Kidnapped Fox News journalists freed

Kidnapped Fox News journalists freed
Steve Centanni: 'We were forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint'

Almost two weeks after their abduction in the Gaza Strip, two kidnapped Fox News journalists were freed today by their captors after reportedly being forced at gunpoint to convert to Islam on video.

"There were times when I thought 'I'm dead,' and I'm not," Fox reporter Steve Centanni told his network. "I'm fine. I'm just so happy to be free."

Centanni, 60, and cameraman Olaf Wiig, 36, were dropped this morning off at Gaza City's Beach Hotel by Palestinian security officials, thus ending the longest-running drama involving foreign hostages in Gaza. The Beach Hotel is regularly used by foreign journalists and visiting dignataries.

Shortly before their release, a new video was issued, showing Wiig and Centanni dressed in beige Arab-style robes and apperaring to convert to Islam. Wiig, a New Zealand citizen, gave an anti-Western speech, with his face expressionless.

In a phone interview today with Fox News, Centanni explained, "We were forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint. Don't get me wrong here. I have the highest respect for Islam, and I learned a lot of good things about it, but it was something we felt we had to do because they had the guns, and we didn't know what the hell was going on."

Security officials here estimate the Fox employees' abductors staged the conversion to justify releasing the two journalists.

"It's easier to save face within the terror community if you can claim your captives converted to Islam, so therefore you couldn't harm them," an Israeli security official told WorldNetDaily.

Centanni discussed the kidnapping and the two weeks that followed.

"We were driving down a narrow side-street in Gaza City, dropping off our security guide, when a car stopped in front of us. Then, before we realized it, the [kidnappers] swarmed our car, yanked us out, stuffed us in a car, and put a black hood on our head," he said.

"I remember thinking, oh God, I'm toast. They could shoot me in head and nobody would hear it," he continued. "But in my good nature I thought that I'm no good to them dead."

Centanni said he and Wiig were then transferred to another car and driven to a building in which they were held.

"We were pushed down onto the dirt-covered concrete floor and we were forced to life face down with our handcuffs on," Centanni said.

"Olaf was in the same room with me. Our shoulders were wrenched back, very painful."

Centanni and Wiig were seized in Gaza City on Aug. 14 by a previously unknown group calling itself the Holy Jihad Brigades.

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh today said the Brigades was a front for local militants. He and other Palestinian officials said Palestinian authorities had known the identity of the kidnappers from the start.

Last week, WND broke the story a clan from the Gaza Strip with members involved in major terror organizations are lead suspects in the Fox News kidnappings.

Senior Palestinian officials told WND their investigation into the abductions led them to the Dugmash family, based in Khan Yunis and Gaza City. They say they have "evidence" the clan was "heavily involved."

Members of the Dugmash clan lead the "Saladin resistance department" of the Popular Resistance Committees, a coalition of terror organizations operating in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

The Committees is accused of orchestrating attacks along with groups affiliated with al-Qaida and has carried out anti-American attacks. Israel says the Committees was responsible for the bombing of a U.S. convoy in Gaza in 2003 in which three American government contractors were killed.

Some members of the Dugmash family left the Committees earlier this year, complaining the group was not "Muslim enough." They formed a new organization, the Palestine Army of Islam, which bills itself as the closest Palestinian organization ideologically to al-Qaida. The Army of Islam is one of three terror groups that claimed responsibility in June for the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Last week, WorldNetDaily featured an exclusive interview with the leader of the Army of Islam, Abu Muhammad, who is a member of the Dugmash clan.

Abu Muhammad, speaking from Gaza, would not say whether his group was involved in the Fox News kidnappings, but he said he understood the "necessity" of carrying out the abductions.

"This support of America brought the killing of thousands of Palestinians and Muslims all around history. We cannot ignore the atrocities of the Americans in killing Palestinians and Muslims all over the world," said Abu Mohammed.

"We can understand very well our brothers who made this act (of kidnapping) was a desperate act in order to cry out in front of the whole world against the atrocities of the Americans in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, and Palestine and the subjugation of Muslims all over the region."

In the interview, Abu Muhammad blasted Fox News, claiming the media outlet is "controlled by the Zionist lobby and the Jews."

Last week, within hours of the abductions, Abu Abir, spokesman for the Committees, denied to WorldNetDaily his group was behind the kidnappings but hinted "other groups" are involved.

"Don't be surprised if other groups are helping out," Abu Abir said.

This morning, Abu Abir claimed to WND he was involved in efforts to mediate Centanni and Wiig's release.