While the Spanish hostages fate seems as uncertain as ever, Omar Sahraoui was sentenced to 12 years of hard labour in Nouakchott today, all his property to be confiscated.
He was sentenced for participating in the abduction, not for organizing it which was the original charge. An elderly man to 1 yr but his sentence was suspended. The others acquitted.
One could speculate that there are some ties to the negotiations here, that several were acquitted as part of a deal. We will see.
Mauritania sentences Malian over Spanish kidnapping | News by Country | Reuters

AFP: Islamist cell threatens Spanish hostages

Ulrich

Tahalil - Libération-expulsion de Omar Sahraoui sur fond de menaces contre les otages

Gogoonisch - E

El Khabar - La Mauritanie accepte de négocier la libération du terroriste Omar Sahraoui

Ulrich

AFP: Al-Qaeda kidnapper extradited to Mali: judicial source

Le Temps d'Alg�rie - Grande pr�occupation � Madrid
Polisario disowns him and suggests that "Omar Sahraoui" isn't even a Sahrawi, just a Malian criminal.
Diáspora saharaui: Tout pour sauver les otages espagnols…
Diáspora saharaui: Oumar Ould Hamma, alias "le sahraoui" transféré vers une direction inconnue
But this time the links to Polisario seems clear.

Reuters - Spanish hostages' families receive proof they alive

Ulrich

priffe
enlighten me please: where exactly do you see the link to Polisario?

Sahraoui/Sahrawi just means 'Saharan' - a person from the Sahara.

It's also what the tribes making up the Polisario have come to call themselves too, of course.

I have heard it used in north Algeria, for example (disparagingly, I suspect) when referring to our guide from In Salah and nothing to do with Polisario, just the guy's dark skin.

I notice some of these AQ types are also known as 'Ahmed Libiani' - or something like (Ahmed the Libyan or maybe the Lebanese), or 'Ahmed Eljezari' (Alg)

Ch

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Is there a connection Polisario - Aqim? There's an abundance of material suggesting there is. Morocco has for years asserted the connection, but it could be dismissed as propaganda. As usual with the Maghreb, it is hard to find information that is not biased one way or the other.
When separatism and terrorism rhyme together:
Terrorism Watch: Concerns Over Stability in Mauritania
WesternSaharaOnline.net - Welcome
Collectif International pour la Vérité sur l'Algérie et le Polisario - CIVAP: Arrestation �* Nouakchott de trois membres du GSPC Algérien

etc, there's no end to these Moroccan sites.

Perhaps we can believe this defected Polisario leader?
Former Polisario leader highlights humanitarian aid embezzlement in Tindouf camps. - Free Online Library
Defector: Polisario in partnership with Al Qaida

Is this organization based in Brussels unbiased?
http://www.esisc.eu/documents/pdf/en...-sahel-469.pdf
And now this Omar the Saharian (I read he got the name from marrying a West Sahara woman)
Procès terroristes en Mauritanie : Le Front Polisario mis �* l’index par la cour criminelle de Nouakchott
Of course, their confessions could be extracted by coercion. And the whole thing a hoax, staged by the CIA.
But it does make some sense. Polisario is in decay. Bin Laden is a more likely motivator to young sahrawis than Fidel Castro.
Another aspect - where does the DRS come in?

Perhaps the extradition of Omar Sahraoui helped
but 13M dollars?
That will buy a lot of arms.

Spain Close to a Deal With Al Qaeda Magreb � Liveshots

Also Omar Ould Hamma « Sahraoui », le cadeau algérien �* l’Espagne

- some Saharawis (or Sahraouis) are engaging in smuggling, yes (not much else to do in the 30+ years lasting desolation of refugee camps SE of Tindouf in ways of private enterpise and free market

- am disturbed by ongoing doublestandards here, to ilustrate: if a Brit, say member of David C's party was caught embezzling funds, would it be fair to say that David C's party is a party of embezzlers? ... ach never mind

-Castro: Cuba is one of the few countries in the world providing educational oppurtunities and offering medical services to the few hundert thousand prisoners of the West Saharan conflict ... is that a crime?

