I find the remarks of the European press and the moderator of this forum inappropriate. In particular, CS's statement "Still, a positive outcome looks promising so who cares!" This is lunacy.

Islamic extremist kidnappers are a worldwide plague. Kidnappings in Iran, Lebanon, Algeria, and the Phillipines have almost always ended badly. In this case, the tourists failed to take basic precautions, like avoidance, and went into a well known war zone. Over 100,000 innocent people have died in Algeria since the civil war began.

Like it or not, the moslem terrorists do not care that citizens of Germany, France, and Austria do not support the war on terror. To the islamists this is more evidence of the effete and inane Euro-poser attitude that has allowed them to conquer much of Europe without a fight.

Simply put, travellers are not welcome in this area. The poor folks that are missing deserve a decent response from their governments, not ransom money!

The US was blamed immediately for this problem because they supposedly degraded the GPS signals. What gall! This blood libel is very telling, anyone that understands this technology knows that this is bogus. The scapegoating among the Euro-press and others is shameless and only attempts to deflect critism from the travellers that went into this area knowingly. And more so, seeks to deflect criticsm from the EU government's weak response so far.

Schroeder's government will never act with the authority (ie military force) needed to handle this situation.

Compare this to the US response to the Phillipine hostage taking, the US mobilized over two thousand soldiers to find two kidnapped missionaries in the Phillipines. The Abu-Sayef leaders were killed and one of the missing was rescued.

Life is not a road-trip. The pathetic disconnect of most of the posters here is very disturbing. The travellers here are preparing for holiday, a trip through the desert that they feel somehow entitled to perform without risk or sacrifice. Contrast this with the historic march to Baghdad performed by coalition forces. If the hostages' governments were on the right side of history, surely the victims would be a much higher priority and the rescue much more likely to end well, like that of Pfc. Jessica Lynch.

(Since this will likely be deleted, I will post the text on US blogs for all to read.)