An attempt to get the U.S. to follow the path of Spain and the Philippines. It won’t work — at least until January. From AFP:
DOHA (AFP) – Al-Jazeera news channel aired footage of a US journalist taken hostage in Iraq reading a message from his captors in which they call on the American people to strive to “stop the slaughter” in the Shiite holy city of Najaf.
“I am an American journalist in Iraq, and I was asked to pass on a message from the Martyrs Squad, who want the American people to strive to stop the slaughter in Najaf,” said Micah Garen in English, according to an Arabic voice-over.
“I am now detained and am being well treated,” he said.
Garen’s sister, Eva, told Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television earlier Friday that radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, who is at the center of a standoff in Najaf with US and US-backed Iraqi forces, had ordered the immediate release of the journalist.
Al-Jazeera reported on Wednesday that the so-called “Martyrs Squad” had threatened to kill Garen unless US forces withdrew from Najaf within 48 hours.