■"Dutch Court Fight Lays Bare Reality Of Kidnap Industry," by Andrew Higgins and Alan Cullison, Wall Street Journal, 22 September 2005, p. A1.

A subject plagued by weak data, but best guesses say the practice is booming from Iraq to Chechnya to inland China-all Gap or Gap-like situations. Lotsa money involved, enough to fuel insurgencies, criminal gangs and terrorists nets.

Rough global figures say maybe 6k cases in 2001, racing up to almost 15k by 2004.

To me, this is analogous to the warfare-against-individuals phenomenon we've seen in U.S. military interventions over the past decade and a half, a subject I run through (the downshifting of violence and danger) in BFA.