do I really have to say it???
Posted on 09/01/2007 7:11:21 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
S.Korea paid over $20 mln ransom-Taliban
By Saeed Ali Achakzai Reuters - Saturday, September 1 11:34 am
SPIN BOLDAK (Reuters) - South Korea paid Afghanistan's Taliban more than $20 million (9.9 million pounds) to release 19 missionaries they were holding hostage, a senior insurgent leader said on Saturday, vowing to use the funds to buy arms and mount suicide attacks.
The freed hostages flew out of Afghanistan on Friday to Dubai en route for South Korea.
Seoul denies paying a ransom, but critics say negotiating with the Taliban sets a dangerous precedent that could spur more kidnappings -- which the Taliban have vowed to carry out.
"We deny any payment for the release of South Korean hostages," an official at South Korea's presidential Blue House said on Saturday in response to the Taliban claim.
But the Taliban disagreed.
"We got more than $20 million dollars from them (the Seoul government)," the commander told Reuters on condition of anonymity. "With it we will purchase arms, get our communication network renewed and buy vehicles for carrying out more suicide attacks."
"The money will also address to some extent the financial difficulties we have had," he said, but did not elaborate.
The commander is on the 10-man leadership council of the Islamist Taliban movement, which is led by the elusive Mullah Mohammad Omar.
He rejected an Afghan government claim that a senior Taliban leader, Mullah Brother, was killed in a U.S.-led operation on Thursday in the southern province of Helmand.
"This report is just propaganda," he said.
The South Korean Christian volunteers, part of a group of 23 missionaries kidnapped in southeast Afghanistan in mid-July, arrived in Dubai on a chartered United Nations plane overnight and were due to fly on to Seoul on Saturday.
The Taliban killed two male hostages, while two women released earlier as a goodwill gesture have already flown home.
CONSTANT FEAR
Some of the released hostages on Friday told of how they lived in constant fear for their lives and were split up into small groups and shuttled around the Afghan countryside to avoid detection.
One Taliban member would tend to a farm by day and then grab a rifle and stand guard over hostages at night.
The kidnapping was the largest in the resurgent Taliban campaign against foreign forces since U.S.-led troops ousted the Islamists from power in 2001.
The Taliban decided to free the hostages after Seoul agreed to pull all its nationals out of the central Asian country. They dropped their main demand that a group of prisoners held by the Afghan government be set free.
If a ransom was paid, some say it will make Afghanistan more dangerous for foreign nationals who already curb movement for fear of abduction either by the Taliban or bandits. Some embassies and aid organisations impose curfews on foreign staff.
"If it has happened, for sure it puts us in a difficult situation as it will encourage other kidnappers to take foreign hostages," said one Afghan government official, asking not to be named.
Seoul had already decided before the crisis to withdraw its 200 engineers and medical staff from Afghanistan by the end of 2008. Since the hostages were taken, it has banned its nationals from travelling there.
They will spend the money for their campaign to drive out foreign aid organization, destabilizing the country. Anything Roh's government is into leads to one disaster or another.
Dear God... why don’t they just give them our F-16’s?!
for $20M they could have hire some black ops and got a bunch of taliban killed too
Nothing so stupid as those who will not learn. I guess Roh thinks he can avoid all harm by staying neutral.
Tell that to Belgium, Luxemborg, Holland, Denmark, etc. circa 1941.
There ought to be laws against paying ransoms to kidnappers. My other question is, what the heck were 23 civilians doing in Afghanistan anyway?
60 Suspected Afghan Militants Killed
"KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Afghan police and foreign forces killed around 60 suspected Taliban fighters, many in the region where the insurgents recently released a group of South Korean church workers they had been holding, authorities said Saturday."
But I have never been able to get real harsh over a reluctant cave-in. The S.K.'s hung tough for a long time, even after two of their folks had been killed. Sometimes it is just impossible to stick with the wise, long-term view when people are in this kind of a jam.
Remember when the Left used to shriek that Reagan and North "traded arms for hostages?" I never bought into the criticism. Some situations are just so horrible that I just feel sorry for the people who must struggle with them.
do I really have to say it???
“South Korea paid Afghanistan’s Taliban more than $20 million (9.9 million pounds) to release 19 missionaries they were holding hostage, a senior insurgent leader said”
They may have paid that, but this information is coming from “a senior insurgent leader”. His statements are self-serving.
As soon as the hostages were safe, South Korea should have sent thousands of soldiers to Afghanistan with the intent of killing those responsible!
This is a different world then it was years ago. The good is weak, while evil (Taliban and Islamic Terrorists) is strong.
Too bad this isn’t the good old days when there were real men in charge and things got done. The West is run by a bunch of pansy butt liberals. Bush has gone downhill and has made terrible descisions lately.
My guess is that some S.Korean company paid for them and will be reimbursed with a sweet heart contract.
I don’t know if I am right. I just don’t trust info coming from the enemy. And maybe they were paid as part of a set- up to get these Taliban to reveal their location in order to kill them. I don’t know.
South Korea is a long time ally and in many ways has been America’s best friend on the Pacific Rim for decades = assume they’re lying
Taliban is America’s sworn enemy and an actively terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of America and the rest of Western civilization = assume they’re telling the truth
Amazing.
Resources for more dead coalition soldiers thanks to
South Korea.
Good job guys.
Keep your people out if you can’t deal with the reality
there.
South Korea vehemently denies this.
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