Kidnapped Fox journalists Steve Centanni and photographer Olaf Wiig were released shortly after noon Sunday and dropped off at the Beach Hotel in Gaza City, where they were greeted by a swarm of people celebrating their release. The hotel is a popular hangout for western journalists.
The two men later crossed into Israel and left for Jerusalem.
Shortly before they were released, the two men were converted to the Religion of Peace at gunpoint. On a tape shown Sunday morning, New Zealander cameraman Olaf Wiig read out an anti-American statement blaming Apaches firing Hellfire rockets made in America for Palestinian deaths. He said that George Bush is seen as "an evil man in some parts of the world and his statements about Islam-fascists do not help.'
"We were forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint," Centanni said just hours after the release of that video, in an interview with FOX immediately following his release. He added: "I have the highest respect for Islam and have learned many things about it. It was something we felt we had to do because they had the guns and we didn't know what ... was going on."
The tape, titled in Arabic gave the journalists “Islamic names.” The American journalist Steve Centanni was billed as Steve Khaled.
Guess what,guys....you're Muslims now to these people, whether you like it or not. And any deviance from Islam on your part will get you killed if the opportunity arises. Read the Qu'ran for further details.
What is amazing to me is that, after all this, Centanni still talks about `telling the Palestinian story' as opposed to objectively reporting the news!
"I just hope this never scares a single journalist away from coming to Gaza to cover this story because the Palestinian people are very beautiful, kind-hearted loving people who the world needs to know more about," said Centanni at a brief news conference.
Wiig echoed those remarks. "That would be a great tragedy for the people of Palestine and especially for the people of Gaza. Your story doesn't get very well told because it is difficult to work here and anything that -- any little discouragement -- an incident like this could give a network an excuse not to be here and that would be a great tragedy for the people of Gaza," he said.
I smell coercion and orders from Fox and the other news outlets not to say anything that will endanger other journalists telling the `Palestinian story.'
Now, here's the REAL story. The actual kidnapper was Palestinian warlord Zakaria Dughmush of the Popular Resistance Committee, which is a Hamas group, and was part of the new `security force' formed by Hamas under the late and unlamented Jemal Semhadana. As such, these people were fully known to both Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah and Ismail Haniya of Hamas, which is why Abbas was able to tell the men's wives that they were in `good condition'. Of course, both Haniyeh and Abbas claimed to have no information on the kidnappers...but outright falsehood from these people is nothing new.
What actually transpired is that negotiations were done through the British M15 office in Rafah, Gaza through Palestinian go-betweens, and a deal was struck which included the journalists' public conversion to Islam, an anti-American harangue on air and a six-figure cash ransom paid to Dughmush...some of which will undoubtedly be kicked upstairs in time honored mafia fashion to to Haniyeh as Gaza's capo del tutti.
Haniyeh gets the added benefit of appearing helpful to the West...at least to the gullible.
This is a similar scenario to the kidnapping of Kate Burton, a British `human rights' worker at the Gaza-based al-Mizan organization back in December and her elderly parents, who were ransomed through the same M15 office. Ms. Burton, once she was safely back in Britain had a number of uncomplimentary things to say about the not-so-nice side of the Palestinians that were largely hushed up by the British media.
We may or may not see similar statements later from Wiig and Centanni.
Hat tip and a commendation to longtime Joshua's Army member Zeb Gardner for some of the information used in this piece.
3 comments:
as i understand stockholm, the "victims" must come to identify with their "captors" of their own accord.
i don't think this is the case here.
i agree with ff. i think it went something like:
we'll let you guys go.
if you talk the right talk, we won't use your associates as target practice.
now, let's what that danny perle video one more time before you go.
If anyone has any doubts about the agenda of radical Islamists, this should put them to rest. It is clear that the notion of “convert, be enslaved, or die” is NOT a myth. Too bad that most will not believe this, and will instead focus on the hostages’ statements about how “kind” the Islamists are. Hopefully, like Jill Carroll, the hostages will at some point tell the real story. Do you think these guys really understand that, in the eyes of Islam, they really ARE Muslim now and if they DO denounce their “conversion” at some point, they will be seen as guilty of “apostasy”? The penalty for that is death.
If anyone has any doubts about the agenda of radical Islamists, this should put them to rest. It is clear that the notion of “convert, be enslaved, or die” is NOT a myth. Too bad that most will not believe this, and will instead focus on the hostages’ statements about how “kind” the Islamists are. Hopefully, like Jill Carroll, the hostages will at some point tell the real story. Do you think these guys really understand that, in the eyes of Islam, they really ARE Muslim now and if they DO denounce their “conversion” at some point, they will be seen as guilty of “apostasy”? The penalty for that is death.
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