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Deja vu — Judith Apter Klinghoffer

Judith Apter Klinghoffer

FOX JOURNALISTS EXHIBIT STOCKHOLM SYNDROME

It's heartbraking to watch the same scenario repeat itself over and over again. Talk about the battered wife syndrome - this:

Two Fox News journalists freed by militants Sunday described a harrowing two weeks of captivity during which they were blindfolded, tied in painful positions and forced at gunpoint to say on a video that they converted to Islam.

Al Jazeera elaborates:

The two men were shown separately, sitting cross-legged, reading statements announcing that they had converted to Islam.
Centanni said: "I changed my name to Khaled. I have embraced Islam and say the word Allah."
Wiig called on leaders of the West to stop "hiding behind the 'I don't negotiate with terrorists' myth". A separate statement from the captors said: "They chose Islam and that is a gift that God gives those whom he chooses."

If you expect them to display anger at such religious compulsion, forget it. If you expect them to thank those who ransomed them, forget it. They are so numbed that their first concern is for the fate of the "beautiful people of Gaza" who repeatedly kidnap and release journalist as a way to control stories. The kidnapped worry that the Gazans may lose their ability to continue to manipulate the media.

So, instead of warning their colleagues to stay out of Gaza until their captures are caught,tried and the local powers that be give them iron clad assurances that other journalist will not suffer similar fate, they met with the terrorist chief who after an indecent interval of 14 days arranged their release and then appealed to the rest of the media to continue to put themselves at the mercy of the thugs who kidnapped them:

After their release, the men met with Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and left Gaza, but first appealed at a brief news conference for foreign journalists not to be deterred from covering the plight of the Palestinians in the volatile coastal strip.
"I hope that this never scares a single journalist away from coming to Gaza to cover the story because the Palestinian people are very beautiful and kindhearted," said Steve Centanni, a 60-year-old American reporter who was released along with cameraman Olaf Wiig, 36, of New Zealand. "The world needs to know more about them."

Score another propaganda victory to the terrorists courtesy of broken men Wiig and Centanni:

Before their release, a video was released showing Wiig and Centanni dressed in beige Arab-style robes. Wiig delivered an anti-Western speech, his face expressionless and his tone halting. The kidnappers claimed both men had converted to Islam.
"We were forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint," Centanni told Fox. "Don't get me wrong here. I have the highest respect for Islam, and I learned a lot of good things about it, but it was something we felt we had to do because they had the guns, and we didn't know what the hell was going on."

I am glad the men are freed. I wonder if they will end up following in the footsteps of former Taliban hostage, current reverted Islamist mouthpiece Yvonne Ridley (see her interviewing former Malaysian strongman Mahathir. She remains "reverted." The immediate signs are not encouraging. They may remain reverted mouthpieces, too. In any case, they are not likely to write the truth about Gazans gone Wild and "Gaza caught in anarchy and thuggery." Hamas's PA government spokesman agrees, though his self criticism is actually encouraging.

Posted on Sunday, August 27, 2006 at 8:42 PM | Comments (0) | Return

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