Posted on 08/14/2006 10:27:48 AM PDT by slowhand520
GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinian gunmen kidnapped two foreign journalists working for the Fox News television channel in Gaza on Monday, a witness said.
The witness, a Palestinian who worked with the two journalists, said one of them, a producer, was an American, and the other, whose nationality he did not know, was a cameraman.
The Fox News bureau in Jerusalem said it was checking the report.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the abduction.
The witness said two vehicles blocked the journalist's transmission truck in the center of Gaza City and a masked man put a gun to the bodyguard's head, forcing him to the ground.
The kidnappers then sped away with the two journalists.
Similar incidents in the past in Gaza have ended with the release, usually within hours, of kidnapped foreign journalists or aid workers.
Many of the abductions were carried out by Palestinians pressing a grievance against the Palestinian government or its security forces
On please.
Still praying
I am hearing a bit more on FOX.
But still no real news.
Amy Kellogg just did a peice, but just to say what we have been hearing all along. Nothing new. No word. God, I hope Jennifer Griffith is making progress.
You're on.
Semper, the Google hits are decreasing in number"
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1154525900800&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Jerusalem Post
Aug. 18, 2006 15:10
Wife of kidnapped cameraman pleas for his release
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
The wife of a Fox News cameraman kidnapped in Gaza made a tearful plea Friday for information about the whereabouts of her husband and a fellow Fox journalist.
Cameraman Olaf Wiig, 36, of New Zealand, and American reporter Steve Centanni, 60, were taken Monday from their TV van near the Palestinian security services headquarters.
Foreigners were abducted by Palestinians in the past, usually in an attempt to settle personal scores, but released quickly. Palestinian security officials said they were concerned for the Fox journalists because no other foreigners have been held this long and all major terror groups in Gaza have denied involvement.
"If somebody knows any information, can you please tell us because I want him home so much," Wiig's wife, Anita McNaught, a freelance journalist, said in a televised appeal Friday.
"He and his colleague, Steve, don't deserve this. They are good men, they are good men and they should be allowed to come home. Please let him come home. Please," McNaught said before breaking down in tears.
...either because no one truely knows anything, or the silence is somehow helping to assure their safety. Maybe there was some sort of a deal. Just guessing here.
I saw that plea from Olaf's wife, and was going to include it in tonite's update ping.
It is Day 5, and the silence is, as they say, deafening.
Day 5 (Friday) Update from mediabistro.com:
5:16 PM FNCers Kidnapped In Gaza: "We Are Very Anxiously Still Awaiting Word..." "We are very anxiously still awaiting word of our colleagues Steve Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig who were kidnapped by gunmen on Monday in the Gaza Strip," correspondent Amy Kellogg said on DaySide this afternoon. "Olaf's wife Anita McNaught made a public appeal for information on them, pointing out they were in Gaza only in order to tell the story of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and with a simple message that those who have Steve and Olaf are responsible for their fate."After airing McNaught's remarks, Kellogg added: "The Palestinian Journalist Syndicate has made an appeal and it's been posted on Al Jazeera's Web site. They are appealing to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to intervene, to somehow do what he can to secure the release of Steve and Olaf, calling the kidnapping a cowardly act that ultimately harms the reputation of the Palestinian people and their cause."
Still nothing, still praying, still furious.
I hope they are together. I can't imagine how frightening this must be.
I hope all they are is frightened.
True. I just didn't want to go there because they may have family and close friends here. Praying.
I appreciate you posting these updates...I sure wish that someone would SHAKE Kofi Annan...and tell him that a all bets are off in Lebanon and Gaza unless these kidnapped reporters and the kidnapped soldiers are returned, safe.
is this the same guy? Looks like it
http://www.olafwiig.com/
Do you think they are blackmailing FOX?
If you mean asking for a ransom, seems like Fox would have paid it. Rupert Murdock must be ripshit about this.
Yup, same guy. He mentioned his wife Anita on that website. Looks like it hasn't been updated in a few years, though.
No I meant as in "back off" on the reporting.
really handsome guy, and talented.
I guess it's possible, as I mentioned upthread.
If it isn't the usual suspects (Hamas, etc.) then someone else (AQ?) is trying to piss us off and draw us in.
...and a wife who adores him.
It is hard to believe that there has been no word yet. Some group usually will brag about this won't they?
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