First this procession of headlines:
Thursday January 6, 2005 03:16 PM ET
FRENCH JOURNALIST GOES MISSING IN IRAQ
Friday January 7, 2005 08:10 AM GMT
UNCERTAINTY SURROUNDS MISSING IRAQ REPORTER
Friday January 7, 2005 08:07 AM
IRAQ'S ALLAWI WARNS OF MORE VIOLENCE
CHIRAC CAUTIONS REPORTERS TO STAY OUT OF IRAQ
EX-HOSTAGES QUESTION FRENCH PRESS BEING IN IRAQ
The release of Messrs. Malbrunot and Chesnot was sold in France as the fruit of Jack's quarrelsome Iraq policy. But Jack knows he played his lone trump and got lucky. He also knows it's only a matter of time and arithmetic odds before some French journalist is snatched and murdered.
In a moment of post-kidnap clarity, Georges Malbrunot asks:
"Isn't sending journalists to this country just playing the game of kidnappers who are waiting for precisely that?"
The "French defense" is not a universally recognized warrant among terrorists. But it is the only defense France can pretend to, so Jack asks the French Press to leave Iraq to others.
Pave hopes for the safe reappearance of Florence Aubenas and her Iraqi interpreter Hussein Hanoun Al Saadi.
You know I can't understand why Frog "journalist" even need to go over to Iraq. I mean the "story" is obvious. All a "responsible" frog "journalist" needs to do is parrot the terrorist's line. Heck they can do that as easily from Paris as from Iraq.
I agree, transcribing Al Jazeera can be done from the saftey of London's west end, if the reporter absolutely must travel abroad.
And now that Jack has established a price for the return of France's journalists, it seems like he is engaging in poor form to act like he can't afford it anymore.
Short sited policy = paying a ransome for your two celebrity reporters, without warning the other reporters in harms way, that you have set a price on their heads.
I just can't get over that post at E-nough! with the story of this missing woman reporter written in English! I have never seen «Libération» print anything in English. It's like they know that all hope is lost as regards to French diplomacy, and they are beseeching spurned Uncle Sam.
"Help us Uncle Sam. You are our only hope."
I hope Uncle Sam finds her.
