NBC's Richard Engels missing in Syria

I was just reading more about this...and it's crazy. I've never been a major TV news fan so I didn't know the name all that well. However, this guy apparently is a near Super-Star in his field in terms of being known, seen and mingling in all the major hot spots over there and being known by all the people there. Who in their right mind would kidnap the guy who probably has friend status to some of the top people in the overall region...and on more than one side?

I've read a lot about Bin Laden and Al Qaeda in the 1990's and contrary to some media presentation....Bin Laden was attacking major U.S. targets long before 9/11. The point is, he was security paranoid to an extreme well before the whole world knew his name and why. One of the things he was known for was essentially kidnapping journalists for interviews. Not entirely unwillingly..I mean the Journalists wanted the interviews, but no one else knew who they were meeting and even they didn't know when, where or much else...they just got taken. As I read it, that left him feeling safe they couldn't have been followed or tracked since even they didn't know what day or anything else.

Is there anyone in that region? Anyone similar for paranoia and elusiveness? Someone on the Rebel or Kurd side? It's a long shot hope, but I figure I'd mention it since it DOES have precedent for being done that way..?

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Do you mind if I ask for you to disclose any other sources you may have found on this subject? Not being skeptical just want to read what you have, and yes, I have heard several accounts of journalists who have been captured for interviews, but also stories of journalists who were heartlessly beheaded... Which brings me to your first point. Yes Richard is a VERY important war correspondent. If they WERE to kill him it would be the equivalent of a terrorist attack imo.

Also the gawker story had an update at some point today in reference to their decision to break the blackout.
The quote follows...

The rationale for the blackout was offered in off-the-record conversations, so I can't present their argument here. But I will say this: No one told me anything that indicated a specific, or even general, threat to Engel's safety. No one said, "If you report this, then we know, or suspect, that X, Y, or Z may happen." It was infinitely more vague and general than that. As I wrote in the post, when the New York Times maintained a blackout about David Rohde, the rationale was clear: I was directly told that the Times had reason to believe that the people who had Rohde would harm him if news got out. There was nothing approaching that level of specificity or argumentation here. I would not have written a post if someone had told me that there was a reasonable or even remote suspicion that anything specific would happen if I wrote the post. Also: There was in practice no blackout. Xinhua and Breitbart had published English language accounts. There were probably like 100 posts to Twitter per minute about him. This was a situation where the information was freely available on the internet, and in the region—these are large Turkish outlets reporting this information. It was out.

bottom of page

Looks like he is free now and out of the country....

NBC News said Tuesday morning that veteran foreign correspondent Richard Engel, two of his colleagues and their security guard were free after five days of captivity at the hands of unidentified assailants in Syria.

NBC said in a statement that Engel, who went missing along with his crew on Thursday, was "freed from captors in Syria after a firefight at a checkpoint on Monday, five days after they were taken prisoner." The network did not identify the others who had been abducted with Engel.

"We are pleased to report they are safely out of the country," NBC added.

It remained unclear exactly who abducted Engel and the rest of his team. NBC said only that the captors "were not believed to be loyal to the Assad regime."

www.cbsnews.com

That's good news.

Here is another article on it from NBC news.

"Not believed to be loyal to the Assad regime"...

In other words, FSA rebels got his tail and his buddies too...and it's VERY touchy to come out and say that when half the Western world is holding these animals up like they are freedom fighters, not terrorists.

Well, I'm just very happy to hear the lifting of the blackout was likely due to his being freed about that same time...or at least, they apparently knew enough to know the blackout wasn't needed anymore. Whatever the case on that aspect, he's free and out..and I'm thrilled to hear it.

Now NBC owes him a huge bonus and a paid vacation anywhere he'd like to go, to my thinking. It's the least they can do. I'm sure the Middle East won't top his vacation hot spot ideas.

Thats very good news to hear. I'm so glad he is safe,as it could have turned out very differently. I would just like to give a slight correction to wrabbit from the NBC source provided by oneisone.

Engel said their captors “were talking openly about their loyalty to the government” of Syrian President Bashar Assad. He said he had a “very good idea” about who they were -- members of the “shabiha” militia, loyal to Assad, trained by the Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and allied with Lebanon-based group Hezbollah.

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
"Not believed to be loyal to the Assad regime"...

In other words, FSA rebels got his tail and his buddies too...and it's VERY touchy to come out and say that when half the Western world is holding these animals up like they are freedom fighters, not terrorists.

Well, I'm just very happy to hear the lifting of the blackout was likely due to his being freed about that same time...or at least, they apparently knew enough to know the blackout wasn't needed anymore. Whatever the case on that aspect, he's free and out..and I'm thrilled to hear it.

Now NBC owes him a huge bonus and a paid vacation anywhere he'd like to go, to my thinking. It's the least they can do. I'm sure the Middle East won't top his vacation hot spot ideas.

No they were with with FSA when they were ambushed and taken. These were Assads miitia, they drove them around and the tried to get them to chose which one of them they should execute, they refused and no one was killed. Then when they were moving them they ran into a FSA check point where a fight occured and they were freed. Seems they were going to try and use them to trade for some other captives.

Richard Engels is a journalist known to critical of official position of the US government in certain subjects.
He once called the war on terror "a terrible misnomer" and calling it actually "in many ways a war of fear ".
Engels also stated that the U.S had also "ignored other national priorities" due to money and resources being spent on the war against terror.

This guy goes missing in Syria.

He says they drive around deciding who should be executed until by accident they fall upon a FSA checkpoint and they are rescued.

Daniel Pearl was also critical of the US government. And we all saw what happened to him when he dug to deep.

I think Engels has had a lucky escape, i dont think his capturers were pro Assad.

I think given a few days more and this guy would have been another video, and another Danny Pearl.

Originally posted by boot2theface

NBC

gawker.com

NBC News chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel has gone missing in Syria, according to Turkish news reports. The reports also say that Aziz Akyavaş, a Turkish journalist working with Engel, is unaccounted for.

(visit the link for the full news article)

edit on 17-12-2012 by boot2theface because: title

awsume its about time they figure out arnt invincable and get butt hurt by rebels they support

Engel escaped. He and his team did interviews today. Honestly, it was one of the more amazing stories Ive ever heard.

www.foxnews.com...

Originally posted by andy1972
Richard Engels is a journalist known to critical of official position of the US government in certain subjects.
He once called the war on terror "a terrible misnomer" and calling it actually "in many ways a war of fear ".
Engels also stated that the U.S had also "ignored other national priorities" due to money and resources being spent on the war against terror.

This guy goes missing in Syria.

He says they drive around deciding who should be executed until by accident they fall upon a FSA checkpoint and they are rescued.

Daniel Pearl was also critical of the US government. And we all saw what happened to him when he dug to deep.

I think Engels has had a lucky escape, i dont think his capturers were pro Assad.

I think given a few days more and this guy would have been another video, and another Danny Pearl.

Wasn't Daniel Pearl executed though because he was Jewish and not because he was a reporter who dug to deep?

It's Wikipedia, so take it for what it's worth.
Wikipedia

Daniel's father expressed concern in February 2002 that his son's Israeli citizenship would have an adverse effect on the investigation.

Pearl's parents edited and published a collection of responses sent to them from around the globe, entitled I Am Jewish: Personal Reflections Inspired by the Last Words of Daniel Pearl (Jewish Lights Publishing, 2004). At one point on the video, Pearl said: "My father is Jewish, my mother is Jewish, I am Jewish," after which Pearl added one obscure detail, that a street in Israel's Bnei Brak is named after his great grandfather, who was one of the founders of the town.[40] The family has written that it understands this last detail authenticates Daniel's own voice and demonstrates his willingness to claim his identity. Judea Pearl has written that at first this statement surprised him, but he later understood it to be a reference to the town-building tradition of his family contrasted with the destructive aims of his captors. Judea Pearl then enlarged the idea by inviting responses from artists, government leaders, authors, journalists, scientists, scholars, rabbis, and others. All wrote personal responses to what they thought upon hearing that these were Pearl's last words. Some responses are one sentence, others several pages.

On April 16, 2007, Pearl was added to the Holocaust Memorial on Miami Beach as the first non-Holocaust victim. His father gave his consent for the induction in order to remind generations to come that "The forces of barbarity and evil are still active in our world. The Holocaust didn't finish in 1945."[45] Journalist Bradley Burston criticized the addition of a post-Holocaust victim to the memorial, saying "it diminishes the uniqueness of the Holocaust".

On May 19, 2010, U.S. President Barack Obama signed the Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act, which protects US journalists around the world. The act is also designed to use tools from the Secretary of State to ensure that freedom of press is upheld in other countries.

Originally posted by captaintyinknots
Engel escaped. He and his team did interviews today. Honestly, it was one of the more amazing stories Ive ever heard.

www.foxnews.com...

It really was. So glad he was able to escape and stay alive. Makes him my favorite reporter now.

Originally posted by happyhomemaker29


Wasn't Daniel Pearl executed though because he was Jewish and not because he was a reporter who dug to deep?

It's Wikipedia, so take it for what it's worth.
Wikipedia

"it's wiki, so take it for whta it's worth..." - you said it.

Pearl was executed because he found out that the Pakistani I.S.I had wired 100,000 dollars to Mohammed Atta, shortly before 9-11.

He was working on links between the I.S.I and the Taliban and the CIA.

He'd beeen joining the dots..just too many dots.
Tha man later charged with his beheading , Ahmed Omar Saeed seikh, was the intermediary between the ISI and Atta.
Seikh was a freelance terrorist and spy who worked for British Intelligence...
Being Jewish had nothing to do with it, he was a thorn in the side of the ISI and the CIA.

""They were talking openly about their loyalty to the government," said Engel. He said the captors were trained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and allied with Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant group."

I'll bet members on this forum will come to the defense and deniability for Iran because of one of these reasons.

1.)He's making it up and was never captured, jokes on you people
2.)It was Israel pretending to be Assad's forces, purposely went into a FSA checkpoint and purposely have for some of their "hit" squad killed.

Choose wisely, I mean it came from state run news that Israel hit squads were behind the CT school shooting so nothing is really that far fetched.