Abducted Canadian-U.N. Negotiator In Clutches Of Al-Qaeda

Robert Fowler

There is further news in The Globe and Mail on my earlier story here, about three kidnapped hostages: kidnapped senior Canadian diplomat Robert Fowler, diplomat Louis Guay deputy director of the Sudan task force in Ottawa and Niger-based driver Soumana Moukaila. They were abducted December 14, 2008 on a high-level, low-profile mission to north Africa...."Suspicion has fallen on a group called Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, a radical North African Islamic group that swore allegiance to Osama bin Laden in 2007."

The U.N. believes they might be alive because a video has appeared possibly taken just after the abduction. "After his [Fowler's] retirement, he was appointed last July as a special UN envoy to Niger to mediate between the government and armed rebel groups. But the UN kept the mission secret for six months - until he was kidnapped."

Why haven't the international press made a bigger deal of these abductions? I wish they would, because it will take a lot of work by many individuals to rescue them. The French- and English-Canadian press are trying to get the word out. It's taking a village of reporters to get this story heard, even as it is happening now. Details are unclear and the investigation is continuing.

Having recently seen the movie "Taken" my hope is that a hero like Liam Neeson (it probably will take many heroes) will save these official negotiators from dire straits.