Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Centanni and Wiig on Display

Al Jazeera released a video today of kidnapped Fox News reporter Steve Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig. WorldNetDaily reported today that the al Qaeda affiliated group, Holy Jihad, has claimed credit.

Fox News is controlled by Jews and Zionists, files "lying reports" from the Middle East and treats all Muslims as terrorists, the leader of a terror group that claims it represents the interests of al-Qaida in Gaza told WorldNetDaily in an interview today.

"Fox News is one more proof that all the media organizations in America are controlled by the Zionist lobby and the Jews. The journalistic policy of Fox is too pro-Israel. We are all terrorists in the eyes of Fox. It never tries to give an accurate image of what is happening on the ground. They show what is the opposite when it comes to Muslims," said Abu Mohammed, leader of the Palestine Army of Islam.

Now, I can't speak for the accuracy of the Fox News reports from the Middle East, because I'm not there to verify them. But I suspect Abu Mohammed would consider it to be "lying" if the reports cast any doubts on all the Fauxtography being orchestrated by terrorist sympathizers.

And Fox News doesn't treat all Muslims as terrorists. They treat all Muslim terrorists as terrorists. It's a subtle distinction, I know, but a crucial one.

The Holy Jihad released a statement to news agencies in which they demanded Muslim prisoners in U.S. jails be freed within three days in exchange for Centanni and Wiig. The group did not say what would happen if the deadline passed unanswered.

"We are going to exchange the Muslim female and male prisoners in American jails in return for the prisoners that we have. We are going to give you 72 hours beginning midnight tonight to take your decision," said the statement. "If you implement and meet our condition, we will fulfil our promise. If not, wait, and we are going to wait," the statement said.

We can't negotiate with terrorists. We can't do a prisoner exchange. Israel did that once, many years ago, and the terrorists learned that Israel will negotiate and exchange prisoners. That's why the Israeli soldiers were kidnapped last month, precipitating the war in Southern Lebanon.

What will be interesting for me to see is how the left-leaning, Fox-News-hating press handles this. On the one hand, the kidnapped people are journalists. On the other hand, they're (shudder!) Fox News. Such a difficult test of loyalty.

If, as we should, America refuses to agree to a prisoner exchange, who will the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times blame if the terrorists kill Centanni and Wiig? I've lost all hope for decency in MSM circles, so I believe they'll exonerate the kidnappers and blame President Bush instead. It's what they do best.

Michelle Malkin has more.

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