In 11-06, tthe time of the kidnapping, al-Furqan Brigades (will call alFB) was part of 1920 Rev. Brigades (will call 1920RB). 'Furqan' means Koran, and schools, etc. are named that, spelled many ways. Other names: Jaysh al-Furqan, Furqan Army.

In about 7-07 alFB split from 1920RB. Reasons for split:1920RB was supposedly cooperating with the US, was involving itself in the political process, and was willing to negotiate before final victory.

Can find no later info on alFB. The environment for jihadis after 7-07 was murky, with infighting, betrayals, they were kidnapping and torturing each other, shifting alliances, etc. Plus more US action. Possibly they no longer exist as a separate entity, if so they are very dark.

We don't know who 'inherited' the captives, probably 1920RB as split was after the capture. 1920RB not into atrocities as much as al Qaida groups. Consider the difficulty of keeping 4 to 6 experienced soldiers captive in this environment. People would know, and could inform authorities or a competing group. While the captives may have had some value to 1920RB in negotiations, they might have been attractive to an al Qaida group for another wonderful video.

The convoy was 37 semis, 19 of these were stolen, some later recovered. 19 loads is a lot of stuff. What was the cargo? I don't know how to find out. If the cargo was the real target of the attack, it might provide a lead. This might explain the guys in suits, not needed for a kidnapping, but might need to decide which loads to take.

There was broad collusion for the attack. Besides the translator, 4 attackers were recognized as previous Crescent employees. They left survivors rather than kill them. Route had been safe for months. The expected Iraqi guards were missing. Plus the suits. It would be very interesting to know what the stolen cargo was, and where it went.

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Drilled a little deeper and this is a reach but there is a link - /nw1/css/base.css?080304 in the page. Thinking they might be passing the date as a parameter to change the style each day, but nothing in their css looks like it will handle the date.

At any rate, not sure why you would pass a date as a parametr to a style sheet but assuming this is doing something, eurodate yy/mm/dd format means that date is March 4, 2008.

Too much of a reach?

F

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