Alan Johnston released

vimothy

yurp
Good news for sure, but when the Beeb broke this story late lawst night, their coverage was filled with idiotic statements like "Alan Johnson doesn't deserve this because he is a friend to the Paletinian people"; "this is a victory for the Palestinian people", etc, as if Alan Johnson's life was saved by virtue of the fact that he's written sympathetic articles, i.e. less sympathetic journalists would have been more deserving of kidnap and execution.

Also, the BBC put him straight on the air immediately after he had been released, which I thought was a bit unnecessary.
 

spooky girlfriend

Wild Horses
i particularly enjoyed one aspect of his capture, which was the ransom tape that was broadcast. Johnston announcing that his captors has strapped a bomb to him and were threatening to blow a hole in his chest in perfect newscaster tones. he really didn't seem phased by the mortal danger and reported the breaking news with professional gravitas. good old BBC
 

vimothy

yurp
Alan Johnson doesn't get it:

The lows came when members of the Army of Islam group appeared and told him he would be killed. "Once they said they would cut my throat and another time they said something like I would be killed like a lamb."

At one point the leader of the group, his face still hidden by the kefiyeh, talked to him, a conversation that sapped his morale. "Some people in the Western world have stereotypical views of Arabs from the Middle East and sadly this man lived up to this stereotype. No matter when I gave him my speech about working in Gaza for three years to help put across the Palestinian story, he said I was a Westerner and that was that in his eyes and I was worthy of punishment. He had a very black and white view of the world."

- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/05/wjohnston205.xml&page=2
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Good news for sure, but when the Beeb broke this story late lawst night, their coverage was filled with idiotic statements like "Alan Johnson doesn't deserve this because he is a friend to the Paletinian people"; "this is a victory for the Palestinian people", etc, as if Alan Johnson's life was saved by virtue of the fact that he's written sympathetic articles, i.e. less sympathetic journalists would have been more deserving of kidnap and execution.

I don't think anyone 'deserves' to be kidnapped for writing articles, whatever their sympathies, but that's not necessarily how a (would-be) kidnapper sees it.

Also, rather than saying "Johnston didn't deserve to be kidnapped, as he's been sympathetic to the Palestinian cause" (with, as you say, the implication that a less sympathetic journalist would have deserved it), you can say "You'd have thought a Palestinian militant group would be aware that taking someone like Johnston hostage would make them look worse than if they'd taken someone less sympathetic".
(Such as, say, a Fox News reporter, if they even have any in Gaza.)
 

vimothy

yurp
To be honest, I expect incoherence from the sort of irhabi gangsters who kidnapped Alan Johnson (i.e. kidnapping pro-Palestinian reporters), but it would be nice if the BBC had the moral fortitude to challenge the ridiculous notion that Johnson didn't deserve to be kidnapped because he is sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.
 

vimothy

yurp
Also, rather than saying "Johnston didn't deserve to be kidnapped, as he's been sympathetic to the Palestinian cause" (with, as you say, the implication that a less sympathetic journalist would have deserved it), you can say "You'd have thought a Palestinian militant group would be aware that taking someone like Johnston hostage would make them look worse than if they'd taken someone less sympathetic".
(Such as, say, a Fox News reporter, if they even have any in Gaza.)

This actually happened last year: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,210645,00.html
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
So they were hostage for "almost two weeks" and one of them had a good blub when they were released. What utter pansies.

Mind you, I bet Terry Waite saw Johnston's release on telly and thought "Pah, lightweight!".
 

vimothy

yurp
You couldn't make it up:

The kidnappers expressed bizarre resentment that Johnston, 45, had done nothing to thank them for their hospitality while they held him at gunpoint in a tiny cell.

“We used to give him everything he wanted,” Abu Zobayer, an aide to Dagmoush, said.

“We spent £70 on his food every week. The Matouk restaurant [one of the best eateries in Gaza] got rich because we had to feed him.”

Johnston has said that he fell ill from the food he was served. Zobayer commented: “It’s not our problem that we gave him everything and he only ate a little.”

Although they did not torture him physically, the kidnappers seemed to have no concept of the psychological torture they were inflicting on the BBC correspondent.

“We had people with him all the time to try to help him to relax,” said Zobayer.

“We gave him a radio so that he could listen to his own channel. I myself sat with him to try to make him feel comfortable and feel that he will be released.”​
 
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