The newspaper I tend to read on a daily basis, the Chronicle-Herald, is usually pretty good for a local paper. They attract a variety of good writers, the most brilliant political cartoonist you or I will ever encounter, and a good variety of subjects given even-handed treatment. In short, I consider it a worthy article, unlike some of the major national papers.
Anyway, one of the writers for the Herald is a guy by the name of Scott Taylor, a military correspondant who handles other publications, including the military affairs magazine Esprit de Corps and a few books. For the most part, he's one of those oddballs in military news writing - someone who (A) knows what they're talking about, (B) tends to witness what he's talking about, and (C) is considerably more moderate than a lot of the other major commentators (whether this is due to (B) or not is an exercise for the reader).
Well, Taylor tends to make a lot of visits to conflict areas, and this of course includes the Middle East, where he's been nobody's darling for quite some time. Many Arab countries consider him a Mossad agent, Israel considers him an Arab agitator, and the United States military has taken potshots both verbal and leaden at him on a few occaisions for being as outspoken as he tends to be. Just to establish the four-point hat-trick in the region, Taylor went and got captured by a resistance group in Iraq last Thursday and proceeded to have an eventful few days indeed.
The gist of deadtree and radio reports I've gotten say that he convinced his captors that he really wasn't a Mossad spy or something, and his release was ensured when one of the convincees - who wanted to release him - was killed in action against US forces shortly thereafter, turning his vague statement into a martyr's final wish. What's actually going on has yet to fully come out, of course; the Canadian government is keeping its mouth shut, Taylor is understandably still In A State, and so on.
I'll probably have more to say on it than I do at the moment, as (or if) more information comes out. Suffice to say, I'm glad he's alright, and I definately look forward to his next column in the Herald to say the least.
Posted by zibblsnrt at September 15, 2004 07:41 PM