A week of high profile Kidnappings.

international | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis

Tuesday January 24, 2006 22:48

by W - anarchist youth//grassroots dissent

All the kidnapping that's fit to print

Two men dressed as Iraqi soldiers kidnapped two German engineers outside an oil refinery this morning.
Of course they're just the two most recent of what is an ongoing trend in the newly "liberated" Iraq.
There's still no sign of American journalist Jill Carroll kidnapped on January 7th by militants demanding
that all female Iraqi prisoners be freed.

Also worth a mention out of the 200 plus kidnappings Iraq has seen since the yanks came to town are the four
Christian peace activists taken hostage on November 26 by the "Sword of Truth" who are yet to be freed despite
pleas being made on their behalf by high profile Muslims, which might help so long as it isn't the CIA that has them.

In Nigeria four employees of Shell have been taken hostage by a group demanding local control of the Niger Delta's
oil wealth, payment of $1.5 billion by Shell to the Bayelsa state government for pollution and the release of three
men from prison. Shell has moved over 330 employees out of the region as a result and oil production is down 10%
following attacks on pipelines.

Closer to home Britain’s most infamous direct action group (no, not the wombles or ALF) Fathers for Justice have had
to disband following claims in the media that they were working on a plan to kidnap Tony Blair's son. The group claims
that the Sun had blown a joke made in a pub out of proportion but police sources have apparently confirmed that the
plan may have been more advanced than that. Who cares? Not me that's for sure. A new splinter group "Real Fathers for
Justice" has been initiated, hopefully they'll carry out some of the crazier actions "F4J" never got around to like
suicide in front of Tony Blair live on TV and kidnapping a judge's dog.

In the celebrity world Wyclef Jean, former fugees star, sent a plea to his fellow Haitians not to kidnap Brad Pitt and
Angelina Jolie who visited the country last week. Haiti has a high rate of kidnappings but apparently these stars don't
go by the "when in Rome.." maxim. Luckily enough the couple weren't kidnapped once during the entire duration of their
stay, coincidence? Or perhaps the country was just still in shock at Wyclef's ridiculous demand on national TV,

"Listen, I Got Angelina Jolie Here, I got Brad Pitt here. Please do not embarrass me this weekend."

If like me you find kidnapping interesting you might just enjoy this selection of links. ;-)

http://www.kidnapnews.com/
http://www.extremekidnapping.com/
http://www.kidnapransom.com/

In solidarity,
W.