Ex-hostage hires bounty hunters to find kidnappers

[Preacherman]

From the Australian Herald-Sun (http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,15737209%5E1702,00.html):

Ex-hostage hires bounty hunters

26jun05

A HOSTAGE held alongside Australian Douglas Wood in Iraq has hired bounty hunters to track down his former captors, promising to eliminate them one by one.

Swede Ulf Hjertstrom, who was held for several weeks with Mr Wood in Baghdad, was released by his kidnappers on May 30.

Mr Hjertstrom has since claimed he shared information with US and Iraqi troops about Mr Wood which led to the release of the 63-year-old Australian engineers two weeks ago, after 47 days in captivity.

Now, he wants to find those responsible.

"I have now put some people to work to find these bastards," he told the Ten Network today.

"I invested about $50,000 so far and we will get them one by one."


More on Mr. Hjertstrom's captivity here.

 

[Zundfolge]

wow!

I wish I could afford to donate to his cause (assuming he'd take donations).

 

[scubie02]

wow, what a great idea for a cottage industry...

 

[veloce851]

Good for him!!

It will be interesting to see what kind of success the hired guns have.
At least they won't have their hand tied behind their backs like our servicemen.

 

[1911 guy]

Payoff

Why not institute a bounty system for all insurgents? I'm not being sarcastic. We've got bounties out for all the heavy hitters, why not for all known terrorists/insurgents? The man shouldn't have to foot this bill himself, our governments have all said they're here to protect us, yet when the time comes for them to protect or exact retribution for wrongdoing, every government in the 20th century and most before have sat on their collective hands and done nothing.

 

[pharmer]

So far no one has collected the $25 million on Bin Laden or Zarqauwi's head. Can't believe nobody is interested.

 

[armoredman]

A huge price on the leader's head is to be expected - but if we put price tags on all the little guys too, then the scum at the top of the pond have no followers. Hard to lead when every fanatic you get promptly gets popped for $50 American....

 

[MudPuppy]

We likely do provide payment to civvies in Iraq and Afghanistan for tips leading to insurgents. (I'd be very surprised if we didn't.)

 

[1911 guy]

Tips?

information? Our intel guys are already overloaded in theater. Let's pay for bodies and be done with all this P.C. B.S. I suddenly like abbreviations. Sounds like a T.V. station, huh? PCBS.

 

[Spreadfire Arms]

it would be neat if there was a documentary made about this........

 

[jnojr]

Why not institute a bounty system for all insurgents?

It's one thing to offer a bounty on a named, identifiable individual. It's another to offer bounties for "insurgents". How long before some wiseacre goes through a village and grabs ten guys, then brings 'em in and says "I captured ten insurgents! Watch out, though... the sneaky devils are going to claim they're simple villagers who were minding their own business when they were snatched for no reason. I'd gag 'em and send 'em straight to Gitmo!"?

 

[svtruth]

Bounty

My mother told me that in WWII, in the Phillipines, the US used to pay the indigenous peoples a bounty for pairs of Japanese ears.
Can any one confirm?

 

[Burt Blade]

Tonight, on Iraq's Most Wanted:

Achmed the hunter has incresed his total bag to 15, with his amazing twenty yard double tap to the head of this Syrian sucide bomber. Quoting Achmed, "This goat (beep) never had a chance to jerk the lanyard. Now he is (beeeeeeeeeeeeep) for the demons in hell."

And we also go on patrol with this seemingly harmless lady, who wishes to remain anonymous. Quoting our mystery lady, "You should see their eyes when I whip a sawed-off shotgun out from under my cloak. I always use a brand new one. Here are two virgins for you! I say."

And in out final Insha'Allah segment: when homemade bombs go bad.

 

[Puncha]

Hey Burt!

ROTFLMFAO! That was real funny!

 

[thorn726]

It's one thing to offer a bounty on a named, identifiable individual. It's another to offer bounties for "insurgents". How long before some wiseacre goes through a village and grabs ten guys, then brings 'em in and says "I captured ten insurgents! Watch out, though... the sneaky devils are going to claim they're simple villagers who were minding their own business when they were snatched for no reason. I'd gag 'em and send 'em straight to Gitmo!"?

exactly. asking for real trouble

 

[c_yeager]

It's one thing to offer a bounty on a named, identifiable individual. It's another to offer bounties for "insurgents". How long before some wiseacre goes through a village and grabs ten guys, then brings 'em in and says "I captured ten insurgents! Watch out, though... the sneaky devils are going to claim they're simple villagers who were minding their own business when they were snatched for no reason. I'd gag 'em and send 'em straight to Gitmo!"?

And consider for a moment that the people who are most likely to perpetrate such activities would likely be the actual insurgents. Really, a bounty system isnt going to work in this place.

 

[GT]

I think this guy has a great idea on a personal level, but as many have pointed out it can't really be institutionalized.

Check this out:

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/HNS/Scalpin/oldfolks.html

Didn't work so well then either


G

 

[1911 guy]

Missed part of post

I think some of you missed part of my post or I didn't explain myself well enough. We know names of some of the higher-up-the-food -chain types and could enlist some local/irregular help with the proper incentive. I agree that random "well, he looked like an insurgent" actions would be impractical and very likely counter productive.