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."
I agree. What happened to him could be worse than rape. They forced him to deny his own religious belief.
My problem is this: Why does he tell us we should understand those kind people now that he's back in the USA?
Actually I heard that Vince McMahon would be taking over the FoxNew dept. Sean Hannity is suppose to turn bad and Alan Colmes will move to the far right.
It was not Centani who said anything about understanding his captors. He said he respected Islam (a sop to the Islamics in whose countries American journalists are still working), but he stressed that his "conversion" was forced, at the point of a gun.
This isn't evenm Stockholm Syndrome....it's WORSE....it's DEMOCRAT SYNDROME!!! What a Marooon!! Olaf...you are a goof....go back to Gaza....they will LOVE you!!
"My problem is this: Why does he tell us we should understand those kind people now that he's back in the USA?"
Simple. He wants to make it easier on the next journalist
who faces that situation.
Its so easy to sit safely here in the States and dis
Wiig and Centanni for being expedient. Who would not
have done likewize, in that situation?
Talk is cheap.
Christianity is loaded with arm-chair-would-be martyrs. Just read some of the threads on these two here.
I've never read such ridiculous, self-righteous preening as has been in the chastisements of these two men over the last three days.
bttt
Was he interviewing them for his magazine? That would be a good article. :)
Stockh... ah darn
Oh I get it. The CNN Syndrome. "It does not matter if what is being reported is factual as long as our cameras are there"
Evidentally news is cheap too.
NO NEWS is better than FAKE NEWS!
Sorry, I dont want another REUTERGATE
"Could be publicity for selling the 'rights' to the story."
Well, if that attention-grabbing, camera-finding, "It's all about ME" wife of his has anything to say about it (and I think she will) there will be a book rushed into stores with her head all over the telly promoting it.
Yah, go live there then.
sw
Na, not Stockholm Syndrome, just liberalism, it is a mental disease you know! Amazing how someone can threaten to kill you and your friend and you sympathize? Definitely a liberal.
Yep. That girl's got a helluva lot of guts.
"It's really complex,"
Its complex because he has this internal battle of saying what he really thinks versus keeping his journalist job and reporting in moslem nations. Loser.
If so, I can't blame them. It is one more reason why all the bastards should be wiped out.
A very long way from the example of Fabrizio Quattrochi: "Now I will show you how an Italian dies!"
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.