Kidnappers Prosper in Baghdad

[JohnyCanuck]

BAGHDAD, Iraq--When the kidnappers told Dina Karim, 17, to come out of the dark room where they had kept her for five days, all she could think about was whether they would kill her with a gun or with a knife.

But they did not kill her. Instead, they took her blindfolded on a half-hour drive and dumped her in a Baghdad neighborhood, where she found a store owner and asked to call home so her mother could pick her up.

When her mother, Tissam Karim, a schoolteacher, arrived, Dina burst into tears. She wept partly from relief and partly from the memory of a 5-year-old boy she left behind, a child who was in the kidnappers' lair when she arrived and, for all she knows, is still there. ``He cried all the time. I still think of him. He was so scared,'' Dina said.

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Dina worries about the 5-year-old hostage. ``He wouldn't tell me his name. He cried and cried and was sick. He was so scared,'' she said. ``Maybe his family will never pay. What will happen to him?''

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Thanks Dubya. The Iraqi's sure do seem to be enjoying the freedom you brought them.