Hezbollah snatches Brazilian journalists
Posted by editor-at-large on 23 August 2008 at 3:23 am UTC
By W. Thomas Smith Jr.
According to Brazilian media earlier in the week, a team of Brazilian journalists in Lebanon were snatched by Hezbollah in a restaurant in Dahiyeh (Beirut’s southern suburbs — Hezbollah’s stronghold).
I was aware of this story (via personal sources) as early as Monday, but have seen very little about it covered in the Western press, which is amazing when one considers just how bizarre this story really is.
Brazil’s TV Globo stated, the journalists were videotaping in a restaurant (cafeteria) they had discovered had a theme of “terror.” The restaurant served “sandwiches with names of weapons, and dishes inspired by terrorist acts … all prepared by a chef dressed as a soldier.” The establishment was “decorated with mock weapons.”
While the journalists where in the restaurant, armed Hezbollah men appeared, arrested them, and drove them away in cars with curtained windows. The journalists were questioned, and their cell phones, documents, and a video camera were seized.
Five hours later, the journalists were released, but ordered out of the country.
Their phones were returned sans memory cards, and the camera returned without the tape. However, Hezbollah removed the wrong tape because the journalists allegedly switched tapes before the camera was confiscated.
According to TV Globo, the Brazilian Consulate in Beirut “lodged a formal complaint against the abuses suffered by the team. The government admitted that Lebanon against Hezbollah, can do little or nothing.”
Bizarre, but not at all surprising. Though Hezbollah’s apologists and sympathizers would lead us all to believe that anyone can just freely stroll, jog, drive, dine, take pictures, whatever, in Hezbollah-controlled security squares like Dahiyeh.
[Additional information at Brazil’s TV Globo and FolhaOnline]
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