-is ESISC biased? ... you bet

1. European Strategic Intelligence & Security Center
   
   17 Aug 2010 ... L'expertise de l'ESISC porte notamment sur les questions de sécurité au sens large : terrorisme et contre-terrorisme, renseignement, ...
   www.esisc.org/
   Maroc
   France
   Etats-unis
   
   Royaume-Uni
   Nigeria
   Strategic Issues
   
   

Fair enough Moro
but who is then without bias?
we can certainly be misled by the reports
important to find the original source when many are making the same claims

The claims are that several in Polisario
have been involved in the kidnappings
and also
that Polisario have been doing business with Aqim/MBM for years

it would be improper to suggest that Polisario as an organization are behind the kidnappings
they are now also trying to distance themselves from Aqim
but it is becoming very hard to think that there is no involvement at any level

what do you think?
That there is no involvement whatsoever?

- Polisario is the least religiously influenced political organisation in the arab world. By a long shot ... even with my vivid imagination, I can hardly see them doing business with the "bearded ones"
- how could the moroccan sources not be biased? they're occupying militarily 80% of Western sahara for 3 decades, Polisario is their enemy
- I find the conjunction Polisario - F. Castro a bit below the belt, it implies that Polisario is a communist formation (on top of being islamist-terrorist). That is not true. In fact the big strategic "mistake" Polisario made when it proclaimed RASD (Republica Arab Sahraoui Democratica) was that they turned down the patronage of both the american and the soviet side. Tough bananas for them and yes everybody in the camps work for free. That doesn't make them communist it only makes them poor. It is also true that many Sahraouis from the camps study in Cuba and that the Cuban doctors provide medical assistance free of charge (the rest of the world seems to be too poor to give a hand here).
The all pervaiding bias might be alleviated by taking for example one info source from one side and one from the other, even when there is a deluge of info sources on one side, and virtually none on the other, instead of listing say 10 moroccan sources and one pro-polisario blogger (representing the official Polisaraio stance I assume). The bias might become a trifle smaller when we start perceiving the "bearded ones" as plain human beings, of which, as we all know, some are criminals and others are not.
To answer your question directly: no idea, honestly ... in a world where doing business is all there is to it, how can we expect "certain elements" not to do business with certain other elements? Like for example in the not so well publicised "affair of the 7 colonels" last year where high ranking moroccan officials were doing business galore with certain elements from the other side of the west saharan wall. They all sit in jail now.
Petty criminals sit in jails, big ones in baks (B. Brecht)

No one is inocent, but some are more guilty than others...

I tend to think that a few rotten apples should not characterise the all tree.
But time will tell... Getting a few europeans in the relaxed Laayoune-Dakhla road, shoud add up to the issue (I hope not!!!!).

JC

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Desert Crocodiles of Mauritania: http://cibio.up.pt/crocodilos/en

To me it seems very clear that Morocco, Algeria and Polisario are all contributing negatively to this unfortunate situation.
I tried to find sources not influenced by the Moroccans, which is not easy on the internet when it regards West Sahara. URLs containing "western-sahara" or even "polisario" are most likely controlled by Morocco.
For anyone who has visited Dahkla or Layyoune recently the permanency of the occupation is evident.
The fact that Polisario won't allow a census of the refugee camps while contraband from the UN and other contributors are found as far east as Agadez says something about Polisario's interest in maintaining status quo.
But even if this conflict is at the heart of resolving the situation in Sahara, that is another discussion.

I just heard that Omar the Sahraoui was actually flown from Nouakchott straight to Bamako in a Spanish military aircraft.
Also Ennahar Online - Mali resumed negotiations with the Salafi organization

It seems, the two spaniards kidnapped last novembre in Mauritania are free!




Three Spanish aid workers kidnapped in Mauritania | Reuters






Added by Mod:
Good news. This link leads to the freed story. No doubt there will be more soon.
Qaeda in N.Africa frees 2 Spanish hostages--TV | Reuters

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