Posted on 08/15/2006 11:45:56 AM PDT by Blogger
Palestinian security forces hunted for two abducted Fox News journalists Tuesday, and the Palestinian president and prime minister intervened in an attempt to gain their release.
President Mahmoud Abbas and Ismail Haniyeh, the prime minister of the Hamas-led government, scheduled meetings with the news organization's Jerusalem bureau chief, Eli Fastman, and its chief correspondent in Israel, Jennifer Griffin.
The prime minister assured the Fox News representatives that Palestinian security forces would use all their power to "put an end to it soon," said government spokesman Ghazi Hamad said, without elaborating.
Investigators said the president's office was closely following the probe into the abduction.
American reporter Steve Centanni, 60, and New Zealand cameraman Olaf Wiig, 36, were seized by masked gunmen Monday near the headquarters of the Palestinian security services.
No one has claimed responsibility for kidnapping, and police said no demands have been made. Major militant groups denied any connection to the abduction.
U.S. officials said they were in touch with Abbas' office, Palestinian security officials and the Israelis to see if they can help secure the journalists' release.
"Certainly we are concerned about their safety, that is why we are working to ensure their freedom," said Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm, a spokeswoman for the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem.
She said it was still unclear who was holding the journalists.
New Zealand's Prime Minister Helen Clark dispatched diplomats to Gaza to assist in any contacts for their release. She said she was "very concerned" about the kidnapping.
Wiig's wife, Anita McNaught, said Fox representatives told her negotiations for their release were already under way. But officials in Gaza said no contact had been established with the kidnappers.
Nabil Abu Rdeinah, an Abbas aide, said the president ordered all security forces to work on tracking the two journalists. "This is an unacceptable act. We condemn this operation and hope we would succeed to find a peaceful solution very soon," he said.
An investigator in the case, speaking on condition of anonymity so as not to jeopardize the investigation, said suspicions were focusing on a renegade group from an established Palestinian militant organization, but he declined to give further details. The car in which the journalists were taken has been identified, he said.
Centanni was behind the wheel of the Fox vehicle, marked in large letters "TV," when the gunmen pulled up and stopped them, a Fox employee said. A Palestinian who was with them was forced onto the floor at gunpoint, and the two journalists were taken away.
An official following the investigation said the getaway car was spotted driving south along the coastal road.
Police and security forces were deployed at major intersections and roads in Gaza immediately after the kidnapping.
Several foreigners have been kidnapped in Gaza by small groups seeking the release of relatives from jail, jobs or other personal favors. All have been freed within a few days without harm.
I really like him..he is a very, very good journalist!
The birth records aside, I'd be extremely surprised if Fox employed TWO men named Steve Centanni.
All of us who watch Fox -- I've been a loyal viewer since 1996 (and wonderful Tony Snow was the first voice I heard -- are concerned and praying for both Steve and the other gentleman who was kidnapped. If WE are getting impatient with the news blackout, I can only imagine what their families are going through.
Fox is quiet for a reason. They've got to have experienced people advising them as to how to deal with this situation, and at the moment no news is good news.
So we wait. And pray.
Is that right?
True, but if he was born in 1962 he wouldn't even be graduated from high school by '77.
I haven't heard ONE WORD on Fox news about this today....and I've had it on and off all day.
Maybe they are keeping it low key for a reason.
He used to work for KRON4 and they have been following this story closely.
Fox has the lead. He's their guy, and any negotiations are their deal. Everyone else has as much or as little information as they choose to release, and defers to them on how much to trumpet the story. It was the same with the Christian Science Monitor when Jill Carroll was held captive.
A lot of people here were disgusted by the DUmmies and the KOmmies gleefully celebrating this kidnapping and hoping that Centanni's beheading would soon be out on video.
I missed that, but if your description is accurate, count me among the disgusted. The free flow of accurate information is essential to an informed democracy, and anyone who risks life and limb in pursuit of it is a hero. No matter what you think of his politics or the politics of the folks he works for.
Anyone who's cheering for the death of Steve Centanni -- or for Wolf Blitzer or Geraldo Rivera or Christianne Amanpour or Major Garrett or Dan Rather or Seymour Hersh, if it had come down differently -- is an idiot not worthy of the effort to pi... erm, urinate on him if he were on fire.
I'll bet that if you were in just about any DBM newsroom today, you'd find similar, but more restrained, gloating.
Not a bit. Not a scintilla. You're dead f'n wrong there. Every major news org has someone who's worked shoulder-to-shoulder with Centanni. They've swapped jokes, bought each other beers, stayed in the same third-world hotels and choked on the same dust. He's 60 years old, so he has plenty of former assistants, interns and other proteges scattered throughout the industry. There but for the grace of God ...
Every journalist remotely worthy of the title is praying, or if they don't pray, hoping, for Steve Centanni's safe return. Competition only goes so far. I'm a lifelong Atlanta Braves fan, but at the most heated point of the Braves-Yankees rivalry, I never wanted Joe Torre murdered. It's like that.
Send OJ Simpson to look. He's been so successful at finding killers. (no matter where i go, there I am)
Goes to show how powerul of an influence FOX has become, and the terrorists know it.
I think he is 60. Intellius has a Steven Centanni in Washington DC that is 60. So much of Fox is based out of Washington that I think it is the same person. You would want to live close to work in that business.
I bet they have killed, before, though.
you don't know that though. And, the humor isn't needed on a thread like this.
Okay, fess up..how many years did you say "They should never have fired Joe Torre?"
I said that more than once. But I was wrong, LOL!
No, we need to charge them with yet another war crime.
Three or four. I don't have a lot of fond memories of Chuck Tanner. But then we got Bobby Cox back, and it's not easy to argue with that.
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