They "could also be planning to hijack airplanes, according to the report."
"Islamists could kidnap Europeans in Africa - report," from Deutsche Presse-Agentur:
Madrid - Spain's secret service CNI has warned Spanish embassies in North Africa that Islamists could be planning to kidnap European citizens in the region, the daily El Mundo reported Thursday. The CNI has sent warnings to embassies in Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco and to representations in several other African countries, according to the daily, which quoted sources close to the intelligence service.
The report said that an Islamist cell, the name of which was not given, could be planning to abduct Europeans in an attempt to extort ransom money for terrorist attacks.
Radical Islamists could also be planning to hijack airplanes, according to the report.
The sources did not say whether the extremists would target tourists or Europeans residing in the region.
Or possibly in Europe.
Is not this the same scenario that occurred in the 1600 with the Dutch, and with the Americans in the 1800's spurring Andrew Jackson put a stop to it by sending in the Marines?
The only coinage these people seem to recognizr is violance.
They will. We are so stupid. They will.
"The report said that an Islamist cell, the name of which was not given, could be planning to abduct Europeans in an attempt to extort ransom money for terrorist attacks."
--- from the article above
It's been happening for years, not only in North Africa but in the Middle East, and not only with "Europeans" but with all kinds of Infidels. Money is only one kind of payoff. Diplomatic appeasement, arms transfers unblocked, and so on, are others.
What happened the other day in Afghanistan with those Korean missionaries, their male leaders already killed, in order to free them? $2.65 million, was it, to the Taliban?
What happened a few weeks ago, when Libya finally freed those Bulgarian nurses (and one lone, quite resentful-against-Arabs, Arab doctor), after having held them, tortured them, constantly threatened them with death, for eight years? What did the Western powers do except bribe Libya with money, with promises about investment, and of course completed -- c'etait le comble -- of Cecilia Sarkozy and then Nicolas Sarkozy himself, travelling to Libya which will now be allowed to buy all kinds of French military equipment that had heretofore been blocked.
There is nothing new here. The "ransom" has been paid again and again: military supplies, diplomatic abandonment, by steady degrees, of Israel and the indifference to its legal and historic claims; abandonment or refusal to stand up for the Christians or other non-Muslims (the total abandonment of the Biafrans, the seemingly total indifference of even the American government to the fate of the the Christians in Lebanon, during the Civil War in Lebanon and now, and to the mistreatment of the Copts in Egypt, and now to the special worries of the only group in Iraq that deserves Western protection, the Chaldo-Assyrians (as two different kinds of Christians are sometimes called).
Pirates, ransom.
And then there the refusal of one young Republic that, after a bit, decided it had taken the measure of the Muslim Barbary Pirates and would not play the game, and pay the ransom, that older and more cynical European powers had sometimes been doing. There was Jefferson. There was the buildup of the American navy as a direct response to the Muslim corsairs (who often registered their intended targets among the Christian shipping, in this systematic preying on the Infidel ships, cargoes, and seamen then enslaved). There was William Eaton, travelling overland with his band from Cairo, across the Western Desert, to free the Americans held by an incidental and malevolent Dey. There were the Shores of Tripoli.
Everyone above is correct in noting that this is nothing new.
In Mark Steyn's excellent new book, America Alone, he mentions a story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Tradgedy of the Korosko". English, American and French tourists are kidnapped by "followers of the Madhi".
This is such a familiar story--first, the Western tourists think that the threat has been exagerated, or perhaps even invented, by Western powers-that-be for political reasons.
When they are kidnapped, they are surprised by a lot of things--firstly, that any threat really existed at all. Then they find that the leader of the kidnappers has had a Western-style education, but has dismissed it as "un-Islamic". Finally, the Frenchman tries open appeasement, crying "Vive le Khalifa! Vive le Madhi!" Of course, though, the kidnappers do not see him as an ally--just as an infidel, and a weak one at that. They smack him in the head with the butt of a rifle to shut him up.
This story was written in 1898, but in its broad outlines it could have been written a hundred years before that, or have been published last month.
Hugh wrote:
What happened a few weeks ago, when Libya finally freed those Bulgarian nurses (and one lone, quite resentful-against-Arabs, Arab doctor), after having held them, tortured them, constantly threatened them with death, for eight years? What did the Western powers do except bribe Libya with money...
..........................
An interesting note about that one, lone Arab ("Palestinian") doctor--Ashraf Ahmad Djum’a al-Hadjudj. It is true that Bulgaria, and the EU behind them, acted neither swifty nor strongly on behalf of these aid workers. They spent almost nine years in Libyan prisons, falsely accused, tortured, and twice under sentence of death. But I have never heard that the "Palestinian Authority" made *any* motions on the part of al-Hadjudj at all.
He became a Bulgarian citizen, and when freed, was sent to Bulgaria along with the nurses. His extended family had been living with him in Libya. After threats made to them following the doctor's arrest, they left Libya. Did they return to the "Palestinian Territories"? No, they found asylum in the Netherlands.
Here is one link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/29/world/africa/29libya.html?ex=1343361600&en=cb5ab835a33d573c&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Perhaps the MSM will relay this threat to all affected.
I do wish that actions, grave ones, could be taken (like Tomahawk cruise missiles through Kadafi's home)and little or nothing said about it.
Talking does not work with these people. Swift, decisive retribution that imparts deadly results is the best action. And the responder would even have to leave his easy chair.
Spain signalled weakness on 3/11.
This is the answer to their pleading:
Please, Mr. Crocodile, eat my neighbor first!
Embolded terrorists.
You pay off the Mob (Islam), and you only get richer, stronger mobsters (jihadis) as a result.
The West is going to require more pain to wake.
Spain itself may be kidnapped before it does.
It is nice Spain gave us a warning. Doing something about it is another matter. I thought they were to be left alone after they ran away?
Hijack planes. Grab tens of "tourist" hostages ("tourist" you know people who work for a living and who are taking some time off). Kill a few tourists. Demand a lot of money for them. Kill a few more.
What a wonderful religion of peace!