying, without emotion, 'What's good for the goose is good for the gander'. "He would be saying 'OK, we're in this situation now, what are our priorities?' And his priority would be to save the Muslim lives who are now in the hands of the Americans." Ms Farrall said Hamid's edict was all the more significant because he has historically been "the voice of restraint" within al-Qa'ida, renowned for his "moderate" pragmatism. She argues in an opinion piece in The Australian that his treatise demonstrates the damage done by the US policies on detention and torture of detainees, which may now seriously undermine the mission to restore peace in Afghanistan. Hamid advocates that mass abductions should be carried out under the direction of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar in areas of Afghanistan that his troops control. "If we want, our liberated territories can absorb thousands of prisoners, and we have enough men to guard them and also to take care of them until the time is suitable for exchange." He says prisoner exchange must proceed on the basis of "all for all". "By 'all for all', I mean the exchange of all their prisoners for all our prisoners, for the whole period of their war against terrorism (from) when they said the rules of the game had changed." Sally Neighbour is a senior contributor to The Australian, reporter for ABC's Four Corners and author of The Mother of Mohammed Source: The Australian
Murad was studying in class five in Mingora, the main city in northwest Pakistan's Swat Valley, when the Islamists abducted him and took him to their remote mountain base in Chuprial. Looking drained in his smudged clothes and dirty sandals, he gave a glimpse into the short life that awaits boys taken by the Taliban. The next stage of his training included 16 hours a day of physical exercise and psychological indoctrination. "My instructor told me that martyrdom is the biggest reward of Allah," Murad said quietly. Another boy, Abdul Wahab, 15, said the Taliban had lured him to the camp from his studies at a madrassa -- Islamic school -- in Mingora. "I was told that it was a religious duty of every Muslim to get training to fight the enemies of Islam," he said. "I panicked when a few days later I was told that I would be getting training for suicide bombing." The army believes between 1200 and 1500 boys as young as 11 who were trained in Swat to become suicide bombers were recruited after the Pakistani government signed a peace deal with the Taliban in February, handing the militants control of the valley. The agreement broke down after the Taliban started advancing on Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, which led to a military offensive that has all but driven the militants from the region. The boys were rescued after the Taliban were forced to abandon their camps. Many are still missing, however, having been sold to militants in other areas. "We are trying to track them down," said Brigadier Tahir, the commanding officer in Mingora. "We are not sure how many of them are still alive." The Taliban turned to children as potential suicide bombers because they were impressionable, less likely to be detected and better able to reach their targets. "They are told that the Pakistani army has become an enemy of Islam as it is fighting for Christians and Jews," said a senior official involved in interrogation of potential suicide bombers who have surrendered or been captured. On the day of a planned attack, the designated suicide bomber is taken to a mosque to be congratulated for being chosen by God. "Sometimes he is also heavily drugged before the attack," the official said. The children were told that they should not allow anyone, even their parents, to get in the way of jihad. "You must not hesitate even to kill your parents if they are on the wrong side," said Kurshid Khan, 14, who was selected for training that could have taken him to South Waziristan -- the lawless region bordering Afghanistan controlled by Baitullah Mehsud, the head of Pakistan's Taliban. Pakistani intelligence officials said 70 per cent of suicide bombers were trained at camps run by Qari Hussain, Mehsud's most trusted lieutenant. Hussain often boasted that he could convince anyone in 10 minutes to become a suicide bomber. They believe many of the children trained at Hussain's camps have carried out attacks on US and NATO forces in Afghanistan. A recent UN report said 80 per cent of bombers involved in attacks in Afghanistan came from camps in Pakistan. The army has set up a rehabilitation centre for the children. Murad is back in Mingora. "We did not have any clue where he went," said Mohammad Salman, his father. "I was horrified when I was told that my son could be a suicide bomber." Source:The Australian
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Kidnappings of foreigners is on the rise in North Africa as criminal cells seek financial and political gain.
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