Rings That Kidnap Iraqis Thrive on Threats,Profit(children special target)

[DeepModem Mom]

New York Times:
Rings That Kidnap Iraqis Thrive on Big Threats and Bigger Profits
By JAMES GLANZ

Published: March 28, 2005


....As many as 5,000 Iraqis have been kidnapped in the last year and a half, according to Western and Iraqi security officials.

Some of the kidnappings are of Iraqis who work with Westerners, said Col. Jabbar Anwar, head of a major crimes unit in Baghdad that works extensively with American intelligence groups on kidnapping cases. But ransom is a far greater motive than intimidation, he said: the threat of death for collaboration is usually just a way to drive up the price of freedom....

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Ransom demands, security officials say, range from a few hundred to half a million dollars. The death rate among hostages is uncertain, but the officials say many simply disappear even after a ransom is paid.

Seen in one way, kidnapping is just another facet of the security vacuum created by the American-led invasion of Iraq and never really filled despite the hiring and training of tens of thousands of Iraqi police officers. But because of the harrowing effect the kidnapping industry has on Iraqi families, especially the prosperous and educated families whose children are special targets, investigators see kidnapping as a thing unto itself.

Scattered anecdotal evidence suggests that the epidemic of kidnapping, especially of children, is a force like no other in driving from Iraq the educated professionals who are critically needed for the rebuilding of the country. As stoic as Iraqis often are about the perils they face in their daily lives, kidnapping contributes to the national sense of instability and fuels mutual distrust - particularly because many kidnappings rely on people close to the target who pass information on net worth, daily habits and other matters of interest to hostage takers....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/28/international/middleeast/28kidnap.html?hp&ex=1112072400&en=a5c1a08c67fd8fdc&ei=5094&partner=homepage