The Fox journalists are free men
Bookworm on Aug 27 2006 at 7:59 am | Filed under: Islam, Media matters, Palestinians
Good news out of Anarchy-land:
Two Fox journalists kidnapped by militants two weeks ago in Gaza have been released and appear to be in good health.
Fox reporter 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 offering hugs. The hotel is a popular place for journalists.
The two men later crossed into Israel and left en route to Jerusalem. The Palestinian government had condemned the kidnapping and the men’s families pleaded publicly for their release.
That’s the good part. There’s some weirdness, though. Here’s the first weird thing:
“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 Wiig.
Centanni echoed those remarks. “That would be a 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 go here and any little discouragement that something — 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 find this a bizarre statement from men who were kidnapped at gunpoint, especially because Centanni, after describing how he and Wiig were kidnapped, goes on to say “That was the beginning of our torment that night.” You don’t get tormented by beautiful, kind-hearted people. Was two weeks enough to get Stockholm Syndrome in gear? Are Centanni and Wiig still under threat, as in “we know where your families live?” Maybe I’m the only one to find it bizarre that two people who are kidnapped at gunpoint would be heaping praise on the people who did this to them.
Here’s the second weird thing:
Hours before their release, a video from Ramattan showed the two reading statements proclaiming that they had embraced Islam with the Prophet Mohammed as their leader.
“Islam is not just meant for some people — it is the true religion for all people at all times,” Centanni said in the video while garbed in a beige robe his captors may have given him. Wiig was dressed in the same attire. “Islam helps people to love mercy, brotherhood, equality and justice.”
But speaking to Fox News after their release, Centanni indicated the conversion was not real.
“We were forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint, and don’t get me wrong here, I have the highest respect for Islam, and learned a lot of very 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,” he told Fox.
I’ve never understood conversions at gunpoint. Maybe it’s the lawyer in me. American law has it that, if someone uses fraud, coercion, duress, etc., to get you to make a promise, that promise is not legally binding. How could it be? You never would have made it but for cruel external forces. In what bizarre realm do people believe that a religious conversion under duress can have any spiritual meaning? Do they really believe that God values a promise made under threat of death?
This is not a matter of “no atheists in foxholes,” which is an internal form of duress where people themselves find God. This is, “convert or we will pull your toenails out.” Under those circumstances, I’d convert in an instant because I would understand that the conversion is a charade, a meaningless exercise that does not at all affect my own belief systems.
In any event, I’m again surprised by Centanni’s words of praise for Islam. It would have been easier just to have left them unsaid. That is, you don’t have to heap insults on Islam or Palestinians, but you don’t have to praise them either. Any guesses as to why Centanni and Wiig are behaving in this bizarrely placating manner now that their ordeal is over?
UPDATE: I learned something at Michelle Malkin regarding that gunpoint conversion. I’d forgotten about the fact that, in the Muslim world, apostasy is punishable by death. A Michelle Malkin reader, however, hadn’t forgotten:
Everybody so far is talking about how the ‘Conversion’ card is an easy way out of Islamic Terrorists’ hands… but it is a career ender for Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig. You see, you can kidnap an infidel; but the Koran dictates that a muslim in good standing must kill an apostate.
If Steve Centanni ever announces that he is not a Muslim, he signs his own death warrant… can he ever be assigned to a Muslim nation again without the knowledge that he is now legally a target for death because of his own actions?
Keep praying, it’s not over yet.
Hat tip: Little Green Footballs.
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10 Responses to “The Fox journalists are free men”
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1. Intimidation works.
2. Torture works, because people will do things to avoid it, yet in the end they can still be on your side more or less. Others argue that torture makes people always resist and lie and you get nothing from them. Not so.
3. Journalists require sources and good will amongst their target foreign audience. So they have a high number of motivations not to alienate the people they must swim amongst to get coverage.
4. Kidnapping works as propaganda, regardless of what the kidnapped say afterwards. Which means because Bush didn’t get these people released at gunboat, there will be more kidnappings used for propaganda or terror operations.
5. I don’t know what Centanni was like before this, so any calculations based upon propaganda will be inaccurate to say the least.
6. Figure out if ransom has been paid, in form or standard.
I don’t have enough information to make an analysis of Centanni’s behavior at the moment.
Y said it all.
I think Centanni made those remarks upon first being freed, embracing a Palestinian friend; it was his first interview, very emotional. After that he and Wiig left for Israel, the article said. I can well imagine a more realistic and honest account of his feelings will be gotten once he’s had time to relax and especially once he’s farther back on home turf (i.e. safe for him to say).
It’ll never be safe for Centanni, because Centanni wants to return to Gaza. If he has any intention of working at his job as a foreign ME reporter, he will never get away from the constraint of “safety”. Once he opens his mouth here in the States, he can never go back foreign wise, he would have to resign and find a new job or be slotted into a desk job.
Wiig said, “…because the Palestinian people are very beautiful, kind-hearted loving people…”
Is it possible that the captors were NOT Palestinian? Perhaps Hamas or one of the other foreign groups working in various places in the Middle East?
Whatever it was, it’s clear that, as Y said, we don’t know enough about it yet.
In answer to your question, Book… “Was two weeks enough to get Stockholm Syndrome in gear?”… the answer is “yes”.
It can take as little as a few hours for a captive to start empathizing with a captor. The captive is mentally scurrying to find ways to avoid antagonizing the captor, and such thinking becomes a habit. It can happen in a few hours or a few weeks. Terror is an astounding motivator.
There is another type of respect and that comes out of fear. The whole situation is just really weird. And there is also the fact that because they “said” they converted to Islam (even though it was by coersion) they will be held to that conversion in Islamic countries.
It’s not terror. Bonding with captors is known as a survival reaction. If you rely upon a person for survival, you will become attached to that person emotionally.
Especially if you know that your survival hinges upon how you react to that person. If you know you can get away with a lot, like the GitMo prisoners, then they don’t become bonded to you and will continue to feel a loyalty to first one.
Given that the loyalty of journalists to their nation aren’t exactly concrete hard, it is not hard to shift them once captured.
I agree with Mama that “terror is an astounding motivator.” Under extreme duress, the mind can become as pliable as play-doh. Remember Patti Hearst? Even Elizabeth Smart… That’s why the John McCains of the world are so exceptional & rare.
After Centanni & Wiig have some down time in a safe place (like good ol’ US Soil), there’s bound to be a whole lot more to the story.
There’s little doubt that the two Fox newsmen probably would have eventually had their heads chopped off it they didn’t “convert.” My concern is, what are the ramifications to them and, especially, other journalists and observers now?
The Christian Science Monitor reporter who was recently released after months of captivity never capitulated to any conversion because, she said, if she had, she would have then been considered solidly under Islamic law and all that that means. If, for instance, she continued to wear her scarf incorrectly, showing a little hair, she could have been punished severely, even killed, with fundamentalist Islamic “justification.”
The Fox newsmen say their conversion wasn’t real. Islamic terrorists could see that as a deep insult to their radical faith. As others have written, it won’t be safe for them to go on assignments in many foreign areas. And what happens to others who are kidnapped and face the threat of forced conversion? If they convert, real or not, it could be interpreted as fake, and they could be killed anyway.
Methinks the Foxies may have played a dangerous card that will further increase the danger in countries harboring Islamic bullies.