Free Republic

Beaten Fox News Journalists: Arab crowd went straight for our heads. A few days after being pummeled nearly to death by crowds of pro-Mubarak Arab thugs on the streets of Egypt, Fox News journalists Greg Palkot and Olaf Wiig finally felt strong enough to appear on camera and give first-hand testimony of what kind of barbarism they suffered at the hands of said thugs. To hear Palkot and Wiig tell their story, it sounded like they were right in the middle of a war zone in Tahrir Square. Particularly telling is Palkot’s testimony that the Arab crowd intentionally made a...

CAIRO, Egypt – It was Wednesday afternoon. We were covering the clashes between pro- and anti-government protesters near Tahrir or Liberation Square in Cairo. A short time after we started our shooting, cameraman Olaf Wiig was threatened by a small group of pro-Mubarak thugs. We ducked down an alley. It turned out to be a dead end, so we dashed into a nearby building. At first it was a perfect vantage point to cover the street battle. Then it quickly turned into a battle station for the pro-government side. Olaf, producer Ibrahim Hezbroun, a Canadian journalist, and myself hunkered down...

CAIRO — Security forces and gangs chanting in favor of the Egyptian government hunted down journalists at their offices and in the hotels where many had taken refuge on Thursday in a widespread and overt campaign of intimidation aimed at suppressing reports from the capital. By evening, it appeared that none of the major broadcasters were able to provide live footage of Tahrir Square, the epicenter of antigovernment protests. Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya television networks said their journalists had been hounded from the street and from the vantage points above the square where cameras had been placed, and both...

  WASHINGTON — When Barack Obama went to Cairo in June 2009, he was lauded for seeking "a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world." His speech was spiked with apologies for what he believes are past American errors and omissions and peppered with Utopian calls for "peace in the Middle East," a "world in which no nations hold nuclear weapons" and upholding "the richness of religious diversity." The president also boldly proclaimed himself to be "a student of history." But two years on, it appears he has not learned some of history's lessons very...

The attacks on journalists covering the protests in Egypt have escalated, with reports Fox News correspondent Greg Palkot and his photographer Olaf Wiig have been severely beaten in an attack in Cairo. Fox News anchor John Roberts described the attack today, saying Palkot and Wiig were left with “fairly grave” injuries but have now been released from the hospital. Palkot, who’s been in the center of the protests in Cairo for days, became cornered by pro-government forces, according to Roberts: They were forced to leave their position when a Molotov cocktail was thrown at it, a large fire erupted. They...

Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig framed by shadow of Adam Gadahn Last month, American al-Qaeda operative Adam Gadahn issued a “convert-to-Islam-or-die message to U.S. President George W. Bush, Daniel Pipes, Michael Scheuer, Steve Emerson and Robert Spencer. This attempt at forced conversion to Islam followed the “conversion” at gunpoint of the two kidnapped Fox News reporters Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig. What exactly was the significance of these events? On the one hand, these attempts at forced conversion were in clear continuity with Islam’s long history of calling people to convert before waging war on them. But how exactly...

This is one case where silence isn't golden and ignorance isn't bliss. They are dangerous and dumb It's not easy to be shocked by jihad these days, five years and numberless atrocities after the Twin Towers imploded on almost 3,000 fellow citizens. That said, I admit my own jihad-fatigue was broken — shattered, really — by the "conversion" to Islam of Fox journalists Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig videotaped during their two-week ordeal as captives of Palestinians in Gaza. Why? Andrew G. Bostom, writing at Frontpage mag. tells us forced conversions to Islam "have been the norm, across three continents...

IF YOU WERE one of the journalists kidnapped in Gaza last month and ordered at gunpoint to become a Muslim, what would you have done? Fox News reporter Steve Centanni and photographer Olaf Wiig announced their acceptance of Islam on a videotape released by their kidnappers -- ``because they had the guns," Centanni later said, ``and we didn't know what the hell was going on." Whether their acquiescence was an act of cowardice or of prudence, reasonable people can debate. Clearly it wasn't their only choice. If I were ever told, with a gun to my head, to recite the...

Did you see that video of the two Fox journalists announcing they'd converted to Islam? The larger problem, it seems to me, is that much of the rest of the Western media have also converted to Islam, and there seems to be no way to get them to convert back to journalism. Consider, for example, the bizarre behavior of Reuters, the once globally respected news agency now reduced to putting out laughably inept terrorist propaganda.

