From Somalia to Sulu, kidnap-for-ransom has become a lucrative business and a potent weapon. It is the preferred tactic of organized crime syndicates like the Abu Sayyaf and the Somali pirates to extort not only millions in ransom, but to propagandize for an alleged cause whose inherent unattainability justifies both the last and the next kidnapping-for-ransom operation. Hundreds of Pinoy sailors have already been kidnapped and held for ransom by Somali pirates and the whole nation terrorized by the Abu Sayyaf’s daring kidnappings and beheadings, from Sipadan to Dos Palmas to Basilan to Jolo.
The young and dashing ALBADER PARAD has been portrayed as the leader of the Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom gang still holding two Red Cross workers hostage on the island of Jolo in Sulu province. But this made-for-TV jihadi is not really the most dangerous terrorist personality involved here, for there are also several high value Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist leaders with multimillion dollar bounties on their heads who are believed to be running with and controlling the Parad gang and who may now be bottled up in a tightly watched and guarded area along with their two hostages, and fifty heavily armed gun men:
[GMA TV News] Jemaah Islamiyah militants led by Malaysian Zulkifli bin Hir also known as Marwan is believed to be among the Abu Sayyaf holding the hostages. Twos, more JI terrorists Dulmatin and Umar Patek are also said to be hiding in Sulu.
Zulkifli, who also heads the Kumpulun Mujahidin Malaysia (KMM), was believed to be involved in multiple deadly bomb attacks in the Philippines and has been added to most-wanted list of the U.S. Rewards for Justice Program.
The U.S. offered as much as $5-million bounty for the capture of Zulkifli and other known Abu Sayyaf leaders, while Dulmatin carries a $10-million reward on his head and $1-million for Patek. Manila also put aside P100-million bounties for the capture of Abu Sayyaf leaders dead or alive.
The one-armed bandit, Radulan Sahiron is also reportedly part of this motley crew of murderers. I think this may explain recent reports of heavy US and Australian support for Philippine forces dealing with the hostaging crisis, which has gained high profile international attention. Not only is this ongoing hostaging of Red Cross workers a violation of Philippine and International Humanitarian Law, there is every reason to hope these dangerous mass murderers and sociopaths will be brought to justice for their dastardly crimes against humanity.
Because no ransom has been forthcoming from the ICRC, including a purported demand for $5 million, the fear is that, today or tomorrow, the bandits could saw off the heads of Andreas Notter and Eugenio Vagni and put the video on the Abu Sayyaf’s YouTube fundraising channel. But could the gang and its internationally wanted terrorist leaders then just disappear and escape?
That remains to be seen, but I think the only thing now keeping the two hostages alive must be the uncertainty of escape in the minds of the Abu Sayyaf leaders should they behead them. They must know that they are now being tracked not only by Philippine police and military authorities, but also by the US and Australia, who’ve been after these particular JI leaders for years. Hopefully every high tech intelligence means to watch their every move in real time
The Door of Observation is momentarily ajar on a classic Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom situation, but with one difference–no ransom appears to be forthcoming. In such a situation, where the hostage takers are threatening to behead their captives, what ought the authorities to do? Surely it is NOT to comply with the demand to open up a path for escape [sic!] On the contrary I think the authorities must make escape impossible and make it crystal clear that AS SOON AS the terrorists make a move to kill or harm their hostages, an attempt to defend and rescue those hostages will instantly be launched and measures taken to prevent such action, including the forceful neutralization of any suspect who does not immediately surrender.
There is a lesson in both principles and tactics that we can learn from the US Navy Seals in the successful rescue of an American sea captain from Somali pirates. In that instance, the ability to know in real time what the kidnappers were doing or intending to do was essential to taking the action that freed that hostage. He could just as easily have ended up dead of course, but for the skill and good luck of those three snipers. However, it also sends an important message to future pirate-kidnappers of a kind of “mutually assured destruction” should they they decide to kill their hostages. The authority to act in defense of hostages that are adjudged to be in imminent danger of being seriously harmed or killed, had been given to the commander on the ground by President Barack Obama, and the successful outcome has been credited to his leadership as well as to the professionalism of the US Navy personnel involved.
