Free Republic

An Austrian teenager recovering after spending eight years in an underground cell is grieving for her captor. Natascha Kampusch, 18, said Wolfgang Priklopil was "part of my life, that's why in a certain way I'm mourning him". He killed himself by jumping in front of a train after her escape last week. It is still unclear why he abducted her as she was on her way to school. "Give me time until I can tell my story myself," Ms Kampusch said in her first statement read by her psychiatrist. She said she understood the media "curiosity" about her life with...

The identity of the kidnappers of the two Fox News journalists released un-harmed in the Gaza Strip on Sunday was still shrouded in mystery as Palestinian Authority leaders remained tight-lipped on the case. Cameraman Olaf Wiig, 36, of New Zealand, and US-born correspondent Steve Centanni, 60, were handed over to PA security officers two weeks after they were seized by unidentified gunmen in Gaza City. For a Jerusalem Online video of events click here The two were driven to the Beach Hotel, where they were met by several Palestinian journalists and PA officials, including Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. "I want...

Two Fox News journalists freed by militants Sunday described a harrowing two weeks of captivity during which they were blindfolded, tied in painful positions and forced at gunpoint to say on a video that they converted to Islam. After their release, the men met with Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and left Gaza, but first appealed at a brief news conference for foreign journalists not to be deterred from covering the plight of the Palestinians in the volatile coastal strip. "I hope that this never scares a single journalist away from coming to Gaza to cover the story because the...

Veteran CBS journalist Mike Wallace described current Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as an "impressive fellow" following their meeting Tuesday in Tehran. "You'll find him an interesting man," the 88-year-old Wallace said. "I expected more of a firebrand. I don't think he has the slightest doubt about how he feels ... about the American administration and the Zionist state. He comes across as more rational than I had expected."

Hundreds pay respects to Ta Mok In a traditional Buddhist funeral ceremony, incense was burned and prayers recited over Ta Mok's body, which was daubed with white powder. The ceremony took place in Ta Mok's former stronghold of Anlong Veng, in the north of Cambodia. Ta Mok, who died on Friday, was the regime's military commander and linked to many atrocities of the 1970s. About 1.7 million people died under the Khmer Rouge, through a combination of starvation, disease and execution. Ta Mok was the only Khmer Rouge leader who refused to bargain with authorities following the collapse of the...

Sigmund Freud was the fellow who had the copyright on the ego, the id and the superego. He was also the guy who managed to turn the couch, formerly just another piece of over-stuffed Viennese furniture, into a legitimate business expense. But even he acknowledged that he was unable to decipher what it was that women wanted. Strangely enough, that happens to be one question to which I actually know the answer. Women want men to be manly chaps, strong and virile, while at the same time they want us to be completely open and in touch with our emotions....

Freed US hostage says Iraq insurgents 'will win:' video 18 minutes ago US authorities guarded freed hostage Jill Carroll in Iraq after insurgents released her from nearly three months of captivity and published a video showing her praising them. US officials declined to say when the 28-year-old freelance journalist would go home to the United States, but a top Sunni leader at whose office Carroll showed up on Thursday said she could arrive "anytime in the US." Video footage posted on the Internet late Thursday showed Carroll in an interview with her kidnappers before her release in which she praised...

American reporter Jill Carroll has been released after a three-month hostage ordeal in Iraq and was with US officials inside Baghdad's fortified Green Zone. -snip- Video interview A video posted on the internet, which could not be independently verified, showed Ms Carroll in an interview apparently conducted by her captors before they released her. "Did you think the American army or the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) would save you at any time," a muffled male voice asked Ms Carroll in accented English. "Sometimes I thought maybe that they might come, they might find me, they might find a way to...

Why is Jill Carroll dressed as an Iraqi Muslim female in her interviews with the press? Better yet, why does not some reporter ask her the same question? Something does not seem right. But what do I know sitting at my computer 8,000 miles away?

By Mike Fancher Seattle Times executive editor Why hasn't The Seattle Times published the Danish cartoons that sparked an international crisis? Readers who have asked that question see it as central to a complicated set of issues involving free expression, religious tolerance and international conflict. Those issues are complicated, but the answer to the central question is simple. We haven't published the cartoons because we believe they would needlessly and deeply offend a portion of our readers. That is the standard we routinely apply to potentially offensive material, asking ourselves whether there it is a compelling journalistic reason to publish....

Although freedom of religion and freedom of speech are both fundamental rights, they sometimes come into conflict with each other, as is the case with the caricatures recently published in the Danish newspaper "Jyllands-Posten" depicting the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). This has provoked uproar among Muslims, not just in Denmark, but across the Islamic world as it is widely understood that Islam forbids the depicting of Muhammad. The issue at stake here is not "self-censorship", which Flemming Rose, the newspaper's culture editor, claims has befallen Europe since the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh. It is whether...

