On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 7:33 AM, ss <[email protected]> wrote: > On Thursday 26 Jan 2012 7:53:02 pm ashok _ wrote: >> The rumor going around these parts is that a ransom was paid and the >> hostages freed (thats always the easiest way to get people >> freed...especially when you own the printing presses ) , the rest of >> the story of course is staged fiction. > > But how will the released hostages be made to shut up and not tell the truth > about how they got free? And why did the Somalis report their mean dead? > > Is "these parts" Pakistan? >
these parts is Kenya. I heard the rumor from different journalists. the raid story simply doesnt make sense in many ways. there are people kidnapped in somalia (though galkayo is technically puntland) everyday - the motivation is always ransom money - just last week an american journalist was kidnapped, there are other nationalities also kidnapped but they dont make the news. eventually everyone pays up and the person is set free. there is no ideology involved. which makes it very odd that --- 1= a raid had to be organized to rescue them. 2= its much cheaper to pay up the ransom, than risk a raid given that it may backfire with bad consequences 3= bad consequences could be pretty bad given the "coincidence" of the state of the nation speech given the risk factors involved - it simply makes sense to pay up. the americans paid up - and the kidnappers said pick the hostages up from here. the americans came and picked up the people went home, and added spice to the story "9 kidnappers killed" to spin it for a nice state of the union speech, there is minimal risk in this strategy. About "Why did the somalis report their men dead ?" -- see the report carefully, someone claiming to be a kidnapper called up the AP news bureau ! its not like AP can verify its a kidnapper calling from Somalia. All the news from Somalia is filtered - there are no reporters on the ground, most of the news is stitched together based on hearsay, verbatim accounts etc. which is why you will find the quality of reporting on somlalia to be uniformly poor and inaccurate. About released hostages keeping shut --- if your government paid up hundreds of thousands of dollars ransom to rescue you, isnt it in your best interest to keep quiet, otherwise they might come knocking for the money ? incidentally the kidnapped woman was apparently breaking rules of engagement - there are strict dress codes on how women aid workers are supposed to dress up in somalia if you want to avoid trouble, and this lady was constantly breaking the rules.
