Zarqawi Group Denies Report It Bought Italians

[seemslikeadream]

Sept. 20, 2004 — DUBAI (Reuters) - A militant group headed by al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al Zarqawi denied on Monday it had bought two Italian women hostages from their Iraqi captors, an Internet statement said.
The statement, which could not be immediately verified, was posted a day after Iraq's deputy foreign minister was quoted as saying the kidnappers of charity workers Simona Pari and Simona Torretta had possibly sold them to the Tawhid and Jihad group.

"The Tawhid and Jihad group affirms to all that the report that we bought the Italians is a lie," it said. "We urge the brothers and sisters not to be hasty in picking up news."

In a television interview, Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Hamid al-Bayati said he had received information that the two women had been transferred from western Baghdad to the restive town of Falluja.

"From the information at our disposal, they were kidnapped by criminal organizations that could have sold them to members of al-Zarqawi's group," he said, according to Italian state news agency ANSA.
more
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/SciTech/reuters20040920_404.html


Italian hostages possibly sold to Zarqawi group, report says
6:39 p.m. September 18, 2004

ROME – Iraqi kidnappers may have sold two Italian women hostages to militants tied to al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Deputy Iraqi Foreign Minister Hamid al-Bayati has been quoted as saying.


"From the information at our disposal, they were kidnapped by criminal organisations that could have sold them to members of al-Zarqawi's group," al-Bayati said in a local television interview on Friday, according to state news agency ANSA.

The Iraqi official, visiting Italy, said he had received information that charity workers Simona Pari and Simona Torretta had been transferred from western Baghdad to the restive town of Falluja.

The Italians were kidnapped at gunpoint along with two Iraqis in a brazen, daylight attack in the centre of Baghdad on Sept. 7.

When asked during an interview with Tg2 television station whether the women were being held by the same militants who threatened to kill one British and two American hostages in an Internet video, al-Bayati said: "Yes, it could be."

more
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/iraq/20040918-1839-iraq-italy-hostages.html


Who Seized Simona Torretta? By Naomi Klein and Jeremy Scahill

This Iraqi kidnapping has the mark of an undercover police operation
September 20, 2004
The Guardian, September 16, 2004

And then there were the weapons. The attackers were armed with AK-47s, shotguns, pistols with silencers and stun guns - hardly the mujahideen's standard-issue rusty Kalashnikovs. Strangest of all is this detail: witnesses said that several attackers wore Iraqi National Guard uniforms and identified themselves as working for Ayad Allawi, the interim prime minister.

An Iraqi government spokesperson denied that Allawi's office was involved. But Sabah Kadhim, a spokesperson for the interior ministry, conceded that the kidnappers "were wearing military uniforms and flak jackets". So was this a kidnapping by the resistance or a covert police operation? Or was it something worse: a revival of Saddam's mukhabarat disappearances, when agents would arrest enemies of the regime, never to be heard from again? Who could have pulled off such a coordinated operation - and who stands to benefit from an attack on this anti-war NGO?

On Monday, the Italian press began reporting on one possible answer. Sheikh Abdul Salam al-Kubaisi, from Iraq's leading Sunni cleric organisation, told reporters in Baghdad that he received a visit from Torretta and Pari the day before the kidnap. "They were scared," the cleric said. "They told me that someone threatened them." Asked who was behind the threats, al-Kubaisi replied: "We suspect some foreign intelligence."

Blaming unpopular resistance attacks on CIA or Mossad conspiracies is idle chatter in Baghdad, but coming from Kubaisi, the claim carries unusual weight; he has ties with a range of resistance groups and has brokered the release of several hostages. Kubaisi's allegations have been widely reported in Arab media, as well as in Italy, but have been absent from the English-language press.

Western journalists are loath to talk about spies for fear of being labelled conspiracy theorists. But spies and covert operations are not a conspiracy in Iraq; they are a daily reality. According to CIA deputy director James L Pavitt, "Baghdad is home to the largest CIA station since the Vietnam war", with 500 to 600 agents on the ground. Allawi himself is a lifelong spook who has worked with MI6, the CIA and the mukhabarat, specializing in removing enemies of the regime.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1305523,00.html

[Inland]

1. "Take women hostage, sure, but pay for them! Never!"

Bizarre concept of honor among the bloodthirsty.