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Case of kidnapped Fox journalists could be resolved in 'the coming hours.'
Fingers crossed, but would he be putting himself in this position, if he doesn't know something?
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip // With a deadline looming over the fate of two Fox News journalists kidnapped in Gaza City, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Saturday that he hoped the crisis would be resolved "in the coming hours." The journalists, correspondent Steve Centanni, 60, of Washington, D.C., and cameraman Olaf Wiig, 36, of New Zealand, were seized in Gaza City on Aug. 14. Their captors demanded the release of all Muslims imprisoned by the U.S. by midnight Saturday, in exchange for freeing the Fox journalists.
"Okay! Listen up! Tyrone, Homer, and Manuel, youse guys are being freed and sent to Gaza!"
"Hey screw, why us?"
"The government is releasing all the Muslims."
"But none of us is Muslim!"
"You are now! Now pack your shit and git moving!"
The kidnappers, a previously unknown group calling itself the Holy Jihad Brigades, did not say what it would do to the men if the deadline passed with their demands unanswered. It is not clear whether the kidnappers were local militants, either with ties to Hamas or the rival Fatah movement, or sneaked into Gaza from outside.

"We hope that this issue is going to be over in the coming hours," Haniyeh, a Hamas leader, said in a statement. "There are promises that the journalists will not be harmed. I hope that this case is going to be ended and solved in a way that reflects that the Palestinians respect their guests." Haniyeh did not elaborate.

Interior Ministry spokesman Khaled Abu Hilal said authorities were exerting efforts to release the journalists, but were not negotiating with the kidnappers.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists called on Saturday for the journalists' release. "Palestinian authorities must continue their efforts to secure the safe release of these two professionals, who were unjustly taken while trying to report the news from Gaza. These journalists should be freed immediately and unconditionally," said Joel Simon, executive director of the committee.
There, that should do it.
Wiig's wife, Anita McNaught, traveled to Gaza soon after the kidnapping to appealing for the men's safe release. Centanni's brother, Ken, has made a similar plea.
Posted by: Sherry 2006-08-26
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=164154