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RELEASEs > DOCUMENTARiEs
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| report |
| "BAGHDAD’S THRIVING
KIDNAPPING BUSINESS" |
| A
special unit has been put together to fight the
growing wave of abductions, modeled after the American
FBI... |
| journalist: Samara Boustani |
| length: 26 minutes |
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| sumary |
Relief workers, journalists, diplomats, and even Iraqis
have become the target of kidnappers stalking Baghdad.
Hardened thugs and former members of Saddam’s secret service
have taken the lead in this thriving business. They resell
their foreign victims to the highest bidder among Iraq’s
Salafist Islamic groups. A special unit has been put together
to fight the growing wave of abductions, modeled after
the American FBI. The team specializes in organized crime
and is made up of fifteen plainclothes policemen who completed
several weeks of training with U.S. officials. Cops, as
well as victims, tell their stories in this report. And
for the very first time, the kidnappers themselves talk.
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Our crew was granted special permission to go inside
an Iraqi prison, and film interrogations of kidnappers.
We also obtained exclusive interrogation footage from
the archives of the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior,
which gives viewers a better understanding of how these
groups operate as well as their motivations. Samara
Boustani spent two weeks working alongside Baghdad’s
special kidnapping brigade, capturing the policemen’s
fears during night operations, anger against colleagues
in cahoots with kidnappers, and bitterness towards victims’
families, most of whom refuse to cooperate with the
police. An inside report in the very heart of “Baghdad’s
Thriving Kidnapping Business.” |
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