Posted on 08/31/2006 1:42:03 PM PDT by veronica
'I Can't Hate Them for What They Did,' Olaf Wiig Says
Aug. 31, 2006 — - Despite being taken hostage at gunpoint in Gaza by a jihadist group and held captive for 13 days, Fox News cameraman Olaf Wiig says he can't condemn his captors.
"It's really complex," Wiig said on "Good Morning America."
"In some ways, I feel such sympathy for the Palestinian cause. You know, in my heart. You know, I can't hate them for what they did. I resent on behalf of my family what they did. But there's a funny bit of me that's sympathetic to them still."
Wiig, 36, and Steve Centanni, 60, were abducted by masked gunmen earlier this month.
Centanni, a Fox correspondent, said they were sometimes held facedown in a dark garage, tied up in painful positions, and forced at gunpoint to make videos and say they had converted to Islam.
The two journalists were dropped off Sunday at Gaza City's Beach Hotel by Palestinian security officials.
Centanni said he felt "sheer animal fear" after he and Wiig were taken hostage.
"I was wondering if I was going to die of a heart attack or if the next thing would be a bullet in my head," Centanni said.
According to Wiig, when asked where they were being taken, their captors said, "To hell. You're going to hell."
Pledge Allegiance to Islam
A previously unknown group calling itself the Holy Jihad Brigades held the two men in a garage for 13 days, forcing them to pledge allegiance to Islam.
On the day of Centanni's and Wiig's release, their captors delivered a video showing the two men in Arab robes reading from the Koran to indicate their conversion to Islam.
Centanni has said their conversion was forced at gunpoint.
"I have the highest respect for Islam, and I learned a lot of 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 said in other reports.
Centanni and Wiig were stripped of their possessions and dressed in sweat suits as part of a process of removing their identity.
The journalists said they were not harmed physically during their captivity.
Videotaped messages shown around the world revealed the apparent resignation in their faces.
"You have no choice but to stay calm," Wiig said.
The captors told Wiig that he would be released because he was from New Zealand.
However, Wiig said, they told him that his colleague, Centanni, an American, was dangerous and that they were going to kill him.
Wiig said he kept that information from Centanni.
"I just knew that he was under [a] huge strain already, and I thought it was a burden he didn't need to carry for however long," Wiig said.
Centanni said he was grateful for that. "He's a beautiful man and a good friend," he said of Wiig.
A Force to Be Reckoned With
Wiig's wife, Anita McNaught, who is also a journalist, was on assignment in Damascus, Syria, when she heard the news of the kidnapping. She rushed to Gaza to put pressure on Palestinian authorities and local Islamist chieftains to save the lives of her "boys."
"The terrorists have not met my wife," Wiig said. "She is a force to be reckoned with."
McNaught said she believed Wiig and Centanni had been released thanks to a team effort on the part of local politicians and journalists, Fox News, her visibility locally and the men themselves.
"It's really crucial to emphasize this," she said. "Now know that a lot of the things I did were visible to the people holding them hostage. They knew I was in Gaza making statements, talking to Palestinian people. That on its own I don't think would have been enough to have got the guys out."
McNaught said it was Wiig and Centanni's "nobility and self-possession" as hostages that played a large role in their release.
"Because they kept, despite the stress they were under, they kept their cool," she said. "They got to know their captors. They behaved with generosity and courtesy. They took them seriously."
"It's really complex,"
It's not complex, THEY ARE TERRORIST AND WILL DO ANYTHING TO GRAB HEADLINES INCLUDING KIDNAP, TORTURE AND MURDER. This damn terrorist sympathizing by the MSM has got to end or they need to be treated like the terrorist.
Nope,much,*much* more likely that he's a communist tool.In case you haven't heard,New Zealand went communist about 20 years ago.
Interesting you mention that, b/c I found jennifer griffin's story about invesigating the whole thing simply facinating. This could be a movie the way she described talking to all the terrorists dons in Gaza.
Wiig's wife said that in her efforts all was done for the release of the two men.
Security experts say to do what you must to survive. And when you later have regrets they tell you not to be so hard on yourself, because you WON survival.
It's so easy to second-guess them when most will never be put in their place.
Wiig is nuts, and for him to sell Centani down the river every chance he got is shameful. He has to live with himself and know what he is, that's his punishment.
Maybe he's on to something here. Combine her with my ex-wife, and other like spirited Western women and I think we have the making of a plan here for total defeat of Radical Islam!
Hannity interviewed them yesterday. I couldn't listen to the whole thing so maybe he asked him this but I kept yelling at the radio - Ask them if they're kneeling 3 times a day to Mecca!!
What makes all of this worse is there is a chance a ransom was paid
Ah, now I see, kidnap journalists, under threat of death make them convert to Christianity, and then they'll be sympathetic.
/sarcasm
Little Janie wants to thank Jesus at her high school graduation and the aclu and msm sees Christian trying to impose an intolerant theocracy on America. Jihad Ali cuts the head off people because they don't believe what he does, kills women who accidentally show an ankle, and says he will not rest until the whole world bows to islam, and the aclu and msm says that's ok because they don't like American foreign policy. Timothy McVie did not like American Foreign or doemstic policy either.
It's time that Fox hire Jimmah Carter for such destinations
I wish Alan Keyes had a national radio show
Olaf Wiig is probably >thisclose< to converting to Islam anyway. Without any any firm convictions of his own, having abandoned whatever religion he may have been introduced to early in life, he has been ripe for the picking by whatever cult got to him first.
It just happened to be some militant Islamic jihadists. If offered the opportunity, the conversion could just have well been to Druidism, or Wicca, or animism.
Sometimes secular humanism just is not enough to satisfy the spiritual hunger of the masses.
I have no doubt a ransom was paid and probably by FOX. I have been noticing a change in FOX news and it seems to be leaning a bit too much to the left of "fair and balanced" for my taste.
I know they refused to "negotiate" with the kidnappers, but couldn't they at least have said a few words afterwards condemning this farce? It's hard to believe they were completely missing in this saga and the FOX news staff and Mrs. Wiig pulled the whole thing off themselves.
"The terrorists have not met my wife," Wiig said. "She is a force to be reckoned with."
Unlike you, Mr Wiig.
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