Alan Johnston a freed man

[steevo]

Should be interesting to see what he has to say but I have a feeling his interview will be very predictable.

Freed by Hamas. Hmm?

Praise Allah!

BBC reporter Alan Johnston freed

A blogger: "While I'm glad he is alive, I am sure he is eager to get back to the UK to help spearhead the British Journalist Union's drive to boycott Israel. He's been away for months and there is much Israel-bashing to make up for with the Islamist Broadcasting Company, er, BBC!"

[Teddy Bear]

Well well, it appears I got this one spot on.

Just looking today at the Channel 4 interview with the shifty furtive cross eyed Hamas spokesman telling of how important it is to them to preserve a law abiding society, and not tolerate this kind of lawlessness...and it's very clear they were behind it, and as I predicted, this was nothing more than a PR exercise for them.

Expect the media spin about how 'good' Hamas is.

While I imagine that Johnston would probably want to keep a fairly low profile in the coming weeks, and particularly wish to avoid commenting on the Palestinian situation, as I believe his head and view went through a few changes during his abduction, I expect the BBC will put pressure on him to laud praise on the efforts of Hamas for securing his release. Whether or not he will return to his previous stance, or be rather more circumspect in light of his personal trial he has just endured remains to be soon. Since he can make a lot of money now in after-dinner speeches, and will not want to 'offend' the Muslim elements, he will probably revert to his former view.

But on this, this time I'd like to be wrong.

[steevo]

Yup (it does look like) you were spot on. And I must confess, all along I thought you were a total numbskull

I wonder how casual BBC jounos will be now in their home away from home?

[Teddy Bear]

It'a a good thing for Johnston he was incommunicado during the recent Israel boycott by those UK journalists, otherwise where would he have 'hung out' after his release? I think he's lost his taste for terrorist areas.

Lest anybody think this whole thing wasn't a PR inspired stunt by Hamas, guess what the BBC are running today in their 'Have Your Say' section?

Should the world now talk to Hamas?
The day after BBC correspondent Alan Johnston's release from captivity in Gaza, 20 British Members of Parliament have called for a change in the relationship with Hamas.

The radical islamist group that controls the Gaza strip is classified as a terrorist organisation by the European Union and the United States.

Hamas has promised to restore law and order in Gaza and played a key role in the release of Alan.

Can Hamas be relied upon? Should the US, the EU and Russia start negotiating with Hamas? Should they end a 17 month-long blockade on Gaza?

Just like Ahmadinajad played a key role in the release of the abducted British Soldiers? What 'good guys' they really are. Was it only a few weeks ago that Hamas was killing indiscriminately to achieve their control of Gaza over Hamas? They've only sworn never to accept Israel alongside any Palestinian state, but hey, they 'got Johnston released'.

Also I read in a Times article today that

The Foreign Office took some credit for Johnston’s release, saying it had played up that he was a friend of the Palestinian people. “Our object was to get Alan out safely and that was achieved,” a spokesman said

Played up? Meaning he wasn't?

Maybe their only 'playing up' that Hamas are a moral and honourable organisation.

If I'm a 'numbskull' 8-)but can see through this bullshit, what form of life does the BBC and the Foreign Office represent?

[Teddy Bear]

Alan Johnston is back home with his family.
He says of his ordeal
"The last 16 weeks have been the very worst of my life," he added.

"I was in the hands of people who were dangerous and unpredictable.

"I literally dreamed many times of being free and always woke up back in that room."

No Alan, they are 'freedom fighters', least that's what you've been telling us until now.

[steevo]

Yes. He is guilty. In spite of his ordeal I still have no sympathy for him.

[Teddy Bear]

I'm waiting to hear if he'll change his tune any now he's had 'personal' dealings with this scum that until now he's been lauding.

And here is confirmation from a Palestinian official that Hamas was in cahoots with the Dugmash clan over the kidnapping.

BBC reporter's freedom 'really staged for movie'
Palestinian official claims terror group in cahoots with abductors of Johnston

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: July 4, 2007
2:39 p.m. Eastern

By Aaron Klein
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

Alan Johnston after his release (BBC)

JERUSALEM – Hamas' purported rescue operation today in which kidnapped BBC reporter Alan Johnston was freed from captivity really was a "movie" staged by Hamas to endear itself to the international community and demonstrate it is capable of imposing order in Gaza, a senior Palestinian Authority official charged.

