Curiouser and Curiouser...

The convoluted story of Margaret Hassan (see my previous posts here) gets even more complex with news (a few weeks old now) that her kidnappers wanted $10m ransom.

Based on an Italian police report, the news comes via Italy's La Reppubblica newspaper, and names Sheikh Abdel Salam al-Qubaisi, of the Association of Muslim Scholars, as the prime suspect. Sheikh al-Qubaisi denies the allegation and says this is just an attempt to silence him from continued criticism of the US occupation.

Given the oddities surrounding Hassan's "death" and the Italian secret services' history of subterfuge on the Niger Nukes "evidence", the Sheikh's claims of innocence do not sound implausible.