AP: Freed Hostage Tells of Humiliations

[NewGuy]

By LOUIS MEIXLER
Associated Press Writer

April 15, 2004, 5:25 PM EDT


BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A French television journalist, freed after four days in captivity in Iraq, said he was repeatedly interrogated by captors who accused him of being an Israeli spy and made him prove his nationality by drawing a map of France.

Alex Jordanov appeared shaken during an interview Thursday with The Associated Press, smoking nervously and speaking slowly as he sat in a room in a well-guarded hotel where many journalists stay.

Jordanov, 40, was freed Wednesday and taken to the French Embassy, where he collapsed from exhaustion and spent his first hours as a free man staring blankly at a ceiling.

"When you are under high pressure 24/7 for four days, everything just ... comes tumbling down," said Jordanov. He appeared to be in good health, but had small red spots on his face and hands, which he said came from sleeping outside in the brush with frogs, bugs and "all sorts of animals I've never seen crawling all around."

The greatest part:

His captors sometimes probed him about his religious beliefs, asking him about Jesus, known in Arabic as Isa.

They asked, "Is Isa the son of God?" Jordanov recalled. Muslims believe Jesus was a prophet, but not of divine birth.

Religion doesn't play a part in this?

 

[Comrade]

On that same vibe I'll throw in a little something that made me respect the hell out of one person, an Italian, who shall be in my own mind a hero amongst this conflict.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/04/15/iraq.hostages.int/

Frattini later described how Quattrocchi was executed. "When the murderers were pointing a pistol at him, this man tried to take off his hood and shouted: 'Now I'm going to show you how an Italian dies'. And they killed him.

That man died, a MAN.

Al-Jazeera said it did not air the video because it was too graphic.

I think they are lying bastards. A full audio/video clip of the act itself, would show that in his last moments, a Western Infidel demonstrated the highest honor one could possibly achieve in the face of a senseless murder.

The fact is, the man died proudly and without fear or shame. And based on that footage Al-Jazeera could never spin this to be anything but another senseless, barbaric murder they would normally sugar coat for their ignorant, Arab audience.

The Islamic media dare not even pretend they are tastefull, after the plethora of prior images they've allowed to broadcast (Mutilation of dead bodies in Fallujah most recent among their images).

The fact is, this Italian Man chose to face death with dignity, making this senseless killing all the more shamefull to the Islamists who claim to represent some higher morality.

He died nonetheless, but his words and actions in the final moments ensured that such a video would only prove the barbarity of the movement behind these fanatics, a fact that Al-Jazeera desperately tries to conceal.

So Fabrizio Quattrocchi, rest in peace, brave soul.

Your final, proud defiance in the face of your brutal murder, ensured your death will not be forgotten, nor used as propaganda. You, sir, died with nobility.