Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
February 14, 2008 By Ian Fisher
BAGHDAD — An Iraqi interpreter kidnapped in the southern city of Basra was freed Wednesday, but the CBS journalist seized with him this week was still being held.
Amid reports of a deal to free both men, however, the American military and Iraqi officials both said they hoped that the journalist would be released shortly.
“We are hopeful they will be released in the coming days, if not hours,” a military spokesman, Rear Adm. Gregory J. Smith, told reporters here shortly before the interpreter was released.
Earlier in the day, the man in charge of the Basra office of Moktada al-Sadr, an anti-American Shiite cleric, said his group had successfully negotiated the release of both men, though only the interpreter was freed.
“We will keep working, and we hope this matter will be over in the next 24 hours,” said the Sadr official, Hareth al-Ethari.
The details surrounding the kidnapping remained murky. The two men — a cameraman-photojournalist who worked for CBS News and his interpreter — were abducted Sunday from the Sultan Palace Hotel by men dressed as security officials, and there has been some suggestion by security officials that Mr. Sadr’s group may have had some connection with the kidnapping. Mr. Ethari has acknowledged that one of two men who security officials say have links to Mr. Sadr’s group, and possibly the kidnapping, was at the hotel at the time.
Mr. Ethari said this was only a coincidence, and he denied that the group had any role in the kidnapping. He said that his group had been negotiating through an intermediary and that he did not know who carried out the kidnapping.
On Sunday, CBS released a statement saying that the two men were missing but did not release their names or any details.
Journalists have been attacked several times in Basra, Iraq’s second largest city, which is controlled at least partly by armed gangs. The British military, which had controlled the city since 2003, has turned responsibility over to Iraqi forces.
In 2005, two reporters were killed there: an American freelance journalist, Steven C. Vincent; and an Iraqi journalist working for The New York Times, Fakher Haider. In both cases, official Iraqi security forces were implicated, though no one has ever been charged.
Qais Mizher contributed reporting.
February 14, 2008 By Ian Fisher
BAGHDAD — An Iraqi interpreter kidnapped in the southern city of Basra was freed Wednesday, but the CBS journalist seized with him this week was still being held.
Amid reports of a deal to free both men, however, the American military and Iraqi officials both said they hoped that the journalist would be released shortly.
“We are hopeful they will be released in the coming days, if not hours,” a military spokesman, Rear Adm. Gregory J. Smith, told reporters here shortly before the interpreter was released.
Earlier in the day, the man in charge of the Basra office of Moktada al-Sadr, an anti-American Shiite cleric, said his group had successfully negotiated the release of both men, though only the interpreter was freed.
“We will keep working, and we hope this matter will be over in the next 24 hours,” said the Sadr official, Hareth al-Ethari.
The details surrounding the kidnapping remained murky. The two men — a cameraman-photojournalist who worked for CBS News and his interpreter — were abducted Sunday from the Sultan Palace Hotel by men dressed as security officials, and there has been some suggestion by security officials that Mr. Sadr’s group may have had some connection with the kidnapping. Mr. Ethari has acknowledged that one of two men who security officials say have links to Mr. Sadr’s group, and possibly the kidnapping, was at the hotel at the time.
Mr. Ethari said this was only a coincidence, and he denied that the group had any role in the kidnapping. He said that his group had been negotiating through an intermediary and that he did not know who carried out the kidnapping.
On Sunday, CBS released a statement saying that the two men were missing but did not release their names or any details.
Journalists have been attacked several times in Basra, Iraq’s second largest city, which is controlled at least partly by armed gangs. The British military, which had controlled the city since 2003, has turned responsibility over to Iraqi forces.
In 2005, two reporters were killed there: an American freelance journalist, Steven C. Vincent; and an Iraqi journalist working for The New York Times, Fakher Haider. In both cases, official Iraqi security forces were implicated, though no one has ever been charged.
Qais Mizher contributed reporting.