August 16, 2006

No Word on Gaza Hostages: al Qaeda connection?

Two days hostage in Gaza is a long time. If you're not a Jew. Especially if you're a reporter. The various Palestininian terror groups understand this is bad P.R.

Perhaps the rumors that al Qaeda has successfully established cells in Gaza are true? If it is, I fear these are more Zarqawi al Qaeda types and less followers of bin laden.

Breitbart:

The wife of a kidnapped Fox News cameraman made a public plea Wednesday to his kidnappers to release him and his fellow journalist. Palestinian officials said they have no firm leads on where the two men are being held.

The cameraman, Olaf Wiig, 36, of New Zealand, and American reporter Steve Centanni, 60, were taken Monday from their TV van near the Palestinian security services headquarters. Major militant groups in Gaza have denied involvement and the kidnappers have yet to make any demands.

Wiig's wife, Anita McNaught, appealed to the kidnappers to free her husband and Centanni.

"The bottom line is, there is no good reason for these two men to be held," said McNaught, a freelance television journalist. "They are friends of the Palestinians. They are here telling the Palestinian story for weeks now, when the rest of the world's media has not been here."

Directing her words to her husband in the on-camera interview and choking back tears, McNaught said: "It's going to be all right. You are going to come home to me."

Via no-linky Drudge.

So, is there an al Qaeda connection? The Palestinian Authority is denying that there is one in one breath, and in the other denying that they even know who took the American and New Zealander hostage.

The Age:

No one has claimed responsibility for the kidnappings, and police said no one has come forward with demands.

Interior Ministry spokesman Khaled Abu Hilal called on Palestinians to give the authorities any information they had regarding the missing journalists and denied that the kidnappers had any connection with al-Qaeda.

Either the PA knows who is behind this, in which case they are in a position to help gain their release, or they don't, in which case they have no idea if al Qaeda is up and running under their watch.

By Rusty Shackleford, Ph.D. at 02:17 PM | |