Cripes! A friend of mine was kidnapped in Iraq!

[AnitaPeterson]

I just saw it on TV: a friend of mine, whom I went to college with, was kidnapped in Iraq... I hope she'll be alright, Romania - despite its recent pro-Bush stance - usually had great relations with Arab countries.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4389391.stm


edit

Damn it!
http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_s...le_east_full_story.asp?service_id=7974
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/04/22/iraq.romania/

This is really bad news for the pro-Washington Romanian president... he won the elections just barely, and the decision to join the Iraq war effort was met with massive criticism from everybody, including his political lieutenants...

I hope they withdraw the troops, this is not their war, and I'd be really sorry to see Marie-Jeanne killed for a crappy political game.

 

[Darkhawk28]

I hope she'll be home safe real soon.

 

[aidanjm]

here's hoping she'll get out of this ok

 

[InfectedMushroom]

I hope they'll be ok. Looks like they were allowed to call to say they have been kidnapped.

 

[dmcowen674]

 

[arsbanned]

Note to self: Stay away from Iraq?
Huh. Sorry to hear about your friend. That's the U.S., making the World a safer place....

 

[Czar]

 

[judasmachine]

crap man, i hope she does make it through alright. bad bad days.

 

[Albatross]

the media here says that they were kidnapped for money so there is still hope.

 

[AnitaPeterson]

I'm trying to rally connections over at the Freedom Forum, IREX and a few other international organisms... If the "six degrees of separation" theory is correct, someone should be able to lend a hand here. No to mention it would be good PR for the State Department, who needs to smooth relations with Romania a bit at this point...

 

[phillyTIM]

yes, how much safer the World now is with Bush's golden touch...indeed.

 

[Harvey]

I wish your friend safe home.

 

[her209]

I read a story in Maxim where a photographer was kidnapped in Iraq and subsequently released because his kidnapping wasn't publicized on the news stations. Because it wasn't publicized, the kidnappers couldn't sell him at a good price to the terrorists.

 

[conjur]

The missing journalists were named as Marie Jeanne Ion and cameraman Sorin Dumitru Miscoci of Prima TV and Ovidiu Ohanesian of Romania Libera newspaper.

Here's to their speedy and safe return!

 

[AnitaPeterson]

Here's hoping things won't turn too political... not here, on ATOT, I mean the actual international scene.

 

[StormRider]

I hope everything turns out okay.

 

[InfectedMushroom]

Looks like Al-Jazeera showed a tape:

Tape purportedly shows kidnapped reporters

March 30, 2005 | Baghdad, Iraq -- The Al-Jazeera satellite channel aired a tape Wednesday said to show three kidnapped Romanian journalists and a fourth unidentified person. The station said the four were held by an unnamed militant group. The authenticity of the tape could not be verified.

The tape showed the four seated on the ground in a room, with a blanket hung behind them. Two men ? their faces covered with scarves ? pointed guns at them.

The missing journalists, abducted Monday night near their Baghdad hotel, have been identified as reporter Marie Jeanne Ion, 32, and cameraman Sorin Dumitru Miscoci, 30, from Bucharest-based television station Prima TV, and Romania Libera reporter Ovidiu Ohanesian, 37.

In the video, a woman in the group wore a yellow headscarf. She spoke into a small microphone, but the station did not air the audio.

The station said no demands were made.

The missing journalists were taken hours after interviewing Iraq's interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. One used her cell phone to send a text message to her newsroom reading, "Help. This is not a joke. We've been kidnapped."

 

[AnitaPeterson]

Arrrgh!

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-04/22/content_2866351.htm

"Insurgents in Iraq threatened to kill three Romanian journalists they kidnapped last month, unlessthe Romanian government pulls out troops from Iraq, the Qatar-basedal-Jazeera TV channel reported Friday.

"The militants gave the Romanian government four days from thedate of the videotape to withdraw from Iraq or they would kill them," the broadcaster of the Arabic TV said.

Romania has about 730 troops in Iraq."

 

[conjur]

I sure hope it ends well, though.

 

[conjur]

Romanian kidnap victims released!

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s...d=586&e=1&u=/nm/20050522/wl_nm/iraq_dc

 

[Kerouactivist]

Originally posted by: conjur
Romanian kidnap victims released!

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s...d=586&e=1&u=/nm/20050522/wl_nm/iraq_dc

thats great news
thx for the update