Free Republic

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...

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...

Kidnapped Fox reporters "convert to Islam" on video Sun Aug 27, 2006 5:20 AM EDT By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA (Reuters) - Two kidnapped journalists for the American Fox News Channel appeared on a new videotape released by their captors on Sunday in the Gaza Strip, saying they had converted to Islam. Palestinian Interior Minister Saeed Seyam said efforts were under way to secure the release of Fox correspondent Steve Centanni, a 60-year-old American, and New Zealand-born cameraman Olaf Wiig, 36, within hours. Both journalists appeared to be in good health in the new video. They were seized on August 14...

Hamid Pourmand faces charge of apostasy and possible death sentence. April 5 (Compass) -- Iranian Christian Hamid Pourmand must appear before the Islamic (sharia) court of Iran within nine days. An exact court date has not been released. Arrested last September when security police raided a church conference he was attending, the Assemblies of God lay pastor will be brought up before the Islamic court between April 11 and 14 to face charges of apostasy from Islam and proselytizing Muslims to the Christian belief. Both “crimes” are punishable by death. Pourmand, now 47, converted from Islam to Christianity nearly 25...

Palestinians laugh at American deaths Cartoon mocks memorial of GIs killed in downing of helicopter Posted: November 12, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com In a continuing blitz of what some analysts call "new" anti-Semitism targeting Americans, the official Palestinian daily newspaper published a cartoon deriding U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq. Memorial built in Iraq to honor 15 American soldiers killed in downing of helicopter. The cartoon featured in Al Hayat Al Jadida, according to Israel-based Palestinian Media Watch, mocks a memorial built to honor 15 American soldiers killed in the downing of a U.S. helicopter Sunday. It was...

Bush Warns That Terrorists Seek to Rule Iraq NewsMax.com Wires Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2003 WASHINGTON – Foreign fighters who seek to install a Taliban-style government in Iraq are coordinating with Saddam Hussein loyalists to launch deadly attacks on U.S. troops, President Bush asserted Tuesday as he mourned rising casualties. Bush has previously accused the two groups of seeking to intimidate Americans in Iraq. But as explosions in Baghdad disrupted his Veterans Day tribute from afar, he accused them of conspiring with each other in the wave of attacks. "Over time, Baath Party and Fedayeen fighters and other Saddam loyalists have...

John Allen Muhammad registered the car believed used in the sniper killings at a Motor Vehicle Services office here on the one-year anniversary of 9/11 - just minutes after a caller told police a bomb had been placed in the building. Employees Thursday could not remember seeing Muhammad that morning but found the timing of the bomb scare suspicious. A police report shows the bomb threat was made at 8:52 a. m. Register tapes showed Muhammad's paperwork was rung up at 8:59 a.m., said Darlene Bonnette, an agent in charge of the office. Police arrived at 9:01 a.m., according to...