Canadian security firm confirms Iraq kidnapping of its employees

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=Americas&month=May2007&file=World_News2007053085630.xml

MONTREAL • The Canadian security firm Garda said yesterday that four of the five Britons kidnapped in Baghdad were company employees.

Company spokeswoman Nathalie de Champlain confirmed "they work for Garda World and they are British citizens." The fifth hostage, who Britain has confirmed is a Briton, is a "client" of Garda, she added.

Earlier, the hostages were taken by men in police uniforms in the Iraqi capital.

According to its website, Garda is a physical security, consulting and investigations, pre-employment screening, and cash handling firm with operations in North America, Europe and the Middle East.

[leftchick]

1. this was a very sophisticated operation with inside help

nothing says lost cause like this story. No wonder the M$M is avoiding it....

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21819089-601,00.html

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The group was snatched just before noon yesterday, local time, from a Finance Ministry building in a Shia area of east Baghdad. The kidnappers are believed to have turned up in large numbers with police uniforms and documentation and taken them away.

<snip>

The witness said that the gunmen, led by a police major, entered a lecture room where Iraqi employees were receiving a briefing about how to store their electronic contracts.

"Where are the foreigners, where are the foreigners?" The gunmen demanded, before dragging them away. The witness said one Westerner had escaped the kidnapping because he was sitting apart from the rest of the group.

No one has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and it is unknown whether the abduction was carried out by a group looking to profit financially from the mass hostage-taking or whether they were taken by insurgents.

Kidnappings by men in police uniform have often been blamed on Iraq's Shia militias, which control many police and Interior Ministry forces up and down the country. But the Finance Ministry is run by a Shia minister, which is thought to make that less likely.