Kidnapped

I have seen wicked men and fools,
a great many of both;
and I believe they both get paid in the end;
but the fools first
--Kidnapped, Robert Louis Stvenson

Birds do it, bees do it --
even educated fleas do it
--Let's Fall in Love, Cole Porter
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It seems everyone's hopping on the kidnapping bandwagon these days. Italy convicted 22 U.S. Central Intelligence Agency agents in absentia back in '09 for the abduction of a Muslim Cleric. That snatch-and-grab was done as part of the U.S. extraordinary rendition program, but it seems al Qaeda is now increasingly kidnapping for ransom to fill dwindling coffers (Al-Qaeda Kidnapping to Raise Cash).

Kidnapping has always been a top source of revenue for funding terrorist organization operations, the income supplementing that obtained from bank robberies and all the other criminal activities which provide group support. No news flash here.

So what is the significance al Qaeda's ramping up its kidnapping activities? The news indicates that their normal cash cows are out to pasture and the Osama bin Laden no longer is (was) a big draw for their supporters. They are losing the support of the passive and active membership (which makes these groups viable) and so must utilize crime to finance their existence.

This implies that the new al Qaeda leadership will need to run more criminal operations as fundraisers. Such activities are a last resort for terrorists when funds become scarce. Criminal behavior is not associated with the crusader mentality, and such crimes are easier for police to infiltrate and neutralize than are traditional ideological terrorist organizational behavior. With criminals you just follow the money and everything drops into place.

This increased criminal activity is good news for intel and police agencies as this degrades the terrorist's strategic stance in lieu of tactical criminality, which are simply survival operations. As always, good police and intel work to counter criminal actions is the best avenue to neutralize terror organizations.

If the hijackers of 9-11-01 had to kidnap or rob banks to finance their plans ... you get the idea.