An Important Consideration with Regards to the Case of Mr. Alan Henning and other Western Hostages.

In addition to creating the atmosphere of fear,horror, chaos and uncertainty, hostage taking is one of the main sources of income for every radical Islamic groups in the Middle East and North Africa. Although, some western authorities do not negotiate with hostage takers in any hostage crisis, there are some NGO or private donors in the West that would try to pay a large amount of ransom in order to free their hostages. In case of any hostage crisis, we usually focus on three important points as follows.
1- Who has been held hostage?
2- Who is/are the hostage takers?
3- What is the demand and motivation of the hostage takers?

These are the important points with regards to any hostage crisis, but not enough. In addition to these issues some other important measures should be seriously considered at home i.e. the country of origin of the one, who has been held hostage. In case of an innocent hostage like Alan Henning, for example, the British authority should perform an in-depth and broad research about the Islamic Charity organization that Mr. Henning worked with. In this respect, this Islamic Charity Organization, its members, contacts and assets should be analyzed in an appropriate and comprehensive manner. There might be a third person (i emphasize; there might be) within this charity organization located in the UK that directly or indirectly has close contact with hostage takers In Syria. Such a person might have been given clear information about the time of departure, arrival and location of Mr. Henning to the hostage takers in Syria. Such a person and alike, in sum, plays the role of a covert agent in the Western countries. Such a covert agent might work as a simple employee, a translator, a guide, a donor within these NGOs or charity organizations and give information to hostage taker in special parts of the Middle East and North Africa based on two monetary or ideological reasons. My argument in this particular case (the case of Mr. Henning) might not be 100% true, but the possibility of such a act is something, which neither be ignored nor underestimated.


M. Sirani                           04.10.2014