I don't understand this. If pressure is able to be mounted to have certain people freed like the arch-bishop or French reporters, don't certain people know where the kidnappers are, who they are, etc.? Can't they mount pressure against all kidnappers?
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/18/in...rtner=homepage
Abducted Catholic Archbishop of Mosul Is Freed in Iraq
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
and EDWARD WONG
Published: January 18, 2005
AGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 18 - The 66-year-old Syrian Catholic archbishop snatched from the streets of Mosul on Monday was freed today, without the payment of any ransom, the Vatican said.
Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa, the head of the archdiocese in Mosul, a crime-ridden city in northern Iraq, was walking in front of his church when a group of insurgents pushed him into a car at gunpoint on Monday, several members of Mosul's large Christian population community said.
-Rudey