South Korean officials reportedly nixed two rescue missions to free 21 Korean hostages held by the Taliban in Afghanistan. From The Times:
On one occasion Afghan and US troops were mobilised and ready to storm the Taleban positions. Separately, Afghan secret police were ready to arrest the families of the Taleban commanders involved as a way of applying pressure. But Korean officials vetoed the plans over fears that they would cause more bloodshed.
Here’s more:
“The reason we have not launched a military operation is the Koreans repeatedly requested we don’t. They are sure they will solve this by talking face to face,” Ustad Merajuddin Pathan, the Governor of Ghazni province, said. Two men from the original group of 23 have already been killed by their captors.
Abdul Rahim, head of the highway police in the Qarabagh district, where the Koreans were abducted, said: “The governor [wanted] to launch a military operation but the Koreans refused.”
A senior intelligence source said: “We know who the Taleban commanders are and we wanted to arrest their families but the Koreans wouldn’t let us.”
Read the rest on your own.
13 Comments
I told you so. Obviously, in these situations you don’t reveal all your plans to the press. Shame on the ones in the Korean media who suggested the the US was sitting on its thumbs while knowing that it probably wasn’t.
Sorry - I still think that cutting losses and going in there would have been a wiser choice.
And even if ALL of the hostages are released, Koreans get to be voted “Favorite Kidnapping and Ransom Targets for Terrorists” in the future.
Congrats!
Since the usual suspects in the Korean media were aiding and abetting politicos of the Chung Dumb-Young and DLP variety, the latter also should be excoriated.
Chung Dong Young once asked “What would the US have done if the hostages were American?”
Well, there you have the answer. The US would not have negotiated with the Taliban and most probably would have sent in the Delta Team to free the hostages.
And to think the progressives are calling for the US to take a more active role in freeing the hostages while preventing the use of the military option. Hypocrisy at its best.
I would hardly call Chung Dong Young and the like progressives. The better red than dead party might be a better name.
It is interesting how a sovereign nation does not take action against anti government forces because the Koreans would not let them.
the koreans are some of the best negotiators around, at least in business. they rarely do not get what they want. obviously this situation is not a business deal but if anyone can pull it off, it’s the koreans. (tall order, to be sure.)
that said, like Metro, i do not want to see money changing hands. unlike Metro, i do not necessarily want to see the Deltas go in there (curb the testosterone for a bit, boys). This is just the beginning of the standoff. give them a chance to jawbone it out. who knows what they’ll come up with? the worst case scenario is more of the hostages get killed before the negotiators realize they can’t win and just pay up. But a raid by the delta boys could end in deaths of not just the hostages but also the delta boys.
I don’t think Uncle Sucker would’ve risked American lives on this. Unless every one of the hostages came out unscathed, we’d be hearing about it for the next 500 years, if not longer. I’m skeptical on this one, unless they mean “American logistical and intel support from a safe distance, while Afghan soldiers conducted the actual ops.”
Now the second idea of taking the Taliban family members as counter hostages is a brilliant idea. When some Russians were kidnaped in Lebanon in the 80s, guess what happened? Relatives of the perpetrators started to have difficulties in maintaining life-sustaining bodily functions, like breathing. Result: Russians freed post haste and no more Russians taken hostage.
Has anyone else started daydreaming about what would be happening if Park Chung Hee (or even Lee Myung-bak) was in the Blue House?
Poor bastard must be rolling in his grave…
Really? Once this over and the Korean government is no longer issuing plays from the stands, they should get started on that. I’m surprised that they haven’t already.
@mjw: in re: “But a raid by the delta boys could end in deaths of not just the hostages but also the delta boys.”
Well, it’s part of what they get paid to do.
For all, I’m suspicious of any reporting that suggests the Koreans are choosing to do nothing, or merely issuing plays from the stands. This situation differs from most model hostage situations in that the Talib have already proven that they are both willing to kill, and release, hostages. You can bet that someone, somewhere within the Korean armed forces, is sweating bullets over this, and I don’t envy them. W’ll just have to wait and see what the outcome is, but I wouldn’t write off force, and I wouldn’t count the Koreans as mere spectators yet.
When Cheong Wa Dae says that it lacks the ability to solve the problem, because it lacks the ability to meet the terrorists’ demands, I think it’s fair to say that it’s moving off the sidelines and into the stands.
Of course, there may be some group working on the elements of an as-yet undisclosed plan involving the ROK military. I don’t know - it hasn’t been disclosed. You can choose to believe in the possibility of a ROK response involving force (although it has stated several times that it deplores such a move, by any party), but as you know that’s only a guess at this point. No offence intended, lirelou, but I stand by what I wrote. Any humble pie will be eaten as changing situations dictate.
They didn’t agree to arresting the families of the Taliban kidnappers? Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb.
They should have kidnapped the families and then followed the Soviet Solution (http://www.nationalreview.com/robbins/robbins200404120839.asp - thanks to Smokehard for the link)
Yeah, it’s medieval. But there sure as hell wouldn’t be another Korean kidnapped again.
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[...] Their government’s decisions to negotiate and pay ransom (possibly to the wrong people), to veto two rescue attempts, or to set America up as the villlain probably didn’t figure into their plans. It’s [...]