"It is extremely important to point out that the aim behind these cartoons was not to attack the Prophet at all or devalue him, but as an opening to dialogue on freedom of expression," Sunday's apology said. "We did not realize at the time how sensitive this issue was for Muslims in Denmark or millions of Muslims around the world." The adverts included a previously published statement from the Danish embassy in Riyadh declaring respect for Islam. The apology was dated February 5, but an advertising spokesman at al-Riyadh said it might have taken time for the papers, which are...

Here is a tale of two hostages, one British, one German...Both are Arabic-speaking and Islamophile, both on self-appointed missions to "help" the Palestinians and the Iraqis respectively. Both were initially treated as heroines by the British and German media; both ended by colluding with their kidnappers, and both gave Islamism a propaganda coup. 'snip' Faced with this hullabaloo, the new coalition government of Chancellor Angela Merkel panicked. A ransom, believed to be as much as $5 million, was paid, thereby rewarding blackmail and offering an incentive for future abductions. But the kidnappers wanted more...One of the most notorious terrorists in...

DUBAI (AFP) - A former German hostage who spent 24 days in the hands of unknown captors in Iraq said her kidnappers were not criminals and had demanded humanitarian aid for Sunni Arab regions. Speaking to Doha-based satellite channel Al-Jazeera, Susanne Osthoff said her captors told her not to be afraid as her kidnapping was "politically motivated." "Do not be afraid. We do not harm women or children and you are a Muslim," she quoted them as saying. "I was so happy to know that I had not fallen into the hands of criminals," she said. Osthoff, a Muslim convert...

Dear Sen. Clinton: Greetings to you from Bethlehem, the birthplace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the center of the world for billions of Christians in the 2,000 years since the Word became flesh, and the home of a dwindling population of Palestinian Christians who, despite the continued pressures of living under Israeli policies of occupation and segregation, still hold onto their lands and dignity. I was encouraged when I met your husband here in Bethlehem in 1999, during the preparations for the Bethlehem 2000 millennium celebrations. I was also encouraged when in 1998 you said that “it will be in...

I hadn't seen a discussion on this, but after seeing part of the press conference from 2 of the rescued aid workers I thought that especially the one who did most of the talking was showing marked signs of Stockholm Syndrome. This is a condition in which people who are held captive become sympathetic - sometimes shockingly so - with their captives. (See the original Die Hard movie for a rather funny take on this, misnamed "Helsinki Syndrome" there). I thought it interesting that she went out of her way to say how well they had been treated... but later ...

If a conservative is a liberal who's been mugged, what do you call a Swede who's been kidnapped? Somebody you wouldn't want to cross, that's for sure. Ulf Hjertstrom has redefined the term Stockholm Syndrome, the bizarre attachment some hostages develop for their captors, first observed during a bank robbery in the Swedish capital more than 30 years ago. No such bonds were forged between Mr. Hjertstrom, a Swedish oil engineer, and the Shura Council of the Mujahedeen of Iraq, which held him captive for 67 days. "I have now put some people to work to find these bastards," Mr....

OKLAHOMA CITY - The wife of a deputy prison warden who vanished 10 years ago with an escaped killer told authorities after she was found that he had held her captive the whole time, a federal agent said Tuesday. A tip generated by the TV show "America's Most Wanted" led law enforcement to a mobile home in Campti, Texas, where escaped convict Randolph Dial was arrested Monday, said Salvador Hernandez, special agent in charge of the FBI in Oklahoma. The assistant warden's wife, Bobbi Parker, 42, was found a short time later working at a chicken farm not far from...

A PRISON warden’s wife who vanished after being kidnapped by an escaped killer has been found still living with him nearly 11 years later, running a chicken farm in Texas.Detectives said that Bobbi Parker, 42, a former Sunday school teacher with two children, had numerous opportunities to flee Randolph Dial over the years but chose instead to settle down with him to a quiet, rural lifestyle. Some believe that she may have been a willing accomplice. Others speculate that she may have developed Stockholm syndrome, whereby hostages develop a sympathetic bond with their captors as a survival mechanism. Mrs Parker...

The story of the rilasciata journalist "my kidnappers? He never considers you enemy " Sgrena speaks from its bed of hospital: "They said to fight for the liberation irachena, were not sgozzatori". ROME - Mentre it speaks has the look turned to the television, where the images slide that will remain. She that to the mattino he comes down malferma from the dell’aereo ladder, the Ciampi president who to deep night caress the coffin of Nicholas Calipari. Giuliana Sgrena has not still understood. Still account that every its word, now, will come put under to a microscope, analyzed, read...