Three-Part Ransom

DEBKAfile blogged On the face of it, conversion to Islam would appear to provide a painless escape device for any hostage who happens to fall into fundamentalist terrorist hands. After all, once free, the hostage can always revert to his real faith or non-faith

And then risk being killed by the Muslims for apostacy

.... Although the foreign intelligence agencies with a presence in Gaza knew where the Fox reporters were being held, neither the Americans, the Israelis nor the British – the senior US ally in the war on terror – were willing to go in and recover them by force, or even lay hands on Dughmush and his gunmen.

I can imagine how the Americans or the British might not be willing to go in, but I am shocked that the Israelis were not both willing and able.

Various Palestinian middlemen were used by British agents at the request of the US to bring the Fox journalists home. They worked out a convoluted deal which entailed their public conversion to Islam, an anti-American harangue on air and a six-figure cash ransom paid under the table to Dughmush to fund his terrorist militia’s operations in Gaza.

Paying the ransom just assures more kidnappings. They should have found Dughmush and thrown him into a pot of boiling pig fat.

lawhawk blogged While the release of Centanni and Wiig is something to be applauded, there are questions over their release, including the payment of ransoms and the culpability of Hamas as they may have had a hand in the kidnappings.