Has Foreign Office got wrong kidnappers?
Foreign Office officials working to free a Lincoln man held hostage in Iraq may have been negotiating with the wrong people for two years.
The shocking revelation comes from ex-Foreign Office minister Kim Howells, who held the post at the time of the kidnapping in May 2007.
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Lincoln IT consultant Peter Moore was captured at the Ministry of Finance in Baghdad in 2007
Lincoln IT consultant Peter Moore was captured at the Ministry of Finance in Baghdad along with four security guards. Two were confirmed dead last month.
In a BBC interview on Radio 4's The Report last night, Mr Howells said he had become "very frustrated" with the Iraqi government.
"I'm not convinced that we were ever negotiating with the right people – it's doubtful," said Mr Howells, who also alleged much of the negotiation had been through "extremely dubious middlemen".
Mr Howells, now the chairman of the commons intelligence and security committee, told the show's host the kidnap had clearly been an inside job involving around 40 men.
But a spokesman said it was working intensively for the release of the remaining hostages in a highly complex case, and it has excellent co-operation with trusted Iraqi counterparts.
For more on Mr Howells's revelations and to hear from Peter Moore's father, see Friday's Echo.
3 Comments
by Harley, Iraq
Friday, July 17 2009, 2:15PM
“The most your likely to recieve from the British Foreign office in this situation is a sympathetic 'sorry', they have no 'footprint' on the ground in Iraq, at least not one they are likely to admit to. The article claims this was an 'inside job', that it certainly was but not the inside work of the ministry of finance, rather the Iraq police in charge of external security of the ministry. Forty men each armed and each wearing Iraq police uniforms certainly suggests to me that people knew this situation was going to unfold, and they more than likely knew the time the contractors would be at the venue too. To be informed that the Foreign office were involved in negotiations in the first place is surprising, to discover they were negotiating with the wrong sepratist group however, is not.”
by Jane, Lincoln
Friday, July 17 2009, 12:14PM
“You see I don't think this is something the government can control.
They have to negotiate blindly with all factions, or at least with the leaders who are identified as useful to our cause.
As the article says it was an inside job, who can be trusted?
Our people have to work with the only people available-dubious middlemen. Nothing can be done about that , Negotiations have to be done with whoever can be found/or is at all available. This means if we wish to do anything at all, negotiations have to be done with all and sundry!! There can be no fault here. We have to do something.
I feel very sorry for all hostages and their families, but it remains a fact they choose to work in unstable countries.”
by rick, Lincoln
Friday, July 17 2009, 6:09AM
“Just goes to show the government is useless at everything”