"We're watching a movie where the thieves in Gaza fall out and one of them claims to be honest and brave, and the other is the bad guy. This Hamas game fools no one," said Yasser Abed Rabbo, chief aid to PA President and Hamas rival Mahmoud Abbas.

Rabbo charged Hamas was in "cahoots" with Johnston's kidnappers, the Gaza-based Army of Islam, which together with Hamas kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit last June. Johnston was held in Gaza for nearly four months.

Hamas leaders denied the rescue operation was staged.

"Our efforts resulted in the freedom of Johnston and prove Hamas is able to restore law and order to the Gaza Strip unlike the corrupt Fatah party," Hamas spokesman Abu Oubaida told WND.

Hamas chieftain Khaled Meshaal, speaking to reporters from Syria, boasted Hamas has "been able to close this chapter which has harmed the image of our people greatly."

Johnston was freed after Hamas gunmen closed in around the compound of the Gaza Army of Islam in which Johnston was held.

According to Israeli and Palestinian security sources, the exact location in which Johnston was being kept has been known to Hamas, Fatah and Israeli security organizations for at least two months.

One Hamas gunman involved in the rescue operation told reporters, "After (the Army of Islam) had been surrounded and we had closed in on them, they decided to release. They surrendered with no conditions. We gave them security if they handed him over alive and unharmed and they handed over their weapons."

Upon being freed, Johnston was transported to the home of Ismael Haniyeh, who was the Palestinian prime minister until Abbas' dissolved the Hamas-led PA government after Hamas took over the Gaza Strip last month.

Johnston thanked Haniyeh and said Hamas saved his life.

At a news conference in Jerusalem, Johnston again credited Hamas with saving his life.

"I'm pretty sure that if Hamas hadn't come in and turned the heat on, I'd still be in that room," Johnston said.

"Hamas has a huge law and order agenda," he said.

Although Hamas is considered a terror group by most Western governments, Johnston said, Hamas "is better at keeping law and order than many would agree. And God knows Gaza needs law and order."

Johnston said when he was first kidnapped, he was tied up for a 24-hour period. Afterward, he said he was held in a murky room with one man, where radio was his only contact with the outside world.

Johnston described the man with whom he spent most of his time in captivity: "He was a strange guy who barely spoke to me for days and would just glare at me and fly into rages at tiny things – a door slamming or whatever – and then at other times, once a fortnight, he would come across completely different and friendly, especially if he thought it might be coming to an end, the whole kidnapping," Johnston told BBC Radio.

At one point, Johnston said, his guard invited him to watch television, and he saw his father giving a news conference calling for his release.

Johnston was abducted from a street in the Gaza Strip March 12, marking the longest detention of any foreign correspondent held captive in Gaza.

Several videos were released taking credit for Johnston's kidnapping on behalf of the Army of Islam. The videos and statements faxed to news agencies demanded prisoners associated with al-Qaida be freed from British and Jordanian jails.

WND first reported in April senior Palestinian security officials believed Johnston was being held by the Dugmash clan, a powerful Gaza-based Palestinian family affiliated with local terrorist organizations and ideologically aligned with global jihad groups. The Dugmash's lead the Army of Islam, which later took credit for the kidnapping.

Some members of the Dugmash clan previously the "Saladin resistance department" of the Popular Resistance Committees, a coalition of terrorist organizations operating in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

The Committees organization is accused of orchestrating attacks along with groups affiliated with al-Qaida and has carried out anti-American attacks. Israel says the Committees group was responsible for the bombing of a U.S. convoy in Gaza in 2003 in which three American government contractors were killed.

A significant number of Dugmash clan members left the Committees last year, complaining the group was not "Muslim enough." They formed the Palestine Army of Islam, which bills itself as the closest Palestinian organization ideologically to al-Qaida. The Army of Islam is one of three terrorist groups that claimed responsibility in June for the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Army of Islam chief Mumtaz Dugmash last month was crowned the "prince of al-Qaida in Gaza" in a statement released by al-Qaida leaders in Iraq.

