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| Iraq |
| Corpses held for ransoms in Baghdad |
| 2007-05-02 |
| BAGHDAD - Criminals in Baghdad are stealing corpses from the scenes of car bombings and killings in order to extract ransoms from grieving relatives. In a macabre offshoot of the capital's kidnapping epidemic, the gangs pose as medics collecting bodies to be taken back to the city's overflowing morgues. Instead, they take the corpses to secret places and demand payments of up to $5,000 to release each body to relatives for burial. Because Muslim custom dictates that a body must be buried as soon as possible after death, many families simply pay up, rather than involve the police. "We have seen 40 families to whom this has happened, where people said that they have had to pay money to receive bodies," said Dr. Mohammed al-Nasrawi, an official at the Baghdad city morgue. The new racket in "dead hostage taking" is thought to be run by gangs connected to the city's sectarian militias, many of whom are involved in conventional kidnappings. Iraqi police said the gangs often respond to car bombings, which can leave more than 100 corpses on the streets. In the chaos, police and army units seldom question the credentials of people posing as ambulance crews. Capt. Falah Saab al Mamouri of Iraq's Interior Ministry described how one such gang since apprehended operated: "They would look for bodies that had identity cards on them and then get in touch with the family. "They would then ring the family of the dead person, tell them that their relative has been killed, and then demand between $3,000 and $5,000 to return the body. "Once the family had handed the money over to a middle man, they would dump the corpse near the city morgue with the name written on a piece of paper pinned on the chest. Sooner or later someone would hand it over to the morgue, and the family would find it there." The process is made simpler for the gangs by the current Iraqi habit of carrying around details of their next of kin in case they are unexpectedly killed. Frequently, such contact details are stored in a mobile phone. Capt. al Mamouri added: "We noticed two ambulance crews at the scene of a bombing that were only taking away bodies with mobile phones on them. The Iraqi National Guard arrested the crews and they confessed what they had been doing." He said that subsequent inquiries revealed that the crews had been employees of the Health Ministry, and they had been stashing the bodies in hospital mortuaries. The ministry is run by Shi'ite groups loyal to the radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and often has been accused of being infiltrated by sectarian gangs. Police think, however, that up to a dozen other gangs are operating the same way. Some get their pickings from areas known as "dead men's corners" garbage dumps and other secluded spots, where victims of sectarian gangs are often dumped. |
| Posted by:Chaick Elmomoque2400 |
| #9 I'll take "Pre-emptively" for $1000, Alex. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-05-02 23:04 |
| #8 Problem is that it always ends up outside their yard and into yours. Do you deal with it pre-emptively, or do you wait until it's knocking on your door? |
| Posted by: Pappy 2007-05-02 21:21 |
| #7 LSU Fan: Omavath may be right, been there a few times. My assessment is they are "hopeless" as is much of the Muzzie ME. I hope we've learned a lesson from this kak and stay the phuech outta Africa and the ME. It ain't Kansas, it ain't never gonna be Kansas, not in 10,000 years. Stay clear of it and let them slug it out. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2007-05-02 19:44 |
| #6 Omavith It is not hopeless. Reports like this infuriate us. But to be honest, the disrespect I have seen for Life and decent things that we see in this article I ahve seen among the worst US gangs and other criminal element. Dirt is Sirt no matter where it is |
| Posted by: LSU fan 2007-05-02 14:28 |
| #5 Iraq was the next place after Afghanistan because it was right smack dab in the center of gravity of the Axis of Bad-A$$ Dudes, to wit: *Iran *Syria *Saudi Arabia Iraq was always known to be difficult because it is in the Middle East, and it has been under the thumb of a ruthless dictator for 35 years or so, and has had a brutal history before that. In short, it is a disfunctional sh*thole, fueled by oil money. So the idea was to establish a base for neutralizing or dismembering similar neighboring oil-fueled dictatorships that brought their psychotic ideas and mischief to the world, and ultimately the US. To do this required that we be strong of will, and appropriately forceful and brutal. It appears that we, collectively as a nation, now lack this will to do what must be done to achieve our goals. If we lack the will to take the bull by the horns, it just brings us closer to the ultimate brutality of Wrechard's Three Conjectures. Like the Fram filter guy sez, "Pay me now, or pay me later." This corpse ransom enterprise is just another symptom of the thuggery of the society. Just think what could have been done if, for example, Tater and his Tots militia were exterminated back in 2004, when they started their reign of terror. Instead of making an example out of these thugs, we played footsie with Sistani, and ultimately Tater. By destroying Tater and his minions, we would have sent an appropriate message to the Iraqi people that these behaviors are a dead end, and cease and desist these type of activities. As long as there are no consequences for these behaviors, they will continue, and our troops will be stuck in this meat grinder. This applies to Syria and Iran, and to Saudi Arabia, too. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2007-05-02 13:35 |
| #4 Regardless, Iraq is usefully placed as a land base from which to attack or interdict so many of the regions playas. Helping stabilize the country is a plausible reason for keeping troops there, and expanding permanent cantonments. Not to mention, as lotp once explained, the more training foreign troops receive from us, the more professional they become and, even more importantly, the better they understand what a very bad idea it would be to ever go up against us. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-05-02 08:17 |
| #3 Iraq is hopeless, not because of anything America has done but because these people are not worth the blood we have expended. |
| Posted by: Omavith Turkeyneck7441 2007-05-02 06:01 |
| #2 Land of Souk Home of the depraved |
| Posted by: Shipman 2007-05-02 01:32 |
| #1 Look for people with large scale refrigeration facilities. Come on, folks. How much more ghoulish is this going to get? Just when you think Islamic scumbags can't stoop any lower, they dig a new tunnel. Time to stage some fake auto accidents with a few unclaimed corpses that are loaded with |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-05-02 00:18 |