[DieHard the Hunter]

With friends like this guy, who needs enemies? How embarassing.

[AZLiberty]

"You want to kill Steve, not me." -- Olaf Wiig

[keat]

I hereby bestow upon him The John McCain award for Courage Displayed in Captivity

[prairiebreeze]

'Dude, I'm not American, I'm a New Zealander,' " Wiig told TV1's Close Up.

Sigh...no small amount of anti-Americanism here.

Small wonder the terrorists didn't behead him on the spot for calling them "Dude!"

[2banana]

Hey dumbass - to a muslim you are still infidel scum...

[BallyBill]

POS Alert!!

[American Quilter]

The cameraman also told the kidnappers that New Zealand had a "difficult relationship" with the US, did not support war in the Middle East and there were no New Zealand soldiers there.

Gee, thanks, buddy. When the Islamofascists take over your country, don't bother calling the U.S.

[GatorGirl]

This story would make a lot more sense if they had beheaded Centanni.

But since he is fine, and released, and has a new, improved Muslim name, I guess this Kiwi is blowing smoke out of his @$$.

[DogBarkTree]

Kiwis suck.

[BallyBill]

I'm not too sure about this news report. Sounds like a load of BS. I'm down to ZERO in the news reports I believe.

[wideawake]

Why would he admit to this behavior publicly?

[oldleft]

[livius]

Dude, I'm not American...

OK, dudes and dudettes, whatever...

[Gator101]

There's a lot of comfort-of-home second guessing going on in this thread. I think he was smart. He saw an "in" and tried to exploit it to help save his and his colleague's life. What did some here expect him to do? -- spit in the kidnapper's face and say "I may not be an American but I love America and I hope you die".

[GeorgefromGeorgia]

I remember when I lived in Saudi Arabia in the 80s and Canadian friends would ask me if I wanted one of the small Canadian flag pins that they wore on their collars (in case they were on a hijacked airplane with terrorists). I said Hell NO, that would be the equivalent of disowning my country.
I remember when an Italian was executed by terrorists in Iraq. He said something like "this is the way an Italian dies." There was no sucking up to the B-------. That is the way to die, if you are going to die.

[BaBaStooey]

[zeaal]

Good grief, wonder how many American correspondents will want to work with this New Zealander in the future?

[Verginius Rufus]

I had wondered what ethnic background the name Wiig was. Since he's from New Zealand, it must be Maori. (Actually, I just looked at the Ellis Island website and most of the immigrants with the name Wiig were from Norway...there was one from Denmark.)

I guess I'll have to cross off New Zealand from the list of countries to consider for political asylum if Hillary wins the 2008 election.

[GretchenM]

"They were accusing both of us of being Americans and I stood up and said, 'Dude, I'm not American, I'm a New Zealander,' " Wiig told TV1's Close Up.

So ... how did the hated American, Centanni, get out alive?

[shhrubbery!]

"They were accusing both of us of being Americans and I stood up and said, 'Dude, I'm not American, I'm a New Zealander,'"

Well, I'd be embarrassed if I'd done that; but OTOH I probably would've done it if I'd thought it were the only way to keep my head from getting sawed off.

And I don't see how it this endangered Steve Centanni, any more than he already was.

Have to wonder how "New Zealander" Olaf Wiig really is. Apparently Wiig was born in England.

His name sounds Danish to me (and he has an identical twin named Sven and a sister named Kjersten).

But it probably wouldn't have been smart for Wiig to claim he were British --or Danish.

[HawaiianGecko]

Being a Kiwi saved me, says Wiig

Oh Yeah?  Well apparently being an American spy saved Centanni.