Algeria clamors to Europe to stop funding terror

Enough, says Abdelkader Messahel

But will the West listen?  Abdelkader Messahel, Algeria’s African affairs minister, says ransoms paid by Europe account for 95 percent of terrorist revenues in the region.

U.N. Resolution 1904 prohibits payments of ransoms, but imposes no penalties for entities that pay ransoms anyway.  Algeria announced at the end of September that it would introduce amendments to give teeth to 1904.

Slow down, says Ambassador Donahoe

U.S. Human Rights Commission Ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe objected to the African proposal during deliberations on Oct. 1 saying that the U.S. “does not consider the Human Rights Council to be the appropriate forum for such counterterrorism issues,” and that the wording of the text “could have been improved with further consultation.”

Regardless of Amb. Donahoe’s objections, the resolution was adopted without a vote.  The resolution itself includes no harsher sanctions for the payment of ransoms, but instead tables the issue for further study during the 16^th session of the Human Rights Council.

Algeria is up on the rooftop crying out for help.  They’re not asking for perpetual bailouts like Pakistan.  They’re just asking for wealthy European nations like Spain to stop funding their mutual enemy of Al Qaeda. 

If it’s wrong for terrorists to fund Al Qaeda and the Taliban, and if it’s wrong for U.S. contractors to pay the Taliban, isn’t it also wrong for Western governments to pay ransoms demanded by Al Qaeda?