I think this is applicable to the Sulu hostage crisis.
Cross posted under a separate title at Philippine Commentary and The Rizalist Press.
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Breaking news… DZMM is quoting authorities as saying Swiss Andreas Notter has been freed by his Abu Sayyaf captors….
Ding, read that on CNN.
" (CNN) — One of two aid workers still held by militants in the Philippines has been freed, the International Committee of the Red Cross said Saturday.
ICRC officials spoke briefly by telephone to Andreas Notter and confirmed he is free, an ICRC spokeswoman in Geneva, Switzerland, said, but no other details were immediately available."
After all this, i find it interesting that
The three had been in the region to inspect a provincial prison and were on their way to the airport when they were seized by armed men riding motorcycles, the ICRC has said.
The ICRC has identified the kidnappers as being from the Islamic militant group Abu Sayyaf, which has been linked to the al Qaeda terrorist network.
Since the abduction, the organization has been working with the Philippine National Red Cross to free the staff members."
***
Looks like B-movie material for a fictional tale about a government administration notoriously known for human rights violations. Then as the ICRC sends a team to a provincial prison, the administration is worried that an ICRC investigation of the provincial prison will make Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo look like a kiddie playground. The administration cannot afford another citation by the international community. A cluster within the national security committee is activated and is given the mission to prevent the ICRC from reaching the prison.
The committee makes a phone call to its field personnel, presto, a zarzuela hogging the headlines – a win-win scenario. The kidnappers' brand is reinforced, the government military gets its increase in allocations, the administration looks good in handling the "crisis", the blogosphere is on fire as bigotry is thrown from one camp to another, and there is still one more hostage ….. and, the ICRC does not get to investigate the provincial prison. And while, everyone else is one hostages, media celebrities, and the like, the administration is helping itself to taxpayers money.
The committee gets a pat in the back, the usual R & R, everybody is happy in la-la-la land.
Totally fictional.
maybe, just maybe, if all the icrc hostages were all beheaded, the icrc will wake up to the reality that there is a compelling justification for abu ghraib and gitmo, instead of buying the ultra left's lunacy, hook line and sinker. can one imagine, the u.n. is reluctant to take drastic action against the bloody pirates of somalia on the warped excuse that the "human rights" of the pirates might be violated? crazy world, indeed!
regarding UN… do you have a link? i have a link from cnn saying that militaries can pursue the somali pirates:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/12/16/un.pir...
FBI-Academy-trained-west-point-trained PMA graduates are no match to These motley ragtag team who knew of psychological, gorilla warfare from down-and-quick-and-dirty school of experience
The impeccably crisp uniformed West-Point-trained PMAyers must be busy looking at the floor-plans of their mansions while the ragtag crew of kidnapers are watching Google Map :)
"the ability to know in real time what the kidnappers were doing or intending to do was essential to taking the action that freed that hostage."
Its unfortunate that the opposite is happening with the terrorists in Southwestern Mindanao. :(
Will never disappear. I've seen that road before. The Long and Winding Road:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COMsKPeWAsw
Their movements are being tracked with the aid of US military unmanned aerial vehicles. I have a YouTube series:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEKjZgnC5H4
In the Somali case, the captain was yet to be transferred to a more secure holding area on land.
In the ASG case, the hostages are already in a more secure holding area on land.
Tactics will have to be adjusted to suit the conditions on the ground.
******
On another note, is ASG really acting on its own considering its origins – http://www.nenepimentel.org/speeches/20000802.sht...
These people are Criminals, hiding under the banner of Islamic Religion. Some are Psychotic Killers.
You dont deal with Kid's Gloves with these kinds of people. They are dangerous. U.S. Navy Seals used Sharpshooters with Night Vision facilities. The goodness of Night warfare is we have advanced in Night Vision Technology. We have also Thermal Imaging used at night, and other classified warfare instruments.
The U.S. Predator Drone Armed with Precise Rocket Guidance System is slowly killing all the Al Queda
High Value Targets in Pakistan. They cannot hide anymore. Advance in Technology always determines
Victory in War. Together with Good Strategy and a good Field Commander. Al Queda cannot win with
Religious Jihad and suicide bombers. They are armed with 14th Century Ideology, using borrowed
Western Arms and electronic instruments. They have nothing other than that. So, they use fear as a tool
of warfare.
