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| Africa: North |
| Libya paid five million euro ransom for Sahara hostages |
| 2003-08-26 |
| Hadn’t seen this before: Libya paid a ransom of five million euros "on its own initiative" to the abductors of 14 European hostages who were released this week after being held for months in the Sahara desert, diplomats said here Thursday. The money passed "neither through Malian nor German hands," the diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity after the freed hostages returned home safely Wednesday in Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Another diplomat, who also requested anonymity, confirmed the assertion. The money, the equivalent of 5.5 million dollars, was paid to the abductors’ leader through an intermediary chosen by Tripoli, the diplomats said, without naming the go-between or stating where or when the transaction took place. Most likely had their phone number on his speed dial. Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, looking for "international respectability," probably made the gesture to "settle scores," the second diplomat said. A son of the Libyan leader, Saif al-Islam Khadafi, was quoted Tuesday in the German daily Der Tagesspiegel, as saying that Libya was intervening in the crisis through the Kadhafi Foundation, which he heads. A spokesman for the Kadhafi Foundation’s office in Berlin told AFP on Tuesday that it had set up a five-strong team in the southwest Libyan town of Ghat on the border with Algeria. Handy, it’s right next door. He said they made contact with the kidnappers, believed to be the Algerian extremist Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), and during an August 7 meeting were given a "demand" to pass on to the governments of Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. In a statement in Berlin, the Kadhafi Foundation said its mediators accompanied German agents to the "final, decisive" talks with the kidnappers. "Our foundation colleagues were able to significantly reduce the ransom and overcome disagreements about its handover," the statement added. Just like they were old friends. Gert Weisskirchen, a foreign policy spokesman for Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s ruling Social Democrats, indicated Libya had helped, telling German radio: "Libya is trying to return as a player in the international community." If one had a evil, sneaky mind, one might believe that this whole kidnapping was stage managed from the start. Last week Libya formally accepted responsibility for the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet over the Scottish town of Lockerbie and offered to pay 2.7 billion dollars as compensation to relatives of the 270 people who died. Britain has now put forward a resolution to the UN Security Council calling for the lifting of sanctions against Libya. Hummm... |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #7 I read on a German blog that the Germans want the kidnap victims to reimburse the state. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-8-27 12:17:20 AM |
| #6 The thing that really galls me about the whole situation is that Libya paid over $5 million to a terrorist organization, which can use the money to kill/capture even more Euro-weenies and other non-muslims, and we're supposed to be happy about it. Never, never, NEVER pay a ransom - it only encourages 'em to hold even MORE hostages and stage even more kidnappings. Hunt the sh$$heads down, strip 'em bare, and stake 'em face up to the highest sand dune in the area, using lightning rods and chains. Either the heat, the wind, or the lightning will get 'em, and it may take a long, painful time about it. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2003-8-26 9:25:19 PM |
| #5 Dishman is right. G'Daffy™ is laying low because he sees what AOE roosters get when they crow too loud. We can deal with him, but we do not have to have a love fest with him, and he will NEVER gain respectability by trying to buy his way in. He is a life-long tyrant, but a useful idiot, and we should keep contacts with him, as they may serve our ends someday. Just do not eneable him, like the Soddis. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-8-26 7:08:45 PM |
| #4 Yea, he paid ransom to Abu Sayyaf. Ghaddafi is taking steps to make himself a low-priority target. As long as he is pursuing a course of lowering his profile below our attention threshold, I'm ok with him being alive and even remaining in power. We can't accept him somehow becoming "indispensable". That's what the Soddis tried for, and it just doesn't work for us. "Irrelevant" is a completely different matter. |
| Posted by: Dishman 2003-8-26 6:41:50 PM |
| #3 That musta got France's panties in a bunch (heh heh) - ON TOP OF their bitching and moaning that they didn't get as much blood money from Libya as the Lockerbie deal, this's gotta really grate.... |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-8-26 6:40:37 PM |
| #2 That's not particularly pragmatic, PD. I'm as much as you are in trying to reclaim Wheelus AFB, but there are different tactics that can be used. Lifting sanctions will hurt Saudi that much more and therefore should be used. Tangentially, didn't he also intervene in some Phillipeans terror issue last year? |
| Posted by: Brian 2003-8-26 6:28:39 PM |
| #1 Outta one pocket and into the other... Even if legit, Kadaffy is still a loonie tune, a murderer, and someone who could flip yet another page at any time. So he's playng nice lately with the oil money he loots from his dictatorship. That's respectable? Pfeh. He can't buy his way back into respectability just because the Europeans are too broke, weak, (fill in the blank), whatever to deal with a bunch of insane Izzoid Bedu wannabees skulking about in the desert. Another gaggle of dipshit moron tourists fucking with the bull, again, then everyone is so surprised when they get a bit of the horn. Holidays in the Axil of Evil, indeed. Squirrels. To prove he's repectable, he should be given a gun, one bullet, and 30 minutes to say his RamaLamaDingDongs™ - or be shot in the head as the rabid dog his whole life attests to. Then we'll see if Jr is for real by what he does for, say, 20-30 yrs. We'll let you know, don't wait up, sonny. |
| Posted by: .com 2003-8-26 5:21:09 PM |