Two journalists of New York's Newsday newspaper who disappeared from a Baghdad hotel on Monday while covering the war were believed to be detained by the Iraqi government, the newspaper said on Saturday. Newsday editor Anthony Marro said in a statement that no one saw reporter Matthew McAllester, 33, and photographer Moises Saman, 29, removed from the Palestine Hotel but their room was empty and Iraqi security officials asked other journalists questions about the pair's activities.
Notice the Iraqis didn't detain anyone from Reuters.
"Mr. McAllester and Mr. Saman were in Baghdad for only one purpose — to report the news for Newsday," Marro said. "We appeal to Iraqi officials to explain their whereabouts, to allow us to contact them directly and to allow their safe passage out of Iraq."
| But what're you gonna do if they don't? That's life with the secret police. Look on the bright side, though. Normally, they just beat them up and throw them out of the country — unless they want to make an example. |
The newspaper reported in its Saturday editions that three Westerners who disappeared from the hotel at the same time as McAllester and Saman, turned up in Syria on Friday. The report cited representatives of the peace activist group Human Shield Action as saying they had spoken with activist Philip Latasa of Virginia, who was accompanied by two photographers — Molly Bingham of the United States and Johan Spanner of Denmark.
| Did want to make an example of this bunch, I guess... |
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists and the Vatican, through its representatives in Baghdad, were assisting Newsday, Marro said in his statement. He said the newspaper had also asked the Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations to help find the journalists, who also worked together covering the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan starting in Oct. 2001. |