These are dangerous people. Criminals hiding under Islamic banner. We should hunt and kill them. We dont
negotiate with Criminals.
Sorry, guys. dito ko na lang i post kasi hindi ko ma i-poste sa previous thread.
Philippine justice at work. DOJ Gonzalez received a text according to his press release na pinatay si Trining sa bedroom pagkatapos diniala sa bathroom. The text is concrete introvertible evidence according to DOJ
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2009/april/18...
PHILIPPINE JUSTICE AT WORK! EFFICIENTLY BY TEKSTING!!!
Aba, mukhang si DOJ Gonzalez is like Patricio Mangubat o si Nielskyt … kulang sa pansin, kaya kung ano man ang madampot, uulitin na lang para mayroong masabi. But he'll warn you ".. raw information" so please please please do not speculate. :roll:
Dean,
Why didn't you include the terrorists in Malacanang?
lol, o nga..
Addendum:
Is it because they are already in a 'city near you'?
DJB,
"an attempt to defend and rescue those hostages will instantly be launched and measures taken to prevent such action, including the forceful neutralization of any suspect who does not immediately surrender."
Now weren't you just on a binge about suspects and lynchings? Or is Daniel Smith a different kind of suspect? Consistency dude, consistency
But on the whole I agree with you that those who kidnapped the ICRC workers are a bunch of bastards..
good point, manuB…. so many muslim Filipinos are stupid, and stupid is no reason to neutralize them. By stupid, I mean these Filipinos are made tanga from hunger or indolence that they joined the ASG (or the CPP/NPA) because they had nothing better to do.
However, military-action/police-action rule-of-engagement should remain that if the other person is armed and poses an immediate danger, then shoot to kill.
just as so many catholic Filipinos are stupid, catholic congressmen are stupid, catholic mayors are stupid, catholic president is stupid and all the catholic filipinos who voted for these catholic officials are stupid.. like the catholic media..
Being made stupid by hunger and indolence can affect atheists and Buddhists and Shias; Sikhs or Baptists or Druze; Wahabis or Catholics or Alawites or Sunnis… but not Iglesia ni Kristo like BongV???? The Bahá'ís, Jewish and Hindus do very well, too.
But BongV, if you are Muslim, then stay away from India, especially Mumbai. Unless, of course, you are a Valderamma or a similar Christian which is true for 90% of Filipinos. [ In India because of the Mumbai assault, there is still a lot of venom against Muslims. ] Information only…………
me? Muslim? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? are you stupid or what?
me? Iglesia ni Kristo? huh? huh?: ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Now the Abu Sayyaf have just one high value bargaining chip left…
They know time is running out…
http://midfield.wordpress.com/2009/04/18/swiss-re...
do we know why the swiss hostage was freed?
Absent more tangible, and believable info, the field becomes open to speculation.
But as Notter is free, it is opposite in Vagni's case even as he is said to be wounded and with a possibly worsening hernia.
It would be a pity if for some reason the luck of the government of the day runs out.
Dean, seriously now… I do think that a no-ransom policy or philosophy verges on the naive.
I rather like Manuel Buencamino's proposition (in your previous post, which, incidentally, also happens to be the French way of tackling the Somali kidnapping for ransom problem, check Newsweek if you don't believe me).
I say, pay up to retrieve the hostages safe and sound, and then run after 'em baddies and put them out of their misery so 'em baddies don't get to spend a cent! And of course, retrieve the money bag as in my latest blog post.
[...To be perfectly candid, I think Dean's no ransom philosophy is, to a certain extent, naive. Personally, I rather like the proposition of Manuel Buencamino... ..]
What Manuel B proposes has been tried and tested and it worked! You see, a few months ago (or was it last year), a French yacht was pirated by Somali pirates. A special French commando was dispatched posthaste by no less than President Nicolas Sarkozy to the Somali waters, killed the pirates and rescued their French captives alive. (The Americans most certainly used the same French methodology.)…