Briton held by Taliban says West wanted her dead

Reuters ^ | 12 DEC 2001 15:44 | Mike Collett-White

[CommiesOut]

Briton held by Taliban says West wanted her dead

    By Mike Collett-White 
    LONDON, Dec 12 (Reuters) - It could be a chapter from 
"Scoop", novelist Evelyn Waugh's famous spoof in which a foreign 
correspondent gets into a tangle in a far-flung war. 
    Except British journalist Yvonne Ridley -- held captive in 
Afghanistan as U.S. bombs rained down -- insists her story of 
subterfuge and spies is real and the villain was the West rather 
than the Taliban who held her on suspicion of espionage. 
    Ridley, of the Sunday Express, sneaked into Taliban-held 
territory illegally in late September hidden under a traditional 
Afghan woman's head-to-toe burqa veil, but was caught as she 
journeyed back to Pakistan. She was later released. 
    The 43-year-old, who is launching a book on her 10-day 
ordeal, accused Western intelligence services on Wednesday of 
trying to have her executed during her capture to boost public 
support for the U.S. bombing campaign in Afghanistan. 
    "I suppose that if I had been publicly executed for being a 
spy, that would have been a huge propaganda tool for the West to 
be used as a stick to beat anti-war people," she told Reuters. 
    The allegations, which appear in the final chapter of "In 
the Hands of the Taliban", were based on what Ridley said were 
false documents she had seen suggesting she was a spy. 
    She had no copies, but said the documents, and evidence that 
her apartment in London had been broken into during her 
assignment abroad, all pointed to foul play. 
    "I really don't know who tried to set me up. Was it the CIA, 
British intelligence, Mossad, a combination, or someone else?" 
     
    RELIEF AT RELEASE 
    Ironically, Ridley believes that the attempt to have her 
killed may have saved her life. 
    "They (the Taliban) felt sorry for me. Someone had tried to 
convince them I was a spy, and it was a very clumsy attempt." 
    She said the documents, including bank statements and 
details of a house sale, had apparently found their way into 
Taliban hands. They exaggerated her income, which she said 
reinforced suspicions that she was getting money from an 
intelligence service. 
    She added that copies of her ex-husband's Israeli passport, 
and an alleged code number linking him to Israel's Mossad secret 
service, were also supplied, as was a photograph of her with her 
husband and daughter purporting to have been taken in Iran. 
    "This picture was actually taken in Stratford-upon-Avon (in 
England), but during Taliban questioning they said I had done 
this kind of thing before and had been to Iran under cover," she 
said. 
    Ridley first began to suspect foul play when she heard that 
the Qatari television network al-Jazeera, which had good access 
to the Taliban, had run two reports, based on the documents, 
suggesting that she had been "used" by intelligence agencies. 
    She was shown copies of some of the paperwork by the 
network's London-based journalist, Nacer Bedri. 
    "We ran reports with some of the documents which we believed 
were genuine," Bedri told Reuters. "I was e-mailed the 
documents, and have shown some of them to Yvonne." 
    Ridley was widely vilified in the British press after her 
release from captivity, with her clandestine mission dismissed 
as "sheer folly" and "heroic idiocy". 
    The single mother, who went on hunger strike and kept a 
secret diary while in captivity, has few regrets. 
    "I regret getting on the donkey (on which her cover was 
blown) but I do not regret the whole thing," she said. 
 ((London newsroom, +44 207 542 7950, fax +44 207 542 7921)) 
 
12 DEC 2001 15:44:30

[mvscal]

Exactly.

[ExpatCanuck]

This is a load of crap, but I see book and movie deals and a prominent interview with Katie Couric on the horizon.

[It's me]

snip "They (the Taliban) felt sorry for me. snip

Uhh, I don't think so.

[GROUCHOTWO]

It is amazing that so many who claim to be part of a superior civilization will advocate such measures.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

I don't think anyone here really wants her dead. FReepers could easily do that if they wanted. We're just flushing our dark natures here.

(I think you need a hug.)

[Mortimer Snavely]

Brazen self-aggrandizing journalist bump.

"...there I was, exercising my morning ablutions on the shores of the Zambezi. I soon noticed that I had been surreptitiously surrounded by a stealthy scion of Boers (spelled with an "e"). I had just reached for my hip flask, when a proto-reptilian of truly massive proportions suddenly propelled itself out of the placid stream, jaws agape with fangs like walrus tusks, and seized upon my captors-to-be in a frenzied foam of river algae and shredded undergarments..."

[McGavin999]

I guess she didn't get the attention she thought she deserved, and now has to invent a new twist to get herself back into the news. What a loser!

[Howlin]

ROFLMAO!

[Howlin]

Next thing you know, she'll be holding a press conference with Al Sharpton.

[WaterDragon]

Has there been any word on the fate of the little girl she took along for 'cover' and the driver of her vehicle, both of whom were left in the hands of the Taliban?

We must remember that the people of Afghanistan have complained that the Taliban regularly stole their children, sexually abused and tortured them and killed them. These are the people the Brit left a small child with.

[McGavin999]

LOL, someone get his number to her! You have to wonder what makes these people loath themselves so much that they have to pretend to be so morally superior.

[my_pointy_head_is_sharp]

...[she] was caught as she journeyed back to Pakistan. She was later released. ... "They (the Taliban) felt sorry for me. Someone had tried to convince them I was a spy, and it was a very clumsy attempt."

What a liar.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

OK, OK. I was merely observing that there are plenty of Freepers with the training and firepower to eliminate someone if they wanted to. Obviously they don't want to. Freepers are overwhelmingly law abiding.