Posted on 10/19/2004 6:59:34 AM PDT by dead
Iraqi militants who kidnapped and threatened to kill an Australian journalist "Googled" his name on the internet to check his work before releasing him unharmed.
John Martinkus, a veteran freelancer who has covered conflicts from East Timor to Iraq, was released yesterday, a day after he was taken hostage by four Sunni militants and ex-Iraqi army officers.
Mr Martinkus was filming a report for SBS's Dateline program and was preparing to leave Iraq when he was grabbed about 5pm (AEST) on Saturday outside a hotel popular with foreign correspondents.
SBS executive producer Mike Carey today said the journalist's captors had investigated his background online and saw he was harmless.
"They Googled him, they checked him out on a popular search engine and got onto his own website or his publisher's website and saw he was a writer and journalist," Mr Carey said.
"They had thought he was working for the Americans as an informer."
In this case, modern technology probably saved his life, he said.
"It certainly did help," Mr Carey said.
Mr Martinkus said he was caught outside a Baghdad hotel occupied by journalists, directly across the road from the Australian embassy.
He said his life was threatened but was treated well once he told his kidnappers he was independent and not linked to the US-led coalition in Iraq.
"I can't say very much but ... of course they said they were going to kill me," Mr Martinkus told ABC's Lateline program yesterday.
"I was able to basically establish that I was an independent journalist reporting what was going on and that I had no links to the coalition."
News of Mr Martinkus's kidnapping came as a car bomb exploded near the Australian embassy in Baghdad, killing seven people, and as Mr Downer confirmed the government had rejected a United Nations request for Australian troops to help protect UN officials in Iraq.
AAP
I can't help but wonder if they let him cut somebody else's head off before sending him on his merry way.
Wow. If they googled old Ben . . . I hate to think!
"I can't say very much but ... of course they said they were going to kill me," Mr Martinkus told ABC's Lateline program yesterday.
Until they determined he was a sympathizer. Mr. Martinkus may yet find that not everyone is applauded for the way they save their own skin.
Anyone still think that the biased reporting of the liberal media doesn't aid our enemies?
If so, I have some excellent swampland in Florida that I would like to interest you in.
This is good news for the enemies at ABCBSNBCNN who are reporting live from Iraq. Alls they will have to do is ask their kidnappers to do a Google search on them or their station and they will be let free to continue their assault on America over our airwaves.
Ping
"A quick Google, and you can see why they let him go - he's unabashedly on their team."
If hes working for the terrorists, doesn't that make him a terrorist? Shouldn't he be in prison?
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