Dobbs Town
24-12-2004, 18:10
http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2004/12/24/france-hostages041224.html
Iraqi militants wanted Bush re-elected: French hostage
Last Updated Fri, 24 Dec 2004 11:06:34 EST
PARIS - Iraqi militants wanted President George W. Bush re-elected in November because he would keep U.S. soldiers in Iraq, and that would boost the position of the insurgents, a French reporter says.
Georges Malbrunot, who was kidnapped by a militant group called the Islamic Army of Iraq on Aug. 20 and released Tuesday, based his comments on conversations with his captors.
"We want Bush because with him the American troops will stay in Iraq and that way we will be able to develop," one of his captors told him, Malbrunot wrote in the paper Le Figaro on Friday.
Malbrunot's story said the Islamic Army has 15,000 to 17,000 members, is highly organized and has identified four groups of enemies:
1) American and coalition soldiers.
2) Foreign collaborators, such as businessmen.
3) Iraqi police.
4) Spies.
Malbrunot, who works for Le Figaro, and fellow reporter Christian Chesnot who was captured at the same time, feared for their lives. They saw other hostages who were later executed.
But the two men said they were French reporters, and reminded the militants that "France was against the war. France has a tough position against the occupation...That allowed us to show we were not pro-American," he said on his return to Paris on Wednesday.
Malbrunot said in a radio interview that they were finding it hard to recover from four months in captivity, "But the life of a free man is far easier than that of a hostage."
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Go figure.
Iraqi militants wanted Bush re-elected: French hostage
Last Updated Fri, 24 Dec 2004 11:06:34 EST
PARIS - Iraqi militants wanted President George W. Bush re-elected in November because he would keep U.S. soldiers in Iraq, and that would boost the position of the insurgents, a French reporter says.
Georges Malbrunot, who was kidnapped by a militant group called the Islamic Army of Iraq on Aug. 20 and released Tuesday, based his comments on conversations with his captors.
"We want Bush because with him the American troops will stay in Iraq and that way we will be able to develop," one of his captors told him, Malbrunot wrote in the paper Le Figaro on Friday.
Malbrunot's story said the Islamic Army has 15,000 to 17,000 members, is highly organized and has identified four groups of enemies:
1) American and coalition soldiers.
2) Foreign collaborators, such as businessmen.
3) Iraqi police.
4) Spies.
Malbrunot, who works for Le Figaro, and fellow reporter Christian Chesnot who was captured at the same time, feared for their lives. They saw other hostages who were later executed.
But the two men said they were French reporters, and reminded the militants that "France was against the war. France has a tough position against the occupation...That allowed us to show we were not pro-American," he said on his return to Paris on Wednesday.
Malbrunot said in a radio interview that they were finding it hard to recover from four months in captivity, "But the life of a free man is far easier than that of a hostage."
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Go figure.