Bev Giesbrecht of Jihad Unspun reported kidnapped in Pakistan

Rumour from the Pakistani press is that she has been kidnapped en route from Peshawar to Miranshah, possibly by the North Waziri Taliban: Taliban claim abducting Canadian woman (for money), from Daily Times, Pakistan.

Bev Giesbrecht alias Khadija Abdul Qahaar is a bizarre individual. In my line of work, she would unknown except for the fact that she runs the pro-terrorism website called Jihad Unspun, abbreviated JUS. She does it for money. She is never mentioned by the real mujahideen except when, occasionally, one of them warns the others that she is not a real Islamist. As far as I know, she never even attends a mosque, nor reads the qur'aan. She is rarely quoted by the serious news media, who have learned to distrust her, owing in part to the document called A Trio of Disinformers from the US Department of State.

As far as I know, Giesbrecht understands no languages other than English. She definitely does not have any Arabic. On her website, she routinely asks the readers to volunteer as translators. The text on Jihad Unspun mostly comes from other terrorism-friendly English-language sources, such as Kavkaz. Nearly all the original writing is by Giesbrecht herself, sometimes under aliases such as Ubaidah al-Saif.

From the press reports, it seems she traveled from her home (on the Pacific coast of Canada) to the UK in April 2008 and from there to Pakistan in August. Two Britons vouched for her business visa to Pakistan. If anyone can tell me about other contacts she had in the UK, please do.

There is a little detail here at the reliable Canadian paper The Globe & Mail. Some al-Jazeera member does not deny the earlier report that Giesbrecht was vetted by al-Jazeera.

I have recently heard that Giesbrecht's fellow Taliban sympathizer Yvonne Ridley is also in NWFP. Giesbrecht's website has in the past identified Ridley as a contributor, but that could be fiction by Giesbrecht.