Roman--- the quote you gave was from the Nigerien mister of Tourism, Rhissa ag Boula. The government of Niger has been far more open and direct about dealing with banditry and safety issues in Niger, especially northern and easten Niger. Rhissa ag Boula is from northern Niger and has lots and lots of contacts in the area, as he was the second in command of the Tuareg rebellion (after Mano Dyak). I think Niger will make every effort to assure safety and security of their tourists, as they well understand the impact of terrorism on their already weakened tourism industry. Algeria has a different agenda. I wouldn't expect anything honest from their representatives.

"has been far more open and direct about dealing with banditry and safety issues in Niger"

Only because he has to Kevin - op till recently it has been far more dangerous than Algeria.
Tourists and even local agents have been hit every season for tbe last 3 years or more in Niger - and some have got shot first -
Last year we were told it was "Malians or Algerians".

Although tourism is a drop in the ocean - one Algerian agenda is to suppress terrorism surely.

Ch

To all:

I had a response to my post here from a German TV station and thought I would pass on the inquiry and my response. The media coverage will greatly assist the search efforts.

Regards,

3ID

***************:

Thank you for your note. My firm, often performs this type of work. For more details about us please see
our web-site at www.geointel.com

I have worked on several missing person and homicide investigations using remote sensing data. In my post, I refer to commercial satellite imagery from www.spaceimaging.com and www.digitalglobe.com These groups offer very
high resolution digital imagery capable of sub-meter resolution. The data is
very good for feature discrimination because of a broad dynamic range, the
panchromatic data provides 2048 shades of grey. In this manner, the high
contrast allows the user to see objects as small as the lines of a tennis
court, about three inches.

Both of these satellites orbit the earth in a similar manner and cross the
area of interest about 10:30 AM. Typically, you can search the archives and
inquire if a satellite has recently passed over and captured data during the
time-frame you require. If no data is available, the satellite can be tasked
to image exactly where you are interested. The cost is reasonable,
$18.00/square kilometer with a smnall minimum purchase area requirement.

In addition, I worked with an oil and gas exploration group that has some
field personnel in Algeria and contracted with us to provide some
orthorectification of air photos. The photos came from a group in Spain. The
data is several years old now and may not be of to much assistance.

We are experienced with desert pavement classification services using a very
high-end German software product. Please visit www.ecognition.com for more
information about image processing.

Let me know if I can be of assistance. The tools available can greatly
assist your efforts.

Regards,

*****************

----- Original Message -----
From: <******************>
To: <*****************>
Sent: Sunday, April 13, 2003 4:14 AM
Subject: German Television ARD


> Hello,
> I read your note in the internet forum Horizons unlimited. I'm journalist,
> working for german television ARD and try to find out some news about the
> missing travellers in Algerie. You wrote about a contact to a company and
> fotos taken from satellites. I'm very interested in these pictures. Could
> you tell me more about it or give me a contact to this company? Thank you
> very much.
> Best regards
>
> ***********redacted****
>

>


[This message has been edited by 3ID (edited 14 April 2003).]

3ID - I work in the Remote Sensing industry in the UK, and I agree with you that there is enormous potential for using satellite imagery (particularly Pan and Pan-Sharpened XS) from QuickBird and Ikonos for clarifying the movements of the groups that are now missing.

It would be a very minor part of the Search and Rescue budget to procure the necessary imagery, since we know the dates the groups entered certain pistes / left town. Identifying vehicle type, and even motorcycles wouldn't be a huge challenge.

Somebody close to the investigation (in Germany or Austria perhaps) should press the authorities into exploring this avenue. I will provisionally offer the services of the Remote Sensing Unit of UCL, although I'm not sure how much we could help (besides sharing the processing requirements for the imagery). I would obviously donate my professional services FOC to such an effort.

I will mention it to the management tomorrow.

[This message has been edited by POB/London (edited 14 April 2003).]

Have a look at this image of Saddam International Airport in Baghdad:

http://www.spaceimaging.com/gallery/...addam_aprt.jpg

...and bear in m ind that this is a media-friendly JPG. The full resoulution Pan (black and white) images are of much greater spatial resolution, and are therefore much more interpretable.

Save the image and then zoom in. Considering this is the *degraded* version, you can see the detail. Now consider that with a professional image processing application you can manipulate the imagery to highlight certain items (such as vehicles).

Kidnapping is definately now a probability with official sources saying contact has been made with the Dutch guy Arjen - with other sources having heard from the Austrians too
Fingers crossed for a positive outcome.

Chris S
www.sahara-overland.com/news/

Chris,

'definately now a probability' - thinking of going into politics??!!

Good news though.

Sam.

hi,

I just read in a portuguese newspaper that a message from the missing peolpe was found in the desert. It said that they were alive!

anyone can confirm this?
lets hope the best!

Renato

I think the paper is jumping the gun as I dont hear it anywhere else.

I would have thought when it happens we will know about it on here - or places like it - in less than an hour

But the latest is 10 nomads are also missing out of Illizi over the weekend (although one has to ask how can you tell with a nomad? ;-)

Ch

strange...

the newspaper is a national one...
I will find who is reponsible for that information.

renato

I saw something similar on CNN yesterday morning (US television edition). It was just a few words at the bottom of the screen and said something to the effect that the phrase "We are alive" was found scrawled on a rock or something in Algeria. The report linked this discovery to the missing travellers.

I tried searching CNN's website, but couldn't find anything further about it.

- Witt

hello Witt - you SAW it?
You mean somebody was FILMING the message?
Thanks for more infos when you can find it again!
Ursula

Sorry if I was unclear. "CNN headline news" in the US has a 'ticker' at the bottom of the screen that continuously displays short (ten words) news bites, in text only. The news bite I saw mentioned that such a message had been found written somewhere in the desert. There was no video accompanying the report.

- Witt

The Austrian Government was reported by the BBC yesterday as saying a message had been found in the desert saying the tourists were "still alive". A link to the latest report on the BBC is below, again mentioning the Austrian Government statement.

Its also contains fairly negative reports from Algierian guides about it being the tourists own fault for not using guides but I'm guessing thats partially because they see a good business interest in getting everybody to start taking guides with them.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/2953357.stm

Try this one too:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2947573.stm