Israeli and Palestinian security officials said the Dugmash clan was strongly suspected of kidnapping two Fox News reporters in Gaza in August who were held for two weeks but later released.

WND previously featured an English-language exclusive debut interview with Mumtaz Dugmash, also known as Abu Muhammad.

Dugmash, speaking from Gaza, said last August during the Fox News kidnap ordeal he understood the "necessity" of carrying out abductions of reporters.

"This support of America brought the killing of thousands of Palestinians and Muslims all around history. We cannot ignore the atrocities of the Americans in killing Palestinians and Muslims all over the world," said Dugmash.

"We can understand very well our brothers who made this act (of kidnapping) was a desperate act in order to cry out in front of the whole world against the atrocities of the Americans in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Palestine and the subjugation of Muslims all over the region."

[indikit]

Unfortunately getting Alan to sing about the true barbarianism of his captors is a missed opportunity. In time, after he starts to tow the BBC line again, and after his feathers have been puffed up constantly by BBC toads constantly hailing him as a hero, he'll forget about what animals they really are and find some new excuse to go back to Gaza and back their cause again.

[Teddy Bear]

I doubt he'll ever go back to Gaza, at least while it's under Hamas control. If he goes back to the area at all, it won't be as a journalist but to receive some award or other to increase his stature as an after-dinner speaker, he'll probably want to stay in the 'evil' Israel for the duration. If he should have to go to the Palestinian areas he'll want a substantial armed guard.

[Teddy Bear]

Honest Reporting reflects on how Hamas has been using their 'achievement' with Johnston to score political points, especially with those who wish to score their own.

HAMAS SANITISED FOLLOWING JOHNSTON'S RELEASE

We welcome the release of Alan Johnston. However, many people were disturbed at Hamas's PR coup and the resulting "rebranding" of a terror group that only weeks before had been throwing Fatah members off rooftops, into a responsible organisation committed to law and order. Times commentator Gerard Baker notes:

Funny isn’t it, how, when the US or British governments do anything they claim is good we always assume there’s some ulterior motive? They foil a terrorist plot and the world’s media note with heavy irony the coincidence of a president’s or prime minister’s flagging approval ratings. But when Hamas pulls a stunt like the one it managed this week, we’re all transfixed, lost in innocent admiration at the sheer humanity of these people. Our credulity is mocked further because we really ought to know that this latest incident is straight from the Hamas playbook – doing little works of charity and economic efficiency in Gaza and the West Bank, the Palestinian equivalent of making the trains run on time to further their bloodcurdling big objectives.

Jerusalem Post Editor David Horovitz sums it up nicely:

You couldn't make up some of the noxious garbage Hamas has been spouting since it sprang the BBC's Alan Johnston from the hands of a rival/allied terror gang.

My favorite was the Hamas spokesman in Gaza telling a BBC World Service radio interviewer on Wednesday evening that no one should have been surprised at its success in securing Johnston's release. After all, he declared without so much as a wobble at the absurdity of his contention (it was radio, so I couldn't see if his nose was growing), Hamas never stands silent when violence is being perpetrated "against the Jewish, the Christians…"

The interviewer (it was radio, so I couldn't see if he was nodding) chose not to contest this despicable claim - neither to point out that the Hamas charter features the quoted invocation to kill Jews, nor to confront the saintly Hamas interviewee over his gang's ruthless murders of its own Palestinian brethren during the recent Gaza takeover.

Neither, needless to say, did he venture to highlight that Hamas, by its own admission, is itself holding a hostage, our own Gilad Schalit, snatched from inside Israel's sovereign borders, whose time in captivity long exceeds the 114-day misery to which Johnston was subjected.

Straight after the Hamas man's unchallenged humanitarian broadcast, a British Labor member of the European parliament came on the air to advocate a cautious reassessment of contacts with Hamas, which had now proven its capacity to act responsibly.

Who, after listening to the previous interview, could beg to differ?

If you beg to differ, write to any media outlets who may conveniently forget that, despite securing Alan Johnston's freedom (and remember - it is unclear what kind of deal was struck with his captors), Hamas remains what it previously was - a terrorist organisation committed to the murder of Jews and the destruction of the State of Israel.

