PDA

View Full Version : Update:: Hostage Linda Norgrove's rescuers 'ignored Afghan advice'



ianstone
10-11-2010, 02:07 PM
11 October 2010 Last updated at 18:05
Hostage Linda Norgrove's rescuers 'ignored Afghan advice'


http://www.bbc.co.uk/media/images/49455000/jpg/_49455965_bilal_sarwary.jpg By Bilal Sarwary BBC News, Kabul
Afghan intelligence officials, the police and tribal elders say British aid worker Linda Norgrove would have been alive today if the international forces had paid heed to their advice.
They say the Dewagal valley, where Ms Norgrove was held captive, is one of Afghanistan's most notorious areas.
It is a remote mountainous area with unpredictable weather and no government worth the name.
A dialogue with her captors was the only way to secure her release, these people told the BBC.
Continue reading the main story (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11517014#story_continues_1) “Start Quote


The captors were told that Ms Norgrove was an unarmed aid worker who was helping poor Afghans in the area”
End Quote
US and UK governments have maintained a rescue operation held the best chance of a successful outcome for Ms Norgrove.
They feared she could be passed to a more extremist group, increasing an already high risk that she would be killed.
But an officer working for the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan's spy agency, said while a delegation of mullahs, tribal elders and village chiefs was despatched to the area soon after her capture to negotiate with the militants, the coalition forces bombed several nearby locations, forcing the delegation to halt their mission.
He said he had personally requested that commanders of the coalition forces allow the elders to talk to Ms Norgrove's captors, but the permission was denied.
A local influential mullah from Khas Kunar district said he had spoken to tribal elders in Dewagal valley to put pressure on the militants to release Ms Norgrove.
He said direct and indirect talks were held with her captors and they were told that taking a woman hostage was against the Afghan culture and a violation of the tenets of Islam.
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/49454000/gif/_49454805_linda_norgrove_map464.gif Linda Norgrove was kidnapped in the Kunar province in Afghanistan in September
He said the captors were told that Ms Norgrove was an unarmed aid worker who was helping poor Afghans in the area and that she posed no threat to anyone.
He said Ms Norgrove would have been walking free today if the authorities had given the elders and the locals a chance.
But they instead relied on force, which doesn't really work in Dewagal, he said.

fiestybean
10-11-2010, 04:02 PM
Oh well this is a very good piece indeed...so this states that pretty much we are still not relying on our Afghan partners to handle stuff within the country, so to speak. Yes I is crucial that if someone is taken hostage from a western country that its important to get them back...but not just to get them back amid that there may also be other factors behind in my opinion. Yet that fact is that she already is with a group of dangerous ppl and at any moment could have ended her life but stalled as of that time. Also it was in a bad part of the country so you might not think that western forces wouldnt be noticed? I thought at first it was coventional forces making the attempt to rescue her, never mentioned US involvment and with Afghan Army help. Then another story said it was US Special Forces? I read another one of your posts that said a grenade was used during this Ops? crazy to say when one would think you would try to use minimal forces as possible but its not like they could have known were exactly she was at. I just think that the only reason we are in the country was to help Afghans learn to help and provide for themselves and eventually run things themselves as well....meaning that we should let them do what they got to do if they can show its feasible. If the Afghans gave a good reason to go their way I would have taken it, seeing that talking could have been more beneficial and pretty much contridicted the Taliban in their actions. Eh who knews...so much can happen. Any insight on what else played out in this event or who all was really involved ??