Bob Fowler Kidnapped in Niger (Dec 2008-Apr 2009)

[The Bread Guy]

I can't help but think of "Yes Prime Minister" and their euphemisms for such "thanks"

1. Below £100,000
- Retainers
- Personal donations
- Special discounts
- Miscellaneous outgoings
2. £100,000 to £500,000
- Managerial surcharge
- Operating costs
- Ex-gratia payments
- Agents' fees
- Political contributions
- Extra-contractual payments
3. £500,000 +
- Introduction fees
- Commission fees
- Managements' expenses
- Administrative overheads
- Advance against profit sharing"

Great discussion, BTW...

- edited to fix spelling errors -

 

[Edward Campbell]

Actually we have a whole list of Canadian gang figures who need this kind of justice.  If not, in a few years, you will be able to substitute Canada for Africa in all these newspaper clippings......

I think my conscience might be a bit too delicate to advocate extra legal killings in Canada.

Although I advocate doing away with the legal requirement to extend full Charter Rights to everyone "in Canada" I think everyone, even criminals and terrorists, ought to enjoy the generally accepted fundamental human rights - including the right not be arbitrarily executed - while they are here.

 

[dapaterson]

Actually we have a whole list of Canadian gang figures who need this kind of justice.  If not, in a few years, you will be able to substitute Canada for Africa in all these newspaper clippings......

Yes, but Toronto Police Services is well armed...

Beating up drug dealers and stealing their money. Shaking down bar owners for protection money. Extortion, obstructing justice, assault, theft, perjury, corrupt practices. The allegations that were levelled against a small but influential group of Toronto police officers were stunning in their breadth.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/torontopolice/#

Or even the head of their union:

In 2004 McCormack was charged with corruption and discreditable conduct under the Police Act because of his alleged involvement with a drug-addicted used-car salesman alleged to have links to organized crime.

Those charges were dropped.

In September he was found guilty of insubordination for the improper use of the police database.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/torontopolice/#

 

[George Wallace]

An interesting twist to this story. 

Reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions (§29) of the Copyright Act:

Ransom paid for Canadian diplomats: leaked

Ransom paid for Canadian diplomats: leaked cable

04/02/2011 1:04:45 PM
The Canadian Press


LINK

OTTAWA — A leaked U.S. State Department cable suggests a ransom was paid for the release of two Canadian diplomats taken hostage in Niger two years ago.

The May 2009 cable released by online whistleblower WikiLeaks says a Libyan official told the U.S. ambassador in Tripoli that two Canadian officials were released "in return for a ransom payment."

The cable was written just weeks after diplomats Robert Fowler and Louis Guay were released after being kidnapped by al Qaeda's North African wing in December 2008. It does not detail how much was paid in ransom or who might have paid it.

The federal government has maintained that Canada did not pay a ransom for the release of the two men, but the prime minister also hasn't said if anyone else did.

Stephen Harper has said the governments of Mali and Burkina Faso negotiated the release of the men, but never elaborated on whether they paid ransom or agreed to a prisoner exchange.

Musa Kusa, who was Libya's foreign minister at the time, said in the cable that such payments were "unfortunate and only increased the strength of al-Quaida."

Fowler, Guay and their driver disappeared when returning from a visit to a gold mine. Fowler was on assignment as the UN's special envoy to Niger at the time.

Fowler was a senior adviser to several prime ministers, starting with Pierre Trudeau, and played a leading role in thwarting the trade of so-called blood diamonds in Angola.

Western intelligence officials in Algeria said in February that they believe the UN diplomats were initially abducted by local gunmen, bandits or Tuareg rebels, and later traded to the al Qaeda group.

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is an Algeria-based militant group that joined Osama bin Laden's terror network in 2006 and conducts dozens of bombings or ambushes each month.

In February 2009, the group claimed in an audio tape played on the Al-Jazeera television network that it was holding the two Canadians hostage.

It made no demands at that time, but in the past has received ransoms for western tourists kidnapped in the vast sub-Saharan region.

 

[Rifleman62]

The article is implying the dirty, rotten, mean, lying Harper government paid the ransom. The leaked US cable stated a ransom was paid, not by who. May be the UN paid it.

 

[Edward Campbell]

More on the ransom in this article, reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions of the Copyright Act from the Globe and Mail, based on a Wikiliaks source:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/canada-paid-ransom-to-free-envoys-wikileaks-cables-show/article2178811/

Canada paid ransom to free envoys, Wikileaks cables show

COLIN FREEZE
From Saturday's Globe and Mail

Last updated Saturday, Sep. 24, 2011

Canada broke ranks with key allies when it contributed to a ransom to free hostages in West Africa, according to U.S. officials, who complained that the secret deal with terrorists had “a dramatic effect on regional security.”