[Teddy Bear]

And here's the BBC doing further PR work for Hamas. I'm going to highlight the relevant sentences. Look at how Reynolds of the BBC strings it all together. First showing the 'good' that Hamas is doing (in his opinion), minimising the bad, and casting aspersions on those who don't buy into his version

Last Updated: Wednesday, 4 July 2007, 15:55 GMT 16:55 UK

Hamas seeks to gain from release
By Paul Reynolds
World Affairs correspondent BBC News website

There is no doubt that Hamas has scored a major propaganda victory with the release of the BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston.

The issue now is whether it can convert that victory into progress towards getting itself accepted as a recognised representative of the Palestinians internationally.

Currently, the outside world is concentrating its support on the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah party which controls the West Bank.

1. It was no accident that Alan Johnston was taken to the home of the Hamas leader in Gaza Ismail Haniya, who was sacked as Palestinian prime minister by Mr Abbas.

The message was clear. Hamas is in charge, is a responsible organisation... [that] has nothing to do with the al-Qaeda inspired kidnappers and can impose law and order

There, the freed reporter was given breakfast and told his story in the presence of the Hamas leadership who posed with him for photographs.

2. The message was clear. Hamas is in charge, is a responsible organisation that won the Palestinian elections last year, has nothing to do with the al-Qaeda inspired kidnappers and can impose law and order.
The implication was that affairs in Gaza have improved since Hamas seized control and that the world should now deal with it.

3. Ismail Haniya suggested that Britain had been rewarded in this matter because it had ignored the embargo on talks with Hamas by speaking to it directly, a hint that it is worth doing business with Hamas.

The British consul-general from Jerusalem did visit Gaza for that purpose.


Plea to Fatah

4. Mr Haniya also made a plea to Mr Abbas for reconciliation. "If there is a real desire... then we will be able to achieve numerous interests for the Palestinian people towards freedom, return, and independence," he said.

However, an Abbas aide, Yasser Abed Rabbo, claimed that Hamas and the kidnappers had coordinated the kidnapping and release. "I think this was staged by Hamas to make it appear as if it respects international law," he said.

There was a limited acknowledgement of Hamas' role in a statement by the new British Foreign Secretary David Miliband. He mentioned Ismail Haniya by name but he mentioned President Abbas first.

"I'd also like to recognise the priority that has been given to this issue by President Abbas and also by the leadership of Hamas, including Ismail Haniya," he said.

So the priority for Western governments is still the same. Mr Abbas comes first.

Quartet conditions

Hamas' hurdle is that the main international negotiating group known as the Quartet - the US, the UN, the EU and Russia - has laid down three conditions for accepting any party to the negotiating process (not that there is one at the moment).

These conditions were laid out in a statement from the Quartet on 30 January 2006 after Hamas won the Palestinian elections.

"It is the view of the Quartet that all members of a future Palestinian government must be committed to non-violence, recognition of Israel, and acceptance of previous agreements and obligations, including the Roadmap," the statement said.

Hamas has not fulfilled those conditions and in any case the situation has changed significantly since Hamas imposed its total control by force in Gaza.

The Palestinian territories are now divided between Hamas and Fatah. This has led to the Quartet making a choice and it has chosen Fatah.

Israel's position

Alan Johnston's release is not likely to change Israel's mind about Hamas.

A commentary on Israel radio stated: "Sources said that instead of becoming all excited over Alan Johnston's release, one should recall the kidnappings and chaos in the Gaza Strip, while continuing to demand that the PNA (Palestinian National Authority) uphold its promise and bring about the release of Gilad Shalit."

Gilad Shalit is an Israeli corporal who has been held in Gaza for more than a year.

As for the Arab world, the Saudi King Abdullah has urged the two sides to get back together. Jordan is backing Mr Abbas. Some sentiment lies with Hamas. Reuters reports that several key Saudi clerics last week urged Palestinians not to give up jihad against Israel.

"Maintain the way of jihad and preaching which has spread among the Muslim Palestinian people. Support it and beware of it easing up, and ward off the danger of those who are laying in wait," said a statement published on Islamist Web sites, signed by 16 leading figures in Saudi Arabia's religious establishment.

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