#1 This French for one, is not overcome with joy.
First of all, would have there been one thousandth of the mediatic mobilization (day after day TV bulletins started with a remainder about how long Miss Aubenas had been captive) if instead of a journalist she had been of ANY other profession, even a doctor or a nurse.
Second: Once again our politicians have caved to the chattering classes, the ones who can make or unmake a candidate to an election
Third: Her liberation has not been funded with the money of her paper (whio BTW is one of the more pathologiaclly anti-american in France, still more than "Le Monde" but through both political concessions and my taxes. A money who will be spent tomorrow in IEDs in Irak and the day after, who knows, in placing bombs in French commuter trains. How generous from Chirac (who doesn't use commuter trains) to try to regain popularity with my money and the political price France, not him, will pay.
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French journalist Florence Aubenas and her Iraqi interpreter returned home to emotional welcomes yesterday after they were released from a five-month hostage ordeal in Iraq, triggering a joyful wave of relief across France and beyond. Aubenas, a 44-year-old senior reporter for the newspaper Liberation, was being flown back to Paris on a small French air force jet due to arrive today. Her interpreter, Hussein Hanun, was driven to his Baghdad home in a French embassy car, and was immediately embraced by his crying wife and family. The pair were "in good health," President Jacques Chirac said in a televised address after French officials announced the release. "On behalf of everyone, I want to express to Florence Aubenas and Hussein Hanun our happiness and that of the entire nation to know that they are free," he said.