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Europe
Freed Italians eye return to Iraq
2004-09-30
Cheez, double or nothing?
Safely home in Italy, two women aid workers have spoken of returning to Iraq despite a three-week hostage ordeal as their overjoyed nation shrugged off reports that a ransom was paid to free them. Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, both 29, said they were taught about Islam and not harmed. After a hero's welcome in Italy late on Tuesday, they looked to put the kidnap behind them. "I hope to return to Iraq soon. It's a country that I really love," Pari said on Wednesday. "We were always treated with a lot of respect."
"I have to have my head examined first, but then I'm sure I'll be on my way!"
Torretta was quoted as saying she would "do it all over again, with all of the consequences". "We never understood. But they apologised for kidnapping us and they even asked us for forgiveness," she told reporters.
Stockholm syndrome nearly complete!
Posted by:Steve White

#17  Can't find where I read it, but I seem to recall that these two were said to have been in Iraq as aid workers since 1993. If so, then perhaps their employer has made clear its willingness to pay "protection" money.
Posted by: lex   2004-09-30 8:38:41 PM  

#16  This stinks indeed. No surviving victim of a kidnapping by "jihadis for beheadings" would willingly return. They may have been complicit.

Especially given that they're going back to the heart of Terror Central. How, unless they were working there under the protection of the jihadis or a powerful gang, could these girls be assured that a different gang or group of jihadists would not capture and slaughter them this time around?
Posted by: lex   2004-09-30 5:00:50 PM  

#15  Foreign Minister Franco Frattini tried to quash talk about a ransom cash payment, saying Italy just capitalised on years of good deeds in the Arab world to secure their release.

Pretty words don't conceal what happened-you find the sale of humans a legimitate business deal.
Posted by: jules 187   2004-09-30 3:14:02 PM  

#14  This stinks indeed. No surviving victim of a kidnapping by "jihadis for beheadings" would willingly return. They may have been complicit. The part about being blindfolded and well-treated sounds too convenient.
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever)   2004-09-30 1:00:56 PM  

#13  25% goes to a numbered Lugano account for the girls, and they give 25% of that to Berlusconi's slush fund.
Posted by: lex   2004-09-30 12:28:15 PM  

#12  These two girls just like the "safe" attention of their male captors and the international celebrity aspect of all this, and I'll bet they have no idea they were being used by the Iraqi guys as political fodder. Or maybe they do and they "believe" in a better world run under Sharia. Naw . . . I think they just like pretending to be "saviors" of the world.

You know, there is so much poverty, and no lack of social problems in Italy--why in the heck aren't they working there to better the lives and educational opportunities of Italian children, or helping the indigent elderly, etc.? Whay are they going into a war zone? One wonders.
Posted by: ex-lib   2004-09-30 12:25:32 PM  

#11  "We were always treated with a lot of respect."

Spoken like a true and grateful hooker of her favorite clients.
Posted by: lex   2004-09-30 10:56:15 AM  

#10  Perhaps the girls are in on the deal? 25% wouldn't be unreasonable.

Whoring with a govt guarantee. A bit like Wall St participation in a World Bank stabilization program.
Posted by: lex   2004-09-30 10:49:39 AM  

#9  I suspect this will be the final ransom payment for these two particular women.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2004-09-30 10:45:51 AM  

#8  Spines may be OK. Rest of the nervous system sadly deficient.
Posted by: Bulldog   2004-09-30 10:05:50 AM  

#7  at least they show to have a good spine...
Posted by: lyot   2004-09-30 9:54:01 AM  

#6  I'm with Son of Touli and the Sock Puppet. This sounded like a bad Kojak episode from the beginning.
Posted by: tu3031   2004-09-30 9:20:13 AM  

#5  In the future, we should refer to these women as terrorist fund-raisers, rather than hostages. If I were the Italians, I'd ask for a refund.
Posted by: 2b   2004-09-30 7:55:37 AM  

#4  These two women...are idiots and if I were their benefactor (another idiot), I'd demand my money back from the women before they set foot outside Italy, or the insane asylum where they should be kept a long time.
Posted by: Anonymous6700   2004-09-30 7:43:23 AM  

#3  This was criminal kidnapping for ransom not a terrorist kidnapping. The MO is not that of a terrorist one. The persons who claimed to have been the perps likely didn't have a thing to do with it. There are lots of criminals in Iraq and these were just some of the smarter ones. They likely are on their way out of Iraq with most of their cash for Sryia or Iran as I write this.
Posted by: Sock Pupet of Doom   2004-09-30 1:33:33 AM  

#2  imao==this "kidnapping" smells to high heaven
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI   2004-09-30 12:12:13 AM  

#1  "I hope to return to Iraq soon. It's a country that I really love," Pari said on Wednesday. "We were always treated with a lot of respect."

I wonder, would Pari be singing the same tune if the ransom wasn't paid and her fellow hostage had been beheaded?
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama   2004-09-30 12:12:10 AM  

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