Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (99239)	2/8/2005 3:41:01 AM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793917

Typical - Junk Yard blog - DID U.S. TROOPS FREE THE EGYPTIAN HOSTAGES OR NOT? The Beeb tosses up a curious treatment of the end of a hostage situation in Iraq: Four Egyptian engineers who were kidnapped in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, have been freed by US forces. "They are in good health and no ransom was paid," a spokesman for their employer, Egyptian telecoms giant Orascom, told the AFP news agency. The four men were seized from their home in the affluent neighbourhood of al-Mansour on Sunday. Foreigners working for multinational firms have been regularly targeted by hostage-takers in Iraq. The men - named as Mohammed al-Saadi, Hussein Ashour, Waleed Ismail and Sayed Shaaban - were released when US forces raided a house, Orascom's chairman, Naguib Sawiris, told Egyptian television. However, an Egyptian diplomat told the Associated Press news agency the employees were freed by US troops manning a checkpoint. Several arrests had been made, he said. Now, I may be nitpicking here, but no one gets "released" in a raid. They are actively freed by the raiding force. By saying the hostages "were released," the action is on the releasing as opposed to the freeing--the acting agent in the Beeb's construction is the releaser, i.e. the terrorists who had been holding them. Here's how the UK's Herald treats the story. Headline: Troops raid house to free hostages US forces stormed a house to free four Egyptian telecommunications engineers kidnapped in Iraq, the head of their parent company said last night. Naguib Sawiris, chairman of Orascom Telecom, told an Egyptian television station from Algeria that the men were safe and the firm had contacted their families to inform them they were free. That's much stronger, no? US forces "stormed" a house and then set the hostages "free." Checking around other papers, the Sydney Herald Sun doesn't even mention US forces' role at all. Headline: Four hostages set free in Iraq. Which leads to the belief that the terrorists freed the hostages of their own volition, not because US troops either scared or killed them. The Turkish Press account also doesn't mention the American role. junkyardblog.net