The threat of the kidnapping of Western personnel by subversive Islamic groups has always represented an element of strength for international terrorist groups to exert a political blackmail against the countries of origin of the kidnapped and above all to guarantee themselves the economic resources for carry out jihad.
Recent history tells us that the privileged aim of "kidnapping for subversive purposes" is the volunteer NGO operators and young freelance journalists who travel through the war territories. Young people motivated for humanitarian purposes by the first and second aspirations of being able to make the scoop of their life that represents the springboard for future professional activities.
Moreover, they, in almost all cases, arrive in the field without a specific preparation on the concept of safety and on how to "read" the situation indicators to minimize the risk of abduction.
But not only young people represent the goal, but also "signatures of the media world" that venture without taking into account the warnings that can come from various local sources as happened, even recently, in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.
The ISIS, despite being able to refer to enormous economic resources derived from the sale and refining of oil smuggling, is proving to prefer the use of the kidnapping as a term of blackmail against the West and some Islamic countries. In the last week several episodes confirm this.
The 20 September released 49 Turkish diplomats who had kidnapped in Mosul in Iraq in exchange for prisoners belonging to the forces of Islamic militants.
The September 22 Jund al-Khilifah, a group that has separated from al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb to join the Islamic State has kidnapped the French citizen Herve Gourdel in the region of the Algerian Kabylia (photo). Two days after the September 24 the hostage was beheaded and the video of the execution spread on the Internet.
Always the 22, ISIS has forced another hostage, the British John Cantlie, to criticize in a video message the US policy towards the Islamic State.
The killing of hostages is spreading. Not only ISIS but also other extremist groups are showing that they do not want to choose the path of compromise and kill their hostages if the ransoms are not paid. The 23, the German government has confirmed the death of two Christian humanitarian workers and their young son who had been kidnapped in 2009 in northern Yemen.
On the same day, German-American journalist Michael Scott Moore was released after paying a ransom, who was kidnapped in Somalia while developing a journalistic investigation into the phenomenon of maritime piracy.
Also on September 23 the Filipino jihadist group Abu Sayyaf has announced that two German hostages in their hands will be executed within 2 weeks if Germany does not pay a ransom of 5,6 millions of dollars and will not stop supporting the USA in the fight against ISIS .
In just three days, therefore, it was confirmed that the technique of the kidnapping is "paying" for the jihadist groups and that for this reason they will not stop. The seizure, however, will be destined to grow with a choice of increasingly remunerative objectives, favoring, however, the operators of NGOs, journalists or simple tourists.
A phenomenon that has lasted for at least two decades, since in the 1991 two engineers were kidnapped by Jihadists of Kashmir, an act that marked the beginning of a long series of abductions. In Algeria, Niger, Libya, Mauritania, Mali, Kenya, Nigeria, Cameroon, Somalia, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Malaysia and the Philippines, kidnappings have become recurring, providing terrorist groups with economic resources for millions of dollars to be used to finance their subversive activities.
The kidnapping of hostages is one of the main sources of income for these organizations and guarantees substantial economic resources that over time offset the diminished flow of money from Islamic charities and wealthy donors from Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Kuwait. Donations reduced almost to zero after the death of Bin Laden and the most careful control of the movements of money by the Western Intelligence.
The ransom resource is therefore currently the main source of livelihood, especially for smaller groups about to ally with ISIS. This was confirmed recently by the al Qaeda leader in the Islamic Maghreb, al-Wahayshi, who admitted that he spent 20 million dollars a year (2011-2012) to support the costs of the "fight", guaranteed by the war which 50% comes from hostage management.
The foreign hostages represent, therefore, a real "treasure" for the jihadist groups who use themselves for their capture of minor groups not strictly linked to the terrorist organization. In Yemen, in the Sahel and in Syria, in fact, the local underworld is very active in capturing and then selling hostages to the jihadist groups behind modest compensation.
In the Sahel, for example, the subversive groups of al Qaeda are in close connection with the Tuareg and other bandits operating in the region, as is the case with the militants of Ansar Al Sharia in Tunisia and Libya. The abduction technique is also applied by other groups that are difficult to control, such as the Filipino jihadists operating throughout the Sulu region. Experienced sailors able to move easily and operate successfully in some areas of the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia.
The threat of kidnapping is not, therefore, new and is destined to extend beyond the confines of the areas at risk known to date. A danger that perhaps represents one of the next threats to be faced and defeated in order to achieve certain and rapid results in the fight against international terrorism and the Caliphate.
It is therefore a priority to agree internationally that all those who want to reach the contingency areas for humanitarian purposes such as NGO workers, on business or to tell the world about the atrocities committed by "fighters in the name of Allah", to be Accredited or authorized to enter areas at risk should be trained before leaving to recognize the signs of danger and to take countermeasures necessary to ensure a minimum of personal safety.
A training course standardized and regulated by the United Nations with common operational procedures (Standard Operative Procedures - SOP), in the same way as it proceeds in the information sector of local populations forced to live with the danger of Unexploded Belly Clusters (UXOs) left on the ground from the battle.
Training aimed in particular at recognizing the "indicators" of the danger and applying appropriate responses in accordance with standardized procedures, in order to significantly lower the risk of abductions.
In fact, too often, the danger is not known or is underestimated by operators who in fact represent "precious exchange goods" for subversive organizations to blackmail the nations they belong to and in fact get them to become "donors" of Islamic subversion to get the release of the hostages.
Sources of financing, however, not obvious and difficult to trace and such as to guarantee ISIS and the various extremist organizations the necessary resources to continue to threaten international security.
Fernando Termentini
