Japanese hostages defend captors

[Lori Price CLG]

Japanese hostages defend captors

Despite having been held at gunpoint, threatened with knives and held captive for nine days, two Japanese men who were kidnapped in Iraq expressed sympathy for their captors yesterday, calling them soldiers and resistance fighters.

Noriaki Imai, 18, an aid volunteer, and Soichiro Koriyama, 32, a photojournalist, said they were kidnapped at a petrol station near Falluja after taking a detour from the highway to Baghdad...

Mr Koriyama said he believed the abductors were not terrorists. "They were resistance fighters, defending themselves against US troops."

<snip>

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. As much as he may have a point about

freedom fightes,

This is a CLASSIC case of the Helsinky Syndrome

[Lori Price CLG]

3. No, they know the *real* terrorists are the US-UK occupiers...

who are more in the 'wrong' than even kidnappers, as the entire W-ar is illegal and immoral. (Note: before my words are twisted, I do not condone kidnapping.)

-Lori Price

[jobycom]

4. I don't think so

Helsinky Syndrome would take longer to develop. More likely this is another case of the rest of the world knowing what war is, and siding against America for being the aggressors. Weren't these guys peace activists to start with?

[Eye and Monkey]

5. Stockholm.

http://www.sniggle.net/stock.php

In the summer of 1973, four hostages were taken in a botched bank robbery at Kreditbanken in Stockholm, Sweden. At the end of their captivity, six days later, they actively resisted rescue. They refused to testify against their captors, raised money for their legal defense, and according to some reports one of the hostages eventually became engaged to one of her jailed captors.

This struck some folks as weird, and as a way of coping with this uneasiness, as they started seeing more examples they named this class of strange behavior the ``Stockholm Syndrome.''

Notorious in the United States is the case of Patty Hearst, who after being kidnapped and tortured by the Symbionese Liberation Army, took up arms and joined their cause, taking on the nom de guerre of ``Tania'' and helping the SLA rob banks.

The Stockholm Syndrome comes into play when a captive cannot escape and is isolated and threatened with death, but is shown token acts of kindness by the captor. It typically takes about three or four days for the psychological shift to take hold.

MORE -

[shockingelk]

6. Prolly 'splains the Republican Party

I can't think of any other reason someone would vote Republican.

:toast:

[jobycom]

2. Which of course implies what they think of US.

I don't believe it's flattering.