Friday, December 11, 2009

Journalist abducted in Somalia home at last ,Reports that Somali Hawiye MP may have been involved in Lindhout's kidnapping


Back in Canada: Held captive since August, 2008, Albertan journalist Amanda Lindhout has been in Nairobi since she was released two weeks ago

Two weeks after she ended 15 months of captivity with a harrowing nighttime drive in Mogadishu, Amanda Lindhout will wake up this morning, back in her native Alberta.
On a cold, snowy day, a government Challenger plane brought Ms. Lindhout to Calgary yesterday after a stopover in Eastern Canada on Tuesday, a source said.
Ms. Lindhout's father, John, has a home in Sylvan Lake, midway between Calgary and Edmonton.Ms. Lindhout's mother, Lorinda Stewart, lives in British Columbia but a family spokeswoman said in a statement that "Amanda and her parents have returned safely to Alberta."The 28-year-old Canadian freelance journalist and the Australian photographer Nigel Brennan had been abducted by gunmen in August, 2008, as they tried to visit a Somali refugee camp.They were released Nov. 25 after their families turned to a private British security firm, AKE, to deliver a reported $600,000 (U.S.) ransom.In new details emerging in the Australian media, the Brennans said they had gone to Canada earlier this year to persuade Ms. Lindhout's parents to join them in hiring AKE, which costs up to $3,000 (U.S.) a day.AKE took over from government negotiators who had monitored the initial phone calls from Somalia to the Brennans."The private contractor definitely warned us that these could be unpleasant phone calls," Mr. Brennan's sister, Nicky Bonney, told Australian TV."Lorinda got an incredibly distressing phone call from Amanda. Amanda was fairly close to hysterical on the phone saying that she was being tortured.
"Lorinda was nothing short of amazing. She just talked over her the entire time explaining that she loved her, that the family - her entire family - loved her, that they were doing everything they could to get her home and hung up."..more..http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/journalist-abducted-in-somalia-home-at-last/article1395276/

Reports that Hawiye MP may have been involved in Lindhout's kidnapping

Amanda Lindhout, the journalist kidnapped and held for ransom in Somalia for well over a year, is home in Alberta and is requesting privacy, but we may be learning more about who was behind her abduction.There are media reports in Mogadishu that a member of the Somalia Parliament was involved in the kidnapping of Lindhout and her colleague Nigel Brennan and that he received a portion of the ransom money. An unconfirmed report claims that soon after the ransom was paid, $600,000 was spent to buy land and property in the Somali capital.A report on the Somali Journalists says two of the MP's former body guards were the ring leaders of the abduction plot.
It adds: "Among the interesting facts we found is that Amanda was held in the house of the lawmaker , and that house is in a district of the north of Mogadishu." they are calling for an investigation into the abduction and for the money to be recovered.Early on, there was speculation that Lindhout and Brennan were "set up" and that their abduction was an inside job.

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