I'm just as surprised the the even-handed questions by the host. They seem quite thoughtful and even respectfully challenging, even for NPR lol.
Neal Connan was captured during the Iraq war back in 1991 by the Iraqis. I am sure he thought that the Iraqis would never do harm to an American reporter because they were secretly rooting for the defeat of the USA. Maybe he learned his lesson on who these people really are while in captivity.
I was pleasantly surprised by that too. This past friday I saw a show on PBS in which the interviewer -- I think it was David Brancaccio (doubt I spelled that right; he's one of the NPR people) -- challenged his lefty guest, which was also a pleasant surprise. Then they followed that with a roundtable of the Wall Street Journal editorial staff. Sometimes public broadcasting doesn't suck.