RESPONSIBILITY SOCIETY:

Palestinian PM optimistic about journalists' release (CNN, 8/27/06)

The Palestinian prime minister said late Saturday that he hopes two Fox journalists kidnapped earlier this month will be released "in the coming hours," his office said.

The kidnappers have promised Ismail Haniyeh, a member of Hamas who came to power earlier this year, that the journalists will not be hurt, according to Haniyeh's staff.

"There is progress in the issue of the journalists, and there are promises also that they won't be harmed," Haniyeh told the Palestinian news service, Ramattan.

"The interior minister, Said Siyam, is personally following this matter, and we hope it will be resolved in a way befitting us as a resistant and civilized Palestinian people," he said.

A nice illustration of how Hamas and the PLO have been normalized by the accountability that comes with political power.

MORE:
Fox News Journalists Released in Gaza (Doug Struck, 8/27/06, Washington Post)

Two Fox Television journalists held for 13 days in the Gaza Strip were released Sunday after they were shown on a videotape saying they converted to Islam.

The two journalists, American Steve Centanni, 60, and New Zealand cameraman Olaf Wiig, 36, "have liberated themselves" by converting to Islam, according to the statement accompanying a videotape from a group calling itself the Holy Jihad Brigades.

After their release, Centanni and Wiig told reporters that they hoped that their experience would not scare other journalists from reporting on the Palestinians. After a brief news conference, they headed by van for Jerusalem, CNN reported.

Separately, an Egyptian newspaper reported that a deal was close for a prisoner exchange that would release two Israeli soldiers whose abduction had sparked the 33-day war in south Lebanon.

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 27, 2006 9:09 AM