It's not easy to be shocked by jihad these days, five years and numberless atrocities after the Twin Towers imploded on some 3,000 fellow citizens. That said, I admit my own jihad-fatigue was broken, shattered, really, by the "conversion" to Islam of Fox journalists Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig videotaped during their two-week ordeal as captives of Palestinians in Gaza.

"... disbelievers will be cast into an eternal fire. But Allah is also ever merciful, and the West can change its ways and turn to the purifying power of Islam ..." -- Kidnapped Fox reporter Steve "Khaled'' Centanni, channeling his captors. We don't often get to watch our media people convert to Islam, so the footage of Fox News' Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig has been riveting. Some people can't get enough of watching planes fly into the World Trade Center towers; I can't get enough of Centanni and Wiig pledging allegiance to Muhammad, Peace Be Upon Him. The common...

Separated at birth?

Muslims to journalists: "Convert or Die!"Convert or die. That is the message that Muslim terrorists sent by freeing two kidnapped journalists only after they “converted” to Islam on videotape at the point of a gun. The International Herald Tribune reported, The two journalists from Fox News—Steve Centanni, 60, an American, and Olaf Wiig, 36, a freelance cameraman from New Zealand—were held for 13 days in an abandoned garage in the Gaza Strip as hostages of a previously unknown group calling itself the Holy Jihad Brigades. “I’m really fine, healthy, in good shape and so happy to be free,” Mr. Centanni...

Set free after two weeks in captivity, FNC Reporter Steve Centanni and Cameraman Olaf Wiig sit down with Greta for their first television interview since returning to the U.S. What happened during their ordeal? Tune in tonight for the complete story.

The identity of the kidnappers of the two Fox News journalists released un-harmed in the Gaza Strip on Sunday was still shrouded in mystery as Palestinian Authority leaders remained tight-lipped on the case. Cameraman Olaf Wiig, 36, of New Zealand, and US-born correspondent Steve Centanni, 60, were handed over to PA security officers two weeks after they were seized by unidentified gunmen in Gaza City. For a Jerusalem Online video of events click here The two were driven to the Beach Hotel, where they were met by several Palestinian journalists and PA officials, including Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. "I want...

JERUSALEM, Aug. 27 — Two journalists kidnapped in Gaza were released unharmed on Sunday after being forced at gunpoint to say on a videotape that they had converted to Islam. *snip* “I’m really fine, healthy in good shape and so happy to be free,” Mr. Centanni told Fox News. He said the two had been forced at gunpoint to say that they were converting to Islam and had taken Muslim names. “I have the highest respect for Islam,” he said. “But it was something we felt we had to do because they had the guns, and we didn’t know what...

I just learned of the release of the two kidnapped reporters, Steven Centanni Olaf Wiig, in Gaza. We thank God for their release and safety. They reported that they were forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint and they complied. The implications of this are profound. A Christian who says any statement against Christ (be it coerced or not) has committed the sin of apostasy. "But whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven." Matt 10:33. The Chronicles of the first 500 years of Christianity testify that this was the gravest sin...

Two Fox News journalists freed by militants Sunday described a harrowing two weeks of captivity during which they were blindfolded, tied in painful positions and forced at gunpoint to say on a video that they converted to Islam. After their release, the men met with Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and left Gaza, but first appealed at a brief news conference for foreign journalists not to be deterred from covering the plight of the Palestinians in the volatile coastal strip. "I hope that this never scares a single journalist away from coming to Gaza to cover the story because the...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The first thing Olaf Wiig told his family after militants released him in the Gaza Strip Sunday was that he was sorry he'd worried them, relatives said. "His first comment was that he was sorry he had put us through that," the Fox News cameraman's father, the Rev. Roger Wiig, told reporters in New Zealand. "We are glad to hear his voice and his concerns straight away," Wiig said. "It's been a long and difficult wait," he said. The reverend said his son, 36, told him by telephone from Gaza that he had "recognized it...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Militants freed two Fox News journalists on Sunday in the Gaza Strip, ending a nearly two week hostage drama in which one of the former captives said they were forced at gunpoint to make statements, including that they had converted to Islam. Correspondent Steve Centanni, 60, of Washington, D.C., and cameraman Olaf Wiig, 36, of New Zealand, were dropped off at Gaza City's Beach Hotel by Palestinian security officials. A tearful Centanni briefly embraced a Palestinian journalist in the lobby, then rushed upstairs with Wiig behind him. "I want to thank everybody. I am...