FOX News paid $2M to free hostages, could be held liable for funding terrorists

[LTR]

A World Nut Daily article by way of Buzzflash:

Palestinian terror groups and security organizations in the Gaza Strip received $2 million from a U.S. source in exchange for the release of Fox News employees Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig, who were kidnapped here last summer, a senior leader of one of the groups suspected of the abductions told WND.

The terror leader, from the Gaza-based Popular Resistance Committees, said his organization's share of the money was used to purchase weapons, which he said would be utilized "to hit the Zionists."

He said he expects the payments for Centanni and Wiig's freedom will encourage Palestinian groups to carry out further kidnappings.

Officials associated with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party and its security organization, the Preventative Security Services, confirmed to WND money was paid for the release of the Fox News reporters.

A senior leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group, the declared "military wing" of Fatah, said the group received a small percentage of the $2 million, which all parties interviewed said was transferred in cash.

(continued)

http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52960

[Perky]

1. As much as Detest Fox news....

I have no problem with this at all..you put your employees in harm's way you have a moral obligation to extract them even if it is ransom.

[LTR]

4. They should have talked to Ross Perot

He got his people out of Iran with hired commandos.

[GreenPartyVoter]

18. Ross Perot has been absent from the world stage for years. I suspect

he's got Alzheimer's or something debilitating to have made him drop out of sight like that.

[ComerPerro]

8. Sorry, but just about any conservative will tell you its wrong to negotiate

[w4rma]

22. Agreed. (nt)

[Scriptor Ignotus]

12. hmmm

so it's ok to fund terrorists $2M? The problem with paying ransom to terrorists is that you create a perpetual hostage machine. Now the terrorists are better funded and better armed. Guess what? Now they will capture even more hostages and so on and so on...

A zero-tolerance policy for ransom should apply to the US governemnt and US businesses, or else we may see more of this.

[Perky]

15. Ok you get to tell the kids that their their dad is not worth every effort to save him

Even though we have the money and we know who has him.

[cui bono]

17. It's a lot more complex than that.

You're just using a tug at heart strings to oversimplify an extremely complex situation. To be honest it sounds a lot like what one would hear on Faux if one were to watch it.

You tell the kids their dad's honor and principles are worth much more than $2m.

Reporters know the risks when they go into situations like that. I would venture to guess that most reporters would not want to be allowed to be used by the terrorists by having their release paid for. (I know, I know, we're talking about Faux News and their faux reporters, but still...) I would think that anyone with true honor and priniples would feel absolutely terrible knowing that the money used to save their life would be used to kill hundreds of others.

Their not just buying the freedom of the reporters, they're selling their dignity and principles.

By your logic why should soldiers fight any battles? They might die. Why not just give up and live? So the country is taken over by foreign invaders, so what? So the new government is completely totalitarian and fascist, so what? So you worry each day about being disappeared, live in poverty with no money flowing to the people's needs, so what? The kids still have their father. Where do you draw the line? You draw it way before that, you draw it at your principles. That's a much better lesson to teach your kids that will serve them for the rest of their lives.

And waht are you going to tell the kids of the next batch of reporters that get kidnapped sinc ethis one was succesful? What are you going to tell the kids who are maimed or whose parents are killed by the weapons this money bought?

[Scriptor Ignotus]

19. ok

but only if you get to tell the widows and orphans of the soon-to-be dead Israelis/ American soldiers/ Iraqi civilians why you gave their killers $2,000,000 so they can buy more guns and bombs.

And rest assured, that's exactly what the ransom money will be used for.

[stepnw1f]

13. A Conservative Propaganda News Channel Negotiates

with terrorism... I Love it! Runs contrary to all the shit they espouse.

[fasttense]

2. So why didn't the wiretapping

of terrorist and American citizens catch this? Why didn't Homeland Security keep Fox from funding the terrorist? Why didn't Homeland Security catch these traitors with their wiretapping? Where was all this terrorist protection the US gave up their constitutional rights to allow?

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

3. Great.

So not only do these groups have a crapload of new money to spend on weapons now, they have no doubt been encouraged to try the same stunt again.

[BootinUp]

5. Glad they were released, but I question the wisdom

of a straight cash deal like that. It would be interesting to know if the State Department signed off on that.

[Coexist]

6. americablog has a great piece on this -

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/11/someone-allegedly-paid-terrorist.html

[Ian David]

7. See prior thread:

IanDB1 Donating Member
Wed Nov-15-06 07:04 AM
$2 Million Ransom Paid to Release FOX News Reporters Last August
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2721180

[LTR]

9. I was looking for a thread on it

Didn't see one, so I posted this.

[DaveJ]

10. I hope they put tracking devices in the money

If so it would have been $2 million well spent.

[elehhhhna]

11. Freeing hostages? FIne. The free airtime they give ScaryPropagandaBoy

and those conveniently-timed OBL tapes deserves an investigaion, IMO. If that ain't aiding the terrorist, what is?

[progressoid]

14. Should we be surprised? Same thing the Reagan Cabal did.

[drm604]

16. Is there a source for this other then World Net Daily?

Not defending Faux at all, but I'd like a better source before I believe this.

[Gelliebeans]

20. I find this odd

especially when those jerks at FAUX were running commentary when Jill Carroll was abducted and they were all over the Christian Science Monitor about whether they were offering ransom money to terroists. :shrug:
hmm...

[WillyT]

21. K & R !!!

:kick:

[deacon]

23. kick and ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh recommend n/t