Canadian Militants involved in Algerian Siege OCD_OCD: Wow. I didn't know that until today. Inside job, 2 Canadian militants in Algerian siege By AOMAR OUALI and KARIM KEBIR - Associated Press Star Beacon ALGIERS, Algeria — The Islamist militants who attacked a natural gas plant in the Sahara included two Canadians and a team of explosives experts who had memorized the layout of the sprawling complex and were ready to blow the place sky-high, Algeria's prime minister said Monday. Militants in the highly-organized operation also wore military uniforms and appeared to have help from the inside — a man from Niger who had once worked as driver at the plant, according to accounts from the prime minister and state television. Algeria detailed a grim toll from the attack, saying that 38 hostages and 29 militants died in four days of mayhem. Three of the attackers were captured and five foreign workers remained unaccounted for, Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal told reporters at a news conference in Algiers, the capital. He did not specify the nationalities of the captured militants, report their medical conditions or say where they were being held. Monday's account offered the first Algerian government narrative of the four-day standoff, from the attempted bus hijacking early Wednesday to the moment when the attackers prepared to explode bombs across the gas plant, which spreads out over 5 square kilometers (2 square miles) deep in the desert, 800 miles (1,300 miles) south of Algiers. All but one of the dead hostages — an Algerian guard — were foreigners. The dead hostages included seven Japanese workers, six Filipinos, three energy workers each from the U.S. and Britain, two from Romania and one worker from France. The final death toll was still unclear, since accounts from other governments appeared to indicate that more than five workers were still missing. It was also lower than the 81 estimated Sunday from Algerian reports of dead and missing. OCD_OCD: The militants had said during the standoff that their group included Canadians, and hostages who had escaped recalled hearing at least one of the militants speaking English with a North American accent. In addition to the Canadians, the Algerian prime minister said the militant cell included men from Egypt, Mali, Niger, Mauritania and Tunisia, as well as three Algerians. Officials in Canada could not immediately confirm whether two of the attackers were citizens. "Canada condemns in the strongest possible terms this deplorable and cowardly act and all terrorist groups which seek to create and perpetuate insecurity," said Chrystiane Roy, a spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs. "We are pursuing all appropriate channels to seek further information and are in close contact with Algerian authorities," she said in a statement. The Algerian prime minister indicated that this operation was not — as the Islamists had claimed — an immediate reaction to France's recent military intervention against Islamists in neighboring Mali, since the captured militants said it took two months of planning. But he said the group did come from northern Mali, hundreds of miles away from the gas plant. He said the group included a former driver at the complex from Niger and that the attackers "knew the facility's layout by heart." They wore military uniforms, state TV reported, bolstering accounts by escaped hostages that they didn't just shoot their way in. "Four attackers stepped out of a car that had flashing lights on top of it," one of the former hostages, Liviu Floria, a 45-year-old mechanic from Romania, told The Associated Press. The prime minister said "the last words of the terrorist chief" was to slaughter the hostages. "He gave the order for all the foreigners to be killed, so there was a mass execution, many hostages were killed by a bullet to the head," he said. Three Americans died in the attack and seven made it out safely, a U.S. official in Washington said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. Their bodies have been recovered, the official said. OCD_OCD: It is a very tragic thing that happened. It seems like this sort of terrorism will be around for a long time, which is even more tragic. needpeace6: I hate this ignorant muslims,militants, they are luring in many people to convert to Muslim they 're only Agenda is to wipe out The West..they are not peaceful people I read Quran its its religion of hate..The Muslim in America totally different..but out there.. needpeace6: so many people they Killed killed their own people too..b4 even the US went there in 70's they captured Americans blow up Pan Am you name it..Quran is the Archangel...he comes in many forms.. OCD_OCD: I don't think the Quran is any more to blame than the Bible. What is to blame is the fanaticism of those in any religion who believe that they they have the right to eradicate people because of their faith. needpeace6: True but people are looking for answers and the first thing they go is church..2nd terrorist now used chatrooms to meet West women and get into the country..but the Internet Intellegence is far more clever..I have a friend of a friend who is in Dating site..6 of those men where turned down ..and cant get a visa in US embassy out there..... Sarcastic Dots: The mistake people are making about this is linking it purely to religion. Although religion plays a part in this situation, a lot of it has to do with the exploitation of an impoverished region by promising them easy money. There was an interview with a Malian soldier --who had his house raided-- explaining that the main reason for his compatriots abandoning the army and joining an islamist group was because of the wide-spread belief that they (the rebels) are rich --and comparatively they are. These groups have made millions of dollars by taking hostages and controlling the illegal trade of cigarettes and drugs. It would be a mistake focusing on one issue. The best way to ensure that people don't become rebels is by making sure a civilian, "normal" life pays better than that of a militant rebel. (Edited by Sarcastic Dots) harlett anathema: did anyone catch onto....the Obama administration wants Americans too start taking responsibility for any & all Islamic terrorism no matter where in the world they strike out.. that Islamic radicalism is OUR fault....... or heard American progressive liberals clearly say out loud that they intend too hold us accountable....and will slander use social violence against anyone & everyone who disagrees with them... i heard it told yesterday that there is no as merciless country as is Algeria.. do young racist African Americans actually think,that after any further rise of american black Muslim militants that their street gangster acts will be shown mercy..or the tolerance being shown in this very moment....under the guise of racism.... i keep hearing ought too have been careful of what you wished for............being whispered in my minds ear..... (Edited by harlett anathema) needpeace6: They are African American who migrated here as a Muslim ..But the American African that grew up here...Are Christian...and they are against these Mother..F..... harlett anathema: can anyone show me one so called African nation on the continent of Africa.. that is thriving in equal