French journalist Georges Malbrunot, who was released just before Christmas after four months in captivity in Iraq, saw in the new year at his parents' home in the south of France with tears in his eyes and a sense of relief that he was not British.
"On Planet bin Laden, they look first at your nationality. Had we been British -- or from another coalition country -- we would have been decapitated within days," he said.
Malbrunot, 41, and Christian Chesnot, 37, were released by the Salafist Islamic Army on 22 December after 124 days of threats from their captors, false hopes of freedom, US shelling and secret negotiations -- but allegedly no ransom payment -- by the French government.
"We never saw the faces of our captors," said Malbrunot, who reports for the conservative Le Figaro. "They wore balaclavas. One day, one of them, who boasted that he had been trained in Afghanistan at one of `Sheikh Osama's' camps, told us not to be troubled by the balaclavas. `It means I am not going to kill you. If I was going to kill you, I would have bared my face to you right away,' he told us."
Malbrunot believes they weren't killed -- as numerous other hostages have been -- because they were French.
"Knowing the way the British authorities abandon their subjects when they are in trouble abroad, we were fortunate. We never doubted that everything was being done, albeit in secret, to secure our release," he said.
"It stirs you up to realize, in restrospect, you came very, very close to death. I cried the other day in Baghdad, when French diplomats gave us their summary of our 124 days in captivity. It included two 48-hour ultimatums on our lives we never knew about. It is moving to realize the extent to which the whole of France, its government, its Muslims, and probably many influential people in the Arab world rallied to our cause."
Malbrunot and Chesnot -- who reports for Radio France Internationale -- were abducted with their driver on Aug. 20 when on the road from Baghdad to Najaf their car was cut off by two Mercedes.
Seven or eight armed men tore open the doors and blindfolded them.
The three men were held in a hut for a week, sleeping on the floor, using a hole as a toilet and being fed rice, dates, beans and bread. They saw other abductees, most of whom were later killed.
Fereydun Jahani, an Iranian consul, was to be released, but two Macedonians were beheaded after two months, as was a bodyguard for Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmad Chalabi.
"We heard them interrogate an Iraqi hostage working on an electricity plant. They divide hostages into two categories -- those who are to be executed and those worth entering into negotiations over. Our interrogator was known as Fatso; he introduced himself as the chief intelligence officer of the Islamic Army. He was a former intelligence agent for Saddam.
"Fatso's job was to grill us and put the evidence before a tribunal presided over by a sheikh. The tribunal apparently decided we were worth negotiating over, and on Sept. 2 Christian and I were moved to a `better place' -- a ground-floor room, about 45 minutes' drive from the farm." The driver was released.
"We had no knowledge of the Islamic Army before they captured us. But we developed a picture of an organization with money, contacts in Europe and a double agenda -- to fight the occupation and wage a jihad as preached by bin Laden.
"They were well-equipped, convinced that the West is waging war against the Muslim faith, and would boast of their offensives against the Americans. At the same time they were inexperienced enough to leave scraps of paper lying around that gave us clues as to where we were and what was to happen to us.
"I would like to tell my British friends in the profession to stay out of Iraq, it's not worth it. These guys will do a Google search on you, and then you will be killed. You are a walking target."
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not