Irish Journalist Kidnapped in Iraq

[krayZpaving]

Irish journalist kidnapped in Baghdad
Last updated: 19-10-05, 14:19

Rory Carroll, Baghdad correspondent of the British newspaper the Guardian was kidnapped this afternoon in the Iraqi capital, his paper said.

Mr Carroll, an Irish national, was abducted as he left a house in Baghdad's Sadr City area after watching the televised trial of Saddam Hussein with an Iraqi family, said the Guardian's Middle East editor, Brian Whitaker.

One witness told the Guardian he believed Mr Carroll, 33, was abducted by a group of armed men.

Sadr City is a Shi'ite-dominated poor area of Baghdad and a stronghold of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Mr Carroll has been in Iraq for nine months.

more at www.ireland.com/breakingnews

[JCSkinner]

My thoughts are with his family. I hope he is found safe and well soon, and that the Irish government's efforts to secure his release are more successful than other efforts in similar circumstances.

[Pax]

This could be one of those criminal kidnapping groups. Either way, and hopefully, the saving grace may be he's Irish and not British.





http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0, ... 77,00.html

Guardian journalist missing in Iraq

Statement from the Guardian
Wednesday October 19, 2005

The Guardian today confirmed that its Baghdad correspondent Rory Carroll, an Irish citizen, is missing, believed kidnapped, in Iraq.

Rory Carroll, 33, was on assignment in Baghdad earlier today when he went missing. It is believed Mr Carroll may have been taken by a group of armed men.

The Guardian is urgently seeking information about Mr Carroll's whereabouts and condition.

[mjcoughlan]

This could be one of those criminal kidnapping groups.

As opposed to what?

[JCSkinner]

The CIA kidnapping group operating in Iraq, for one? The ideologically motivated fundamentalist groups, for two?

[mjcoughlan]

The ideologically motivated fundamentalist groups...

Who are not criminal?

[JCSkinner]

I'm not defending someone else's definition. But I think their point was he may have been taken for ransom for cash, rather than for martyring in the name of Jihad.
One can only hope.

[agora]

Some of the groups operating in Iraq look on kidnapping as a revenue source and as a way of raising their profile, rather than simply a chance to torture and kill Westerners. The case of Florence Aubenas and Hussein Hanoun al Saadi involved such a group and the French authorities were eventually able to secure their release. Their employer Liberation never confirmed or denyed it, but it was rumoured a large sum was paid to the kidnappers.

[Pax]

This could be one of those criminal kidnapping groups.

As opposed to what?

As opposed to one of the groups that cannot be bought MJ.

AFAIK the majority of the kidnapping is done by criminals who have been in jail for murder etc and who got out after the war broke out. They hold either Iraqis or Westerners for ransom.

Their motivation is easier to deal with than that of the Bathists going after the US forces, the foreign religious fundamentalist terrorists blowing all and sundry up or "The Black Force." Jihadists. An argument about criminality amongst the various groupings, in the War in Iraq is a seperate, and perhaps not appropriate discussion here.

[morryah]

I'm not defending someone else's definition. But I think their point was he may have been taken for ransom for cash, rather than for martyring in the name of Jihad.
One can only hope.

During Saddam's trial opening, it raises the probability that it's politically motived on the anti-democracy side.

Unlike say, as suggested by Boyd-Barrett of the Anti War movement, that it could be pro-US militants who objected to Carroll's balanced, non-propaganda, non-embedded coverage.