Al-Qaida Sets Deadline for Held Tourists

[Hissyspit]

Source: Associated Press

al-Qaida Sets Deadline for Held Tourists
2008-03-14 01:26:29
By MAAMOUN YOUSSEF and KATARINA KRATOVAC Associated Press Writers

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) — Al-Qaida's branch for North Africa on Thursday set a three-day deadline to meet conditions for the release of two Austrian tourists it claimed to have kidnapped in Tunisia last month.

In a statement posted on the Internet — which included six photographs purportedly showing Austrians Wolfgang Ebner and Andrea Kloiber — al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa said it would free the pair if all of the group's members were released from jails in Tunisia and Algeria. The posting gave Austrian authorities three days, starting midnight Thursday, to comply.

The statement, the authenticity of which could not be independently verified although it was posted on a Web site linked to the group, also called on Western tourists to avoid visiting the Maghreb region in northern Africa.

- snip -

The woman in the photographs, said to be Kloiber, was shown wearing a headscarf and her face was obscured. According to extremist Islamist beliefs, showing a woman's face in public and in images is prohibited. Both she and the man, who had a graying mustache and a short beard, were wearing traditional Arab robes.

Read more: http://myembarq.com/news/news_reader.php?storyid=15895895&feedid=249

[ohio2007]

1. Austrians held near Mali town, ( talks begin )

AQ in N Africa gains respect ;

ALGIERS, March 15 (Reuters) - Al Qaeda is in talks with an Austrian envoy about the possible release of two Austrian hostages.

snip

The captives, Andrea Kloiber, 43, and Wolfgang Ebner, 51, went missing in Tunisia last month and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb said it seized them on Feb. 22.

snip

Al Qaeda's north Africa wing, which changed its name last year from the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), has long been involved in smuggling, money laundering and protection rackets in the region.

snip

After the kidnapping, al Qaeda warned Western tourists not to visit Tunisia. A subsequent statement expanded the warning to include other Maghreb states -- Morocco, Mauritania and Algeria.

snip
A security source in Algeria said on Friday that among the jailed militants whose release was being sought was Amari Saifi, an Algerian guerrilla chief more popularly known as Abderrazak el Para who abducted 32 Europeans for several months in 2003. (Reporting by Lamine Chikhi, Hamid Ould Ahmed; Writing by William Maclean, editing by Sami Aboudi)


http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL15532660.html


Seems to me they want Abderrazak el Para to pull off another large kidnapping for future negotiations ..
...

No wonder Switzerland wants to deport 'outsiders' living off their welfare system and refusing to assimilate.
imo,
Austrians are going to be held in future "hostage" talks when the current standoff comes to a successful conclusion . It's to bad that what goes on behind closed doors won't make the MSM

Wonder if the next US president will have to 'deal' with private citizens being used for similar negotiations.

History repeats.... MSM et el ignore



The Moorish ambassador of the Barbary States to the Court of Queen Elizabeth I of England.


In 1786, Thomas Jefferson, then the ambassador to France, and John Adams, then the ambassador to Britain, met in London with Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja, the ambassador to Britain from Tripoli. The Americans asked Adja why his government was hostile to American ships, even though there had been no provocation. The ambassador's response was reported to the Continental Congress:



That it was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Qur'an, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as Prisoners, and that every Musselman who should be slain in Battle was sure to go to Paradise
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_pirates

<crickets>