1.   Journalists suspected that the kidnapping was a put-up job.

2.   A week earlier, there was another kidnapping at a Happy Eater just outside Bicester.

3.   Among the Muslims of the Kashmir Valley, who pride themselves on their hospitality, the kidnapping has been widely condemned.

4.   Admittedly, these kidnappings are not at the hands of terrorists but they are of note nevertheless.

5.   But kidnappings are a normal part of life in much of Latin America.

6.   By the time he got here, he was saying the kidnapping was part of the effort to undermine his campaign against Islamic fanatics.

7.   For Kashmiris, the kidnapping is a grim codicil to a year that is ending badly in other ways.

8.   French said kidnapping is a business and looks at it that way himself.

9.   He said the kidnapping was part of a campaign of retaliation against the government of President Pervez Musharraf, which has promised a crackdown on Islamic militants.