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BAGHDAD, March 1 (AFP) - French journalist Florence Aubenas, missing for nearly two months in Iraq, on Tuesday made a desperate plea for help on a video broadcast, saying her health was "very bad." "I am French. I am a journalist with Liberation. Please help me. My health is very bad. I'm very bad psychologically also," the gaunt and exhausted-looking journalist pleaded in English on the undated video, of which AFP obtained a copy. The 50-second film showed the veteran reporter for the left-wing daily wearing a pale long-sleeved top, seated on the floor with her knees bent against her...

French journalist George Malbrunot spent 124 days as a hostage of Islamic fundamentalists in Iraq. The experience nearly broke him, but it also offered him stunning insights into the way jihadist groups operate. He returned convinced of one thing: America's policy is doomed. Since his return to Paris on Dec. 22, Malbrunot has been the toast of the town, having private audiences with top political officials and sipping mixed drinks in the city's top locales. But, still, memories of his 124 hostage ordeal keep him awake at night. Zoom AP Since his return to Paris on Dec. 22, Malbrunot has...

Cartesian Ethics On December 22, in an evening sleet storm at Villacoublay air base west of Paris, two French journalists, Georges Malbrunot of Le Figaro and Christian Chesnot of Radio France Internationale, were finally reunited with their families after spending 124 days as kidnapped hostages of an Iraqi jihadist group. Chesnot seemed especially shaken by the experience, during which at least three other people held hostage with him were beheaded. Chesnot said very little to the army of attending reporters, and he's had very little to say in public ever since. Georges Malbrunot, on the other hand, has proved himself...

DUBAI - A French hostage who was released last week after four months in Iraq said his kidnappers grouped militants linked to Al Qaeda and former members of ousted president Saddam Hussein’s ruling party. Journalist Christian Chesnot told Arabic newspaper Asharq al-Awsat newspaper in an interview published on Thursday the men who were guarding him and fellow French journalist Georges Malbrunot included “fundamentalists” and former Baath officials. The two were kidnapped by a group calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq. They returned home on December 21. “The group, as far as we understood, was made up of former Baathists,...

PARIS (AP) - French journalists held hostage for four months in Iraq said their militant captors told them they wanted President Bush to win re-election. In a four-page account of their ordeal, one of the reporters, Georges Malbrunot, also wrote that they saw several other hostages who were later decapitated. The journalists said their captors viewed foreign businessmen working in Iraq as their enemies. One of the captors from the group calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq said Bush's re-election would boost their cause, Malbrunot wrote in Friday's edition of Le Figaro, the French daily he works for. ``We...

A French journalist held hostage in Iraq for four months says his captors wanted U.S. President George W. Bush re-elected because it would help promote their cause. Georges Malbrunot, who was released Tuesday along with fellow journalist Christian Chesnot, told CNN the Iraqi militants "need someone tough against them, it's like boxing."

After four months in captivity, two French journalists were finally let go on Tuesday. But why? Also, a new survey shows that the British like to booze over the holidays, and yet another scandal hits Germany's beleaguered opposition party. French Journalists Freed A pair of French journalists held hostage in Iraq since August 20 were finally freed by their captors on Tuesday and are scheduled to arrive back home in France on Wednesday afternoon. Christian Chesnot of Radio France International and Georges Malbrunot of the daily Le Figaro spent four months in the hands of a group calling itself the...

How and why hostages freed baffles France Jon Henley in Paris Thursday December 23, 2004 The Guardian Two French journalists flew home to a heroes' welcome yesterday after being held hostage in Iraq. But questions were immediately asked about exactly how and why they had been released after more than four months. Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot landed at a military airfield outside Paris, hugged tearful relatives in the freezing rain, and were greeted by the prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, and President Jacques Chirac, who interrupted his Christmas holiday in Morocco to be there. Looking fit and well, the two...

French Hostages Head Home, Paris Says No Ransom Wed Dec 22, 2004 08:48 AM ET By Timothy Heritage PARIS (Reuters) - Two French journalists headed home to a heroes' welcome on Wednesday after a 4-month hostage ordeal in Iraq which Paris said ended without a ransom being paid. One day after they were freed by Iraqi militants, Le Figaro reporter Georges Malbrunot, 41, and Radio France Internationale correspondent Christian Chesnot, 37, flew from Baghdad to Cyprus to be met by French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier. President Jacques Chirac interrupted a Christmas holiday in Morocco to return to Paris to address...

PARIS (AP) - Joy swept France with the release Tuesday in Iraq of two French reporters held hostage for four months. The government said Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot should be home for Christmas. France's upper house of parliament erupted with applause when Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin told the senators the militant Islamic Army in Iraq had freed the reporters. "It's the best Christmas present we could get," said Chesnot's brother, Thierry, adding that the two men were in good health. "Until now, our life was murky. I didn't stop crying - and my husband, too," Malbrunot's mother, Andree, told...

