After Daily Telegraph reporter James Brandon was kidnapped from his hotel by Iraqi mujaheedin, he had only nice things to say about them:
“Initially I was treated roughly, but once they knew I was a journalist I was treated well and I want to say thank you to the people who kidnapped me.”
‘Thank you’!! And the feeling was mutual — this is why they let him go, according to a Knight-Ridder wire story:
“Journalists are our brothers, our friends,” said Sheik Salah al Ubaidi, an al-Sadr spokesman in Baghdad. “They reflect our opinions and convey our voices to all of the world.”
Yet when BBC reporter Orla Guerin chanced upon a Nablus house this week while the IDF was in an undercover operation, and she was held for some time to ensure the troops’ safety, it was another story entirely. Guerin has the altogether natural reaction of resenting her captivity. Why does that disappear when Arabs are the captors?
