Posted on 08/27/2006 8:48:04 AM PDT by TaxachusettsMan
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Two FOX News journalists were released by their kidnappers Sunday, nearly two weeks after they were taken hostage in the Gaza Strip.
Steve Centanni, 60, and Olaf Wiig, 36, left Gaza and have since crossed into Israel after their release. The men left Gaza through the Erez border crossing.
The freeing of Centanni, a correspondent, and Wiig, a cameraman, ends the longest-running drama involving foreign hostages in Gaza.
The two journalists were dropped off at Gaza City's Beach Hotel by Palestinian security officials and appeared to be in good health. A tearful Centanni embraced a Palestinian journalist briefly as he entered, then rushed upstairs as Wiig followed.
Centanni, in a phone interview shortly after his release, said "I'm fine. I'm just so happy to be free."
He recounted how he and Wiig were pulled out of their car on August 14 and taken at gunpoint into another car. The kidnappers blindfolded them and handcuffed their hands behind their backs with plastic ties. They were then transferred to another car and driven to a building that they later learned was a garage.
"We were pushed down onto the dirt-covered concrete floor and we were forced to lie face down with our handcuffs on," Centanni said.
"Olaf was in the same room with me. Our shoulders were wrenched back, very painful."
Both of the men were forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint, Centanni said.
"We were forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint," Centanni told FOX News. "Don't get me wrong here. 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."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
"We were forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint," Centanni told FOX News. "Don't get me wrong here. 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."
"I want to thank everybody. I am happy to be here. I hope that this never scares a single journalist away from coming to Gaza to cover the story because the Palestinian people are very beautiful and kind hearted," Centanni told reporters. "The world needs to know more about them. Don't be discouraged."
I'm beyond flabberghasted. Idiots like Centanni and Wiig DO NOT deserve to be in the position of spoonfeeding "news" to the rest of the world. The entire MEDIA is made up of such dolts, explaining it's total incompetency.
Maybe you should enroll in reading comprehension 101.
My post was a challenge to each of us to examine the strength of our faith.
It has nothing to do with criticsm.
Ok, troll
Lord help the US then, for we will surly die as a nation.
That's what I would like to know. Once home, he needs to put the focus back where it belongs and express outrage and anger at what these animals did to him.
Islam gets a pass from the media, even when they chop heads off. So why does a relatively non-violent "kidnapping" warrant such condemnation? They get off scot-free and then we hear from the victims (or their familes in the Berg case) that Islam is great and the terrorists are not the problem. I don't care about the forced taped conversion, but I do care about what is not said and not done afterwards. The Islamists are winning the day, because they are the only side in this willing to do whatever it takes. As evil as they are, they BELIEVE in what they are doing. Our PC society traded truth for fell-goodism, so now we have nothing to counter with. We're not supposed to believe in right or wrong, so how can we properly identify evil?
There's the rub. I'm not going to judge a gunpoint conversion, but I will be very interested to see what their story is after the get back to the USA.
It might be worth pointing out that a bullet to the head is probably the best you could hope for short of release...the prospect of, and application of tortures and mutilations beyond a normal persons ability to imagine are a very real prospect for a those captured by Islamofascists.
I have no idea how I would hold up against that. As a fighting man, I had planned to save the last bullet for myself, to spare me and my family the prospect of having to undergo or view such things. Suicide is a pretty unchristian thing, but there you have it.
I have no idea if I would have had the guts to kill myself in that situation. I do know that the Islamofascists have shown the will to use methods that would push almost all of us beyond human endurance.
I am unwilling to judge the decisions of those facing such grisly prospects. I am willing to judge the actions of those who know what the enemy is all about and refuse to speak the truth from a position of relative safety.
We shall see about that.
My daughter was curious what the DU'ers were saying so I grabbed my emesis basin and headed over there to check it out. There weren't as many pure hateful posts as I expected, just pure DUmmie stuff about how Fox had staged the whole thing to satisfy their viewer base.
yea, yea, yea...surly is right.
I think God meant what is written here and elsewhere:
Matthew 10:31-33 (King James Version)
32 Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.
33 But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.
It's better than some at this age. None of us knows the final hour for us. I could struggle along to 90. I have outlived people I would have never expected to outlive. That is not the point. At least I have lived, and if I would have to lay down my life rather than deny my faith, I would want to do that if I were given the grace to do so.
My only problem is that if I had other family members in the situation. Do I have a right to decide for minors that we are all going to die?
Just for myself, they can kill me. Fear not those who would kill the body but the soul.
It wouldn't seem these reporters were Christian anyway, most seem to have left that far behind as silly superstition, so it is different for them. If they did happen to be Christian, that is between them and God, I won't be on the judgement panel. It's going to be all men :-).
We should expect missionaries, pastors, even lay people who are deeply committed to the Christian faith to stand firm even to death.....and they have, time through the ages.
But reporters are known to be pragmatic and this may have not been a big deal to them ....to convert to Islam.
The cameraman's wife seems quite comfortable with the Palestinian view & sympathies and from what I've read here today, her interview this AM was very PC and a bit uncomfortable to some in the listening audience.
"If they don't do something just as publicly to confess the lie then they remain liars."
Ah, I understand. North is up, therefore if anyone travels north they are denying Christ. I see.
I will be waiting for that conference too with the islamic death cult firmly as the topic. If it doesn't come...I'll have my answer.
What has NOT been mentioned in any of this is whether either man professed any specific faith prior to their abduction. What the men did, or did not do does not bother me. They may have been Zen-Taoists for all we know. The media caving in and broadcasting Islamic propaganda really bothers me. The threshold has been crossed. Next time the media feels a need to run Islamic propaganda, they need simply claim that they are being extorted and will sort the facts out later. The airing of the video was the third concession. Nobody is saying what the first two were. Perhaps a congressional resolution recognizing Sharia law. We are not getting factual reporting from our media.
Forget it with these people. As soon as I heard this on the radio, I knew there would be a thread like this here on FreeRepublic.
I often don't agree with you, Hildy, but I sure do in this instance.
"Post of the year!"
If not, it's pretty close to it. However, I do have to take issue with your tagline, being a Twins fan and all. ;>}
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