Kidnapped BBC Reporter Appears in Video

The “holy warriors” have released a video of kidnapped BBC reporter Alan Johnston, and as expected he launches into an anti-Israel, anti-US, anti-UK diatribe: Video of Kidnapped BBC Reporter Surfaces.

Was he forced to make these statements? It’s very likely; there’s no doubt that his kidnappers are murderous animals, and we certainly don’t want to blame the victim here.

But unfortunately, what he says isn’t that different from the BBC’s day-to-day reporting under normal circumstances. (The AP says he has a “reputation for objectivity” but that’s not how I would have put it after reading some of his earlier work.)

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A British reporter kidnapped in the Gaza Strip nearly three months ago appeared Friday in a videotape posted on an Islamic militant Web site, saying his captors had treated him well, denouncing Israel, and criticizing British and U.S. Mideast policy.

There was no date on the recording - the first sign of life from Alan Johnston since his abduction - and it was not clear why his captors decided to post it. The British Broadcasting Corp. journalist, who has been covering the Palestinian territories for three years, has a reputation for objectivity, and it seemed likely he was reciting what he was told to say.

The videotape appeared on the Al-Ekhlaas Web site, frequently used by Islamic militants. It bore the logo of the Army of Islam, the shadowy Palestinian group that had been believed to be holding the 45-year-old reporter, and opened with Arabic chanting and verses from the Quran.

The video ended with Johnston about to outline conditions for his release, only to have the tape cut away to an unidentified voice in Arabic demanding freedom for Islamic prisoners, including a radical cleric with ties to Al-Qaida imprisoned in Britain. The demand was accompanied by English subtitles.

Johnston looked fit and calm during the three minutes he spoke. “My captors have treated me very well, they’ve fed me well, there has been no violence towards me at all and I am in good health,” he said in his opening remarks - then launched into a litany of complaints about Israel, and British and U.S. Mideast policy.

“In three years here in the Palestinian territories I witnessed the huge suffering of the Palestinian people, and my message is that the suffering is continuing and it is unacceptable,” he said, blaming Israel.

He denounced Britain and the U.S. for causing suffering in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Palestinian territories, and condemned Britain specifically for “occupying Muslim lands against the will of the people in those places.”

Johnston also skewered Britain for its role in Israel’s creation on land the British once administered, calling Israel “the cause of all the suffering of the Palestinian people.”

“We the British are completely to blame, along with the Americans, for the situation in Iraq,” he added, while “the British are the main force in Aghanistan, causing all the trouble to all the simple Afghans who simply want to live.”

UPDATE at 6/1/07 11:43:59 am:

Zombie emailed an exact transcription of Johnston’s statements:

First of all, my captors have treated me very well. They’ve fed me well, there’s been no violence towards me at all, and I’m in good health.

In three years here in the Palestinian Territories, I’ve witnessed the huge suffering of the Palestinian people. And, uh, my message is that their suffering is continuing, and that it is unacceptable. Every day, there are Palestinians arrested, imprisoned for no reason, people are killed on a daily basis, the economic suffering is terrible, especially here in Gaza, where there’s an Israeli ... [technical glitch in the video] ... in absolute despair after nearly forty years of Israeli occupation, which has been supported by the West.

The situation in Iraq is even worse. We see every day, uh, maybe a hundred or more Iraqis being killed in the violence there, which followed the failed invasion of Iraq by America and Britain. Ordinary people who are losing everything and can’t live their lives properly because of not just the violence but the shortage of everything they need for normal lives for bringing up their children.

Uh, Afghanistan, the situation again, terrible, you see on your television screens, ordinary people, village people, villagers suffering as the armies of America and Britain [glitch] attack. In all this, we can see the British government endlessly working to occupy, uh, the Muslim lands, against the will of the people in those places. From history the British, eh, worked to bring about the state of Israel, which is the cause of all the suffering of, uh, the Israeli — uh, of the Palestinian people. And we the British are completely to blame along with the Americans for the situation in Iraq, and the British are the main force in Afghanistan, causing all the trouble to ordinary simple Afghans, who simply want to live.