Guardian correspondent kidnapped in Iraq
- Thread starter Donna Ferentes
- Start date
Mrs Magpie
On a bit of break...
Oh God. This is profoundly depressing.
Divisive Cotton
Now I just have my toy soldiers
Donna Ferentes said:
What's his dispatches on Iraq like? Not that it matters of course.
Donna Ferentes
jubliado
The Search function on their website ought to locate them: just use his name.Divisive Cotton said:
Donna Ferentes
jubliado
Patrick Cockburn writes in the latest London Review of books;
I no longer go out to restaurants. I used to go to one called The White Palace near the German Embassy where I could drive into a yard behind the building and walk in the back door of the restaurant. But I heard that a journalist from al-Arabiya Television had been shot and wounded there. I had also met the former head waiter working in a hotel in Kurdistan, where, he told me, he felt a whole lot safer. On the other side of the Tigris in the al-Mansur district there was another traditional Iraqi restaurant, called the Sumad, where I used to eat. I went there because I had some friends who owned an antique shop nearby selling everything from carpets to old photographs of Baghdad. Today the shop is closed and my friends have moved to Jordan. The reason is that a few months ago a police car drew up at the door and some security men bundled one of the owners into the back. Then, as they drove round the block, they told him that unless he could give them a lot of money fast they intended to accuse him of illegally selling looted antiquities. He handed over several thousand dollars in cash, closed his shop and fled to Amman the same night.
Eighteen months ago it was possible for a Westerner to walk along the street in Baghdad. These days, Westerners, other than US troops or heavily armed security men, are so rare that heads turn when they appear. To avoid attracting attention I sit in the back of the car with dark curtains and an Arabic newspaper to hold up to conceal my face. In the hotel where I stay, a Lebanese American businessman with a suite on the same floor has a dozen gunmen working in four-man shifts sitting permanently outside his door, even though the hotel is surrounded by walls of massive concrete blocks and every entry point is watched by a small army of 65 men. At first I resented the gunmen nervously puffing cigarettes in the corridor outside my door but I don’t anymore: the power surges as the hotel’s generators go on and off have damaged the lift machinery and more and more often I get stuck between floors. When I shout for help the gunmen pry open the doors and rescue me.
I don't get any sense of this at all from Caroline Hawley and Michael Mates' little boy.
I no longer go out to restaurants. I used to go to one called The White Palace near the German Embassy where I could drive into a yard behind the building and walk in the back door of the restaurant. But I heard that a journalist from al-Arabiya Television had been shot and wounded there. I had also met the former head waiter working in a hotel in Kurdistan, where, he told me, he felt a whole lot safer. On the other side of the Tigris in the al-Mansur district there was another traditional Iraqi restaurant, called the Sumad, where I used to eat. I went there because I had some friends who owned an antique shop nearby selling everything from carpets to old photographs of Baghdad. Today the shop is closed and my friends have moved to Jordan. The reason is that a few months ago a police car drew up at the door and some security men bundled one of the owners into the back. Then, as they drove round the block, they told him that unless he could give them a lot of money fast they intended to accuse him of illegally selling looted antiquities. He handed over several thousand dollars in cash, closed his shop and fled to Amman the same night.
Eighteen months ago it was possible for a Westerner to walk along the street in Baghdad. These days, Westerners, other than US troops or heavily armed security men, are so rare that heads turn when they appear. To avoid attracting attention I sit in the back of the car with dark curtains and an Arabic newspaper to hold up to conceal my face. In the hotel where I stay, a Lebanese American businessman with a suite on the same floor has a dozen gunmen working in four-man shifts sitting permanently outside his door, even though the hotel is surrounded by walls of massive concrete blocks and every entry point is watched by a small army of 65 men. At first I resented the gunmen nervously puffing cigarettes in the corridor outside my door but I don’t anymore: the power surges as the hotel’s generators go on and off have damaged the lift machinery and more and more often I get stuck between floors. When I shout for help the gunmen pry open the doors and rescue me.
I don't get any sense of this at all from Caroline Hawley and Michael Mates' little boy.
Kaka Tim
Half Arsed and Slapdash till I Die
Belushi said:Have hey demanded a ransom?
Most of the demands of when westerners have been kidnapped has been for the US/UK to get out of Iraq.
Depends whose grabbed him. Kidnapping is rife througout Iraq. If hes 'lucky' he'll have been grabbed by criminal gangs demanding a ransom. If hes unlucky hes in the hands of the breadknife brigade. I guess other insurgent groups may have him and keep him as a valuable negotiating chip - to be traded for release of prisoners and/or ransom etc.
However Im sure Tony Blair has enough steely courage and resolve to sacrifice Rory Carrol's life for the noble cause of securing control of the USuk's energy supply.
Barking_Mad
Non sibi sed omnibus
Apparently he was kidnapped in Sadr City. My guess/hope is that he will be ok. Sadr's lot are far less likely to chop him up than some of the more fringe/extremist groups.
His dispatches are one of the few good reports coming out of Iraq.
His dispatches are one of the few good reports coming out of Iraq.
Wookey
Muppet is not a slur
Guardian journo kidnapped in Iraq
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1595777,00.html
Jesus, I hope he's OK. Kidnapped journalist's don't have the best track record for getting home OK, not recently anyway.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1595777,00.html
Jesus, I hope he's OK. Kidnapped journalist's don't have the best track record for getting home OK, not recently anyway.
spring-peeper
Well-Known Member
Wow - third time I've read this on U75 today.
(also in world politics and the Iraq news thread)
Sorry, Wookey, but by the the tradition of U75 - "last in" for this dup thread.
(also in world politics and the Iraq news thread)
Sorry, Wookey, but by the the tradition of U75 - "last in" for this dup thread.
Donna Ferentes
jubliado
spring-peeper
Well-Known Member
Donna Ferentes said:
I already said that!!!
Last in.
Bigdavalad
New Member
Serious question - if the Army manage to find out where he is being held and then drive a Warrior through a wall (or send the SAS in) to rescue him, will there be as many comments about how we should leave the Iraqi police to do the job and not take the law into our own hands?
AnnO'Neemus
Is so vanilla
They'll have insurance for that kind of thing, won't need a whipround.jonH said:
While in theory I think that ransom demands should not be paid, there are all those arguments about it encouraging more kidnapping in the future, the hypothetical future kidnappers are outweighed by a life currently in the balance for me. I'd say pay the ransom too. It's just money, innit?
Hope he's returned safe and sound.
belboid
Exasperated, not angry.
Donna Ferentes
jubliado
Thank God for that.
Maybe they were looking for Roy Carroll instead.
Maybe they were looking for Roy Carroll instead.
Mrs Magpie
On a bit of break...
Best thing I've heard all day. I'm so pleased about this.
cemertyone
Well-Known Member
shandy said:why couldn't it have been Polly Toynbee
Fuck i wish it had been
.....Does any one else remember the time that she went "under-cover" for a book (article) she was writing about low pay and the hidden economy for the Guardian i think it was.Listening to Mark Steel recently he remarked that " Polly could not believe it when the local bus didn`t like actually bring her back to her front door like she`s normally acustomed to"...
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