Algeria: AQ leader wants to surrender
From AKI:
The leader of the Organisation of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who is in charge of the area of Algerian Sahara is ready to surrender, according to a report in Algerian daily al-Shuruq published Thursday. The paper, which quoted unnamed informed sources, said authorities are negotiating directly with the family of Mokhtar considered the Emir of the so-called Area Number Five, southern Algeria.Belmokhtar, whose nom de guerre is Abu al-Abbas or Louar, was reportedly close to Hassan Hattab, the former leader of the now defunct Salafite Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which changed its name to Organisation of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in January after pledging allegiance to the international terrorist network of Osama bin Laden. Hattab has surrendered under a national reconciliation plan offered by Algerian authorities to end a brutal civil war in the 1990s in which an estimated 200,000 people have died.
You knew there had to be strings attached to this so-called surrender, didn't you?
The terror suspect is reportedly demanding a passport and the cancellation of all charges against him, including a sentence to death, in exchange for his surrender.
I say just take him out and be done with it. But that's just me.
UPDATE: In a classic case of from Dinah's lips to God's ears...
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