Report: Two French Journalists Released by Radical Islamic Group Four Months After Kidnapping BAGHDAD, Iraq Dec 21, 2004 — Two French journalists who were kidnapped by a radical Islamic group in Iraq four months ago were released Tuesday, Al-Jazeera television network reported. The station said it received a statement from the kidnappers, the Islamic Army in Iraq, claiming that the two men were handed over to the French Embassy in Iraq Tuesday afternoon.

World - AFP Talks on French hostage release bogged down: media watchdog 6 minutes ago World - AFP PARIS (AFP) - Talks to free two French journalists, who were abducted in Iraq (news - web sites) exactly four months ago, are making no headway, the media watchdog group Reporters without Borders (RSF) said. AFP/Editions N1-HO/File Photo "Despite laudable efforts by French diplomats, it looks like there is nothing new," said RSF secretary general Robert Menard in an interview published Tuesday by the daily newspaper Le Parisien. "The negotiations are getting nowhere," he said. Foreign Minister Michel Barnier earlier said he...

New footage has emerged of two French reporters taken hostage in Iraq showing both men apparently well and in good spirits, the Sunday Times reported. Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, who marked their 100th day in captivity on Saturday, appear on a CD-Rom obtained by the paper, which said the recording was believed to have been made earlier this month. The two are the longest-held Western hostages in Iraq. Mr Chesnot, 37, reportedly says he and Mr Malbrunot are "here because there are security issues and investigations regarding our identities as we are journalists and the Islamic Army is doing...

(Al-Sabah al-Jadeed) – Reliable sources informed the paper that the two French journalists kidnapped by armed groups a few months ago are west of Anbar province near the borders. The sources added that the journalists and their kidnappers move freely, and it seems the journalists have adjusted themselves with their kidnappers. The source, which is close to the so-called “Muhammad’s Army”, said the journalists wear local clothes and sometimes film military operations conducted by gunmen. (Al-Sabah al-Jadeed is an independent daily paper.)

In order to avoid trouble in Iraq, foreign civilians used to pretend they were French nationals. But only until seven weeks ago, when two French journalists named Malbrunot and Chesnot, along with their Syrian chauffeur, were kidnapped. The French thought they would be immune to violence directed at them because of their vocal opposition to the war in Iraq and their blatantly pro-Arab diplomacy. So, why did this kidnapping happen?Note that these two journalists are fluent in Arabic, love the whole region and culture and have been very supportive of practically every Arab cause.According to Jerome Coursade, a French journalist...

Paris -- A high-stakes scheme to free two French journalists kidnapped in Iraq threatens to embroil President Jacques Chirac in a political scandal over whether his government assisted private intermediaries in negotiating with terrorists for the hostages' release. The rescue attempt by an unlikely cast of characters -- a maverick politician from Chirac's ruling party, a former bodyguard for a leading right- winger, and an African strongman -- has been labeled an embarrassing fiasco by the press and a "knockabout farce" by former Socialist Prime Minister Laurent Fabius.

Spotted this on debka, it warmed my heart and made me smile. :O) DEBKAfile Exclusive Report October 3, 2004, 10:25 PM (GMT+02:00) French hostages as two-edged sword against Bush By Sunday, October 2, 5,000 US and Iraqi troops had broken the back of the insurgent stronghold in Samarra. In one of the biggest military operations since Saddam Hussein’s overthrow, they claim control of the strategic town although there is much collateral damage. If consolidated, the Samarra victory would greatly improve the US military score in Iraq since the fall of Baghdad. Out of six major engagements in seven months, only...

French hostages to be freed A previously unheard-of Damascus-based Iraqi opposition group say two French journalists held hostage in Iraq for more than a month will be released soon, Al-Arabiya television reported. "I announce ... good news regarding the release soon of the two French journalists," Fadhel al-Rabii, a spokesman for the Iraqi National Forces, told the Dubai-based television station from Damascus. "I affirm that the two journalists will be freed in the course of the next three days," Mr Rabii said, adding that his group had played a positive role in negotiations to secure their liberty

A statement purportedly from the Islamic Army of Iraq (news - web sites) posted on an Islamist website gave France 48 hours to accept three new conditions for the release of Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot: agreeing to a recent truce offer by Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), payment of five million dollars ransom and a pledge not to get involved in Iraq. But French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin expressed skepticism over the alleged new demands, saying they had yet to be authenticated. Raffarin told RTL radio that French authorities "always take this kind of information seriously" but...

Iraqi militants demand $5m for release of French journalists Luke Harding in Baghdad and Jon Henley in Paris Tuesday September 7, 2004 The Guardian The militant Iraqi group holding two French journalists hostage last night demanded a $5m (£2.8m) ransom for their release and set a 48-hour deadline for the request to be met. In a statement that could not be authenticated, the Islamic Army of Iraq suggested that it had been prepared to free the two men earlier but had abandoned the plan after a major military operation in Latifiya, south of Baghdad, at the weekend. "We warn you...