#1 Pretty that Algeria jumped in to prevent ransoms from being paid. The large haul of foreign hostages might have given the jihadist kidnappers as much as $100m with which to extend their guerrilla war against the Algerian government, not to mention the neighboring African states. From the article:
Belmoktar prefers to trade his hostages for money, experts have said, and global intelligence unit Stratfor says he can get an estimated $3 million per European captive. The money allowed him to build one of the best-financed arms of AQIM. It may explain how he was able to strike out on his own six weeks ago to create "The Masked Brigade," whose inaugural attack was launched inside Algeria.
"MBM is more along the lines of, how do I negotiate and put extra money in my pocket?" says Rudolph Atallah, the former head of counterterrorism for Africa at the Pentagon, who has spent years tracking the terror network in this Sahelian country. "The others are purists." |