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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Report: BBC Reporter may have staged own kidnapping
2007-04-09
Palestinian security forces are investigating the possibility that missing BBC correspondent Alan Johnston staged his own kidnapping, an Arab newspaper reported Monday.

According to London-based Arab language newspaper, Al-Hayat, Johnston staged his capture by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip after he received notification from his superiors that he would be forced to leave his position in the near future.

Johnston, said the report, waited 15 minutes for his "captors" to pick him up, and has been held willingly in an undisclosed location for over a month.
Is it "p-u-s-i-l-l-a-n-i-m-o-u-s" or "p-u-s-i-l-a-n-i-m-o-u-s"? I can never remember.
BBC representatives refused to comment on the report.
"We got nuttin' to say."
Last week, Palestinian Journalists called on the local and foreign media to boycott the Palestinian Authority in response to the alleged kidnapping.
Now they can boycott the Beeb.
Johnston, 44, was supposedly abducted on March 12 when four masked gunmen snatched him from his car as he headed to his apartment in Gaza City.
We'll see. Johnston is strongly pro-Paleo and just happens to have written rather positively about the Gaza kidnap gangs in the past.
Posted by:Atomic Conspiracy

#9  Now if he could only mastermind his own beheading, he'd be a shoe-in for a posthumous Pullitzer....
Posted by: WTF   2007-04-09 17:51  

#8  That one didn't even get a twitch out of my surprise meter.
Posted by: Zenster   2007-04-09 15:58  

#7  Paleo: Hire me or I'll kidnap your family!

Johnston: Hire me or I'll let myself get kidnapped!

/boggle currently looking a little limp and soggy
Posted by: Seafarious   2007-04-09 14:42  

#6  Johnston staged his capture by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip after he received notification from his superiors that he would be forced to leave his position in the near future.

Yeah, really, I mean, who would ever want to leave Gaza...
Posted by: tu3031   2007-04-09 14:35  

#5  we should ban the BBC in the us

The Brits should ban the BBC in Britain. That would do a lot to end the whole rotten mess. Get rid of that stupid TV tax at the same time.
Posted by: Old Patriot   2007-04-09 13:28  

#4  Must have been leaves on the tracks.
Posted by: Excalibur   2007-04-09 09:12  

#3  Johnston, said the report, waited 15 minutes for his "captors" to pick him up

sheesh. kidnappers can be so unreliable nowadays.
Posted by: PlanetDan   2007-04-09 08:48  

#2  we should ban the BBC in the us
Posted by: Victor Emmanuel Grusong8179   2007-04-09 08:13  

#1  I wouldn't put anything past a Beeb "reporter".
Posted by: gromgoru   2007-04-09 06:02  

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