1962 First Cuban PWs Reach U.S. MIAMI — The first group of Cuban prisoners of war arrived in the United States today [Dec. 23] in a pre-Christmas ransom operation unparalleled in history.
Some, such as Omar Saeed Sheikh, who has been convicted of planning the kidnapping, were experienced both in Kashmir and in kidnap-and-ransom operations.
They said Mr. Hadid ran a gangland-style operation, making money through car smuggling and hostage-for-ransom operations, as well as from tithes collected by sympathetic mosques.
Militia elements have also established protection rackets, ransom schemes and smuggling operations, according to American and Iraqi officials.
Nowadays they often pass on their victims to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the Yemen-based franchise of the global group, which in turn uses the cash from ransoms to fund its operations.
The front has been fighting for a separate Islamic state for decades, while the Abu Sayyaf, military officials say, has increasingly degenerated into kidnapping, extortion and banditry, using ransom payments to finance its operations.
But what happens when a business set up to deal with criminal gangs finds itself in a world in which proscribed jihadi groups use ransom money to fund terrorist operations?
A report circulating on the Internet that apparently originated with a Swiss public radio report said Colombia paid $20 million in ransom before dressing up the operation as a ruse.
Some security and counterterrorism officials say the affiliate, based in Algeria, is more a criminal gang — ransoming kidnapped Westerners to finance its operations — than a group of ideologically committed terrorists.
The Haqqanis finance their operations with timber smuggling, kidnapping ransoms and donations from wealthy Persian Gulf individuals, intelligence officials say.
