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Kidnappings Support Business Of Terror
By MYLINH SHATTAN Special to The Tampa Tribune
Published: Nov 19, 2006
Armed gunmen seized dozens of government workers from a Baghdad research institute last week. Abed Dhaib al Ajili, Iraq's higher education minister, said, "This is a political attack aimed at destroying the state." Coalition efforts to stabilize Iraq are hindered by continuing the brain drain of educated Iraqis, even to the extent that officials closed university doors. While some hostages later were released, the kidnappers achieved the shock effect and climate of fear that is the essence of their ideology.
Abductions have become the preferred method in Iraq to extort money and receive publicity, as well as political concessions. Dan O'Shea, a Navy SEAL officer, established the Hostage Working Group in Baghdad to address the problem. He served as its coordinator from July 2004 to April of 2006 and recently gave a presentation to the Navy League at Feather Sound Country Club in Clearwater. O'Shea handled more than 300 kidnappings, which included the recovery of CARE International aid worker Margaret Hassan, Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena and Christian Science Monitor journalist Jill Carroll.
Foreign cases are most notable, especially when they are Americans. However, terrorists routinely kidnap local Iraqis - such as those seized in last week's mass kidnapping in Baghdad - in numbers conservatively estimated at 5,000 a year. This number is high, but it was far worse during Saddam's reign of terror from 1979 to 2003, when some 350,000 to 500,000 people disappeared.
Scenes of victims reading from prepared scripts - "Please pull out the troops." "Stop working with infidels." "I don't want to die." - have huge impact in the terrorist propaganda campaign, as they are broadcast across much of the Middle East on Arab television networks.
The abductions have become a business that supports the insurgency by raising $100 million a year in ransom money. The number of kidnappings and violence peaked during U.S and Iraqi elections, furthering terrorist objectives of unseating political officials supporting a free Iraq and eroding public support.
The majority of the kidnappings occur in the Sunni Triangle between Tikrit, Ramadi and Baghdad. Victims are often held in isolated residences in rural areas and upscale neighborhoods. Roy Hallums' captors confined him beneath their house in a 9-by-11-foot concrete cell only 4 1/2 feet deep. He couldn't stand, and they kept him blindfolded with his hands and feet behind his back most of the time. After 311 days, O'Shea helped rescue the 57-year-old American contractor from captivity.
More than half of foreign hostages are from neighboring countries Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt.
Only 5 percent of foreign hostages, including Americans, escape or are rescued, according to O'Shea. Fewer than 65 percent are released; nearly 30 percent are killed or remain missing.
Contractors make up 62 percent of the foreign kidnapping victims; media, 11 percent; and nongovernmental organization workers, 8 percent. O'Shea said there were roughly 500 media personnel in Iraq and 500 NGO workers, yet this very small group represented almost 20 percent of the kidnappings.
Journalists are unarmed, so why target them? The terrorists realize media hostages gain far more publicity and political impact. A Western journalist is a prized target.
Many noncombatants come to Iraq with a pacifist attitude of "live and let live" and believe they won't be targeted because they identify with the terrorists. Yet the terrorists couldn't care less. To them, as O'Shea put it, "When you are hungry, it is foolish to hunt a lion when there are plenty of sheep to be had."
Interestingly, during the two years O'Shea ran the Hostage Working Group, only one American soldier was captured despite a presence of nearly 150,000.
America's policy is clear: no concessions. O'Shea demonstrated that we can defend against abductions effectively, but we must be proactive and aggressive. And by training journalists and nongovernmental workers about the threat and how to avoid it, O'Shea's efforts drastically decreased foreign kidnappings. During his tenure, kidnappings of non-Iraqis dropped from 40 per month in 2004 to one per month when he left.
Dan O'Shea fears that extremists around the world are watching the abduction crisis in Iraq. Every ransom paid, every foreign policy decision impacted and every election affected has serious consequences.
Tribune correspondent MyLinh Shattan can be reached at mylinh@mylinhshattan.com. Tribune correspondent MyLinh Shattan can be reached at mylinh@mylinhshattan.com.
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