opportunities ...nope sure can't....but you can show me several African nations that are religiously violent too their own...enslaving themselves too accepting damn near nothingness,how are folks suppose too live a life time with no opportunities too thrive as men or women..... ya can't show me one Islamic nation either.... so how does turning this nation of america into a clearer divided nation of haves and have not.. make any sense.. too do our future generations..... there will be no nation on earth where hope can thrive & live,or where your own personal effort can pay off for You & your's.... i can't imagine dying and having too stand before & explain too EXISTENCE & NATURE,that Religion as some saw fit too doctrine it's rules made life and living existence & nature such a misery for so many too have experienced...and that at no time could anyone see what the fk was sooo wrong with doing LIFE & LIVING as it was done onto soooo many.. Sarcastic Dots: Harlett's post seemingly playing down the majority of the world's exploitation in Africa, Though that's not the problem. I have a problem with white suburbanites claiming they are the victims of some horrendous genocidal act on behalf of a coalition of blacks and liberals. I'm not one for generational guilt -being white and all- but I also have a huge damn problem with people who try and disparage their ancestors sins and turning the history of the victor into the victim. harlett anathema: excuse you....it wasn't AMERICA who stole Africans out of their lives...then transported them in the most despicable ways too Carribean islands and broke their spirits as best they could then brought them too main land America....IT was THE ENGLISH...Slavery was a ENGLISH Business Meanwhile......those Africans sold into slavery actually lived better then the common Americans in that time & date.. did... were taught skills and trades that weren't offered too immigrants.... I mentioned what i have...because i don't believe there is a excuse for the state and quality of life & living on the entire continent of Africa...or for the common Muslim in their home nations...You could have been born a Palestinian...can you even imagine,what life & living been like for those folks Your age.... and I whole heartily think...that it's time too get Young African American YOUTH off of the streets doing street crime as a fking career choice..................and off of welfare as a life style choice... there is a world too experience.... meanwhile.......my personal bloodlines.....were existing in Ireland or Italy....Fking try and hold me personally responsible for the poison in some else's mind and actions... racism exists.....in every nation on this planet,you can't go into any nation and not see it being played out onto those born into what ever nation they were.....be trying too tell the likes of me that i have no business airing my personally think ,have thought on it... i am toning down my rederrick as best i can as is................... take care as will i.........bye by the way...sine means esse too be sin mean too have broken codes of conduct belonging too being in universal harmony..... (Edited by harlett anathema) needpeace6: Lol It started the way back the the Arab Pirates Started it..Middle Eastern People ..used Black People for Slavery women for harem and the men are used for wars...backbreaking work..and Arabs cut their penesis off and left for dead in the desert...thats why you dont see much Africans in Arab world they were slaughtered !!!!! and used African women for sex,raped.. harlett anathema: In America it is a excuse too do nothing with your life then hold racism accountable for your personal laziness...in time & date then...i actually believe because of OUR out spoken-ness on it and many other topic's were held accountable so we will solve it for the rest of the world still caught up in doing their OWN harm......................... slavery in some form or fashion has been a world wide crime against humanity by humanity sense the fking race came up into existence....matters not where you exist....... (Edited by harlett anathema) OCD_OCD: Dots, do you feel equally as incensed at the African nations and tribes of today murdering those of other African nations and tribes? How about slavery in the Middle East? Slavery in the Middle East and Europe happened a looooong time before it did in the US. http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/whtslav.htm ... “One of the things that both the public and many scholars have tended to take as given is that slavery was always racial in nature – that only blacks have been slaves. But that is not true,” Davis said. “We cannot think of slavery as something that only white people did to black people.” During the time period Davis studied, it was religion and ethnicity, as much as race, that determined who became slaves. “Enslavement was a very real possibility for anyone who traveled in the Mediterranean, or who lived along the shores in places like Italy, France, Spain and Portugal, and even as far north as England and Iceland,” he said. Pirates (called corsairs) from cities along the Barbary Coast in north Africa – cities such as Tunis and Algiers – would raid ships in the Mediterranean and Atlantic, as well as seaside villages to capture men, women and children. The impact of these attacks were devastating – France, England, and Spain each lost thousands of ships, and long stretches of the Spanish and Italian coasts were almost completely abandoned by their inhabitants. At its peak, the destruction and depopulation of some areas probably exceeded what European slavers would later inflict on the African interior. Although hundreds of thousands of Christian slaves were taken from Mediterranean countries, Davis noted, the effects of Muslim slave raids was felt much further away: it appears, for example, that through most of the 17th century the English lost at least 400 sailors a year to the slavers. Even Americans were not immune. For example, one American slave reported that 130 other American seamen had been enslaved by the Algerians in the Mediterranean and Atlantic just between 1785 and 1793. Davis said the vast scope of slavery in North Africa has been ignored and minimized, in large part because it is on no one’s agenda to discuss what happened. The enslavement of Europeans doesn’t fit the general theme of European world conquest and colonialism that is central to scholarship on the early modern era, he said. Many of the countries that were victims of slavery, such as France and Spain, would later conquer and colonize the areas of North Africa where their citizens were once held as slaves. Maybe because of this history, Western scholars have thought of the Europeans primarily as “evil colonialists” and not as the victims they sometimes were, Davis said. Davis said another reason that Mediterranean slavery has been ignored or minimized has been that there have not been good estimates of the total number of people enslaved. People of the time – both Europeans and the Barbary Coast slave owners – did not keep detailed, trustworthy records of the number of slaves. In contrast, there are extensive records that document the number of Africans brought to the Americas as slaves. .... | Politics Chat Room 88 People Chatting Similar Conversations |