Christian Science Monitor correspondent Nicholas Blanford (pictured) was arrested and detained overnight by Hezbollah gunmen who thought he was spying for Israel. It’s surprising the MSM hasn’t picked up on this. Are journalists that cowed by the Alan Johnston affair?
In the eyes of our captors, my GPS device and a satellite phone – intended to aid our trip to remote Toufeil – only marked us as spies. Still, I was not unduly worried. I had been detained by Hizbullah before. It usually meant sitting with them for two or three hours while they verified my identity. I reeled off a list of names of top Hizbullah officials whom they could contact.
However, the Hizbullah men of the Bekaa are a tough, suspicious breed and unused to foreigners tramping around their areas.
Furthermore, Hizbullah has grown more wary of foreign journalists since the recent revelation that two Israeli correspondents had entered Lebanon on foreign passports and reported from the party’s strongholds in Beirut and the south, an act that has made life more difficult and potentially dangerous for Western journalists operating here.
Blanford was released the next day.
