Who kidnapped and is holding Missing BBC Gaza reporter Alan Johnston?

Question

The BBC has made a plea for information about the whereabouts of BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston.

Middle East bureau chief Simon Wilson said the corporation had received no firm word on Johnston since he disappeared on Monday.

He thanked all those who had tried to help resolve the situation, including Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and PM Ismail Haniya.

However, it is El Qaida, which the Palestinains do indeed klnow.

Answer 1

Ten days ago, BBC correspondent Alan Johnston was seized by armed men in Gaza (March 12), nine months after Hamas-led Palestinian raiders snatched Israeli corporal Gilead Shalit.

Counter-terror sources disclose that Montaz Durmush, leader of the Army of Islam (Al Qaeda-Palestine), which is holding both hostages, is using the British journalist as a tool to drive up the price demanded of Israel for Shalit’s freedom.

Neither has been seen since their abduction. Durmush is posting threatening notices to the UK government about Johnston’s fate through a third party, to make the British lean on Israel to extort an exorbitant price for the two men’s release.

A team of 20 British agents, most of them from the MI6 secret service, is working in Gaza to make contact with the abductors, or just to obtain a sign of life from Johnston – so far without success. It is beginning to dawn on the group that the BBC reporter’s seizure was not just another short-lived kidnapping of a Westerner like the ones plaguing Gaza and the West Bank in recent months, but a drawn-out affair with no knowing how it will turn out.

March 20, a long-winded statement was released in the name of a faction called the “Popular Resistance Front” with details about the Shalit kidnapping. The wording implies that the three groups holding Shalit--Hamas, the Popular Resistance Committees and the Army of Islam--are vying over which can squeeze better terms from Israel.

British and Israeli intelligence circles believe both hostages are caught up in factional rivalries in Gaza over who will dominate the Palestinian unity government. Neither Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas nor prime minister Ismail Haniyeh was in any position to deliver on their promises to work for Shalit’s early release. They never were, since they have no influence with the kidnappers and are not in touch with them.

All that British foreign secretary Margaret Beckett could tell parliament Tuesday was that the government was doing all it could to effect the release of Alan Johnston and hope Gilead Shalit too would soon be free. However, for now, prospects of progress on the now interwoven hostage affairs are dim.

Answer 2

DEBKAfile has exclusively reported that "The Sword of Islam" (al Qaeda) has kidnapped and is holding BBC reporter Alan Johnston

DebkaFile's counter-terror sources reported that Johnston, 44, was snatched Monday, March 12, in Gaza City, by the same group which, together with the Hamas terror organization, kidnapped the Israeli soldier Gilead Shalit in June 2006.

This El Qaeda group is led by the brothers Mumtaz and Muetaz Durmush.

Palestinian security units have been going through the motions of hunting for the missing journalist, throwing up roadblocks and searching vehicles. In actual fact, they know exactly who is holding him. Although it is an open secret, the Palestinian authorities, like the British, who maintain a broad intelligence presence in the Gaza Strip, feign ignorance about the party behind the kidnap. Israel similarly knows which group is responsible.

The BBC is counting on a private deal for freeing Johnston, thereby giving the Durmush brothers another boost. Every few weeks the al Qaeda group they head targets a Westerner as a hostage. All of them, excepting the Israeli soldier, have been ransomed for hundreds of thousands of dollars, a supply of weapons and guarantees of safety for the Durmishes and their Sword of Islam gang.

DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources see this process, which repeats itself periodically, as abject surrender by the United States, Britain, other European governments and Israel to a virulent form of al Qaeda terror instead of fighting it.

Answer 3

I can just about gaurantee it isn't the Israelis! I would start looking at the radicals who call themselves peaceful Palestinians first.......