October 20, 2004

Google told me An Australian journalist was kidnapped last Saturday. He was released on Sunday, when his captors had ascertained to their satisfaction that he wasn't an American agent posing as a reporter. Try bugmenot/ bugmenot

SBS executive producer Mike Carey said Mr Martinkus' captors had investigated his background on the internet and saw he was harmless. "They Googled him, they checked him out on a popular search engine and got onto his own website or his publisher's website and saw he was a writer and journalist," Mr Carey told AAP.

posted by Wolof 20 years ago
  • He was kidnapped in Iraq. Makes a small difference, doesn't it? Gah, what a fool I can be.
  • In other news, head of operations in Iraq for CARE (employed through the Australian branch of the charity) was kidnapped today. I'm so angry that I can't be angry any more. John Howard's back, America's going insane (at least from my online angle. i know there's plenty of sane, lovely Americans out there) and the horror and carnage worldwide hasn't stopped. This is the end time. We have circumnavigated history, launched ourselves into a space that is beyond the reach of anything barring the reconfiguration of reality by media. All that is real is all that is on TV. George W. Bush flew a plane that bombed Baghdad and killed Osaddam Bin Zaqarwi, John Kerry was given medals he didn't deserve for hiding under his bed at home, Tony Blair cried "Let's roll!" as the plane plunged into the Pentagon, representing Israel for the Eurovision Song Contest. Vladimir Putin drinks Iraqi oil, crying "Every Drop A Vote For Bush!" *sob*
  • In other news, head of operations in Iraq for CARE (employed through the Australian branch of the charity) was kidnapped today. I'm so angry that I can't be angry any more. John Howard's back, America's going insane (at least from my online angle. i know there's plenty of sane, lovely Americans out there) and the horror and carnage worldwide hasn't stopped. This is the end time. We have circumnavigated history, launched ourselves into a space that is beyond the reach of anything barring the reconfiguration of reality by media. All that is real is all that is on TV. George W. Bush flew a plane that bombed Baghdad and killed Osaddam Bin Zaqarwi, John Kerry was given medals he didn't deserve for hiding under his bed at home, Tony Blair cried "Let's roll!" as the plane plunged into the Pentagon, representing Israel for the Eurovision Song Contest. Vladimir Putin drinks Iraqi oil, crying "Every Drop A Vote For Bush!" *sob*
  • "These guys ... (are) not stupid," he told reporters. "They're fighting a war but they're not savages. "They're not actually just killing people willy-nilly. "They talk to you, they think about things." They google.
  • What a smug bastard. Right, they didn't kill him because he's so special. Doesn't he realize there isn't any "they," there are a whole slew of different groups with different motives and different ways of acting, and your fate depends on which group kidnaps you or which group the random thugs who kidnap you sell you to? He could just as easily have been beheaded on-camera, he just prefers not to think about it.
  • The lesson here is to be prolific online before going to Iraq (but avoid posting on fuckallah.com)
  • Doesn't he realize there isn't any "they," there are a whole slew of different groups with different motives and different ways of acting, and your fate depends on which group kidnaps you or which group the random thugs who kidnap you sell you to? Actually, he's very well aware of this, it just didn't make it to the article. (A bit like my first comment!) His captors told him that if they were Islamists, he'd be dead. I think he may have had ample time to reflect on the matter.
  • It appears he was only saved by the fact that the initial group that captured him weren't quite as bloodthirsty as another group that were probably going to do him in until the first group let him go while the second group were deliberating on what to do with him.