In memos from the field cabled to Washington, U.S. envoys expressed fears that the ransom deal encouraged “nefarious elements throughout the Sahel to continue targeting Westerners for abductions.” They also said they thought that the deal might lead to suicide car-bomb attacks against Americans.

It has been 2½ years since Canadian diplomats Robert Fowler and Louis Guay were released in mysterious circumstances. When reporters pressed Prime Minister Stephen Harper about what his government had done to free them, he stated that “the government of Canada does not pay ransom.”

In West Africa, U.S. officials were left with a very different impression.

Ottawa acceded to the terrorists’ demands for payment in exchange for the hostages, according to the U.S. ambassador to Mali, Gillian Milovanovic, who closely followed the 130-day hostage crisis from her post in the capital, Bamako.

The career diplomat complained that “it is difficult to level criticism on countries like Mali and Burkina Faso for facilitating negotiations when the countries that pay ransom, like Austria and Canada, are given a pass.”

Her views, reflected in a February, 2010, cable to the State Department, accord with those of U.S. and U.K. sources who have independently told The Globe their countries were angered by Ottawa’s role in the hostage negotiations.

The deal involved a prisoner swap and multimillion-dollar payment. It was brokered by several Western nations working through African intermediaries. The hostage crisis, its resolution and its fallout were largely foreseen, according to leaked cables documenting how U.S. officials struggled to deal with the kidnappers’ terrorist faction, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

In November, 2008, a tribesman from Mali’s Tuareg ethnic group approached U.S. diplomats to warn that kidnappings were imminent. Austria had just paid for the release of two of its citizens. From deep in its desert hideaways, AQIM had put out the word – it was investing its profits in bounties, offering $45,000 to anyone who handed them a new Western hostage.

In mid-December, Mr. Fowler and Mr. Guay were abducted while on United Nations business in Niger. More than 20 Canadians were immediately dispatched to West Africa to look for them. “The Austrians proved adept at cultivating Tuareg and Arab leaders … Canada is beginning to take a page from this playbook,” one U.S. cable said.

In January, 2009, the rescue effort was complicated when four European tourists were also abducted. A cottage industry of middlemen formed. “With various ‘Good Samaritans’ coming out of the desert to peddle information in return for a piece of the presumed payoff, the British, German, Swiss and Canadian representatives may be in Bamako for quite some time,” a diplomat wryly observed.

By February, the Americans were urging Mali’s President to do more, stressing that the Canadian hostages were important to the UN and Washington. “The Canadian government had a policy of not paying ransom,” a U.S. diplomat cautioned. President Amadou Touré replied that he was already speaking to Ottawa’s officials and he would “act with the consent of the Canadian government.”

By March, an Ottawa official (unnamed in the cable) relayed that the negotiations were reaching an “end game.” Six weeks later, the two Canadian hostages were released as part of the larger deal.

Three European captives were also let go. AQIM decapitated the fourth, Edwin Dyer of Britain.

Cables show that in the months before Mr. Dyer’s slaying, an African intermediary had offered to put U.K. officials in contact with him. But they “never accepted out of fear that speaking to the hostage could put them into a position of having to negotiate with terrorists.”

In the aftermath, officials at the U.S. embassy in Mauritania feared that the cash infusion would lead to a wave of car bombings and other attacks, and set up a fortified security perimeter. U.S. diplomats also cabled Washington to say that a mayor of a village in northern Mali was observed to be in control of “an enormous influx of cash likely linked to the Canadian and European hostage crisis.” The mayor later told The Globe he had met frequently with Canadian officials.

Later that summer, AQIM assassinated a U.S. missionary. And AQIM fighters used night-vision goggles to launch a predawn attack in which they massacred dozens of relatively ill-equipped Malian soldiers. “Multiple ransom payments have increased AQIM’s financial ability to conduct operations,” a U.S. official said.

Setbacks in the summer of 2009 led Western governments to step up actions against the terrorist group.

During Prime Minister David Cameron’s visit to Canada’s Parliament this week, officials from both countries announced they would strengthen measures intended to starve AQIM of funds.

A spokesman for Mr. Harper’s office said on Friday that the government does not comment on leaked documents.

The links to the Government of Canada, itself, are tenuous. While I, personally, am very pleased that Mr. Fowler made it home safely - I hold him in high regard - I remain convinced that ransoms must not be paid.

 

[Edward Campbell]

The Globe and Mail is running a four part series on Bob Fowler's book, "A Season in Hell," which begins today with this headline:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/niger-officials-likely-set-him-up-for-kidnapping-fowler-believes/article2222039/

Niger officials likely set him up for kidnapping, Fowler believes

Mr. Fowler suggests that officials in Niger likely set him up to be kidnapped when he was a special UN envoy in that country by passing his itinerary to a terrorist faction known as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Mr. Fowler writes that he suspects the reason was to stop “the interference of a pesky foreigner” in that country’s local politics.

