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Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee
Joined: 25 May 2003
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 Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 7:53 pm Post subject: The Taliban claims South Korea paid at least $4 million |
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http://www.newsweek.com/id/108672
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$4 Million Ransom?
The Taliban claims South Korea paid at least $4 million for the release of 21 Christian missionaries held hostage last year in Afghanistan.
By Sami Yousafzai and Ron Moreau
Newsweek Web Exclusive
Updated: 3:45 PM ET Feb 6, 2008
Five months after the release of the 21 surviving South Korean hostages who had been captured by the Taliban in July, Afghan insurgents are claiming that Seoul paid a hefty ransom for the Christian missionaries' freedom. In an interview in this week's edition of Afaq, a Pashtu-language magazine published in neighboring Pakistan, senior Taliban leader Ustad Yasir confirmed that a large ransom indeed had been paid. "If we were going to free them without any payment, [the hostage taking] would not have been worth it," he said. "The best way to release them was with a ransom payment." Two hostages were executed before the others were released.
Another senior Taliban commander, who would only speak on condition of anonymity for security purposes, tells NEWSWEEK that the South Korean government paid at least $4 million for the missionaries' release and that it delivered the cash to the insurgents in the Pakistani frontier city of Quetta. The commander said the Taliban were aware that U.S. and Afghan intelligence were closely watching the hostage negotiations that were taking place between South Korean and Taliban officials inside the compound of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the Ghazni province and decided to outsmart them. "It was funny," said the Taliban official, "the intelligence agencies were watching for a transfer of money to us in a Red Cross car in the province." So the Taliban arranged for the secret payoff in Quetta.
Another Taliban official in Ghazni, who asked for anonymity for similar reasons, tells NEWSWEEK that 35 percent of the money went to fund local insurgent operations in the province and that the rest went to the ruling Taliban council presided over by Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar. During the tense negotiations the Taliban had demanded the release of some of their senior jailed commanders. But Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government refused to consider releasing them after it ran into heavy international flak for having freed five senior Taliban leaders, including Yasir, in exchange for the release of an Italian journalist last March.
After the successful conclusion of the negotiations, South Korea only admitted that it had promised to withdraw the 200 noncombatant troops it had stationed in the war-torn country and neither confirmed nor denied that a ransom had been paid. On Wednesday, a South Korean presidential secretary told NEWSWEEK, "We aren't aware of any new developments in the case. Our government position is we didn't pay any ransom for the hostages."
URL: http://www.newsweek.com/id/108672 |
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jkelly80
Joined: 13 Jun 2007
Location: you boys like mexico?
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| Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 8:55 pm Post subject: |
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| Spineless Coresians. As we all know the Baathists, al Qaeda, The Chagatai Khanate, The Cahokia Sparrow Warriors, Songhay, AND the Coptic Death Squads have never given up their war against Free Market Confucianism. What are 21 deaths in the grand scheme of things? |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 9:07 pm Post subject: |
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| jkelly80 wrote: |
| The Chagatai Khanate, The Cahokia Sparrow Warriors, Songhay, |
ROFLMAO |
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Milwaukiedave
Joined: 02 Oct 2004
Location: Goseong
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| Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 10:43 pm Post subject: |
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| It really wouldn't surprise me, given how the Koreans work. |
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Julius
Joined: 27 Jul 2006
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bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 12:02 am Post subject: |
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| jkelly80 wrote: |
| Spineless Coresians. As we all know the Baathists, al Qaeda, The Chagatai Khanate, The Cahokia Sparrow Warriors, Songhay, AND the Coptic Death Squads have never given up their war against Free Market Confucianism. What are 21 deaths in the grand scheme of things? |
Props for the witty start there. That being said...
Do remember those koreans were asking for trouble when they got the genius idea of trying to convert afghanis. |
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Justin Hale
Joined: 24 Nov 2007
Location: the Straight Talk Express
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| Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 1:41 am Post subject: |
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As I've said since I've lived here (2.5 years) South Korea should join the North in the Axis.
I have never, ever seen more anti-Americanism than here, not even in France. |
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inukshuk
Joined: 27 Jan 2008
Location: korea
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| Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 2:14 am Post subject: |
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| korean churches paid the loot (if this story is true). Would have looked real bad for the churches, if these folks were murdered, because the church sent them into Afghan - a virtual suicide *mission (pun intended). |
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Julius
Joined: 27 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 2:27 am Post subject: |
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| Justin Hale wrote: |
As I've said since I've lived here (2.5 years) South Korea should join the North in the Axis.
I have never, ever seen more anti-Americanism than here, not even in France. |
Agreed.
More stupid on America though, if they want to continue pouring $$$$ and troops into propping up Korea- a deadweight country that not only despises them racially but gives millions of dollars to their enemies the taliban, never goes the distance on miliitary backing, is one of the biggest violators of visas, has masterminded a huge vice industry of human trafficking in the US, and wants all trade regulations rigged lobsidedly in their own favor. |
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