FATHER TO KIDNAPPERS: Just Kill Him

Child hostages in the Middle East offer a quick way to get rich scheme. It's not a new problem, but it's getting worse like the violence in Baghdad and Afghanistan. It's also seriously underreported because the law over there won't do anything about it due to fear of retribution. That's why there aren't accurate numbers to share with this or any other story about how many kidnappings there are in that region.

Kidnapping has overtaken burglaries, robberies, car theft and other crimes to become the biggest criminal activity in many areas of Baghdad. Insurgents and gangsters are increasingly using abducted children to raise funds for terrorism operations and personal wealth.

These days, money has become the main motive for kidnappers, unlike the period of civil unrest in Baghdad in 2006 and 2007 when people were being captured and killed for sectarian reasons, according to Brigadier-General Faisal Malik Mohsin, the commander of the Iraqi Federal Police's al-Rasheed district in southwest Baghdad. Because women are also seen as property, they are playing a greater role in the kidnappings because they are less likely to rouse suspicion, he said.

Gangs in the Middle Eastern region actually commit the kidnappings.However, it's the terrorists that negotiate the monetary deals.

Children from unstable neighbourhoods are also in danger. In areas close to Sadr City, several children were found beheaded and dumped in the rubbish after their parents failed to come up with ransom payments.

The story of Rasul Amoore and his son is commonplace now. By the third day of negotiating with his son's kidnappers, Rasul Amoore had sold his car, withdrawn his bank savings and borrowed money from his siblings and friends to raise funds for the six-year-old's release.

Even then he was able to gather only $8,000 (£5,000) of the $50,000 demanded by Ahmed's captors. The kidnappers eventually dropped their ransom to $20,000 - still more than twice the amount at the disposal of Mr Amoore - after the confectionery shop owner in east Baghdad pleaded that their information about his supposed wealth was untrue.

Frustrated by the mental anguish of those nearly seven arduous days while his son was in captivity, Mr. Amoore finally threw up his arms and called the terrorists bluff: "just kill him then."

Fortuntaely, the kidnappers didn't kill his son, and they only made $10,000 from the week ordeal.

Many of the kidnappings go unreported, but the Ministry of Interior said that fewer than 10 per cent of the reported 265 children kidnapped this year were saved by police.

Another story about Muhsin Mohammed Muhsin, 11, didn't end so well. He was dumped on a rubbish site last month with his throat slit and hands severed because his family could not meet a ransom of $100,000 in 48 hours. His father, Mohammed Muhsin, told outside investogators that three days after they dumped his son's dead body two other youngsters' bodies were found in the same place - one of them a child with his eyes gouged out.

Mr. Muhsin didn't go to the police at first because he feared their lack of morality and thoroughness.

Kidnappers bank on people's lack of trust in the police. Confident that families of missing children will not rush to the authorities for help, they contact the parents from identifiable telephone numbers when negotiating on the release conditions.

The fears about child abductions come after a warning last month from Major-General Qassim al-Moussawi, the Baghdad security spokesman, that former insurgents were responsible for 60 to 70 per cent of criminal activities in the country.

In addition to the kidnappings bringing in a cash cow of unyeilding wealth for terrorists is another growing concern for the region. Over 200 children between the ages of 8 and 13 had been kidnapped by the Taliban and trained to become "baby-kamikazes just in a month's time. The surge for baby terrorists has exploded since this summer in Pakistan's Swat Valley. (see graphic videos attached to this article)

"The children have been brain washed to the point of saying that they wanted to kill their own parents," sources from the Pakistani army said. "The Taliban taught them that the Pakistani Army is the enemy of Islam."

The Taliban prefer to use children, as they are easily influenced and less likely to be arrested. The Taliban presence in the area has been noted by the region's government as a tragic phenomenon of child-soldiers used for guerrilla war fighting. They state that it is present throughout the world and is in itself a heinous crime. Using children for suicide terrorism is even worse and provokes blind violence and an absolute violation, on the part of Taliban members, of human dignity.

We have a much more involved and complicated war in the Middle East. It won't be resolved with troop insurgency alone. It won't end with more violence from Western Civilizations. At this point, it's a wildfire burning out of control without answers or an end.