More on the link.

 

[The Bread Guy]

A bump to share a link to a BBC podcast where Fowler is interviewed:
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/worldservice/outlook/outlook_20120123-1532a.mp3
Fowler on his kidnappers/AQ:  "It's all about religion.  I think among 'securocrats', there's somewhat of a debate about whether these guys are bandits flying an Islamic flag of convenience or rather, they are some kind of twisted, latter-day Robin Hoods doing a little banditry and kidnapping to fund their jihad.  I think a lot of people would like to believe it's the former, but I know it's the second."

 

[old medic]

Diplomat Fowler freed in 2009 for about $1M, al-Qaida docs reveal

http://www.thespec.com/news-story/3241221-diplomat-fowler-freed-in-2009-for-about-1m-al-qaida-docs-reveal/
29 May 2013

An al-Qaida letter obtained by The Associated Press suggests about $1 million was paid for the release of Canadian diplomat Robert Fowler in Niger four years ago.

Fowler, the highest-ranking UN official in Niger, and his colleague Louis Guay, were kidnapped and held for four months before being released in April 2009.

In a book he later published, Fowler said he did not know if a ransom was paid.

The Associated Press says it found the al-Qaida letter mentioning the ransom inside a building formerly occupied by the group's fighters in Mali.

The letter was sent by al-Qaida's North African branch to Moktar Belmoktar, who split from the group to conduct his own operations, including the Fowler kidnapping in December 2008.

The letter said that a plan to force concessions in the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan was stymied when Belmoktar struck his own deal for about $1 million for both men.

"Rather than walking alongside us in the plan we outlined, he managed the case as he liked," the al-Qaida leaders write indignantly.

After setting up his own group, Belmoktar mastermined two operations that killed 101 people in all _ at an Algerian gas plant in January and simultaneous bombings at a military base and a French uranium mine in Niger last week.

Among other things, the letter reveals, the leaders of al-Qaida's North African branch criticized Belmoktar for failing to answer his phone when they called, failed to turn in expense reports, ignored meetings and refused to carry out orders.

The letter, signed by the group's 14-member governing body, describes its relationship with Belmoktar as "a bleeding wound."

The Associated Press report does not indicate who paid the ransom for Fowler and Guay.

 

[GAP]

Maybe they should have hedged their bets.  :

 

[Kirkhill]

Among other things, the letter reveals, the leaders of al-Qaida's North African branch criticized Belmoktar for failing to answer his phone when they called, failed to turn in expense reports, ignored meetings and refused to carry out orders.

So.... I'm guessing he got an Incomplete/Counselling on his annual Performance Evaluation Report?

Who manages Al Qaida's HR department?

 

[The Bread Guy]

Diplomat Fowler freed in 2009 for about $1M, al-Qaida docs reveal

http://www.thespec.com/news-story/3241221-diplomat-fowler-freed-in-2009-for-about-1m-al-qaida-docs-reveal/
29 May 2013

More here ....

.... First and foremost, they quibble over the amount of money raised by the 2008 kidnapping of Canadian diplomat Robert Fowler, the highest-ranking United Nations official in Niger, and his colleague. Belmoktar’s men held both for four months, and in a book he later published, Fowler said he did not know if a ransom was paid.

The letter says they referred the case to al-Qaida central to force concessions in the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, a plan stymied when Belmoktar struck his own deal for 700,000 euros (about $900,000) for both men. That’s far below the $3 million per hostage that European governments were normally paying, according to global intelligence unit Stratfor.

“Rather than walking alongside us in the plan we outlined, he managed the case as he liked,” they write indignantly. “Here we must ask, who handled this important abduction poorly? … Does it come from the unilateral behavior along the lines of our brother Abu Abbas, which produced a blatant inadequacy: Trading the weightiest case (Canadian diplomats!!) for the most meager price (700,000 euros)!!” ....

.... and in the attached English translation of the AQ letter in question.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Busted (one hopes)!

The U.S military launched airstrikes Saturday targeting and likely killing an al-Qaida leader in eastern Libya who was responsible for the kidnapping of Canadian diplomats Robert Fowler and Louis Guay in the northern African country of Niger in 2008.

The Libyan government said warplanes targeted and killed Mokhtar BelMokhtar and several others in the eastern city of Ajdabiya. A U.S. official said two F-15 fighter jets launched multiple 500-pound bombs in the attack. The official was not authorized to discuss the details of the attack publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity.

U.S. officials said they are still assessing the results of the strike, but Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren said the military believes the strike was successful and hit the target ....

More media coverage here.

 

[jollyjacktar]

Ah, but we've heard of this sh1tbirds demise before, only to be disappointed.  I hope too that this time it's true.