11 Russians Kidnapped In Baghdad

[Grand Admiral Thrawn]

Russian/ Ukranian hostages freed:

Link

It'll be 20 years before Russia admits what they did...

[Rye]

dressy dressy

Some italians have been taken hostage a few hours ago:

DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Jazeera Arab television aired a tape Tuesday of four men described as Italians being held by a hitherto unheard of Iraqi Islamist group which demanded that Italy withdraw its forces from Iraq.

The four men in civilian clothes were shown seated on a floor and holding up their passports, surrounded by gunmen whose faces were covered by traditional Arab headscarves. The name on one passport could be seen as Fabrizio Quattrocchi.

"The Italian government...should vow and give guarantees to withdraw its forces from Iraq and give a time schedule and to free Muslim clerics in Iraq," a voice on the film said, adding the men were captured in the Sunni Muslim town of Falluja.

"If the Italian government agrees to these demands, we will inform them which party to negotiate with for their release," the man said, adding that the abductors were a unit of a group the station said was calling itself the Mujahideen Brigades.

The name appeared to be new and slightly different from that given by men who are holding three Japanese hostages.

In Rome, a Foreign Ministry official confirmed four Italian employees of a security firm called DTS were missing but it was still unclear if these were the four being shown held captive. Italian media said DTS was based in the United States.

The kidnappers said the Italians were seized while guerrillas were "cutting off all supplies" to U.S. forces in Falluja. A U.S. fuel convoy was ambushed and destroyed Friday and numerous other vehicles have been fired on and foreigners captured on the main highway between Baghdad and Falluja.

DEMAND BERLUSCONI APOLOGY

The kidnappers also demanded an apology from Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who risked anti-war domestic opinion to support the U.S. invasion of Iraq last year.

"The Italian prime minister should offer an official apology publicly on Arab satellite channels for their transgressions against Islam and Muslims," the man said.

Five Ukrainians and three Russians were freed Tuesday, and seven Chinese nationals seized separately near Falluja were freed Monday.

The fate of three Japanese hostages whose captors threatened Thursday to kill them unless Tokyo withdrew its troops from Iraq remained unclear. At least one U.S. civilian also remains captive. In all, seven American civilians and two U.S. soldiers have been listed as missing by the U.S. authorities.

The past week's kidnaps have lent a new dimension to the Iraq conflict, snaring civilians from a dozen countries, some of which, like Russia, opposed the war that ousted Saddam Hussein.

© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.

[Oni Koneko Damien]

It's more likely they'll handle this in their own special way.

Story goes that during the wave of hostage-takings in Lebanon during the 80s, one of the terrorist groups grabbed two Russians. As soon as word got out, the KGB went to work. They found out anybody who was connected to the group and snatched one of them off the street in Beirut. Later, the terrorists get a package at their headquarters. Inside it is the head of the man the KGB grabbed, with a shield-pin tacked on. Later that day, a car pulls up in front of the Soviet embassy long enough to kick out the two Russians, none the worse for wear.

Purely anecdotal, but illustrative of the Russian approach to problems like this.

This is the sad thing, not only is this story believable, but strangely enough, it would almost be the lesser of two evils.

Let's see, kidnapping the leaders and removing their heads, then sending aforementioned heads to other leaders. Less dead that Bush's way, more effective than Bush's way, infinitely more subtle than Bush's way, a hell of a lot less expensive than Bush's way.

Is it a bad sign when kidnapping and assassination seem preferrable to the way the president handled the situation?

-Damien

[Slartibartfast]

I am pretty convinced that (subtle) assassination and kidnapping have always been preferred to a war?