Kidnapping of Americans Linked to al-Sadr

[ECH1969]

A senior Defense Department official told ABC News that Shiite militiamen tied to anti-American cleric Moqtada al Sadr were behind the abduction of four American security contractors and an Austrian co-worker seized in a brazen attack on a supply convoy near the southern Iraqi city of Basra.

The search for the missing contractors resulted in a raid by coalition forces earlier today near the Kuwait border that resulted in the deaths of two Iraqi gunmen, but no hostages were found. snip.

A senior defense official said it was believed that the gunmen who ambushed the convoy were wearing newly issued Iraqi police uniforms that are supposed to be tightly controlled, hard to duplicate and were issued only last month.

Only a month ago, the coalition began distributing the digitally altered blue camouflage uniforms to National Police Brigades. The uniforms are also tied to the mass kidnapping earlier this week in Baghdad at the Education Ministry.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/WNT/IraqCoverage/story?id=2662942&page=1

[Kagemusha]

1. You know with all due respect

Everytime they come out with a new security measure, a new RFID chip for passports in Britain, a new version of Internet Explorer or a Windows operating system, some aspect of it is cracked rather quickly.

I doubt that these kidnappers had to go through such trouble but, I wouldn't start from a point of assumption that copying these things is a scientific impossibility.

[leftchick]

2. why the fuck

are we risking the lives of the US military to rescue mercs??? What kind of a contract does the US have with this security company anyway?

:grr:

[maddezmom]

3. I'd imagine it's because they are running supplies for the military

the real question is why we need mercs at all. Why isn't the US gov't able to run their own supply lines and security?

[leftchick]

4. well I guess we all know the answer to that one

$$$$!

[maddezmom]

5. AP: U.S.-Iraqi forces raid Shiite stronghold (&search continues near Basra for missing from convoy)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061118/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq