Commando raid frees NY Times reporter

NY Times:

Stephen Farrell, a New York Times reporter held captive by militants in northern Afghanistan, was freed in a military commando raid early Wednesday, but his Afghan interpreter was killed during the rescue effort.

A British commando was also killed in the raid, a senior allied official in Afghanistan said.

Armed gunmen seized Mr. Farrell and his interpreter, Sultan Munadi, on Saturday while they were working in a village south of Kunduz.

An Afghan journalist who spoke to villagers in the area said that civilians were also killed in the firefight to free the journalists. That report could not be independently verified, and details of the operation itself were sketchy.

Mr. Farrell and Mr. Munadi were abducted while they were reporting on the aftermath of NATO airstrikes on Friday that exploded two fuel tankers hijacked by Taliban militants. Afghan officials have said up to 90 people, including many civilians, were killed in the attack, which NATO officials are now investigating.

In a brief telephone call about 7:30 p.m. New York time on Tuesday, Mr. Farrell told Susan Chira, the foreign editor of The Times: “I’m out! I’m free!”

Ms. Chira said Mr. Farrell told her that he had been “extracted” by a commando raid carried out by “a lot of soldiers” in a fierce firefight with his captors. Mr. Farrell said he had also called his wife.

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The Guardian reports that this is not the first time Farrell has been kidnapped. He was briefly held while reporting from Iraq.

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Despite having been kidnapped twice, Farrell is a careful risk taker – trying to manage the threat in the many hostile environments his work has taken him. He has always been realistic. He told me once over dinner in London at the beginning of the conflict in Iraq that he was under no illusions that experience could remove risk. War is always a numbers game, he insisted. The more you expose yourself, the greater the inevitability of something awful touching you.

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His risk taking this time got others killed, some of who are described as "civilians." Will liberals blame him or the Taliban for those deaths? One clue is their reaction to the death of "civilians" killed in the tanker bombings that started this adventure for Farrell.

Those of us who were aware of the kidnapping get to see the media treat this story like they treated the Van Jones firing. In both the initial facts were not reported, leaving readers of media like the Times to wake up to the fact that he was missing to begin with.

The rationale for withholding the story on Farrell is that reporting it would put him in danger. I find this assertion dubious. It is not like the enemy does not know they have him. Would reporting his capture raise his value to the enemy? Possibly, but that has not stopped the media from reporting on other kidnap victims. There is a double standard here that needs more explanation.

I am glad he has been freed. I am sure we will here more about his capture and rescue. I would especially like to here more about the brave men who risked their life to free him. Farrell is of Irish-British citizenship and that may explain the roll of the British commandos in freeing him.