October 21, 2004
THE UNDESERVING:
Downer blasts hostage over comments (The Age, October 21, 2004)
Kidnapped Australian journalist John Martinkus was attacked today by Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and former hostage Steve Pratt for appearing to say that Iraqi terrorists had a reason to kill some hostages.Mr Martinkus, who was kidnapped and interrogated for more than 20 hours in Baghdad before being freed last weekend, sparked outrage when he said of his captors:"(From their perspective) there was a reason to kill (British hostage Ken) Bigley, there was a reason to kill the Americans; there was not a reason to kill me (and) luckily I managed to convince them of that."
Mr Downer said today it was pretty much the most appalling thing any Australian had said about the Iraq war.
He accused Mr Martinkus of giving comfort to terrorists by saying that their actions were understandable.
Mr. Martinkus would hardly have missed his head. Posted by Orrin Judd at October 21, 2004 8:32 AM
Maybe they didn't cut off his head, but they surely did removed his brain.
Posted by: AllenS at October 21, 2004 9:04 AM"remove" not "removed". Always Preview.
Posted by: AllenS at October 21, 2004 9:05 AMAs Gen. Sherman said 'If we shot all the war correpspondents at sundown, there'd be dispatches from hell before breakfast.'
Posted by: Bart at October 21, 2004 1:27 PMMr. Downer's outrage was a little late -- Mr. Martinkus has long been a useful idiot of the Islamofascists. He obtained his freedom by demonstrating to his captors, via google, his long record of producing films excoriating the US military for SBS broadcasting, as well as serving as a human shield during the war. (See Belmont Club - The Taxman Cometh, http://belmontclub.blogspot.com/2004/10/taxman-cometh-strategy-page-describes.html). He did not lose his head, and has not lost his mind, because he is dhimmi, one who has surrendered and pays obeisance to Islam.
Posted by: jd watson at October 21, 2004 3:42 PM