Iraq - kidnapping or con?

This sure is a puzzling case.

Their Syrian driver, Mohammed al-Jundi, was found in Falluja by US troops, tortured and chained to a wall. Syria is helping the terroritst, so why take him hostage in the first place?

Then there is this.

The men's [French journalists] captors said they were freed because of France's anti-war stance.

Again, then why take them hostage in the first place?

The ransom theory doesn't make sense either. Why take civilians hostage for ransom from a country that is helping your cause?

Doesn't make sense, does it? At least not from a straight forward kidnapping point of view.

This isn't the first puzzling hostage case in Iraq. Take the case of Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun for instance.

Marine 'hostage' charged with desertion

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A U.S. Marine who disappeared in Iraq -- and then showed up in a purported hostage video before later appearing as a free man in Lebanon -- has been charged with desertion, Pentagon officials said Thursday.

And then there is the curious "kidnapping" of anti war activist Jo Wilding. I exposed her in this article. The BBC dropped the kidnapping part of the original story when her kidnapping could not be confirmed. Then, after I complained, they dropped her story all together and sent me an apology. But as you can see, by clicking on the link in my original post, the page is still available.

Jo Wilding writes articles for the UK's anti war and anti American newspaper The Guardian.

Here is what she says about the "kidnapping" now.

"Then they took us to the local tribal sheiks for them to decide whether we were going to survive or not. It wasn't like a kidnapping for ransom or for demands; it was them taking us prisoner to see if we were spies.

And she was "released" 24 hours later? To put this in context, look at who she was traveling with.

They weren't really violent with us. I remember the guy who was first in the car with us directing us and asking us where we were from. I wasn't really sure what to say, but I was thinking "God David don't tell them you're American". But Jenny had said she was English and Donna had said she was Australian, both countries having troops over there, and he [one of the captors] said "Allah Akbar", which is like "God is great, you're very welcome", and Jenny said "I think he just said he's got the four most valuable hostages in the world". And Ms Wilding is British.

These Americans, Australians and British citizens were in Falluja, in April 2004, when the coalition made it's first incursion into the city. They were "kidnapped" and released within 24 hours?

Doesn't make sense, does it?

Unless of course you are an anti war activist and a wannabe writer. She portrays the terrorists as freedom fighters quite well don't you think?

She ends with this.

They took us because we were foreigners acting strangely in the middle of their war. They found out what we were doing and let us go. On the way out we were able to open up the checkpoint which meant people were able to get out of Falluja to safety. If that was all we did it would still have been worth it. But still in a quiet moment later on I whisper a thank you to the cheeky angels who look after clowns and ambulance volunteers.

Sounds like a rallying call to other anti war activitsts to me. And there is this odd bit "They found out what we were doing and let us go."

Really? Then why did they murder Margaret Hassan, director of Care International's Iraq operations and "who had lived in Iraq for 30 years, was filmed by her captors asking Tony Blair to pull British troops out of Iraq."

What are we to make of all this?

Well, the Syrian driver, Mohammed al-Jundi, is to sue US for alleged torture in Iraq and Jo Wilding gets to act like a hero and adds fodder to her anti war mill. Which is probably what we will see from the French jounalist sometime soon.

As for Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, a muslim deserter from US forces is good propaganda for the terrorists on it's own.

What is the difference between all of them and Margaret Hassan? Margaret Hassan was murdered for helping ordinary Iraqi people, the others are helping the terrorists.